Environmental Management And Audit Scheme Research Articles

TRENDS IN A GLOBAL CIRCULAR ECONOMY

The article analyzes the indicators and dynamics in a global circular economy. The methodological bases of the study are the fundamental provisions of the closed-loop economy model. Structural-functional method, historical and logical method, comparative analysis, intuitive forecasting, graphical and tabular, method of induction and deduction are used in the article. It is revealed that the development of the circular economy model is characterized by such trends as the responsibility of packaging companies for the final life of materials; development of chemical processing on a commercial scale; material footprint reduction by reducing the level of household, enterprises and the other economic agents’ consumption. It is proved that the introduction of the circular economy model will help to increase GDP and average employment and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It has been established that the European Union's Ecodesign Directive, the Environmental Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS), the Environmental Choice Program, the TCO Certified, etc. play an important role in encouraging business and the public to take environmental issues into account.

Organization and management theories in environmental management systems research: A systematic literature review

AbstractEnvironmental management systems have attracted considerable attention from organizational and management scholars, owing to their widespread adoption in most industry sectors. Despite the extensive empirical literature, academic research on ISO 14001 and Environmental Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) remains characterized by a technical and pragmatic connotation and scarce theoretical contribution. As this research field approaches maturity, theoretical elaboration is crucial for assessing the current state of knowledge and identifying pathways for future research. The main objective of the paper is to scrutinize the academic literature on standard‐based environmental management, with a focus on identifying organizational and management theories that contributed to the development of the field in the last decades. By critically analyzing 55 papers, the study points out eight dominant theoretical frameworks, mostly pertaining to the field of strategic management. The paper provides an in‐depth analysis of the objectives and findings of each study in the light of its theory of reference in order to contribute insights on the current state of theoretical elaboration of standard‐based environmental management systems research.

Isomorphic or dissimilar implementation among environmental management scheme adopters? Empirical evidence from the European context

AbstractThe research assessed the extent to which an environmental management scheme (EMS) had been implemented in 242 Environmental Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS)‐registered companies in Europe. The actions taken by the surveyed enterprises to comply with the EMAS Regulation (1221/2009) and to implement the Deming cycle that characterizes the environmental management system and the EMAS standard were analyzed. We exploited a new institutional theory, which suggests that a firm's operations exert ongoing pressure on its decisions, leading to isomorphic behavior. The survey results were processed using cluster analysis, thereby enabling us to classify the companies into four groups. The classification of the groups is based on the implementation of Deming cycle composed of four main steps (“plan‐do‐check‐act”). These steps were totally or partially adopted by the EMAS companies.So, different level of EMAS implementation emerged from the research. The cluster analysis confirmed that EMSs can be implemented in different ways and that EMAS achievements can be discretionary. If the scheme is not integrated into the organization, then a firm's adoption of EMS is likely to be only symbolic.

An Assessment Framework of Environmental Management Practices of EMAS Certified Firms

This article describes how the Environmental Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is considered an effective means for firms to address environmental challenges such as wastewater treatment, solid waste management, recycling practices and air emissions control. Many of the present studies have mainly employed statistical and econometric methods to examine the role of EMAS certification, principally to identify potential relationships with economic and innovation parameters. This article aims to contribute to this academic field by analyzing the type of environmental issues addressed by EMAS certified firms. The method of analysis is based on the scoring/ benchmarking techniques for analyzing environmental statements published by EMAS certified firms. An application is made in a sample of EMAS certified Greek firms. The findings show that different environmental management practices have been undertaken by firms of different sectors. In general, the examined firms have focused on energy consumption, water reduction, solid waste management and air emission control issues, with little attention given to biodiversity topics. Finally, the best environmental scores were achieved by the petroleum industry, while the food sector ranked last overall.

Analysing the causes of environmental management and audit scheme (EMAS) decrease in Europe

Environmental Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is the most important public standard for an Environmental Management System. In the last few years, the number of certified organisations has been decreasing. Scholars have largely debated the drivers, barriers and benefits, but the recent decrease in EMAS registrations has not been sufficiently studied, leaving unsolved questions for scholars, practitioners and policy-makers. This paper aims to address this literature gap by (i) analysing the trends of other voluntary certification schemes in order to understand whether the decrease is a peculiarity of EMAS; (ii) investigating the reasons why formerly registered organisations have abandoned EMAS and why ISO14001 certified organisations do not adopt EMAS. The paper reports results of 17 interviews highlighting the lack of financial and human resources, the lack of market and stakeholder recognition, and the unclear added value of EMAS as reasons for the decrease of EMAS.

Organizational life cycle assessment: suitability for higher education institutions with environmental management systems

The purpose of this study is to analyze the suitability of organizational life cycle assessments (O-LCAs) for higher education institutions (HEIs) with special attention to the benefits and particularities of those adopting environmental management systems (EMSs) verified according to Environmental Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). A thorough analysis following ISO/TS 14072 and UNEP Guidance was carried out using the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV) EMS verified by the EMAS for guiding principles to develop the methodological proposal. The self-sufficiency of UPV EMS for developing an O-LCA was tested at the university pilot unit. The four steps of the O-LCA were applied to the pilot. A reporting organization, the organization to be studied (boundaries and scope), was defined in consideration of the environmental units (EU) of the EMS. Operational control was selected as a consolidation method. Reporting flows and system boundaries are also discussed. A three-scope scheme of the GHG protocol is introduced and combined with the ISO 14072 boundary definition to support better alignment with the HEI structure. For the life cycle inventory analysis, a mechanism for identifying activities and processes as well as their material and energy flows is proposed in consideration of the particularities of HEIs. A procedure for the prioritization of data collection efforts and cutoffs was developed. The procedure integrates current EMAS actions based on the significance of environmental aspects combined with the influence of reporting organizations under their control. Impact categories focus on midpoint indicators along with an additional inventory level indicator as part of the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). Unfortunately, due to a lack of quality data available, LCIA can only be assessed in part with little interest in outcomes. Partial results are presented. An EMS verified by EMAS is proven to be useful in the assessment of O-LCA for HEIs. However, EMAS requirements do not ensure the availability of all data needed to develop an O-LCA. An accounting system should complement a lack of data if it is properly structured. Considerable efforts are required to obtain an accurate result. EMS and the accounting system may be able to provide information that supports an O-LCA approach based on a coherent prioritization of data collection efforts and cutoff procedures along with a set of justified impact category indicators. Overall, organization managers must be in favor of such an assessment to meet the requirements of successful implementation.

A benchmarking framework to evaluate business climate change risks: A practical tool suitable for investors decision-making process

A fundamental concern for the investor community is to identify techniques which would allow them to evaluate and highlight the most probable financial risks that could affect the value of their asset portfolio. Traditional techniques primarily focus on estimating certain conventional social-economic factors and many fail to cover an array of climate change risks. A limited number of institutional documents present, to a somewhat limited extent, some general-defined types of business climate change risks, which are deemed most likely to influence the value of an investors’ portfolio. However, it is crucial that stakeholders of businesses and scholars consider a wider range of information so as to assist investors in their decision making. This paper aims at establishing a new framework to operationalize and quantify an array of business climate change risks to provide more comprehensive and tangible information on non-traditional risks. This framework relies on the benchmarking – scoring systems and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines, and is applied to various Greek businesses that are certified by Environmental Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS).

Corporate key performance indicators for environmental management and reporting

The paper presents main results of the research financed the Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic in the project No. SP/4i2/26/07. It discuses the corporate key performance indicators for Environmental Management Systems certified by standard ISO 14001:2005 or/and by the Regulation (EC) No. 1221/2009, about voluntary participation of organizations in the Community Environmental Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). These are used in an annual corporate environmental reporting of organizations with Environmental Management System and also in the annual statements of organizations with Environmental Management and Audit Scheme. It introduces key performance indicators and framework of corporate environmental reporting are based on the Methodical Guideline of the Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic developed in the project No. SP/4i2/26/07. They are enlarged to economic and social area with using Global Reporting Initiative and RICON Group guidelines. The paper also introduces the proposal of further research in the development of corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance indicators.

Is it possible to compare environmental performance indicators reported by public administrations? Results from an Italian survey

This paper investigates the adoption of indicators by public administrations (PAs) to communicate their environmental performance. This research on Italian municipalities registered within the Environmental Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) was conducted with the following aims: (i) to analyse the environmental performance indicators adopted in the environmental statements of Italian municipalities and (ii) to discuss the capability of these indicators to support the benchmarking process. The criterion of relevance is adopted to verify the capability of the environmental indicators used in the benchmarking process. Relevance is understood as [a] theme relevance (related to the importance of the environmental theme analysed by the indicator selected) and [b] indicator relevance for the theme (related to the representativeness of the indicator selected for the environmental theme).The research analysed the 111 Environmental Statements of all the 111 Italian municipalities registered prior to December 31, 2008.The results of the survey show that the difficulty of comparing the environmental performance of Italian EMAS-registered municipalities is a result of both a lack of relevance of the indicators to the theme and a lack of relevance of the themes analysed.

Perceptions of performance: how European organizations experience EMAS registration

AbstractThe literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) is packed with attempts to uncover the business case of CSR. However, the findings are often based on either case stories or overall analyses of the business case for CSR, thereby overlooking the heterogeneity of the business landscape and the wide variety of CSR initiatives. This article intentionally tries to fall between the two chairs. By focusing on a single aspect of the blurry CSR concept, the article examines how European organizations perceive the motives, costs and benefits associated with EMAS (Environmental Management and Audit Scheme) registration. The article is based on a case analysis of Copenhagen Zoo and a web survey of 162 EMAS‐registered organizations. One of the main conclusions is that the respondents often perceive EMAS as a success even though they believe that the monetary costs from adopting the system outweigh the benefits. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

EMAS and its local diffusion in Italy

AbstractDue to the growing awareness among enterprises of the relevance of ‘sustainable development’, applications of the Environmental Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) in Italy are expanding. With the second era of EMAS (EMAS II), this scheme will become a global instrument, enabling Italian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to master environmental challenges while improving their competitive position. This report intends to demonstrate that area and local agreements between local government units and research centres, such as universities or energy and environmental boards, can simplify and improve the diffusion of EMAS in the country. Reported examples of some small Italian municipalities that have applied EMAS are demonstrations of how government units can increase all citizens' quality of life while taking care of environmental aspects. Since 1993, the year of the first applications of Regulation 1836/93, local government units have understood the important role they can play in this subject.This work illustrates that the development of ISO and EMAS local applications must be based on government's local promotion aimed at encouraging enterprises to voluntarily adopt these instruments for environmental safeguard. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment.

Green by Choice? Cross-National Variations in Firms' Responses to EMS-Based Environmental Regimes

Environmental Management Systems (EMSS) represent a new generation of voluntary “beyond compliance” environmental policies that neither set substantive goals nor specify final outcomes. As a result, many stakeholder groups are lukewarm toward them. Since 1993 two major supranational EMSs—ISO 14001 and the European Union's Environmental Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS)—have been introduced. Firms receive formal accreditation after their EMS has been certified by outside verifiers. This accreditation can potentially bestow monetary and nonmonetary benefits on these firms.Firm-level EMS adoption patterns in the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States vary, thereby suggesting that national contexts influence firms' responses to them. In Germany and the U.K. a significant number of sites have become either ISO 14001 or EMAS certified, while the take-up of ISO 14001 in the U.S. (EMAS is available only to European sites) has been less enthusiastic.This article begins with the hypothesis that firms in countries with adversarial economies— where regulators and business are on less than friendly terms—are less likely to adopt EMS-based programs. This hypothesis explains why ISO 14001 take-up has been relatively high in the U.K. and relatively low in the U.S. However, it cannot explain (1) the high rate of take-up of both ISO 14001 and EMAS in Germany, where the stringency of environmental legislation has been a contentious issue between the government and industry and (2) why EMAS has been more popular in Germany than in the U.K. This article argues that the original hypothesis, while largely correct, is underspecified. To better explain the cross-national differences in EMS adoption, one must take into account the type of adversarial economy (adversarial legalism versus prescriptive interventionism) and the nature of the policy regime (procedural versus substantive).

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EU's EMAS REGULATION IN GERMAN COMPANIES

Until now, the debate about the EU's Environmental Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) Regulation has led to no clear conclusion due to the lack of empirical evidence needed to establish the degree to which the scheme can be successfully implemented. The research project reported here tries to address this question. It shows that the audit system is a complicated process not yet capable of reaching its innovative potential because the companies involved concentrated their activities on self-control and documentation.

A New Approach to Protecting the Environment:

Examines the regulation establishing the European Union′s (EU) Environmental Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) which was adopted on 10 July 1993. Discusses how the regulation affects businesses of all sizes. Proposes that the effectiveness of the European Union′s new approach to protecting the environment will be undermined by a “wait and see” response from industry to this piece of legislation.