Evaluation of a national food industry based on environmental performance and condition indicators: critical success and barriers of EMS implementation in Tunisia

Abstract

This paper attempts to assess environmental performance indicators (EPIs) of Tunisian food industry as well as the effectiveness of its environmental management system (EMS) according to the ISO 14001 standard. It is related to the management effort which is measured by management performance indicators and to organization’s operations representing the operational performance indicators in order to reduce the significance of environmental impacts. Otherwise, it does reflect critical success and barriers of environmental performance of a food company for its management and operation processes according to the Tunisian context. Moreover, this research focuses on environmental condition indicators (ECIs) in developing of environmental performance evaluation (EPE). EPIs and ECIs depend closely on the compliance of the food company with applicable laws and regulatory requirements that stimulate the pollution prevention. Furthermore, EPE integrates environmental and human health risks in assessment process consequently ensuring the adoption of a new policy by decision makers under the concept of continuous improvement. However, it should discuss a voluntary initiative taking by the top managers to prevent pollution and to share information in a structured and regular way.