Reasons to Adopt ISO 50001 Energy Management System

Frederic Marimon,Martí Casadesús

doi:10.3390/su9101740

Abstract

Purpose: The main aim of this paper is to analyze the relationships between the corporate motivations that lead organizations to establish the ISO 50001 Energy Management System (EnMS) standard, and the difficulties and benefits derived from its adoption. Design/methodology/approach: Three independent exploratory factor analyses (EFA) were conducted in order to identify (i) sources of motivation: social requirements, ecology drivers, and competitive advantage; (ii) the difficulties of an ISO 50001 adoption: operational difficulties and organizational difficulty; and (iii) types of benefits: ecological benefits and operational benefits. In a second step, an exploratory path analysis, performed through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), was used to analyze the relations among motivation, difficulties, and benefits related to the adoption of the ISO 50001 standard. Findings: Social requirements explain operational difficulties, which in turn impacts on operational benefits. Ecology drivers are directly related to ecological benefits. Organizational difficulties have an inverse relationship with operational and ecological benefits. Operational difficulties are related to operational benefits and ecological benefits. Research limitations/implications: The questionnaire was disseminated to 87 Spanish companies with ISO 50001 certification. Managers and other practitioners such as consultants, auditing companies, and official organizations in charge of developing standards might find useful implications. Originality/value: The standard was published in 2011 by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This paper contributes to assessment of the benefits of the standard by collecting information directly from the pioneer organizations that have adopted it, and provides clues on how to implement the standard and improve it in future.

Highlights

The adoption of international standards on Environmental Management Systems (EMSs), notably the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 standard, has grown significantly worldwide over the last two decades [1,2]
This is the case with ISO 50001, a standard to guide the adoption of an Energy Management System (EnMS), which was published in July 2011
Since there is scarce previous empirical literature related to ISO 50001, some items were borrowed from previous authors who have analyzed motivations and benefits of other related standards (e.g., ISO 140001 and Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS))

Summary

Introduction

The adoption of international standards on Environmental Management Systems (EMSs), notably the ISO 14001 standard, has grown significantly worldwide over the last two decades [1,2]. Following this successful path, some other management standards that deal with environmental management aspects have been launched, such as the ISO 14006 standard for eco-design [3], the ISO 14064 standard for quantification and reporting of greenhouse gases, and the ISO 14031 standard for environmental performance evaluation, among many others. Considering the growth of ISO 50001 and ISO 14001, referred to as meta-standards [2], and given the importance of the promotion of energy management for cleaner production [5], a study analyzing causal relation between motivations, difficulties, and benefits is needed

Objectives

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Conclusion