Abstract
The purpose of this paper is the assessment of the ISO 14001:2015 transition process among Portuguese ISO 14001 certified organizations, including those that successfully have already achieved ISO 14001:2015 certification. A considerable number of the surveyed companies proceeded with the transition to the ISO 14001:2015 by introducing slight adjustments and were supported by external consultants. Nearly all of the respondent companies (97%) intend to transition until 15th September 2018. The highest ranked reported benefit is the “integrated approach with other management sub-systems” with a well-consolidated perception from the surveyed companies. This is aligned with the ISO 14001:2015 goal of improving the compatibility of management standards supported on the Annex SL. “Alignment with business strategy”, “improved top management commitment” and “improved internal and external communication” are also perceived to obtain significant benefits from ISO 14001:2015. The statistical tests carried out (Kruskal–Wallis) confirmed that the perception of some achieved ISO 14001:2015 certification benefits is dependent on the size of the organization. Concerning the motivations to proceed with certification, results suggest that there is not a particular company profile that is compelled to certify their EMS based on a specific type of motivation (Internal or External). Due to ISO 14001:2015 novelty, these exploratory results should be subjected to additional research confirmation.
Highlights
Traditional approaches aiming at environmental protection often rely on legal frameworks to enforce measures and behaviors in organizations
More than 75% of the surveyed organizations proceeded with the transition to the ISO 14001:2015 by introducing slight adjustments to the pre-existing environmental management systems (EMS), 37% were supported by external consultants and the remaining 63% proceeded with the transition solely supported on available internal resources
By May 2017, approximately three quarters of the respondent organizations still had not attained ISO 14001:2015 certification, which was reportedly due to lack of time and the mandatory study and analysis of the novel requirements
Summary
Traditional approaches aiming at environmental protection often rely on legal frameworks to enforce measures and behaviors in organizations. The 1992 Rio de Janeiro summit on Environment and Development with the approval of the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biodiversity, the Declaration on Forests and the Agenda 21 triggered an increased international emphasis for the development of environmental sustainability and for more environmental friendly products and services. Within this context, the demand for voluntary environmental management systems (EMS) certification has shown a constant rise, which has been depicted by trends of ISO 14001 international standard certification. ISO 14001:2015 proposed some new and reinforced approaches, such as the adoption of the Annex SL structure; the requirement demanding organizations to analyze their internal and internal context in order to ascertain the issues and requirements that may impact the EMS; the assignment of specific responsibilities for leaders to promote the EMS; more emphasis on the performance improvement by minimizing the water and energy consumption as well as producing less emission and waste; the introduction of a life cycle perspective that asks for organizations to extend their control and influence to the environmental impacts ascribed to product use and end-of-life treatment or disposal; and the development of an external and internal communications strategy to consider the reporting demanded by regulatory agencies and the expectations of other interested parties [2]
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