Application of Environmental Audits in Industrial Property Management in Kenya: a Case Study of Industrial Properties in Nairobi County
Abstract
This study examines the application of Environmental Auditing (EA) in industrial property
management in Kenya. EA is undertaken to assess compliance with mitigation measures proposed
in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports prepared during project planning. EA also
aims to identify new impacts emanating from a project that had not been anticipated during the
EIA study, and proposals for their mitigation. Environmental Auditing in real estate development
in Kenya is a requirement of the Kenya Constitution, and various other laws and policies on
environmental conservation and management. The study evaluates the impacts of Environmental
Audits (EAs) on industrial real estate, and identifies strengths and weaknesses, as well as
challenges that property managers do experience in enforcing compliance with environmental
auditing in industrial property management in Kenya.
A descriptive survey research approach was utilized to accomplish the goals of the study. The
target population comprised of all property managers in Nairobi City who are members of the
Institution of Surveyors of Kenya, and National Environment Management (NEMA) County
directors across the 47 counties in the country. Data was gathered from primary and secondary
sources. The primary data was acquired through a questionnaire survey administered on a sample
of 211 respondents (188 property managers and 23 NEMA county directors) selected through
simple random sampling. The secondary data were obtained from review of relevant literature in
texts, journal articles, legislations and published documents. The data were analysed using
descriptive statistics including frequencies, percentages and means with the help of statistical
software SPSS and Excel. The analysed data was presented in tables and charts.
The study findings revealed that there is improved performance of the industries when
environmental auditing is implemented. According to the study results, environmental audits
xiv
enhances effectiveness and efficiency of the organization by identifying defects or problems,
facilitates compliance to the regulatory framework, boosts competitive advantage, creates
awareness of the existing environmental impacts, improves company reputation and image as a
corporate citizen, and facilitates provision of data to investors and sponsors of industrial real estate.
However, the situation is that there is low implementation of the same with the few who are
implementing are driven by meeting the legal requirements and perceived benefits to stakeholders.
The key challenges that were evident include corruption and biasness of the regulator and high
costs of audits.
The study recommends that property managers should strategically formulate and efficiently
implement environmental management and audit system for their organizations. This is because it
allows organizations not only to be clean to the regulator but also improves the ethical and business
performance. Against the popular belief that environmental auditing is costly, on other hand the
expenses used could be lower than the costs of probable damage occurring as a result of payments
of fines and penalties upon certain environmental impacts. Therefore, it is advisable for property
managers to initiate a corporate culture where environmental auditing is applied in operation of
industrial real estate and make adequate financial provision for the same to ensure smooth running
of their organizations. Eventually this will immensely contribute towards achievement of
sustainable development goals on ecological and societal endurance in industrial real estate
development
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
The following license files are associated with this item: