Browsing by Subject "ISO 14001"

This thesis studies the current level of environmental management in the Ship Power business division within Wärtsilä corporation and aims to identify the related development needs. Hitherto environmental management has been mainly coordinated at the corporate level and implemented in local companies distributed geographically. Due to the recent organizational changes, however, the significance of division level environmental management in Ship Power has increased. The research goal is approached by examining the central elements of corporate environmental management and the challenges that the organizational structure places for it. Based on the findings, suggestions for further actions are given in order to develop the environmental management in Ship Power. Empirical data was collected through 35 qualitative interviews with Wärtsilä employees from different functions, business lines, and local companies in order to get a comprehensive view of environmental management in the Ship Power related activities. The interviews were semi-structured in order to provide answers for certain areas of concern, but also to enable the disclosure of topics not defined by the interviewer. The data is categorized into themes according to the theoretical background, and its analysis is based on inductive reasoning. Based on the findings, the environmental management in Ship Power is divided into two dimensions. The product-related environmental questions are handled in the business lines and the operational issues in the local companies. This fragmentation of the environmental knowledge causes inconsistent environmental focus at different organizational levels, and creates challenges to information sharing across the organization. The lack of corporate instructions on the environmental management system implementation has led to diverse practices in the local companies, and the lack of standardized documentation makes the internal comparison between them difficult. Therefore the experience gained from the local management systems does not support organizational learning throughout the corporation. While the product-related environmental aspects are the core of the business strategy, more attention could be paid to operational environmental management in Ship Power. For instance, the sharing of environmental knowledge could be strengthened in order to enhance employee awareness of the corporate practices and to facilitate the discussion of the best practices between the local units. A standardized documentation system would facilitate internal benchmarking and provide a means for centralized environmental performance follow-up. Because the local management systems are not sufficient to cover the global business processes, it would also be important to identify the environmental aspects in the Ship Power division. Furthermore, visible communication of the common environmental targets would help to create consistent environmental focus in Ship Power.