On the Development of an Integrated Framework Based on ‘PERS’ and ‘EFQM’ for Environmental Sustainability Management in Seaports: A Case from Egypt

Abstract

Various industrial sectors are interested in adopting Total Quality Management (TQM) today as they meet new challenges. At the same time, protection of the environment is also an issue constantly demanded from assets. In this emerging context, managing environmental sustainability through operational excellence in seaports is an important issue to be addressed. The managerial excellence here depends on many factors, for instance, personnel, organization, processes, etc. Notably, Egyptian seaports have not often been seen applying or using any formal comprehensive environmental or quality management system to date. Therefore, a project was initiated in one of the major commercial seaports in Egypt, with the intention of developing a suitable methodology to enhance environmental sustainability through a comprehensive quality management process. In this novel method, the well-known European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM, which represents TQM), and what is called Port Environmental Review System (PERS) – an Environmental Management System (EMS) – were integrated together to develop an integrated methodology for managing environmental sustainability. This covered a number of aspects which are important to resolve current challenges and problems in Egyptian seaports in environmental management terms.This paper discusses the integration of EFQM and PERS as the basis for the development of a comprehensive method, termed an Integrated Method for Environmental Sustainability Management (IMESM), for a commercial seaport. It demonstrates an attempt to make a strategic combination of quality and environmental review processes to develop a management framework. This method was developed in close cooperation with a seaport in Egypt to ensure that it is sensible as well as practically relevant to the industrial sector.KeywordsEnvironmental SustainabilityTotal Petroleum HydrocarbonTotal Quality ManagementEnvironmental Management SystemQuality Management SystemThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.