One of the focus areas of the UK’s DfID-funded Support for Environmental Assessment and Management (SEAM) project was environmental management and industrial development. Within this context, SEAM intended to prepare Environmental Management Guidelines for Industrial Estates. The guidelines were to help improve environmental performance, working conditions, and safety, and reduce the impacts of these estates on surrounding areas and residents.
SEAM commissioned Environics to develop the guidelines and train the environmental management of industrial estates on using them.
• Environics adopted a participatory approach to develop the guidelines. This approach involved consultation with industrial estates management; regulatory agencies; service providers to industry, and industrial establishments and facilities.
• The consultation focused on the proposed roles and responsibilities of all concerned entities, as well as the tools and coordination required to ensure sound environmental management of the estates.
• Environics then prepared a draft of the guidelines, which was presented to all stakeholders in participatory workshops to obtain their feedback.
• The project yielded the Guidelines for the Environmental Management in Industrial Estates, in both Arabic and English.
• The guidelines were prepared according to the Egyptian conditions and resources, while including cases from the international experience for reference.
• The guidelines addressed the roles and responsibilities of the estate management to ensure sound environmental management during the planning, design, and operation phases of an estate.
• Covering ten industrial sectors, the guidelines included procedures, tools, and practices for the management of inputs and resources, discharges, emissions, wastes, and onsite/offsite emergency cases, in addition to cleaner production practices.
• The guidelines were applied on one industrial estate, which entailed carrying out a detailed needs assessment to identify the gaps.
• Based on the findings, the guidelines were refined and industrial estate management were trained.
• The Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) adopted these guidelines as the official environmental management guidelines for industrial estates.