Author(s): Mubanga Lackson Chipimo
The Zambia Airports Corporation Limited is a Private Limited Company, which is owned by the Government of the Republic of Zambia. The establishment of the Corporation is reiterated by the Civil Aviation Act No. 5 of 2016, which repealed and replaced the Aviation Act, Chapter 444 of the Laws of Zambia. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the Zambia Airports Corporation Limited’s revised Environmental Policy on their Environmental Performance. This was achieved by conducting a SWOT analysis and computing statistical analysis to measure correlations. A mixed methods design was adopted in this study and a purposive sampling procedure was used. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to the Safety, Health, Environment and Quality department in the Corporation. The results of the study showed that active Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), certification by SABS in the ISO9001: 2015 – Quality assurance and wildlife hazard management were the strengths of Zambia Airports Corporation Limited’s policy. The weaknesses included a lack of monitoring mechanism of environmental performance indicators and hence affecting the quality of environmental data reported in the annual reports. The opportunities included certification in the ISO 14001: 2015 – Environmental Management Systems standard and costing and budgeting for environmental management activities. The threats identified were ineffective implementation of the policy, thereby, compromising the essence of the Corporation’s environmental objectives and targets. The study recommended that the Corporation perform Environmental Performance Evaluation (EPE), environmental disclosure or reporting and finally work on getting certified in the ISO 14001:2015 standard. This will promote the Corporation ‘s corporate image among other environmental sensitive organizations. The study established that there was was a strong, positive and significant correlation between ZACL’s Environmental Policy and Environmental Practices and that there was no was no significant correlation between ZACL’s Environmental Policy and Environmental Performance.