Down the Sewer: How Semi-Informal Tanneries Management Policies Affect Residual Water Disposal in Colombian Business Scenarios

In Colombia, the issue of waste discharges derived from the tanning process to water bodies is a scenario that has been widely documented. However, measurement exercises have failed to identify improvements in this process that integrates administrative knowledge with concepts of labor, social and environmental welfare. The present article is the culmination of research conducted within the framework of the project “Estudio comparativo de la administración y las repercusiones socio-ambientales en las empresas del sector de curtiembre. Case Bogotá (Barrio San Benito), Case Barranquilla and Case Villapinzón (Cundinamarca)” (Comparative study of the administration and the socio-environmental repercussions in tanning sector companies. Case Bogotá (Barrio San Benito), Case Barranquilla and Case Villapinzón (Cundinamarca)) concerning the administrative practices and the negative effects derived from the absence of management systems for negative externalities caused to the environment by companies in the tanning sector. The study was developed as follows: initially, a systematic documentary review of the laws, decrees and regulations that have a direct or indirect impact on the tanning sector was carried out, followed by field work using data collection instruments (questionnaires) in the San Benito neighborhood (Bogotá), in the town of Villapinzón (Cundinamarca) and in the city of Barranquilla (Atlántico), where there are formal and informal work clusters dedicated to the leather industry. The objective of this study was to identify the relationship between administrative styles and formal processes of strategic planning activities development with the adoption of dumping control systems and other aspects related to environmental management, oriented to the organizational level. Based on the above, the information was analyzed with emphasis on those companies with a common denominator in their control strategies in relation to those policies that were the result of administrative and business practices and that finally led to the desired effects in the social, environmental and economic spheres. Finally, the discussion section focuses on the recognition of these good practices and the possibility that they could be replicated by other actors on the global level.