Abstract
The adoption of formal environmental management systems (EMS) according to EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) represents a voluntary approach that aims to increase corporate environmental performance. Though EMAS can offer several advantages for organizations, registration numbers are falling. In the hospital sector, the dissemination of EMAS is low. The question arises as to what hinders hospitals when planning, implementing, and maintaining such voluntary environmental management initiatives. The results from interviews with environmental managers in EMAS registered hospitals reveal problems such as high initial effort for creation of the required documents, or lacking knowledge and staff awareness. The barriers are presented in a model synthesizing the problems chronologically on the organizational, group, and individual level. The challenges for the adoption of EMAS as a voluntary environmental management approach in hospitals are discussed. This paper contributes by creating an understanding of the barriers organizations might face when implementing an EMS. Thus, measures to actively manage and overcome barriers can be developed by organizations, consultants, reviewers, policy makers, and researchers.
Highlights
Human activities, such as irresponsible depletion of limited natural resources and pollution, push our planet towards its boundaries [1,2] and foster the debate over environmental protection measures and the necessity of corporate environmental management [3,4]
The barriers for Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) in the context of German hospitals were empirically researched with the following research question in mind: Which barriers do hospitals experience within EMAS adoption? In order to answer this research question, expert interviews were conducted with responsible environmental managers
The results presented in this paper are part of a larger interview study on EMAS implementation in German hospitals addressing issues beyond barriers for adoption
Summary
Human activities, such as irresponsible depletion of limited natural resources and pollution, push our planet towards its boundaries [1,2] and foster the debate over environmental protection measures and the necessity of corporate environmental management [3,4]. Several researchers have discussed mandatory and voluntary environmental management initiatives in order to reduce negative corporate environmental impacts [5,6,7,8,9]. Among the voluntary initiatives that should improve organizational environmental performance beyond the legal requirements is the implementation of an environmental management system (EMS) [9,10]. The implementation of a formal EMS can increase organizational and management efficiency [10,14], and ensure legal compliance [14]. It can impact economic performance [15,16], corporate performance [17], and competitiveness [18]
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