THE EAST LONDON Industrial Development Zone should be ready for ISO 14001 certification by April – in time for the official designation of the zone by central government. According to the Development Zone Corporation’s ceo Peter Miles, work on an environmental management system for the West Bank has been going on for two years. “It is a measure of how we plan to minimise the negative impact on the environment and maximise the positive impact,” says Miles. He is confident that all the necessary systems and quality procedures to qualify for ISO 14001 certification are in place. “We have been through internal audits, and we have had our first meeting with the external auditors. They have been back to do the external audit. The indications are that we should be credited as ISO 14001 compliant as early as April.” The IDZ will be one of the first industrial areas in Africa to receive ISO 14001 certification, according to Miles. This certification will help attract investors to the zone, he says. There is a great deal of pressure in the industrialised countries for their manufacturers to become more environmentally conscious. A number of European investors demand that international environmental standards are in place before they will actually invest, he says. “I think that for the European, American and the Japanese, in particular, being environmentally friendly is becoming very important because their markets are demanding that they be so,” he says. Potential tenants who do not meet the environmental standards of the zone will not be accepted. “Our norms are 50 per cent above what is acceptable by current South African legal standards, which means that we have set very vigorous standards as far as the environment is concerned,” he says. Cabinet approval for the designation of the zone is expected to be given within the next few months. South Africa’s first Industrial Development Zone was declared at Coega in the Eastern Cape in late 2001.