AN INDIAN EXPERIENCE OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Abstract

The last two decades have seen a remarkable increase in both interest and reactions to the concept of preserving the environment. This can be attributed to the increasing statutory and regulatory requirements of government and the pressure from consumers and the life-threatening of global ecosystem deterioration. Therefore, organizations are constantly under pressure to develop and implement Environmental Management System (EMS). While some sincere efforts have been made by the Indian organizations to implement EMS and their performance have been very good, still countrywide efforts are not adequate. This paper presents the adoption of EMS in Indian organizations, extent of EMS elements used and the status of implementation of cleaner production activities by the industries. This paper also presents the benefits accrued by the Indian industries based on 56 industries feedback who are either ISO 14001 certified companies or in the advance stage of ISO 14001 implementation. This has been supplemented by some case studies of the leading Indian organizations. Most of the Indian organizations feel that EMS has a positive effect in their performance. It is observed that Indian organizations are more inclined towards getting ISO 14001 certification rather than taking full advantage of EMS However, it is evident from the statistical analysis that overall adoption of cleaner production activities are at the low level. The majority of the organizations seem to be implementing EMS out of pressure from competition, customer, government, domestic and export market. The paper concludes that though environmental awareness is on the increase in India, and commitment as well as compliance levels are far higher than before, India still lags behind in the implementation and has to go a long way. The investigation and research findings are still exploratory. Future research can focus on the organizations that are at the initial stage of EMS implementation and comparison can be drawn. Future research can focus on sector wise performance. Broadly based and larger sample size would provide better picture of EMS implementation status in Indian organizations. Analysis is based on questionnaire based feedback. The study has been able to identify the extent of the usage of key EMS elements, implementation of cleaner production activities and drivers for the implementation of EMS. The findings have been supported by the select Indian case studies.