Abstract
Country specificities and national cultures influence Environmental Management Systems (EMS) implementation and pro-environmental behaviour in organisations. Previous studies have focused on organisations in developed or emerging economies, creating a need to establish the extent to which findings are applicable to developing counterparts. This paper presents EMS implementation from a developing country perspective, reporting on EMS implementation factors (drivers, benefits, barriers) affecting Nigerian organisations’ pro-environmental behaviour, by analysing questionnaire responses from 136 Nigerian organisational respondents. Most commonly cited drivers were ‘environmental concern’ and ‘desire for improved organisational efficiency’. Key barriers were ‘cost of implementation/budget barriers’ and ‘regulatory agency bureaucracy’. Key benefits were ‘reduced environmental accidents and improved site safety’, ‘enhanced corporate image’ and ‘more efficient resource use’. To situate findings within a global construct, results were compared with previous studies in more developed economies. EMS implementation factors differed from those in more developed economies. Plausible explanations for differences are discussed.
Highlights
The drivers, uptake, benefits and barriers of Environmental Management Systems (EMS) implementation across organisations in a range of industry sectors and world regions have been reported in various studies [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
This paper aims to identify factors relating to EMS implementation and other forms of pro-environmental behaviour in Nigerian organisations, and to analyse and categorize
‘Opportunity to avoid/contain pollution’, ‘regulatory/legal demands/pressures’ and ‘environmental/social responsibility’ were rated by 85%, 84% and 83% of organisations respectively as being ‘very important’ or ‘important’ drivers
Summary
The drivers, uptake, benefits and barriers of EMS implementation across organisations in a range of industry sectors and world regions have been reported in various studies [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. According to these studies, the motivations for an organisation’s pursuit of an EMS (or its pro-environmental behaviour), and the benefits it expects from such actions are inextricably linked [3]. Firms which experience little external pressure from outside institutions have little: Regulatory and compliance benefits, which organisations derive through awareness of their environmental legal and statutory requirements thereby attempting to operate within those requirements [8]; Human resource benefits, where employees are positively affected when they genuinely believe an organisation is adopting pro-environmental behaviour for what is considered to be the ‘right’ reasons [16]; Positive economic impacts, whereby ems implementation is likely to lead to source and pollution reductions, process intensification and improvement, improved waste management and improved productivity, all of which typically result in cost reductions and subsequently, cost savings [1, 20]; Market access benefits, where ems implementation has the ability to provide organisations with access to new and existing markets [1, 20]; Positive impact on external corporate image, where ems implementation becomes a corporate public statement and affords the opportunity of communicating to external parties – customers, suppliers, regulatory bodies, investors and the general public [20]; The opportunity to improve environmental performance and efficiency by creating support for the implementation of other environmental practices [21,22,23]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: Journal of Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
