Environmental Knowledge Management - Recent Advances and Issues in Environmental Science - page 48

and improving eco friendly products, reducing waste and pollution and increasing
invisible corporate assets-an awareness and sense of environmental protection and
eco-effi ciency.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study is based on semistructured interviews carried out in 2007 with managers
and engineers of CSC (Tables 1 and 2) and information collected from the Internet,
thematic papers, case studies and CSC environmental reports.
The objectives of this research are:
• The implementation of EKCP in CSC.
• The transition of environmental knowledge in CSC (from the knowledge spiral
theory viewpoint).
• Discussion of whether EKM is able to effectively improve the performance of
EM in CSC.
The authors are interested in how the EKM system works and why implementation
is so successful in CSC.
This study will evaluate the environmental performance of CSC using the EKCP
as described by Lee et al. [6]. The evaluation components are as follows: EKC; EKA;
EKS; EKU, and EKI which include the organization capacity to internalize task re-
lated to environmental knowledge, the environmental education opportunities and the
level of organizational learning [6]. The concept of this chapter is to study whether
the performance of EKM will improve and whether environmental targets will be
achieved when the EKCP is effectively improved.
Company Background
The CSC established in 1971 was the first integrated steel mill in Taiwan. After priva-
tization in 1955, CSC concentrated on developing its steel business, as well as ex-
panding its business into the CSC Group which operated and invested in diversified
business areas. With maximally efficient resource integration among the subsidiaries
and affiliates and an output of 10.7 mmt of crude steel of CSC had become the world's
25th largest steel producing company by 2006 [40].
To enhance their international competitive advantage, CSC set up a KM Commit-
tee in 2003 which was responsible for implementing KM in order to pass down the
accumulated experience, technology and expertise of over 30 year of operation. This is
not only a corporate asset for future development and forward innovation, but also the
best approach to sustainable development. According to Tony Chao, the manager of
the Manpower Development Section, HR development of CSC indicates that employ-
ees' experiences are the most valuable company asset of CSC (n.d.). The CSC invested
capital in an e-learning program and combined this program with KM systematically
transforming accumulated skills into a digital system. Overcoming the limitations of
location, time and budget, e-learning provides an organized and systematic KM sys-
tem for all staff levels in CSC.