Scholarly Technical Education Publication Series (STEPS) Vol. 2

Green Environmental Management: Carlos Hilado Memorial State College Practices

Author:

    Eduardo G. Sayson
    Vice President for Research, Extension, IP and Training

    Ma. Teresa B. Ballados
    Chairperson, Graduate Studies
    Carlos Hilado Memorial State College-Fortune Town Campus, Philippines

Abstract

This study was aimed to assess the green environmental management practices of the Carlos Hilado Memorial State College (CHMSC), covering its four campuses, the: Alijis, Binalbagan, Fortune Towne, and Talisay CHMSC campus. Descriptive-correlational survey research method was used and a standardized questionnaire was employed as data gathering instrument. The total number of respondent were 126 people, which include administrators, faculty members, and staff personnel of the College. Findings of the study revealed that as a whole, the institution in general seldom observed the green environmental management, and the four campuses have significantly the same practices. The institution as a whole had weak green organizational culture, poor green physical facilities, and poor green curriculum. However, respondents assessed the elements of green environmental management as a very important practice in order to achieve a Green Institution. Their perception on the importance of green environmental management was highly significant despite being segregated and classified according to sex and types of respondent, while they significantly differed in terms of campuses. There was a significant relationship between the College’s green environmental management practices and the importance of green environmental management in achieving a Green Institution.

Keywords: green environmental management practices, CHMSC, green organizational culture, green physical facilities, green curriculum

Introduction

Sustainable development is focusing on creating and implementing processes, systems, programs and practices vital in protecting the natural environment. Based on the concept of Growald (2010), responsible use and protection of the natural world is without question essential to sustainability. Likewise, he emphasized that sustainability is not just living, thriving, or an environmental issue, but is a human issue. The call for sustainable development requires formulating alternative solutions that give emphasis on reducing resource utilization, minimizing waste, observing green purchasing policy, preventing pollution, greening structures and buildings and continuously improving green environmental programs.

As stated by Rom (2012), global warming and climate change is the major challenge facing earth, youth, and future generations. Global climate change is now recognized as an impending worldwide emergency. With so many natural calamities happening in different countries which resulted to destruction of so many lives and properties, it is deemed necessary to adopt different green environmental management practices. Today, various green environmental management practices have been implemented by different nations, government and private organizations particularly academic institutions in order to attain sustainability.

Academic institutions, like CHMSC has the key role in realizing sustainable development through embracing the green concept and implementing effective green environmental management practices. Spilde (2010) stressed that community colleges are expected to play a leadership role in educating and training the workforce for the green economy. Goyal (2013) mentioned that an organization of today cannot succeed in the present competitive environment if it does not follow the current management practices effectively and efficiently.

CHMSC’s vision is GREEN CHMSC Excels (Excellence, Competence and Educational Leadership in Science and Technology) focusing on green sustainable development (CHMSC Five-Year Development Plan). The drive of everyone in the College should be directed by this vision. Moreover, one of the research agenda of the College is concentrated on climate change and green and clean technology (CHMSC Research Manual) which is relevant to the present study.

Primarily, this research was conducted to assess the green environmental practices of the college which dealt on green organizational culture, green physical facilities, and green curriculum and to determine if there are weak areas that need to be given corrective measures and interventions in order to ensure that the College is moving towards the right direction of becoming a Green Institution.

Review of Related Literature

Achieving sustainable development is one of the major concerns of the world today. Countries are focusing on how to maintain and preserve the natural environment that future generations could also experience and enjoy living in it. Different organizations and individuals have great responsibility to realize it. However, the course towards sustainable development entails effective management and high commitment of all participants. It involves clear and concrete vision and positive values.

Vision, according to Salvador et al. (2010) directs and focuses us towards the future and becomes the framework for what we want to create and thus guide us in making choices and commitments. It is a portrait of the future to which people can commit. It is the articulation of values, and it empowers and inspires people to do a job and to contribute ideas or actions beyond themselves. Communicating the vision to all key personnel is very important.

The organizational culture can be developed through written statements about organization’s mission and philosophy (Robbins & Judge, 2011), which is similar to the idea of Newstrom (2011) that philosophy, values, vision, mission, and goals exist in a hierarchy of increasing specificity help create a recognizable organizational culture. Likewise, organizational culture is a system of shared values (what is important) and beliefs (how things work) that shape a company’s people, organizational structures, and control systems to produce behavioral norms (the way we do things around here).

A viable and productive organizational culture can be strengthened and sustained. However, it cannot be built or assembled, instead it must be cultivated, encouraged and fertilized (Dess, et al., 2010).

Goyal (2013) emphasized that in order to carry out Green Management in the organization effectively and efficiently participation of employee must be received. Further, he stressed that organization of today should understand that it is more economical to go green than to continue adding harmful chemicals to the environment. When companies go “green”, they often find that the benefits extend beyond the environment. Eco-friendly strategies can also help attract young talent and reduce costs. For many successful firms, environmental values are now becoming a central part of their cultures and management processes. (Dess, et al., 2010).

According to DuBrin (2012), a major corporate thrust toward ethical and socially responsible behavior calls for business firms and not-for-profit organizations to go green, to make a deliberate attempt to create sustainable environment. Furthermore, he cited that going green is an approach to defining and creating processes that are environmentally friendly, economically viable, and pragmatic in long-term. In line with this understanding, green managers should consider the impact of their organization on the natural environment (Robbins & Coulter, 2012).

Robbins and Coulter (2012) furthermore discussed the shade of green model which describe the different environmental approaches that organization may take. The first approach is the legal (or light green) approach, organizations exhibit little environmental sensitivity by obeying laws, rules, and regulations without legal challenge and that is the extent of their being green. Also Stoner et al. (2005) point out that if an organization can invent a technology or a process to make it more efficient and satisfy environmental organizations, then it will have an advantage.

As an organization becomes more sensitive to environmental issues, it may adopt the market approach, and respond to environmental preferences of customers. Whatever customers demand in terms of environmentally friendly products will be what the organization provides.

The third approach is the stakeholder approach, organizations work to meet the environmental demands of multiple stakeholders such as employees, suppliers, or community. In addition, Stoner et al. (2005) specified that it involves paying attention to recyclable material in consumer packaging, educating employees on environmental issues, participating in community effort to clean up the environment, and appealing to investors who want to invest in green companies.

Finally, if an organization pursues an activist (or dark green) approach, it looks for ways to protect the earth’s natural resources. The activist approach reflects the highest degree of environmental sensitivity and illustrates social responsibility. The authors also mentioned that the Belgian company, a factory (the world’s first ecological one) has an engineering marvel with a huge grass roof that keeps things cool in summer and warm in winter and a water treatment system that runs on wind and solar energy. Another way that organizations show commitment to being green is through pursuing standards developed by the nongovernmental International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Organizations that aim to be compliant to the ISO 14000 (environmental management) standards must develop a total management system for meeting environmental challenges. In other words, it must minimize the effects of its activities on the environment and continually improve its environmental performance.

Similarly, the dark green approach should begin to experiment by adopting environmental values that tell people should live in a manner that is more in harmony with the earth. Increased concern about natural environment means that new human relationships must enter the organizational equation, and the move from cost-benefit thinking to the sustainable development concept means that the time frame has changed to become more immediate (Stoner et al., 2005).

Going green necessitates solid waste management. According to Uriarte (2008), it which involves all activities pertaining to the control of generation, storage, transfer and transport, treatment and processing, and disposal of solid wastes in accordance with the best principles of public health, economics, engineering, conservation, aesthetic, and other environmental considerations. He further cited that effective waste management includes five levels of priorities: prevention, reduction, recycling, treatment, and disposal. Among the priorities, prevention contributes the most and disposal the least toward solving solid waste problem. Moreover, the reuse of certain products for purposes other than the original intended purpose can certainly result in reducing the amount of materials to be discarded and the use of larger containers reduces the total amount of materials used for packaging. Also, the use of proper container can have significant impact on the collection system as well as on health and sanitation. Republic Act No. 9003 (Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000) provides the requirements for the segregation and storage of solid waste which states that there shall be a separate container for each type of waste from all sources, and the solid waste container depending on its use shall be properly marked or identified for on-site collection as “compostable”, “non-recyclable”, “recyclable” or “special waste”.

Academic institutions play an important role in building and enhancing environmental awareness of the stakeholders. However, according to David (2010), schools at the undergraduate level are doing a poor job of educating students on environmental issues. Furthermore, he emphasized that business schools should address environmental issues more in their curricula and he point up that failure of the school to provide adequate coverage of natural environment issues and decisions in students’ training could make them less attractive to employers.

Research Design and Methodology

The present study utilized the descriptive-correlational survey research method. It adopted a standardized questionnaire as data-gathering tool. The instrument was developed by the Environmental Studies Institute of Miriam College and it was used for Green Audit. The questionnaire is composed of two parts: Part I contained items to obtain the profile of the respondents and Part II included items which describe the elements of green environmental management in the area of organizational culture, physical facilities, and curriculum. There were a total of 126 respondents, which included administrators, faculty members, and staff personnel of currently employed in the College. Stratified-systematic sampling method was utilized to determine the samples.

In the statistical treatment of the data, the mean was applied to determine the green environmental management practices of the College and the perceived importance of green environmental management in achieving Green Institution. T-test and One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used to measure the significant difference in the practices, and Pearson Product Moment (PPM) was employed to test the significant relationship between the College’s green environmental management practices and the importance of green environmental management in achieving a Green Institution. Table 1 illustrating the Green Environmental Management Practices, and Table 2 showing the Degree of Importance of the Green Environmental Management were used as guide in the analysis and interpretation of data:

Table 1: Green Environmental Management Practices

Table 2: Degree of Importance of the Green Environmental Management

Results and Discussions

The results on the green environmental management practices of the College and the perceived importance of the green practices in achieving a green campus were discussed in this section.

Green Environmental Management Practices of the College in Terms of the Areas of Organizational Culture, Physical Facilities, and Curriculum

As reflected in Table 3, the College seldom practices green environmental management since their responses only registered a mean of 1.97, which is interpreted that it frequently missed to adopt the green culture.

Table 3 shows that out of the 50 elements of the green organizational culture identified, only four (4) were always practiced: (1) employees never missing to turn off office machines whenever these are not in use, (2) preferring white papers over colored papers for printing, and (3) banning of smoking in the entire campus. These characteristics have the mean scores of 2.63, 2.50, and 2.44, respectively.

The rest of the characteristics mentioned were seldom practiced by the respondents. This reflects the poor state of the green culture of the college as shown in the absence of environmental policy as a part of the school’s mission statement. There was also a notable absence of overall institutional green environmental management policies, lack of stipulated environmental policy on environmental education, no specific purchasing policy favoring environment-friendly products and packaging, no approved solid waste management policy emphasizing waste recycling, reduction and reuse, and environmental considerations were not specifically included in the performance appraisal system for supervisors and employees. These findings showed that currently, there were no concrete policies used to mold and nurture the green culture in the College.

Table 3: Green Environmental Management Practices as to Area of Organizational Culture

The organizational culture can be developed through written statements about organization’s mission and philosophy (Robbins & Judge, 2011), which is similar to the idea of Newstrom (2011) that philosophy, values, vision, mission, and goals exist in a hierarchy of increasing specificity help create a recognizable organizational culture. The literature supports the need of the College to promote and develop green culture through setting a well-defined vision, mission, objectives, and effective institutional green environmental management policies. The College should also ensure that these policies are effectively communicated and well-embraced by the whole institution. Goyal (2013) emphasized that in order to carry out Green Management in the organization effectively and efficiently, employees’ participation must be received. Further, he stressed that organizations of today should understand that it is more economical to go green than to continue adding harmful chemicals to the environment.

Meanwhile, Table 4 reveals that several of the College buildings and structures such as classrooms, offices, canteen, gym, and audio visual room/conference were not designed to maximize the use of natural lighting and ventilation. Environmental considerations were not normally incorporated in plans and designs for future buildings and are not subjected to LEED certification. Likewise, undertaking physical greening on the entire campus, using fluorescent instead of incandescent lamps, regularly servicing air conditioners to prevent coolant (Freon) leaks, using of electric fans instead of air conditioners, and converting open spaces into mini-forest and gardens were frequently missed to practice. The College has no machine for water recycling. The findings indicate that the College should give more efforts in improving and enhancing physical facilities in order to attain a Green Institution.

Table 4: Green Environmental Management Practices as to Physical Facilities

Table 5 further illustrates the inadequacy of the college in audio visual and reading materials on environmental issues. Because of this, students and teachers have very limited access to environmental learning resources. In addition, environmental themes were frequently missed to be integrated in the curriculum and in all subjects, and also classes were seldom conducted in environment-friendly ways such as allowing the use of old notebooks from previous years instead of requiring new ones and minimizing the use of paper for instructional aids. Likewise, students were seldom encouraged to make use of the environmental learning process.

Table 5: Green Environmental Management Practices as to Curriculum

The results are validated by the findings from David (2010), which suggest that schools at the undergraduate level are doing a poor job of educating students on environmental issues. Furthermore, he emphasized that business schools should address environmental issues more in their curricula and he pointed out that failure of the school to provide adequate coverage of natural environment issues and decisions in students’ training could make them less attractive to employers. This implies that the College has limitations in achieving a Green Institution vision, which will then reflect the need to revise the curriculum integrating environmental considerations, and acquisition of environmental learning materials.

Green Environmental Management Practices of the College as a Whole and When Classified According to Campus

The elements of green environmental management practices were seldom practiced by the whole institution as reflected in the data shown in Table 6 with mean score of 2.00. The data revealed that all campuses observed the same practices in the areas of green culture, green physical facilities, and green curriculum.

Table 6: Green Environmental Management Practices of the College as a whole and when classified according to campus

Importance of Green Environmental Management in Achieving Green Institution as a Whole and When Employees are Grouped According to Sex, Campus and Types of Respondent

All the elements of green environmental management practices as specified in Table 7 were generally assessed by the employees as very important in achieving a Green Institution. When they were categorized by sex, both males and females assessed these elements as very important. The same perception was obtained when they were classified into campus. As to types of respondent, employees belonging to administration, faculty, and staff obtained the same results. The results were supported by the findings of McShane (2012) that organizational culture defines what is important and unimportant in the company and consequently directs everyone in the organization toward the “right way” of doing things. To develop a culture, Robbins & Judge (2011) cited that top managers’ actions set the general climate, including what is an acceptable behavior and what is not. The data implied that generally, employees’ attitude towards green environmental management were positive. Based on the concept of McShane (2012), organizational culture consisted of shared values and assumptions and those values guide our preferences for outcomes or courses of action in a variety of situations.

Table 7: Perceived Importance of Green Environmental Management Practices as to Whole and as to Variables

The data in Table 8 illustrates that there was no significant difference in the practices of each campus on green environmental management at five (5) percent significance level. This implied that regardless of their geographical location and curricular offerings, they still observed the same practices which support the findings that each campus had a weak green organizational culture, poor green physical facilities, and poor green curriculum.

Table 8: Mean Perception of Green Environmental Management Practices as to Grouped

Perceived Importance of Green Environmental Management Practices between Sex, Types of Respondents and Location of Campuses

As to the perceived importance of the green environmental management practices as defined in the elements stated in Table 1, the data in Table 9 indicated that there were no significant differences in variables sex and types of respondents with p-values of .516 and .201. However, in variable campus there was significant difference with p-value of .000. The data showed that respondents had the same perception of the importance of the green environmental management in achieving Green Institution regardless of their sex and irrespective of whether they function as administration, faculty or staff. If grouped according to different campuses however, their perception of the importance of green practices significantly varied.

The variation in their perception may be influenced by their geographical location, culture, structure and level of awareness on green concepts and its application in each campus.

Table 9: Perceived Importance of Green Environmental Management Practices According to Sex, Campus and Type of Respondents

Relationship between College Green Environmental Management Practices and the Perceived Importance of the Practices in Achieving Green Campus

Based on the result of the test statistics in Table 10, there was a significant relationship between the green environmental management practices of the college and the perceived importance of these practices in achieving a Green Institution status. The results implied that there was a direct, positive relationship between the two variables which meant that the more employees perceived the green practices very important, the more frequent they practice the green environmental management.

Table 10: Relationship between College Practices and the Perceived Importance of Green Environmental Management

Conclusions

The following were conclusions of the study based on the results, findings and implications:

  1. As reflected in the weak green organizational culture, poor green physical facilities, and poor green curriculum, the College with its network of four campuses provided less priority to green environmental management. Results showed conformity in their practices with no significant difference between the four campuses in their green practices, which implies that the green environmental management does not differ based on location.
  2. Employees in general give a high value to green environmental management in attaining the goal of the College of becoming a Green Institution by perceiving all elements in the green environmental management as very important.
  3. Perception of the respondents on the importance of green practices was not that significant despite being classified into different sex and types of respondent. This would imply that the importance of green practices is perceived without any stark deviations regardless of sex and types of respondents. Differences in campus location made an impact on the perceptions, which would reflect that each of the four campuses of CHSMC have varying degrees of implementation and compliance to green environmental policies.
  4. The green environmental management was seldom practiced by the institution. There was also an observed gap in the results in which the employees perceive that green practices are very important yet they seldom practice green environmental management in the workplace.
  5. There is a significant relationship between the College green environmental management practices and the perceived importance of these green practices in achieving a Green Institution. Therefore, the more employees perceived the green practices as very important, the more frequent they practice the green environmental management.

Recommendations

The following are the recommendations formulated to improve the green environmental management practices of the College:

  1. There should be proper institutional arrangements and policies for green environmental management.
  2. There is a need to cultivate and nurture the green culture in all aspects of the institution to insure realization of the College’s vision: GREEN CHMSC Excels.
  3. Formulation of green programs with budget allocation.
  4. The College should conduct a series of orientation programs in each of its campuses to increase awareness of its employees on green concepts and its applications with emphasis on green practices.
  5. Employees should be allowed to embrace the green culture through proper motivation and effective communication by the College.
  6. Increase the number of personnel who are trained on green environmental management implementation and monitoring to effectively implement and monitor College-wide green programs.
  7. Enhance the annual Performance Evaluation and Appraisal System by integrating environmental considerations as one of the Key Performance Index.
  8. Improve the procurement policies and processes, and expand the number of prospective suppliers who can provide environment-friendly materials and supplies through on-line system.
  9. Redesign and remodel the existing buildings and structures that would maximize the use of natural elements which could result to reduction in electricity consumption and costs
  10. The College should integrate green concept and design in future building plans.
  11. Office machines and equipment should have regular maintenance and check.
  12. The College should allocate a substantial amount for the acquisition of machine for water recycling which would lead to reduction in water consumption and cost.
  13. Review and revise the curriculum integrating environmental considerations. The teaching methodology should be modified by emphasizing on green learning and application so that students will give more value on the importance of green practices in their daily lives.

References

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