Implementation of the Norm ABNT ISO 14001 in a shrimp farming industry

There is a world consensus that sustainable development should be embraced by all productive sectors. Shrimp fanning has grown so much in the last 5 years that it has attracted the attention of both national and international environmental groups. A significant environmental impact in socio-economic terms is being witnessed in surrounding communities. At the moment, Brazil is one of the largest producers of marine shrimp in the world making use of technology developed in various countries which has been adapted to local conditions. In Brazil the industry and the government have attempted to create policies to increase productivity while assuring sustainability. The objective of this paper is evaluate the benefits from the application of the Norm NBR ISO 14001 on the productive, administrative and processing sectors of Atlantis Aquacultura, a company which produces marine shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei with emphasis on the setting of objectives and environmental management programmes, The results obtained indicate that the process of adapting to the Notrn were beneficial in economic, environmental, social, and legal aspects. With the Norm the company had also made a commitment for continuous improvement to their environmental system of management. This commitment contemplates a revision of planning to satisfy their environmental policy as well as monitoring, measuring and evaluating their environmental performance, beyond what had been proposed and implement future measures to optimize production sustainably.