GIZ supports 45 SMEs to upgrade their health, environmental standards
The GIZ Employment and Skills for Eastern Africa (E4D) program has launched a project to support 45 small and medium Ugandan companies to improve their health, safety and environment standards and practices.
The selected companies will participate in a value addition, competitive and intensive ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management System (EMS) programme that includes; training, coaching, mentorship and certification.
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Don Agaba, the head of programme said the training is needed both for compliance to enter into natural resource based sectors but also beyond.
He noted that they have the obligation to mitigate carbon footprint to the environment but in addition to that, this (training) needs to make business sense in order for it to be sustainable.
Arnold Waiswa Ayazika, the director, environmental monitoring and compliance, National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) said as businesses grow, it is imperative that they comply with environmental laws.
"As you make profits, you must think about what your activities have caused to the environment. For instance, right now the cost of treating water is very high because of increased land-based activities that have led to increased pollution of water.
Waiswa emphasised that non compliance can be costly as it can lead to closure of businesses, penalties and arrests of non compliant business owners.
