Schmidheiny, 1992). ...... Schmidheiny (1992) and WBCSD (2000). As a fourth step, the ...... (Stephan Schmidheiny with the business council for sustainable.
Do Standardised Environmental Management Systems Lead To Reduced Environmental Impacts?
Jonas Ammenberg
2
Summary The overall aim of this thesis is to increase the understanding for the relation between standardised environmental management systems (EMSs) and the environment, focusing on the use of such systems by companies and on systems in accordance with the standards ISO 14001 and/or EMAS. Another purpose is to investigate how standardised EMSs fit small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) and to examine a special EMS solution called the Hackefors model, which is based on co-operation and has been developed to support SMEs in the implementation of EMSs. To gather knowledge on the connection between EMSs and environmental impacts, two main roads have been followed. Firstly, empirical studies (and a few literature reviews) have been conducted, among other things, which are supposed to clarify how the standards’ requirements are interpreted and applied in reality, and enlighten what this means in terms of environmental impacts. Mainly external environmental auditors and environmental managers have been interviewed. An important purpose is to illuminate what an ISO 14001 certificate, or an EMAS registration, guarantees. This means that the minimum level to large extent is in focus. Secondly, a literature review has been conducted to collect knowledge on the selected issue from the international research arena. One intention is that this review will contribute with information on the average use of EMSs and thus serves as a good complement to the empirical studies. It has to be concluded that a standardised EMS does not guarantee a good environmental performance and definitely not reduced environmental impacts. Without any doubts, EMSs can be used to structure and strengthen a company’s environmental efforts, and many companies surely have achieved important reductions in terms of environmental impacts by using an EMS. However, the standards’ formulations are very indistinct and they can be interpreted and applied in many different ways. It is clearly possible to be certified and registered without improving very much at all. The effects of EMSs are to very large extent dependent on how companies choose to use them. To capture the potential that EMSs have, issues of credibility should be observed. Therefore the thesis includes some recommendations in the form of discussion points. The Hackefors model clearly can be used to overcome many of the common barriers for implementing an EMS at SMEs. In the studied case, the EMS implementation had led to several important environmental improvements and also to other types of improvements.
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Sammanfattning Denna doktorsavhandling har som huvudsyfte att bidra till en ökad kunskap om kopplingen mellan standardiserade miljöledningssystem (MLS) och miljön, med fokus på företag och system som uppfyller villkoren i standarden ISO 14001 och/eller förordningen EMAS. Ett ytterligare syfte är att belysa hur MLS fungerar på mindre företag. I huvudsak berörs en speciell metod att införa MLS där en grupp (ofta mindre) företag samarbetar, som kallas Hackeforsmodellen. Baserat på studier av den första grupp med företag som införde MLS enligt Hackeforsmodellen, presenteras effekter på företagande och miljöprestanda. För att belysa kopplingen mellan MLS och miljön har två angreppssätt använts. Det ena är att genom empiriska studier (och några litteraturstudier) visa hur standardernas krav tolkas och tillämpas i praktiken, och utröna vad det innebär när det gäller företagens miljöpåverkan. I huvudsak har externa miljörevisorer och miljöansvariga på företag intervjuats. Det är viktigt att notera att ett viktigt syfte varit att klargöra vad ett ISO 14001-certifikat och en EMASregistrering garanterar, vilket innebär att miniminivåer fokuserats. Det andra angreppssättet har varit att sammanställa information från andra studier om kopplingen mellan MLS och miljöpåverkan. Tanken är att denna information skall ge inblick i vad vi vet om effekterna av MLS, med fokus på genomsnittliga ”nivåer”. Den viktigaste slutsatsen är att ett standardiserat MLS inte är någon garanti för en bra miljöprestanda och än mindre för reducerad miljöpåverkan. Dock är det utan tvekan så att MLS kan användas för att åstadkomma ett effektivt miljöarbete och många företag har tveklöst använt MLS seriöst och lyckats nå viktiga förbättringar. Emellertid lämnar standardernas formuleringar stort utrymme för tolkningar, vilket innebär att MLS kan användas på många olika sätt. Det är helt klart möjligt att vara certifierad och/eller registrerad utan att nå viktiga miljöförbättringar. Ett MLS blir i stor utsträckning vad varje enskilt företag gör det till, varför motiven till införande är viktiga. För att tillvarata den potential som finns med MLS bör trovärdighetsfrågor observeras. Avhandlingen avslutas med några viktiga punkter som bör diskuteras för att förbättra trovärdigheten. Hackeforsmodellen kan helt klart användas för att undvika många av de hinder som mindre företag kan uppleva med MLS. Vidare visade de genomförda studierna att företagen med hjälp av detta arbetssätt lyckats nå många viktiga miljöförbättringar samt observerat förbättringar inom många andra områden också.
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“All things are bound together. All things connect. What happens to the earth happens to the children of the earth. Man has not woven the web of life. He is but one thread. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.” Chief Seattle, the Suquamish Indian tribe, around 1850.
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List of papers This doctoral thesis is based on the following seven papers, which will be referred to by their Roman numerals: I
Ammenberg, J., Jonsson, C. and Öberg, M., 2003. Environmental Management Systems: Scope and Assessment of Environmental Aspects. Manuscript.
II
Ammenberg, J. and Sundin, E., 2003. Products in Environmental Management Systems: Drivers, Barriers and Experiences. Submitted to Journal of Cleaner Production.
III
Ammenberg, J. and Sundin, E,. 2003. Products in Environmental Management Systems: the Role of Auditors. Submitted to Journal of Cleaner Production.
IV
Ammenberg, J., Wik, G. and Hjelm, O., 2001. Auditing External Environmental Auditors – Investigating How ISO 14001 is Interpreted and Applied in Reality. Eco-Management and Auditing, 8: 183-192.
V
Ammenberg, J., Börjesson, B. and Hjelm, O., 1999. Joint EMS and Group Certification: A Cost-Effective Route for SMEs to Achieve ISO 14001. Greener Management International, 28: 23-31. Also in: Hillary, R. (Ed.) ISO 14001: Case Studies and Practical Experiences. Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield.
VI
Ammenberg, J. and Hjelm, O., 2003. Tracing Business and Environmental Effects of Environmental Management Systems -A Study of Networking Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Using a Joint Environmental Management System. Business Strategy and the Environment, 12: 163-174
VII
Ammenberg, J. and Hjelm, O., 2002. The Connection Between Environmental Management Systems and Continual Environmental Performance Improvements. Corporate Environmental Strategy, 9 (2): 183-192.
The author’s efforts in relation to each of these papers are presented in chapter 8.
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Table of contents SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................... 3 SAMMANFATTNING ................................................................................................................. 5 LIST OF PAPERS ........................................................................................................................ 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................. 8 1
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................... 11 1.1 1.2
BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................ 11 STANDARDISED ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS: A SHORT HISTORICAL OVERVIEW .................................................................................................................................. 12 1.2.1 ISO 14001 ............................................................................................................. 13 1.2.2 EMAS .................................................................................................................... 14 1.3 THE EMS PROCESS ........................................................................................................ 14 1.3.1 Planning ................................................................................................................ 15 1.3.2 Implementation ..................................................................................................... 16 1.3.3 Checking and corrective action ............................................................................ 17 1.3.4 The PDCA-cycle and continual improvements ..................................................... 17 1.3.5 Comparison of ISO 14001 and EMAS .................................................................. 18 1.4 AIM ................................................................................................................................ 18 1.5 OUTLINE ........................................................................................................................ 20 1.6 LIMITATIONS .................................................................................................................. 20 2
SCIENTIFIC CONTEXT .................................................................................................. 23 2.1 BASIC POINTS OF DEPARTURE ........................................................................................ 23 2.1.1 Environmental problems and needs for change.................................................... 23 2.1.2 Anthropogenic impacts and the relation to flows of materials and energy .......... 23 2.1.3 Environmental management systems as policy means.......................................... 25 2.1.4 Four cornerstones ................................................................................................. 25 2.2 PERSPECTIVES AND RELEVANT DISCIPLINES ................................................................... 26 2.2.1 Corporate environmental management and adjacent fields ................................. 27 2.3 DIFFICULTIES IN ASSESSING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS ................................................ 28
3 KEY ISSUES FOR THE CONNECTION BETWEEN EMSS AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS ............................................................................................... 31 3.1 3.2 3.3
ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS ............................................................................................ 31 ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS .................................................................. 32 ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY .............................................................................................. 33
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3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 4
ENVIRONMENTAL OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS ................................................................ 33 CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENTS .......................................................................................... 33 THE CONNECTION BETWEEN EMSS AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT ................................ 33 AUDITING ...................................................................................................................... 33 EMSS AT SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES ....................................................... 34
METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................. 35 4.1 HOW SHOULD AND CAN THE ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF EMSS BE ANALYSED? ........ 35 4.1.1 Measurements of environmental performance...................................................... 35 4.1.2 Studies of the practical meaning of central EMS elements................................... 36 4.2 APPLIED METHODS ......................................................................................................... 37 4.2.1 Interviews .............................................................................................................. 38 4.2.2 Eco-efficiency study .............................................................................................. 41 4.2.3 Literature review ................................................................................................... 43 4.3 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY ........................................................................................... 43 4.4 ATTITUDES AND FINANCING ........................................................................................... 45
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EMS AND ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE: THE STATE OF THE ART .... 47 5.1 DIFFERENT RESEARCH TOPICS CONCERNING EMSS ....................................................... 47 5.2 STUDIES ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF EMSS ................................................... 48 5.2.1 Large statistical studies directed towards operational performance indicators .. 55 5.2.2 Studies directed towards management indicators and/or highly aggregated information on environmental performance ......................................................................... 56
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RESULTS ............................................................................................................................ 57 6.1 ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS ............................................................................................ 57 6.1.1 Identification, formulation and scope of environmental aspects .......................... 58 6.2 ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS .................................................................. 61 6.2.1 Inconsistency in the standard................................................................................ 61 6.2.2 Included parameters and values, and their relative weights ................................ 61 6.2.3 Reproducibility and effects of change in scope..................................................... 65 6.3 SCOPE OF EMSS............................................................................................................. 66 6.4 EMSS AND PRODUCTS.................................................................................................... 67 6.4.1 Motives for integrating EMSs and DFE ............................................................... 67 6.4.2 Do normal EMSs incorporate products and product development? A review of existing literature .................................................................................................................. 68 6.4.3 Empirical results on the connection between EMSs products and product development .......................................................................................................................... 69 6.5 ENVIRONMENTAL TARGETS AND OBJECTIVES ................................................................ 72 6.5.1 The number of objectives and targets, and the aspects that they are directed towards 73 6.5.2 The level of ambition and different types of targets .............................................. 73 6.5.3 More or less innovations?..................................................................................... 74 6.6 ENVIRONMENTAL AUDITING .......................................................................................... 74 6.7 CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE ................................ 75 6.7.1 Measuring and evaluating corporate environmental performance – a review of the literature.......................................................................................................................... 76 9
6.7.2
The meaning of continual performance improvements for companies with an EMS 76 6.7.3 Comparing performance evaluations for EMSs and life cycle assessments ......... 78 6.8 EMSS FOR SMES ........................................................................................................... 78 6.8.1 The Hackefors model ............................................................................................ 79 6.8.2 Joint EMS and group certification........................................................................ 79 6.8.3 Business effects of the joint-EMS .......................................................................... 79 6.8.4 Environmental effects of the joint EMS ................................................................ 80 6.8.5 Disadvantages with a joint EMS ........................................................................... 85 6.8.6 A widespread use of the Hackefors model ............................................................ 85 7
CONCLUDING DISCUSSION ......................................................................................... 86 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6
MAIN AIM AND METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH............................................................... 86 WHAT DO EMSS COMPRISE? .......................................................................................... 86 WHAT DO EMSS LEAD TO IN TERMS OF ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE? ................... 87 DIFFERENT SOCIETAL ROLES FOR EMSS ........................................................................ 89 WAYS OF IMPROVING THE EMS INFRASTRUCTURE ........................................................ 90 FINAL REMARKS ............................................................................................................. 92
8 INFORMATION ON THE AUTHOR’S EFFORTS IN RELATION TO EACH PAPER ......................................................................................................................................... 93 9 10
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... 95 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 97
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1 Introduction In this chapter the subject of this doctoral thesis is introduced, that is international standardised environmental management systems (EMSs) and their contribution to changes of environmental impact. This introduction comprises the background, in the form of a short historical overview, an orientation on what an EMS is, and also a brief presentation of the present situation, aimed at supporting the relevance of the subject. The chapter ends with the aim, outline and limitations of the dissertation.
1.1 Background A basic presumption, and an important point of departure for this thesis, is that human activities to large extent cause environmental impacts that in many cases are perceived as very serious environmental problems, of which some endangers the life-sustaining systems. There are many running metres of books, and scientific papers, that bear witness of degradation of the quality of the environment and depletions of natural resources. For an orientation concerning environmental issues, see e.g. Flavin, 2002 and EEA, 1995. As different kinds of environmental issues have been noticed in society, measures have been taken to address the situation. Today, many different means are used in the environmental policy arena. In short, environmental policy was initially based on rather weak, facility-oriented, legal requirements but has gradually evolved to include a variety of different means (Connelly and Smith, 1999; cf. Lundgren, 1991). One important reason for this development is that regulations and enforcements have been criticised for not being efficient (e.g. Weidenbaum, 1979; U.S. EPA, 1990). In Sweden, changes in environmental legislation in late 1960s gave rise to significant reductions of emissions from large industrial installations, which at that time was the main target for legislation (Almgren et al, 2001). Throughout the last decade the menu of means for the implementation of environmental policies has been complemented with economic instruments (e.g. taxes, fees and funds) and voluntary commitments such as environmental management systems. Another important, and closely linked, reason for the modernisation of environmental policy issues is that there has been a major shift in the view of environmental problems. About 20 years ago 1, they were often regarded as local problems due to point sources – a local phenomenon or a single actor. Today, it is widely accepted that the problems are much more complex and are caused in all phases of a product’s life cycle, that is from extraction of raw materials to waste treatment (Berkhout and Smith, 1999). Our way of living leads to many diffuse emissions, for some of which the responsibilities are unclear. Industrial sites are still important, but it is also recognised that many problems are related to the ‘consumption society’. Since the end of the 1980s, issues of sustainability has climbed up towards the top of the environmental politicians’ agenda, partly due to the work of the World Commission on 1
Based on the Swedish situation.
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Environment and Development, chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland (see WCED, 1987). In summary, there are many different policy means to address the environmental problems and it is presently discussed which combination of these means that leads to a both effective 2 and efficient 3 situation (see Andrews, 1999), having issues of sustainability in mind. Standardised environmental management systems (EMSs) can be described as a voluntary environmental policy mean 4. They have been studied by the author, and many other researchers, to gather knowledge on how they affect the environmental performance of companies, that is to investigate their role in the environmental policy arena and to draw conclusions on improvements. As EMSs are focused on in this thesis, it is appropriate to present a historical overview of their origin.
1.2 Standardised environmental management systems: a short historical overview The development of international standardised EMSs has been affected by several concurrent factors of which some of the most obvious and important ones will be presented briefly. A first important factor is the environmental situation, which combined with an increased understanding and consciousness in society, has resulted in amplified environmental pressures from companies’ stakeholders (cf. Hibbit and Kamp-Roelands, 2002, and references therein). Previously, environmental issues were regarded as a necessary evil rather than a business opportunity, which meant that environmental issues to large extent was assigned to pollution-control engineers responsible for end-of-pipe technological equipment, rather than seen as core business issues (Andrews et al., 1999; cf. Klassen and Whybark, 1999). However, some reports showed that environmental impacts could be regarded as signals of economic inefficiencies (Kneese and Bower, 1979). Since the 1980s, many scientific papers have delivered pervasive evidences from cases where pollution prevention has been found economically beneficial, both for the involved companies and the society (e.g. Allenby and Richards, 1994; Cairncross, 1991; Hart, 1997; Porter and Van der Linde, 1995, Sarokin et al., 1985). Consequently, environmental issues came closer to classical business issues. Parallel to insights concerning economical benefits, and closely linked to them, environmental auditing gained a wider attention in the United States during the 1980s (Sobonsky, 1999). This process was driven by tougher environmental regulations and with the purpose to avoid environmental risks (cf. Bell, 1997). Taken together, these circumstances were important factors that contributed to a situation where many, mainly large, firms established environmental strategies 5 and tried to create management systems that incorporated environmental issues. An EMS can be defined as a management tool that can be used by a company, or another type of organisation, to steer and control its environmental efforts. This rather unspecific definition implies that almost every company, that has taken a structured approach towards environmental issues, has implemented an EMS.
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Meaning to focus on the most important problems. Meaning to solve the selected problems efficiently. 4 There are some cases where companies, more or less, have been forced to implement a standardised EMS. 5 Alfred Chandler (1962) defined a business strategy as: “the determination of basic long-term goals of an enterprise, and the adoption of the courses of action and allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals.” 3
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In parallel with the described developments within the environmental field, a process of establishing standards for quality management systems took place. In 1979, the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) established a committee that should work with quality management, which lead to the release of the standard ISO 9001 in 1987 (Tamm Hallström, 2000). Of course, experiences from this process had important impacts on the succeeding efforts, of a similar character, on EMSs. ISO 9001 has been a major success judging by the number of firms having implemented this standard (ISO, 2001). However, it is unclear if, and to what extent, it has affected companies’ quality performance (Poksinska, 2003). Over the past fifteen years, private codes for corporate environmental management have emerged (Nash and Ehrenfeld, 1996) and complemented more traditional environmental efforts. Examples of early codes include the Chemical Manufacturers Associations’ (CMA) Responsible Care program, the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies’ (CERES) principles and the International Chamber of Commerce’s (ICC) Business Charter for Sustainable Development. Today, environmental management systems (EMSs) intended to steer and control an organisation’s environmental efforts are common elements in the environmental arena. EMSs are mainly used by companies, but also by other organisations such as local authorities (for examples of the latter, see Bekkering and McCullum, 1999; Emilsson and Hjelm, 2002; Honkasalo, 1999). Based on their popularity, two ‘standards’ for EMS are focused on in this dissertation – the international standard ISO 14001 and EU regulation Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). Their routes of development will be presented in short in the following two sections. Then follows a section aimed to briefly introduce the practical procedures and characteristics of a standardised EMS.
1.2.1 ISO 14001 In the beginning of the 1990s, as a preparation to the ‘Earth Summit’ in Rio, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) issued a declaration on the linkage between environmental protection, economic growth and the satisfaction of human needs (see Schmidheiny, 1992). In this document (titled Changing Course) far-reaching shifts in corporate attitudes as well as new ways of doing business are called for, with the aim of reaching sustainability. Initiatives were taken to investigate the possibilities to develop standards for the field of environmental management (see Andrews et al., 2001; Horthensius and Barthel, 1997). ISO established a group called the Strategic Advisory Group on Environment (SAGE), to investigate how the development of international standards could be beneficial for the business community. SAGE recommended ISO to establish a technical committee, which could develop international standards for environmental management (Horthensius and Barthel, 1997). Accordingly, a new technical committee was established and the efforts to create standards began. It should be emphasised that delegations from many different countries form the technical committees. Today, there is a whole series of environmental management standards, called the ISO 14000 series. This thesis is mainly focused on the standard ISO 14001, which was published in 1996. This standard includes about 50 requirements for EMSs, which must be met by organisations that wish to have their system certified by an independent third party. However, the certification is
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not an obligation. Stenzel (2000) has found four principal motives, among large transnational companies, for supporting the development of ISO 14001: • • • •
To promote sustainable development. To harmonize standards and procedures worldwide. To promote a new paradigm of self-management as an alternative to traditional regulation. To forestall further government regulation, especially at the international level.
ISO 14001 is currently being reviewed. The assignment of this review is limited to semantic issues, which implies that the discussion in this thesis is relevant also for the revised version of ISO 14001.
1.2.2 EMAS In 1993, the European Commission launched a document – a regulation – called the EcoManagement and Audit Scheme (EMAS). EMAS was/is intended to act as a step towards the goal of sustainability within the European Union. Consequently, EMAS can be seen as a manifestation of a political will concerning sustainability. In 1995 this regulation was open for participation. Like ISO 14001, EMAS contains requirements for EMSs. According to the author’s experiences, the two described routes have a lot in common and have overlapped. Although one of them to large extent can be characterised as a business incentive and the other is of a political origin, many of the drivers have been the same. However, there are also some important differences, which will be elaborated in the next section.
1.3 The EMS process The process of implementing and using an EMS, which is described below, is very similar for systems that are established in accordance with ISO 14001 and EMAS. Hereafter, the term standardised EMS, or only EMS, will be used for systems in accordance with ISO 14001 and/or EMAS. Normally, it is voluntary to establish an EMS, even if there are examples of cases where companies more or less have been forced to implement a standardised EMS (see e.g. Wilson and Thomas, 1998) 6. The basic idea is to create a management system that supports the organisation to fulfil environmental policy commitments, to reach environmental objectives and to achieve economic goals (ISO, 1996; European Commission, 2001). An EMS may be defined as “the part of the overall management system that includes the organisational structure, planning activities, responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes and resources for developing, achieving, reviewing and maintaining the environmental policy” (ISO, 1996). The standard and regulation are supposed to provide elements of an effective management system and they contain requirements in relation to each element. For example, companies must prepare an environmental policy (one of the elements) and both ISO 14001 and EMAS require that this policy is appropriate, available, documented, etc. (ibid.). Figure 1 shows the basic elements for 6
This means forced by authorities. In many cases customers require an EMS to be a supplier, which also forces companies to implement an EMS if they want to continue as a supplier to a certain company.
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an EMS. Since ISO 14001 and EMAS are international (EMAS – European) standards, intended for use in many types of organisations, they do not, and are not intended to (Bell, 1997) contain many specific requirements (ISO, 1996a; European Commission, 1993 and 2001). They are rather frameworks, intended to support organisations to establish structured and effective environmental activities (Bell, 1997; Hillary, 1998).
Figure 1. Basic elements for a standardised EMS.
1.3.1 Planning Environmental review Normally, the implementation of an EMS starts with an environmental review, to determine how the company affects the environment. It is a requirement to identify the environmental aspects of the operations, defined by ISO 14001 and EMAS as “elements of an organisation’s activities, products or services that can interact with the environment” (ISO, 1996; European Commission, 2001). Hence the organisations review their activities to identify their environmental aspects. Thereafter, these aspects are to be assessed to determine which of them are significant, that is the most important aspects. The main purpose of an EMS is to steer and control these significant environmental aspects, which should be regarded as cornerstones for a company using an EMS (see paper I). EMAS contains specific requirements concerning a review, while ISO 14001 presupposes that such a process is taking place as an initial step.
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Environmental policy One of the requirements for a company is to establish an environmental policy document, which is appropriate to the nature, scale and impacts of the company. This implies that it is advantageous to carry out the environmental review before the policy is written. However, the sequence of requirements in the standards is illogical since requirements concerning the environmental policy are placed before the planning phase, which is why this element is not shown in figure 1. Based on the author’s experiences, environmental policies are often rather short statements (typically covering a paper of size A4) of a visionary character. Environmental policies point out prioritised areas for environmental efforts and indicate the direction of the environmental work. Although they contribute with rather indistinct objectives, all EMS-efforts should be audited having the environmental policy formulations in mind. Legal and other requirements It is required to have procedures that ensure that applicable legal and other requirements (of environmental relevance) are identified and available. One intention with standardised EMSs is to make sure that companies comply with the identified requirements (Bell, 1997). Objectives, targets and programmes A company using an EMS shall establish objectives and targets, with the aim to reach environmental performance improvements. These goals are established based on the results from the environmental review, which means that at least some of them should affect the significant environmental aspects. Furthermore, the company should consider the wording in the environmental policy, business requirements and the views of interested parties. As support in the process of achieving the objectives and targets, environmental management programmes are established. These programmes, for example, specify responsibilities and time frames.
1.3.2 Implementation Structure and responsibility To fulfil the standards’ requirements, roles, responsibilities and authorities shall be defined, documented and communicated. This is in order to create an effective management system, and implies that essential resources are provided for. Training, awareness and competence To become certified, or registered, environmental training needs must be identified and the employees shall have received appropriate training. Each company needs to analyse which employees that can have a significant impact on the environment in their work, that is who may affect the significant environmental aspects to a noteworthy extent. Communication and documentation Each organisation using an EMS shall establish procedures for internal and external communication. Furthermore, well-organised documentation is required, which means that core elements of the systems shall be described, as well as their interaction, and that documents must
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be legible, dated, readily identifiable, maintained in an orderly manner, etc. Environmental records of importance shall be stored. Operational control and emergency preparedness The requirements concerning operational control is of great environmental importance, since the implication is that all activities of environmental importance must be planned and that procedures must be established to steer them. Moreover, procedures to identify possible accidents and emergency situations are required as well as an emergency preparedness.
1.3.3 Checking and corrective action Monitoring and measurement Procedures shall be established for monitoring and measuring of key characteristics of operations and activities that can have a significant impact on the environment. The monitoring and measuring activities must be carried out on a regular basis. It is specified that procedures are needed for a periodical evaluation of compliance with environmental legislation and regulations. Nonconformance and corrective and preventive action A certified, or registered, organisation must have procedures in place to define responsibilities and authorities for handling and investigating non-conformance, taking action to mitigate possible impacts and for initiating and completing corrective and preventive action. Auditing To review how the EMS is functioning environmental auditing is required as a follow-up tool. There are mainly three types of audits – first, second and third party audits (Almgren and Brorson, 2003). First party audits or internal audits are often carried out by members of the staff, an affiliated company (e.g. within the same group) or by environmental consultants. In this case the requirement for the auditor to be independent is less strict. Second party audits are carried out on a closely related company, for example a supplier. Second party audits are not required in ISO 14001 but can be brought up as a means to check suppliers, which indirectly is a requirement in the standard. Third party audits or external audits are carried out by an independent third party. Of most importance for this thesis are external audits carried out by auditors from accredited certification bodies. These certification bodies have been checked by a governmental accreditation body that they possess the necessary competence. They are approved to carry out audits for certification of an environmental management system in accordance with ISO 14001 or registration in accordance with requirements in the EMAS-regulation. In most countries there is at least one national accreditation body that have been assigned with the task of determining which organisations (here called certification bodies) possess the necessary competence to carry out certification audits. Environmental auditing procedures are aimed to determine whether a company fulfils the requirements of the standard and/or regulation, and other relevant commitments. The result of the audit is mainly communicated to top-management.
1.3.4 The PDCA-cycle and continual improvements The process of implementing and maintaining the EMS elements follows the so-called PDCAcycle (where the letters stands for Plan, Do, Check and Act, see Deming, 1986). This means that companies: 17
• • • •
Plan; review the current situation and plan what to achieve. Do; develop strategies and processes and implement them, i.e. carry out the task to make policies, objectives and targets come true (called implementation in the standards). Check; monitor and measure progress, audit their performance against policies, objectives, targets, procedures, etc. and report the results to management (called checking and corrective action). Act; take actions to continually improve performance (called management review).
Consequently, the design of an EMS has been made cyclic. At least once a year top-management is required to review the system, based for example on information from monitoring and audits, in order to fulfil the requirement on continual improvement. When necessary, the review is renewed, the policy is adjusted, new objectives and targets are established, training is complemented, etc. From an environmental point of view, it is important to notice that neither ISO 14001, nor EMAS, contain any absolute requirements for environmental performance beyond commitment to compliance with environmental legislation and regulations. However, they both contain an important requirement to reach continual improvement in overall environmental performance. This means that the standard and regulation do not establish limits for, for example, the amounts of energy used or emissions to air, but require that companies continually improve their performance based on the previous situation.
1.3.5 Comparison of ISO 14001 and EMAS The describe EMS processes are valid for both ISO 14001 and EMAS. However, the first version of EMAS from 1993, generally, included more detailed and demanding requirements than ISO 14001 (comparison of European Commission, 1993 and ISO, 1996). After a revision in 2001, all the requirements of ISO 14001 were integrated into the EMAS regulation and many of the specific EMAS-requirements were removed (see European Commission, 2001 and compare with European Commission, 1993). Hence, a main part of the two ‘standards’ requirements are equal and can be analysed in parallel. Nevertheless, there are still some important differences of which a few will be addressed in this dissertation. The most significant difference is that EMAS requires a public environmental statement, while only a company’s environmental policy is public according to ISO 14001 7.
1.4 Aim Since the introduction in 1996, the number of ISO 14001 certificates has risen steadily in the world, a trend that seems to continue (Andrews et al., 2001). More than 53,000 companies were certified in July 2003 (ISO World, 2003). EMAS is less popular, but almost 4000 companies are registered (ibid.). Given that ISO 14001 dominates the market for standardised EMSs today this standard will be emphasised in this thesis. However, most of the reasoning and the results are valid for EMAS as well. As the use of standardised EMSs is expanded, it becomes more and more interesting to study how such systems affect environmental performance and business. It is the author’s experience 7
Furthermore there is a requirement for companies in ISO 14001 to consider external communication and record its decision.
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that many companies, authorities and individuals regard a certification according to ISO 14001 (and a registration to EMAS) as a guarantee for good environmental performance. For example, the Swedish government has chosen the number of ISO 14001 certificates and EMAS registrations as an indicator for sustainable development (Statistics Sweden and Swedish EPA, 2001). Companies in France, Germany, the Netherlands and United Kingdom are offered regulatory relief if they have an ISO 14001 certificate or are EMAS registered (Wätzold et al., 2001) and US authorities consider easing regulatory burdens, for companies using EMSs (e.g. Amaral et al., 2000; Andrews et al., 1998 and 2003; Florida, 1999; Stenzel, 2000). In some cases, for some states, there have been a regulatory relief for companies in the US also (see Andrews et al., 2003). Furthermore, many purchasers seem to value the existence of an EMS highly when choosing between different suppliers. The overall objective of ISO 14001 is “to support environmental protection and prevention of pollution in balance with socio-economic needs” (ISO, 1996). But are standardised EMSs really leading to improved environmental performance and reduced environmental impacts? That is the main question for this thesis. The overall aim of this thesis is to increase the understanding of important factors that influence the connection between standardised EMSs, that have been certified and/or registered, and environmental impacts. This means to clarify how the standards’ requirements are interpreted and applied in reality, and enlighten the implications in terms of environmental impacts. Throughout the work with this dissertation, questions regarding the credibility of standardised EMSs have been important. Therefore some parts of the studies have been conducted with the aim to illuminate the minimum 8 requirements for being certified in accordance with ISO 14001 (and registered to EMAS). This perspective is important for many reasons, of which two vital examples are given. Firstly, if companies with an EMS are offered a regulatory relief, which means that less attention from authorities are paid on their environmental impacts, it is important to establish what an ISO 14001 certificate and an EMAS registration stands for and can assure (cf. Andrews et al., 2003 and Wätzold et al., 2001). Secondly, the same goes for the relationship to suppliers since many companies, when communicating environmental requirements to their suppliers, seem to focus on whether the suppliers have an EMS or not (paper I, III). This, among other things, concerns the difference between studying the average performance of companies with an EMS versus focusing on the minimum performance, which is elaborated further in the chapter on methodology. Mainly it is analysed how the EMS infrastructure, that is the standards for EMSs and the corresponding systems for their application, affect the environmental efforts of companies. For this purpose, some key issues concerning standardised EMSs have been selected and analysed: • • • • • • 8
Environmental aspects and their identification, formulation and assessment. The scope of EMSs as well as individual environmental aspects. The connection between EMSs and products/product development. The role of environmental objectives and targets. The requirement for continual improvements and the meaning of environmental performance. Environmental auditing.
This does not mean that an actual minimum level is determined, but rather that the focus is on the performance of companies with low ambitions.
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These key issues are presented in chapter 3 where their selection is motivated. A second aim is to illuminate methodological issues and relevant findings on how EMSs affect environmental performance, based on a literature review. This is supposed to complement the results based on the methodological approach for this thesis with other important findings based on complementary approaches. The purpose is to give a more comprehensive view of how EMSs are related to environmental impacts. A third aim is to discuss how standardised EMSs fit small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and to examine a special EMS solution called the Hackefors model, used by a group of SMEs, to find out how this model has affected the environmental efforts and business of these enterprises.
1.5 Outline The thesis starts with this introductory chapter, which presents the background to the selected issue, includes a short historical review and explains what an environmental management system is. This first chapter ends with the aim, this outline and important limitations. Chapter two is intended to contribute with relevant information on the perspectives and motives underlying this thesis. For this purpose, some basic presumptions and relevant disciplines are presented and discussed. It can be seen as a presentation of the ‘eyeglasses’ that the author has used when conducting the studies and the pre-conceived understanding. In the third chapter some key issues, concerning the linkage between EMSs and the environment, are introduced and motivated. This part of the thesis, together with the chapter on scientific context, is aimed to explain why certain issues have been selected, on an overall level, which in turn is closely linked to the chapter on methodology following next. In the fourth chapter, “Methodology”, it is initially discussed how the environmental effects of EMSs can and should be studied. Then follows some sections explaining and motivating the applied methodologies, and also a discussion on validity. The fifth chapter summarises important information from a literature review comprising existing papers and reports on how EMSs affect environmental performance. This presentation focuses on methodological issues and conclusions. In the next chapter (seven) the results from the empirical studies are presented (i.e. based on paper I-VII), which are arranged in accordance with the key issues selected. Then follows a concluding discussion where the most important results are summarised. This chapter also discusses the role of EMSs and comprises recommendations for the improvement of EMSs and their application, which is important with a bearing on their trustworthiness. The final chapters cover information on the author’s efforts in relation to each paper, acknowledgements and references. Lastly, the seven papers are attached as appendices.
1.6 Limitations Much of relevance concerning limitations is discussed in the chapter on methodology. However, a few issues are presented here to summarise important limitations. This thesis is mainly focused on if and how EMSs affect flows of material and energy, based on the selected key issues (see chapter 3) and the EMS infrastructure, which means that, for example, organisational issues are
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not emphasised 9. For sure, many aspects of an organisational character have an influence on the relation between EMSs and environmental impacts, which are not well covered by this thesis. For example, the motives for implementing an EMS (Amaral et al, 2000; Poksinska, 2003; Roome, 1994), the type and size of operation (Chapple et al., 2001; Hillary, 2000), corporate cultures, organisational structures, stakeholder involvement (Delmas, 2001), competence, etc., affect the outcome. As previously stated, the focus on what an EMS can guarantee, in terms of environmental impacts, is important to notice for the reader. In some parts of the thesis, and the papers I-VII, focus is on the minimum level. This means that what is discussed in these parts are not the average performance, but rather the minimum level of approved performance. It should also be noticed that most the presented results are based on information from external environmental auditors and environmental managers, responsible for the EMSs at companies. There are also other actors that influence the outcome of EMSs, such as chief executives and environmental consultants. However, auditors and environmental managers are believed to be best suited to answer, and contribute to understanding, concerning the questions focused on. Moreover, a dominating part of the companies studied were rather small (less than 100 employees) and were operating in the industrial sector. The interviews with auditors, on the other side, cover companies of many different sizes (and characteristics).
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To what extent organisational issues are included is dealt with in chapter 2.
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2 Scientific context This chapter is aimed to contribute with relevant information on the perspectives and motives underlying this thesis. For this purpose, some basic presumptions, upon which the relevance of the dissertation rests, are presented. Moreover, the scientific context is discussed to point out where this thesis is situated on the ‘scientific map’. It can be seen as a presentation of the ‘eyeglasses’ that the author has used when conducting the studies and the pre-conceived understanding.
2.1 Basic points of departure 2.1.1 Environmental problems and needs for change The most fundamental reason for studying EMSs is the environmental situation. It is presumed that the current situation in many cases is perceived as very serious and that the human society affects and endangers the life sustaining systems - the existential base (Flavin, 2002; EEA, 1995). Consequently, an underlying motive is that mankind is not using the globe in a sustainable way, which implies that there should be strong incentives for change. It should also be stressed that the human society is dependent on the ecological systems, which means that the economic and social welfare in many aspects, and then unconditionally, are subordinated to the environmental situation (Scientific Council for Government Policy, 2002; cf. Daly, 1996).
2.1.2 Anthropogenic impacts and the relation to flows of materials and energy Since it is a fact that we are facing serious environmental threats and challenges, it is important to learn about the relations between human activities and environmental impacts. These relations will be elaborated briefly in this section. A first fundamental fact is that all organisms, during the process of evolution, have been adapted to specific conditions, in terms of certain concentrations of some substances and a certain climate. When human activities lead to changes in these conditions, environmental problems might occur (cf. Wallgren, 1992). It is important to realise that many central environmental impacts are caused by anthropogenic changes in vital flows of materials and/or energy (Flavin, 2002) 10. How materials and energy flows are handled in the technosphere affects the conditions in the biosphere. Humans have always affected the environment, both consciously and unconsciously. However, the human impacts increased dramatically after the industrial revolution (Anderberg, 1996). The way we live in the industrialised society, implies anthropogenic effects upon the earth’s flows of materials and energy (Flavin, 2002). For example, this leads to changes in concentrations of
10
There are also problems that can be characterised as environmental problems that are not caused by humans, e.g. volcanic eruption. Moreover, noise is an example of a problem that does not fit well in to this description.
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substances, that new substances occur and to altered energy flows 11. In parallel with the industrial development, the reach of human actions has extended dramatically. The natural systems are not static, processes of change always have occurred and the nature has a great capacity for adoption. However, the human development has led to a dramatically increased rate of change, that in many cases seem to be too high. The impacts have increased, as the human population has grown and as more and more people have changed their living from huntersgatherers, via farmers, to industrialists. While the living of hunters-gatherers mainly affects their local environment, many people in the developed world of today cause impacts on a global scale. Figure 2 can be used to see how a changed human behaviour has lead to an increase in the use of materials, which has caused increased environmental impacts. Fischer-Kowalski and Haberl (1997) show that the transition from hunter-gatherer to industrialists has led to a 20-fold increase in the consumption per capita of energy and materials. It is also important to understand that many new materials and substances have been used (Ayres, 1997).
Figure 2. Development of materials use and the number of inhabitants in the United States, between the years 1880 and 2000 (Based on Kretsloppsdelegationen, 1999, p. 65. The curves have been straightened, towards an average, in comparison with the original figure). Today, in the developed parts of the world, we have a situation where people use products and services that affect the environment globally during their life cycle. Many products, for example electrical equipment, are constructed by a vast amount of different substances, materials and components, which have been extracted and/or produced at several different countries. This implies a great deal of transportation. During all phases of their life cycle, these products demand energy. It is clear that many of the products and services that are used in the society of today, affect important flows of materials and energy locally, regionally and globally (cf. Ayres, 1994). Therefore, during their daily life, people in the industrialised parts of the world, affect the living conditions on the earth. These facts, lead to another essential presumption, which some important parts of this thesis rely upon. The presumption is that an overall analysis of flows of materials and energy, on a company 11
For example, in relation to climates.
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level, to large extent can be used to understand how, and to what extent, human activities affect the environment. Thereby, it is presumed that many important conclusions can be drawn from studies of overall flows of materials and energy. Still, industry has an important role in the environmental arena, which justifies the focus on companies. Firstly, the impacts from industrial sites are still of importance. Secondly, the impacts caused by products and service are to large extent determined by decisions and actions within the industrial sphere.
2.1.3 Environmental management systems as policy means Based on the existence of serious environmental issues and that they are caused by human activities, it appears natural to examine measures to improve the situation. As previously stated, there are many different environmental policy means in the environmental arena (Connelly and Smith, 1999), among which EMS is one alternative (see Andrews et al., 2003). The fact that many companies use EMSs strengthens the incentives to study them from a scientific perspective. That EMSs may play a role and that their potential is worth studying has for example been noticed by Clausen et al. (2002), Nash and Ehrenfeld (1999) and Stenzel (2000).
2.1.4 Four cornerstones
The potential role of EMSs in the strive towards improvements
Relevance of studies of materials and energy flows
Anthropogenic impacts caused by the consumption society
Existence of environmental problems
The fundamental presumptions and conditions mentioned so far can be seen as cornerstones upon which the relevance of this dissertation rests (see Figure 3). Anyone who can tear down any of three first cornerstones, starting from the left, may deliver serious critique against what has been presumed. Moreover, the forth cornerstone regards the relevance of the issue in focus. In that sense it is different from the others, since the thesis is aimed to discuss the role EMSs play.
Figure 3. Four cornerstones upon which the relevance of the thesis rests.
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2.2 Perspectives and relevant disciplines Efforts to understand and handle environmental issues often needs to be of an interdisciplinary character. Concerning research, this means that the research questions encompass many different scientific disciplines. To understand the processes that give rise to environmental impacts, on a physical level, classical disciplines within natural sciences are relevant, for example biology, chemistry, geology, physics, etc. The methods used in this thesis include no detailed analysis within anyone of these fields. Instead, the analysis is conducted on a more aggregated level, which requires a basic understanding for how, and to what extent, different materials, energy sources and activities affect the environment. For example, to perform this kind of analysis it is necessary to have a common understanding on the environmental impacts of different means of transportation, different types of energy, important groups of materials, etc. However, it is not necessary for the purpose of this thesis, to know the effects in detail of every substance or emission caused by a company’s operations. Concerning strategies to improve the situation, many disciplines within social sciences are relevant. For example, disciplines within political sciences, economics and organisational theory. Of course, many of these disciplines are also of interest to understand the behaviour that lies behind the environmental issues. Since the author is working at a technical university, technical and natural scientific perspectives are dominant for this thesis. For example, the main purpose is to illuminate the connection between EMSs and the physical environmental situation and EMSs are judged based on their relation to environmental impacts. However, there are also some important parts that must be characterised as social scientific, even though theories within the social scientific fields have not been applied. As later will be presented, many of the conducted studies are based on interviews, which are commonly used in social scientific studies and less commonly within studies of a natural scientific character. Consequently, the methodology must be characterised as both natural scientific/technological and social scientific. In the section on limitations (1.6) it was stated that organisational issues are not emphasised. However, it should be recognised that organisational issues are included in many parts of the thesis. To describe what type of organisational factors that are covered, the conceptual model presented by Porras and Robertson (1992, see Figure 4) for analysing organisational change (more specifically the work setting and its impacts on employees’ behaviour) is useful. Using their terminology, the organisational issues that are addressed in this thesis should be labelled “organising arrangements”, which, for example, include goals, strategies, structure, administrative policies and procedures, and administrative systems (ibid.).
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Organising arrangements
Social factors
- Goals
- Culture
- Strategies
- Management style
- Structure
- Interaction process
- Administrative policies and procedures
- Informal patterns and networks
- Reward systems
- Individual attributes
- Ownership
Technology - Tools, equipment and machinery - Information technology Physical setting
- Job design
- Space configuration
- Work flow design
- Physical ambiance
- Technical expertise
- Interior design
- Technical procedures
- Architectural design
- Technical systems
Performance Figure 4. Four categories of organisational features that may affect individual employee behaviour and thereby the overall performance of an organisation (based on Porras and Robertson, 1992). The box including organising arrangements is shaded since it partly is covered by this thesis.
2.2.1 Corporate environmental management and adjacent fields The field of environmental management is central for this thesis, which motivates a (short) discussion of its scope and contents. According to Burström (2000) there is no generally accepted definition of environmental management. However, Gilpin’s (1996) suggests that environmental management is: “a concept of care applied to localities, regions, catchments, natural resources, areas of high conservation value, cleaner processing and recycling systems, waste handling and disposal, pollution and control generally, landscaping and aesthetics, enhancement of amenities. In general it means the efficient administration of environmental policies and standards. It involves the identification of objectives, the adoption of appropriate mitigation measures, the protection of ecosystems, the enhancement of the quality of life for those affected, and the minimization of environmental costs.” Burström (2000) has noted that scientific journals within the field of environmental management can be divided into two main groups. The first group concerns society’s use and conservation of natural resources, that is society’s management of the natural environment. The second group
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focus on what can be called environmentally conscious management of society and/or different organisations. This corresponds rather well with the definition of management according to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary (Merriam-Webster, 1986, one out of several explanations): “the act or art of managing as … the conducting or supervising of something (as a business), especially the executive functions of planning, organising, coordinating, directing, controlling, and supervising an industrial or business project or activity with responsibility for results …” Clearly, EMSs fit well into this description. Emphasizing that it is the connection between a corporation and the environment that is in focus, the phrase corporate environmental management (CEM) is appropriate and considered as the ‘home ground’ for this thesis. Therefore, the reader should observe that the applied perspectives and methods are affected by common views within this field. However, there are also other closely connected, and to large extent overlapping, scientific fields of relevance. Important fields are: •
• •
Sustainable development – mainly directed towards the parts of the field that covers environmental issues and industry. The main objective agreed upon is a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (WCED, 1987). Papers and reports focused on EMSs exist within this field, the interested reader should, for example, observe the forthcoming book: “Strategic Sustainability: The State of the Art in Corporate Environmental Management Systems” 12. Industrial ecology – where studies of flows of materials and energy are of high relevance and the analogy with the natural ecosystems (and their to large extent closed materials cycles) is a central normative point of departure (see O’Rourke et al., 1996). Cleaner production – which involves active research and development into new processes, materials and products that are more resource and energy efficient (based on the description of Journal of Cleaner production). This field is very close to Design for the Environment and Ecodesign, where the latter can be defined as “a practice by which environmental considerations are integrated into product and process engineering procedures. Ecodesign practices are meant to develop environmentally compatible products and processes while maintaining product, price, performance and quality standards” (Graedel and Allenby, 1995).
CEM, as well as the other fields mentioned, can be characterised as broad umbrellas covering many different concepts. This means that there are no prevailing definitions and neither any unified theoretical constructs.
2.3 Difficulties in assessing environmental impacts Both paper I and VII encompass issues of assessing environmental impacts, which is an intricate problem. Moreover, such assessments are relevant when the key requirement for continual improvements of environmental performance is controlled, that is when auditors or managers are 12
Sarkis, J. and Sroufe, R. (eds.). Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield
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to determine if the performance has improved or not. The reason why it is difficult to assess and compare impacts is elaborated on in this section. Firstly, it should be observed that issues of boundaries, that is the scope, are very central in terms of environmental assessment. Environmental issues are characterised by complex chains of causes and effects. The perspectives and the chosen scope therefore to large extent may affect the results (cf. Finnveden, 2000). This includes both physical scopes and time perspectives. Secondly, some substances are relevant for more than one environmental problem. For example, nitrogen oxides may contribute to both acidification and eutrophication. In such cases, it has to be decided how the amounts of the actual substance shall be allocated. Thirdly, and closely related to the previous point, geographical differences affect what is considered as a problem and the importance of the problems. For example, acidifying emissions are of less importance in southern Europe than they are in the Nordic countries, because of calcareous bedrock. Fourthly, a major problem is that there is a of lack knowledge, for example, concerning how numerous chemicals and substances used in society affect the health and the environment. Consequently, it is normally not possible to fully establish the environmental impacts connected to an environmental aspect. Finally, it is of utmost importance to understand that even if we could establish all the impacts caused by a certain environmental aspect, there is no common unit for measuring environmental impacts. The effects caused are of a different character, which means that it is a difficult task to compare them. For example, in assessing environmental issues, we have to solve problems such as how to compare a certain contribution to the greenhouse effect with a certain contribution to the depletion of the ozone layer. Again, it should be emphasised that the scope is of major importance for the results. In conclusion, it is very difficult to assess environmental aspects and impossible to reach an ‘universally prevailing truth’. However, to be able to prioritise, assessment must be carried out. Taking the problems into consideration, it is important to approach the task with humility. A key word is transparency, which means that an outside observer should be able understand basic assumptions and which methods that have been used. Moreover, uncertainties should be discussed.
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3 Key issues for the connection between EMSs and environmental impacts As stated in the first chapter, the analysis of EMSs has been carried out based on a few selected key issues, which are sought to be of outmost importance concerning the connection between EMSs and environmental impacts. In this chapter, these key issues are presented and their selection motivated. The standards 13 (ISO 14001, ISO 14004 14, ISO 19011 15 and ISO 14031 16) and the corresponding systems for their practical application (e.g. systems for accreditation, auditing, etc.) constitute the basis for the use of EMSs. They can be seen as an EMS infrastructure, with ISO 14001 as the mainstay, which functions as a framework for the application of EMSs, thereby influencing the effects of EMSs. Accordingly, important elements, from an environmental point of view, have been selected and serve as a basis for the analysis and discussion. The selection is based on a combination of information from the research field on EMSs and the author’s experiences from: • • •
analysis and interpretation of the standards, which can be seen as a kind of hermeneutical process (see Bryman, 2001). EMS implementation at two industrial companies (including internal and external auditing). discussions and research studies involving both environmental managers and environmental auditors (see papers I-VII).
In addition to the key issues deliberated on below, naturally, there are many other factors influencing the relation between standardised EMSs and environmental impacts. For example, the motives for implementing an EMS (Amaral et al, 2000; Poksinska, 2003; Roome, 1994), the type and size of operation (Chapple et al., 2001; Hillary, 2000), corporate cultures, organisational structures, stakeholder involvement (Delmas, 2001), competence, etc. These topics are not focused on.
3.1 Environmental aspects EMSs are built up around the so-called environmental aspects. The EMS process starts with an environmental review to identify environmental aspects, defined by the standard as elements “of an organisation’s activities, products or services that can interact with the environment” (ISO, 13
ISO 14001 is a standard in the ISO 14000 series, containing several standards for environmental management. ISO 14004 is a standard with guidelines for implementation of EMSs (ISO, 1996b). 15 ISO 19011 is a standard with guidelines for auditing, both concerning EMSs and quality management systems (ISO, 2002). 16 ISO 14031 is a standard with guidelines for environmental performance evaluation (ISO, 2000). 14
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1996a). This unspecific definition, in combination with a lack of generally accepted guidance for specific use, leaves a lot to be interpreted by the users. Further on, the standards do not specify the scope of individual environmental aspects or a complete EMS. It is to large extent up to each company to identify the relevant environmental aspects and decide what they shall comprise, both in terms of their operations and the adherent environmental impacts, which is of great importance from an environmental point of view and therefore is of interest to study. This standard terminology, using environmental “aspects” instead of “impacts” or “effects”, has, for instance, been criticised by Gleckman and Krut (1997) for shifting the focus away from actual environmental performance. As a reply, Bell (1997) declares that the term “aspect” was introduced to be consistent with what most facilities can reasonably accomplish, saying that most facilities cannot conduct scientific impact assessments. He is of the opinion that the term “environmental aspect” is appropriate, since it suits analysis of a company's inputs and outputs. In summary, it is to large extent up to each company to decide how many environmental aspects they want to use, which parts of the operations these aspects shall comprise, what environmental impacts are considered, and how clearly the aspects and the adherent impacts are described. As choices in relation to scope and systems perspectives, in general, are of utmost importance concerning environmental issues (see e.g. Petts, 1999), it is important to investigate the practice and understanding of companies using EMSs.
3.2 Assessment of environmental aspects The environmental aspects constitute the fabric upon which an EMS is built. The processes of identifying and formulating the aspects, which were previously described, often results in a gross list of environmental aspects (paper I; Zobel and Burman, 2004). Thereafter, these aspects are to be assessed to determine which of them are significant, that is the most important aspects. According to ISO 14001 and EMAS a significant environmental aspect is “an environmental aspect that has or can have a significant environmental impact.” In practice, this means that the companies develop assessment methods to systematically assess each one of the environmental aspects to determine their relative importance. Neither any of the standards in the ISO 14000 series, nor EMAS, include any specific requirements or recommendations on how to assess the environmental aspects. Therefore, the types of methods, as well as the included parameters, the values and their relative weight, vary between different firms. In the guiding standard ISO 14004 some general criteria for the assessment have been introduced, such as the scale, the severity and duration of the impact, probability of occurrence and business concerns, potential regulatory and legal exposure, difficulty and cost of changing the impact, effect of change on other activities and processes, concerns of interested parties, and effect on the public image of the organisation (ISO, 1996b). In summary, it is to large extent up to each company how environmental aspects are assessed, and to choose which aspects are significant. The main purpose of an EMS is to steer and control these significant environmental aspects, which should be regarded as cornerstones for a company using an EMS. The significant aspects, for example, form a basis for environmental policies; determine where targets are established and procedures introduced; affect what is monitored and measured; and influence who needs environmental training. Consequently, the procedure of assessing environmental aspects is crucial, from an environmental point of view (Johnston et al., 2000; Zobel and Burman, 2004).
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3.3 Environmental policy A central EMS document is the environmental policy, which is supposed to be the driver for the organisation’s continual improvement of environmental performance (ISO, 1996a). Although this policy is supposed to establish a kind of level for the ambitions of an organisation and its EMS (Paper IV), this level must be characterised as very diffuse. There is little evidence in literature concerning the connection between environmental EMS policies and the environmental performance of companies. In practise, this policy consists of one or a few pages with text, usually not including any quantified promises. Environmental policies point out prioritised areas for environmental efforts and indicate the direction of the environmental work. This thesis will not further dwell on the importance of environmental policies.
3.4 Environmental objectives and targets Objectives and targets shall be established at each relevant function and level within the organisation (ISO, 1996a, European Commission, 2001). The standard declares that these objectives and targets should be measurable (Annex A). Bell (1997) says, “Setting objectives and targets is essentially the process of translating the generalities of the policy into defined goals”. Since the objectives and targets, and the corresponding environmental management programmes, appear to be the engine in the process of continual improvement (paper VI), goal setting is essential from an environmental point of view and therefore will be discussed in the thesis.
3.5 Continual improvements It is important to notice that neither ISO 14001, nor EMAS, do establish absolute requirements for environmental performance (ISO, 1996a; European Commission, 2001). However, they contain a significant requirement to reach continual improvement in overall environmental performance. What this commitment means in reality will be emphasised (see papers III, IV and VII). For instance, this includes what kind of performance that is supposed to be improved and how this requirement is checked.
3.6 The connection between EMSs and product development Environmental impacts are intimately connected to flows of materials and energy, and the most important flows, at least for many manufacturing companies, are often closely linked to products. Therefore, it seems urgent for EMSs to encompass products and product development, to be environmentally effective and efficient tools. Consequently, it is of great interest to illuminate how standardised EMSs are related to Design for the Environment (DFE), that is to what extent they encompass the products and product development procedures. These issues are intimately connected to the issues concerning environmental aspects, previously described, since the purpose to some extent is to study to what degree the (significant) environmental aspects are related to products.
3.7 Auditing To verify conformance with EMS audit criteria, that is to confirm that an organisation fulfils the requirements of the standards and other relevant rules or commitments, external environmental
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auditors from accredited certification bodies frequently audit each company. The general wording of ISO 14001 and EMAS leave a lot to be interpreted by these external environmental auditors (see papers III and IV), and to the authorities accrediting the certification bodies (cf. Burdick, 2001). These preconditions, and as many firms are using standardised EMSs, have turned external environmental auditors into key players in the environmental arena (cf. Kuhre, 1996). Where the standard is unclear, auditors’ interpretations strongly influence the outcome. Hence, it is very interesting to study how auditors interpret central requirements of the standards and how this affects the their application.
3.8 EMSs at small and medium-sized enterprises Besides the key issues, this thesis will discuss how EMSs fit small and medium-sized enterprises 17 (SMEs, see papers V, VI and VII). Many environmental scientists claim that SMEs are important from an environmental point of view (e.g. Hillary, 1995, 2000; Tilley, 1999), unfortunately often forgotten (cf. Petts, 2000). As we can observe today, many large firms require, or announce that they soon will require, that their contractors use EMSs (Mortensen, 1998). This means that we can expect EMSs to continue to “trickle down” from large companies to SMEs (Miles et al., 1997), whether they like it or not. At the same time, Wells and Galbraith (1999) point out that an objection concerning standardised EMSs is that they are designed by large companies for large companies. Uncritical transfer of strategies developed for large organisations to SMEs is one general problem regarding corporate environmental strategies, tools, etc. (cf. Dandridge, 1979; Welsh and White, 1981). There are many studies reporting on barriers against SMEs adopting EMSs, which will be discussed further in the section “EMSs for SMEs”. Both SMEs’ environmental (and economic, paper VI) importance and the fact that a majority of the studies of the effects of EMSs seem to concern larger companies, or companies in general, motivated a study of EMSs at SMEs.
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The European Commission (CEC, 1996) defines SMEs as enterprises which
1. 2.
have fewer than 250 employees, and have either: 2a. an annual turnover not exceeding EURO 40 million, or 2b. an annual balance-sheet total not exceeding EURO 27 million. 3. are independent, i.e. not owned as to 25% or more of the capital or the voting rights by one other enterprise, or jointly by several enterprises. The corresponding criteria for small enterprises are 50 employees (1), EURO 7 million (2a) and EURO 5 million (2b) respectively, and the criterion regarding independence (3). Micro enterprises are those having fewer than 10 employees.
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4 Methodology This chapter starts with a general discussion of how the effects of EMSs should and can be analysed. Then the methodology for this dissertation is described to explain how the different studies have been carried out. More detailed presentations are to be found in each of the seven papers.
4.1 How should and can the environmental effects of EMSs be analysed? During the work with and studies of EMSs, the author several times has heard environmental consultants and auditors saying: “Of course EMSs are good for the environment, I have myself seen companies changing in the positive direction.” In many of these cases the statements were clearly not well grounded, because it is not that simple to determine and judge the effects of EMSs. It seems appropriate to start this methodological chapter by discussing how the connection between standardised EMSs and environmental impacts should and can be analysed. Two main types of methodological approaches are discussed.
4.1.1 Measurements of environmental performance One main type of methodology comprises studies where environmental performance data is collected and analysed, for example, to study trends and compare performance between different organisations. A first task is to determine how to study environmental performance and/or impacts, which is not emphasised in this chapter and is a general problem within the environmental field. For example, Berkhout et al. (2001) have developed a set of environmental performance indicators to measure companies’ environmental performance. Common issues to take into account are the level of detail and whether qualitative or quantitative data are to be preferred. A second tough problem is to separate EMSs from other factors that might influence companies’ performance. For example, the staff’s dedication might be of importance and eventually observed changes could be effects of new legal requirements or regulations. Therefore, it should be observed that large studies involving many companies, both with and without EMSs, where instantaneous data have been collected and statistically analysed, only might conclude whether there are differences between companies using EMSs and companies without such systems. This kind of studies cannot be used to determine if the observed differences are results of the EMSs or not. For example, it is possible that the most serious, and best performing, companies are those that chose to implement an EMS, which means that they could have been better even before the EMS implementation. For the same reasons it is difficult to determine if EMAS gives better environmental results than ISO 14001 (which could be argued to be likely, since EMAS has a few tougher requirements; e.g. an official environmental statement is required). It is not as simple as to compare ‘on-the-spot accounts’ concerning performance for companies using ISO 35
14001 and EMAS. To draw conclusions on the effectiveness and efficiency of EMSs one should consider what is a ‘normal’ improvement rate. If longitudinal data is collected and analysed for many companies, it is possible to investigate whether the rate of improvements is affected when EMSs are implemented and maintained. Moreover, by studying known factors of importance it might be investigated if EMSs are a decisive factor. Another possibility, mainly for studies on a smaller scale, is to use interviews, for example with environmental managers, to determine the role of EMSs. Then the researchers need to confirm whether each observed change in environmental performance is due to an EMS or not, helped in part by asking environmental managers, or other employees, if the changes would have occurred in absence of the EMS. However, then it is important to notice that what is measured is the view of managers (see paper VI). Third, the time that has passed since a standardised EMS has been implemented should be taken into consideration. It is not known yet, how the effects of EMSs are distributed over time. Probably, some “low-hanging fruit” will be found quite early in the process, while other changes are dependent on strategic decisions, planning and restructuring, and therefore cannot occur until at least a few years after a certification. Possibly, the more strategic effects of EMSs can be seen today, in cases where firms that have been certified and/or registered since the mid nineties are studied. For all studies of this kind it is important to consider how representative studied companies are. For example, it probably affects the results if firms voluntary participate in a study, knowing from the beginning that scientists and others will evaluate their efforts. This may lead to a situation where companies already performing well are overrepresented and to that the participating firms, due to support and raised incentives for improvements, progress faster than they normally would have. Projects where researchers and consultants are actively involved (action research), may very well show the potential of, for example, a certain management tool, but one must be more careful concerning general conclusions (see Checkland, 1981).
4.1.2 Studies of the practical meaning of central EMS elements This thesis includes a complementary approach to quantitative studies of environmental performance. It is to a large extent focused on the EMS infrastructure – the standards and the systems for their application – and tries to illuminate how central elements are applied in practise and what this means in terms of environmental impacts. Studies of this type are not aimed to quantitatively reveal to what extent companies’ performance improve. Instead they are intended to increase the understanding for how key EMS issues are applied, focusing on how they, on an overall level, affect the connection between EMSs and flows of materials and energy. In terms of credibility and the role of EMSs, they have an important function in showing the minimum level 18. For example, large statistically based studies are often focused on performance numbers in general (mean values), while this dissertation may tell more about what an ISO 14001 certificate or an EMAS registration guarantees, in terms of a minimum level. Concerning, for example, the question on whether companies using an EMS should be offered regulatory relief, such knowledge may be an important complement to information on quantitative, average 18
This does not mean that an actual minimum level is determined, but rather that the focus is what can be expected of companies with low ambitions.
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performance. Moreover, it may be important in explaining why companies behave in a certain way and serve as a basis for discussions on how to improve the situation.
4.2 Applied methods “The term methodology, in a broad sense, refers to the process, principles, and procedures by which we approach problems and seek answers” (Bogdan and Taylor, 1975). Expressed similarly, methodology comprises data collection, organisation (characterisation and categorisation 19), and interpretation (see White Riley, 1963). It applies to how research is conducted. As our assumptions, interests, and goals influence methodological choices (Bogdan and Taylor, 1975), and thereby the results, it is important to present how the different studies have been conducted. As previously stated, the research perspective and the questions focused on are of a technical/natural scientific character. However, the methodology has important social scientific elements, but the natural scientific perspective, in relation to the methods, means that the author and co-authors have regarded themselves as external observers not participating in the observed ‘processes’ 20. In Table 1 the different papers, the study objects, the aim and the methods used are presented in chronological order, i.e. according to when they were conducted in time. Table 1. The papers, the study objects, the aim and the methods used. Paper Main aim Methods Paper V
To understand and explain the Hackefors model
Paper VI
To qualitatively study the environmental and economical effects of EMSs implemented in accordance with the Hackefors model To quantitatively study the environmental effects of EMSs implemented in accordance with the Hackefors model
Paper VII
Paper IV
To investigate how auditors interpret and apply central requirements of the standards
Paper II
To review the knowledge (literature) on the connection between EMSs and Design For the Environment (DFE) and to discuss factors that influence this connection To illuminate how auditors interpret and apply the standards’ requirements, focusing on the connection between EMS and product development (Design For the Environment, DFE) To study how industrial companies identify,
Paper III
Paper I 19 20
Informal interviews with 3 consultants that established the Hackefors model and studies of EMS documents Formal, structured interviews with 25 environmental managers and studies of the 25 enterprises EMS documents Analysis of environmental 26 reviews, focusing on the development concerning eco-efficiency, for energy, water, goods, waste and by-products, and transportation Semi-structured interviews with 13 external environmental auditors, including at least one representative from each one of the nine Swedish certification bodies. Literature review
Semi-structured interviews with 9 external environmental auditors, including one representative from each one of the nine Swedish certification bodies. Semi-structured interviews with 18
Added by the author. This is true for all authors except for B. Börjesson concerning paper V, who has been the driving force behind the work with the Hackefors model and has actively been involved with its implementation and maintenance.
37
formulate and assess their environmental aspects.
environmental managers and 2 consultants, and studies of EMS documents, e.g. the documents on environmental aspects and the assessment methods
In the following sections, the main types of methods are described and the choice of methods discussed.
4.2.1 Interviews Previously, the motives for studying standardised EMSs have been presented (chapter 1 and 2) and the aim to study the EMS infrastructure, that is how important EMS elements are interpreted and applied in reality, focusing on companies. From this perspective, two different groups of actors appear to be of great importance: external environmental auditors and environmental managers. Their importance will be elaborated on in the two subsequent paragraphs. To become ISO 14001 certified and/or EMAS registered, a company’s EMS has to be approved by external environmental auditors from an accredited certification body (such auditors are from now on referred to only as “auditors”). This means that these auditors, based on their interpretations, determine what the standards’ requirements imply in practice. The widespread use of standardised EMSs and the fact that ISO 14001 and EMAS contain unspecified requirements mean that the auditors are among the key players in the environmental arena (paper IV, Kuhre, 1996). Where the standards are unclear, auditors’ interpretations strongly influence the outcome. Hence, it was very interesting to study how auditors interpret central requirements of ISO 14001 and EMAS, and how this affects the standards’ application in terms of environmental impacts. Environmental managers are, to large extent, responsible for the implementation and maintenance of an EMS within a company 21. They have an important role concerning how EMSs are shaped, what they encompass, which issues are prioritised and the rate of progress. Their position and competence means that they often are best suited to answer questions focused on the implementation and effects of EMSs. In addition to these two groups of key actors, for example, chief executives and environmental consultants are also important. They have only partly been covered by the studies, since a few of the interviewed environmental managers also were chief executives and as presented below, two consultants participated in one study (paper I). However, auditors and environmental managers are believed to be best suited to contribute with information on the issues in focus. Interviews appeared to be the most straightforward procedure to reach insight about auditors’ interpretations and their practical meaning, as well as the managers’ experiences of working with EMSs. As an important aim was to increase the understanding of how auditors and managers act, large surveys were regarded as inappropriate. Moreover, the purpose was rather to illuminate different ways of using an EMS (to show that different interpretations and solutions exist) than to generalise the results. When the empirical data collection began in the end of the 1990s, it also appeared too early to study the environmental effects of EMSs by conducting a large study on 21
As this term is used in this thesis.
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environmental performance. Most companies then recently had implemented their systems. Therefore, a majority of the studies have been conducted through individual interviews with auditors and managers (auditors: paper III and IV; managers: paper I, V and VI). In addition, interviews have been conducted with: • •
•
Two environmental consultants, since consultants often support companies and thereby affect their behaviour regarding EMSs (paper I). One representative for SWEDAC (Swedish Board for Accreditation and Conformity Assessment), which is the authority accrediting the certification bodies. The aim with this interview was to gather knowledge on SWEDAC’s role in steering and controlling the certification bodies and thereby the auditors. Three persons that have been prominent figures when the Hackefors model (an EMS model for SMEs 22) was established and implemented. Which is the basis for paper V.
Interview characteristics Three main types of interviews have been used for the studies, and partially complemented with other types of methods. These interview types are presented in the following paragraphs. In general, the interviews lasted about one hour. An important aim with the first study (presented in paper V) was to understand how the so called Hackefors model works, which is a special EMS solution, based on networking, for SMEs. To gain knowledge about this model, three persons that had been involved in the development and application of this model were interviewed. These interviews were very informal and took place at several different meetings. In addition to conversation with the respondents, the author received important documents that helped explaining the Hackefors model and its effects. The second study was conducted with environmental managers to study the effects of the Hackefors model (paper VI). These interviews were much more formalised. To be able to compare the answers and analyse them quantitatively, structured interviews were used (see Halvorsen, 1992). This means that one questionnaire was prepared and used at all interviews and that the respondents could choose between multiple choices. If none of the prepared choices seemed to fit with their opinion, it was possible to give another answer. The previous work with paper V, made it easier to formulate relevant questions. The author also received documents from the companies’ EMSs. The interviewer filled in the questionnaire during the interview and completed and clarified these notes soon after. The questions were grouped into the following sections: Environmental review, objectives and targets; Materials and energy flows (changes in flows of waste, energy, goods and emissions, and changes concerning transportation and risks of accidents); Economics and business; Work input and documentation; Personal opinion about EMSs. After having completed the second study, and received experiences on the role as an interviewer, the author used semi-structured interviews, to allow the respondents to answer more freely. Such interviews were first used to investigate how auditors interpret and apply central requirements of
22
That is Small and Medium-sized Enterprises.
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the standard ISO 14001 (paper IV) 23. In the previous chapter the selected key issues were presented. Three main factors have influenced which issues have been selected, and which requirements that are regarded as central, that is the direction of the interview questions: •
• •
Hermeneutical studies of the standards (see Sjöström, 1994)). These studies could be seen as document studies, but it is important to notice that they (in contradiction to what is normally the case) were used to formulate relevant interview questions rather than to gather empirical data. Knowledge of what is central from an environmental point of view, that is which of the requirements that are most important concerning flows of materials and energy. Experience from the job as researcher and from having implemented EMSs in industry. These experiences can be seen as a pre-conceived understanding for which elements are central concerning how EMSs are applied in reality.
Since they were regarded to work well, semi-structured interviews were used for the two remaining interview studies as well (paper I and III). Semi-structured interviews can be characterised as a method between structured interviews, with questions prepared in advance and multiple choices to choose between when answering, and unstructured interviews, more in the form of a normal conversation on a certain issue (see Halvorsen, 1992). Some main questions were prepared in advance and directed at all respondents. These prepared questions served as “signposts” to point out the direction for the following conversation. In addition, many related questions were asked to further investigate the opinion and practice of the interviewees. These questions were not prepared in advance, but depended on the answers given. The semi-structured interviews were recorded on tape, for the interviewer to be able to listen carefully, focus on the answers and to be able to formulate appropriate entailing questions. Thereafter the answers were transcribed and summarised in relation to each question. In some cases the answers clearly could be divided into different categories. Then these categories, and the distribution of answers between them, have been discussed in the papers. In other cases citations were found most appropriate to present the respondents’ opinions or to illustrate the variety of the answers. In many cases quantitative and qualitative results have been used to complement each other concerning a certain topic. During the whole interview and interpretation process, obviously, subjectivity is a problem (see Kvale, 1996). The subjectivity of both interviewers and respondents are relevant concerning the interview process (and its preparations), since the interviewer’s choices affect what is covered and how, and the respondents choices, for example, determines the quality of the collected information. In addition, aspects concerning subjectivity are important to observe when the researchers conduct the analysis of the collected information. By being aware of that last fact, the consequences of this problem have hopefully been restricted. For example, the introduction to each interview and the questions have been designed in such a way as to avoid leading the interviewees. Further, the questions were organised in accordance with their level of detail. Within each area of interest, the respondents were first asked comprehensive questions, followed by questions on a more detailed level. As a result, the risk of leading the respondents has been 23
These interviews were successfully conducted by the co-author Gunnar Wik, who was supervised by the author of this thesis.
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reduced. For the same reasons, the interviewers tried to react neutrally to the answers given, thereby trying not to signal if any answers were preferred or disliked. During the phase of interpretation, characterization and classification of the answers, the authors to the papers tried to understand the central opinions of the interviewees and thereby to summarize the answers as correctly as possible, which of course is a difficult task and a weakness of the methodology. However, the standardised terminology concerning EMS makes it easier to communicate on these issues. In addition, the interviewers to some extent summarized their impressions during the interviews and asked the respondents if they had been correctly understood, which facilitated the interpretation process. Naturally, what has been selected in these processes and presented as results depended on the aim of the studies. Chapter five includes short discussion on how bias due to, for example, managers’ subjectivity may influence the results. Qualitative or quantitative? Within the social sciences, one often distinguish between qualitative and quantitative methods (Holme and Solvang, 1997) 24: •
•
Qualitative methods are normally of low formalization and are mainly aimed to reach insights, that is to increase the understanding of a certain problem complex. Typically the researcher works close to the source of information and does not intend to generalize the results (ibid.). Quantitative methods are often more formalized and structured. The researcher investigates certain pre-defined issues of interest and the method also decides which answers that are possible. An important aim is to generalize and/or compare (ibid.).
Based on these descriptions it is quite clear that the first interview study with environmental managers (paper VI, on the effects of the Hackefors model) belongs in the quantitative domain. However, the three following interview studies have a different character (papers I, II and IV). For them, the answers were of a qualitative character, but through characterization and categorization, they, to large extent, have been transformed to quantitative results.
4.2.2 Eco-efficiency study The SMEs applying the Hackefors model (see the section “EMSs for SMEs”, in chapter 6) all use the same template for environmental reviews and have been supported by the same consulting firm in the review processes. The choice to study environmental reviews was due to the information they contain concerning flows of materials and energy, closely connected to environmental impacts. Mapping flows of material and energy, even on an aggregated and cursory level, brings knowledge about environmental aspects and corresponding environmental impacts of a company as well as upstream and downstream from its operation. A second decisive factor influencing the choice to study environmental reviews was the fact that the enterprises update their environmental reviews at intervals of a few years. This facilitated an investigation concerning whether the environmental performance had changed since the EMS implementation. It should also be noted that information from the interview studies comprising 24
Within the natural sciences, quantitative methods are dominating.
41
the same enterprises, could be used to decide if the observed changes were effects of the EMSs or not (decided by the managers’ perceptions). The applied method for analysing the development of these enterprises’ environmental performance consists of six different steps (see Figure 5), which are presented briefly hereafter. First, all data directly connected to flows of energy and material in each environmental review were collected. These data were divided into five groups: energy, water, goods, waste and byproducts, and transportation. Second, a kind of functional number – a positive output called the “functional factor” – was decided for each enterprise, that is a number serving as a measurement of the extent of operation. For example, this could be the produced number of products or the number of fulfilled assignments during one year. 1: Data: e.g. the used amount of electricity
2: Functional factor: e.g. the number of products sold
3: Eco-efficiency = functional unit / value of data
4: Comparison factor: change of eco-efficiency in percent (year 1 compared with last year accounted for). Generates values between: -100 and + 1000
5: Importance factor: 10, 100 or 1000
6: Total environmental performance score = change factor * importance factor
Figure 5. The six steps involved in the method. Third, the concept of eco-efficiency was used to calculate environmental performance. In short, this means that a positive output for each company is divided by a measure linked to environmental impact. Hence, an increasing rate indicates increased efficiency. In this case, the environmental performance was calculated as the ratio between the “functional factor” and the quantity for each point of data accounted for. Further information concerning the concept of ecoefficiency is, for example, supplied by Lehni (1998); Verfaillie and Bidwell (2000); Schmidheiny (1992) and WBCSD (2000). As a fourth step, the eco-efficiency for 1997 — the year the implementation of the EMSs started — or as close as possible to that year, was compared to the corresponding figure for the last year accounted for. This comparison was represented by a figure in percent, called “the comparison factor”. Fifthly, since the “comparison factor” does not take the importance of the actual change into account, it was complemented with a so-called “importance factor”. This factor was to reflect the relative environmental importance of each change within the company. A very rough scale was chosen for the “importance factor”.
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Each change, or rather the environmental aspect the data was representing, was given 1000, 100, or 10 points to indicate its environmental importance. Finally, the “total environmental performance score” was calculated by multiplying the “comparison factors” and “importance factors” for each environmental aspect accounted for. It should be emphasised that this method only gives a rough estimation of the development regarding environmental performance (eco-efficiency) and there certainly are many sources of error, of which the most apparent ones are deliberated in paper VII, where this method is explained more in detail. Moreover, the reader should pay attention to the fact that eco-efficiency measures may improve although the total environmental impacts do not (Schaltegger and Burrit, 2000).
4.2.3 Literature review For all issues elaborated on in this thesis, it has been regarded as important to search for relevant information in the international scientific arena. This means that the author, through studies of the literature, has gathered knowledge and review what other scientists have written on the relevant issues. As previously stated, the perspectives determine which literature is considered as most relevant. However, two major literature reviews have been conducted to gather information on two main fields of interest. The first concerned the connection between EMSs and product development (paper II). The second was aimed to review other studies on how EMSs affect environmental performance (impacts).
4.3 Validity and reliability In this section two types of validity are discussed; construct validity and external validity (see Yin, 1989). By construct validity the author means to what extent the included studies and the thesis really deal with the selected issues. External validity is about to what extent the results can be generalised. This may encompass two types of generalisation. Firstly, to what extent the results are valid for other companies and cases than those studied (statistical generalisation). Secondly, to what extent the thesis contributes to a further development of methodologies and theories on the selected issues. In addition, the reliability will be commented on, which means to discuss if other researchers would arrive at the same conclusions if they had been working with the same cases in the same way. Construct validity Most of the important environmental problems are caused by changes in flows of materials and energy, which are effects of human activities. Therefore, the construct validity depends on to what extent the investigated issues actually are important to increase the understanding for how important factors concerning the standards and their application affect relevant flows of materials and energy. Chapter three is aimed to motivate why certain issues have been selected for the analysis. There are two main ideas behind the course of action – to select the most important issues to focus on and gather information from the actors who possess most information on these issues. The issues have been selected to illuminate important factors that influence:
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• • • •
How companies decide on the physical scope of their EMSs, that is which environmental aspects companies choose to include. How the environmental impacts of different environmental aspects are determined. How it is derived which aspects are most important. How companies work to change these environmental aspects.
The key issues have been selected to include the elements that are most relevant with bearing on flows of materials and energy, and thereby on environmental impacts, with the intention to achieve a good construct validity. External validity It is difficult to generalise about the external statistical validity, since it varies between the different studies. Beginning with the three papers on the Hackefors model, the intention was initially foremost to illuminate how the model is constructed and to analyse if it had induced any environmental effects and, in that case, to investigate the magnitude of those effects. In parallel, a method to study eco-efficiency was developed and tested. However, as many additional companies have implemented similar EMSs, the potential for generalisations has grown. Nevertheless, the author regards the studies of the environmental effects at Hackefors as rather case specific, which means that they show that there is a great potential for improvements if working in accordance with that model, but it cannot be established that other groups of companies using the Hackefors model will be as successful (having the huge variance of EMS application in mind, see “Results”). The first study on the interpretations of auditors was primary intended to show how differently standards are applied, and thereby to elucidate that standardised systems are not that standardised (paper IV). However, for the second study the auditors that were responsible for the environmental auditing activities within their firms were deliberately chosen (paper III) 25. This meant that they regarding many questions could answer for the practice and experience of many auditors. Consequently, the results from paper III can be generalised to more extent than those in paper IV. One important aim with this thesis is to show a kind of minimum level for being certified or registered. Concerning that aim it is not that important to generalise. It is more important to contribute to a picture of the range of approved performance, since it shows what an EMS guarantees. However, there are three strong reasons to argue for that the results may be generalised to quite large extent: • •
25
Firstly, an absolute majority of other relevant research results support the findings presented in this thesis. Secondly, the approach has implicated triangulation, since many of the issues have been studied at different cases using different methodologies. For example, the author has been able to check if the auditors’ answers were in line with companies’ practices and the
At least five of the nine interviewed auditors were responsible for the environmental auditing activities within their firms or for a larger group of environmental auditors. One auditor from each of the nine Swedish certification bodies was interviewed. Some of the auditors in the first study was also responsible for environmental auditing.
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other way around. Actually, Based on Yin’s (1989) definition of a case study 26, the conducted studies can be combined to form three different case studies, concerning: – The interpretation and application of central EMS requirements; where at least four of studies are relevant (mainly paper I, III, IV and VI). – The connection between EMSs and product development; including three different approaches (paper I, II and III). – The Hackefors model; where four different methods have been used (paper V, VI, VII and I, where the last paper is included since four of the studied firms used this model). • Thirdly, the results have been discussed with managers, consultants, auditors, etc., and an overall impression is that most of them find the results to be valid (see Almgren et al., 2003). In this chapter it has been emphasised that it is important to pay attention to methodological aspects when studying effects of EMSs, which is shown to have a practical meaning in the next chapter. Concerning generalisations in the form of contribution to further developments of methodologies and theories, hopefully this thesis has led to a better understanding for why it is difficult to study how EMSs affect the environmental situation and contributed with a few useful recommendations on how to conduct such studies. However, the knowledge that these parts of the thesis are based on have been known for long. Reliability The most obvious disadvantage with interviews (concerning reliability), where qualitative answers are shortened (summarised), characterised and classified, is that all the answers are transformed via the minds of the interviewers. This means that potential effects of subjectivity and pre-conceived understanding are important to notice. As previously stated, also the respondents’ subjectivity may have an impact, since it may affect the data quality (see “Interview characteristics”). As previously stated, paper VII is based on a method were different types of environmental effects are roughly estimated concerning magnitude and then the impacts have been compared. Since, such a weighting step is based on subjective valuations, the exact results would most probably be different if conducted by other researchers. However, on an overall level, the results would hopefully be the same (see paper VII).
4.4 Attitudes and financing Attitudes and factors in relation to financing may affect the research topics and their direction, and also, for example, selection and interpretation in the research process. Therefore, this section includes a short presentation of the author’s initial attitudes and how this research has been financed.
26
According to this definition a case study is an empirical inquiry that: – “… investigate a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context; when – the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and – in which multiple sources of evidence are used”.
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The interest in EMSs grew when the author participated in the process of developing and implementing EMSs at two companies. The general impression was that these two companies were better suited to handle environmental challenges after having introduced an EMS. In addition, the review process and the following steps lead to several concrete improvements, which both the author and the managers regarded as effects of the EMS implementation. At least the measures of improvement would have occurred later on without the EMSs. However, the process of developing the EMSs enlightened that the standards’ requirements could be interpreted in many different ways, which to large extent affected the outcome. Moreover, information from other companies revealed that much lower ambitions were approved as well. Consequently, the mainly positive experiences from have implemented two EMSs were combined with less positive information. Therefore it was found relevant to discover what an EMS really guarantees, which lead to research within this field. In summary, the author would describe the initial attitude as rather neutral. This research has been financed by the Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development) and CF (The Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers). None of these financers have restricted or steered the proposed research topics, the methods or the results. This means that the author and the co-athors have been able decide how to conduct the research.
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5 EMS and environmental performance: the state of the art As stated in the chapter on methodology, the environmental effects of EMSs can be studied in many different ways. In the next chapter the most important results from the work conducted by the author will be presented. These results will, to large extent, be structured in accordance with the key issues selected. To give a more complete view of if, and how, EMSs affect environmental performance the present chapter is aimed to contribute with information from other studies on this issue. This means that results from the international EMS research arena that are specific enough to enrich the information on the key issues are presented in the next chapter, while interesting studies directed towards how EMSs affect environmental performance in general are discussed in this chapter.
5.1 Different research topics concerning EMSs During almost five years of research on EMSs, the author has studied many papers on EMSs that are interesting for the understanding of the connection between EMSs and the environment, and also for knowledge on how to improve the effectiveness of such systems. In the early days, when the standards where in their infancy, it seemed as most research papers on EMSs dealt with issues related to implementation. Some papers also discussed the potential effects of EMSs, but without any (strong) empirical evidence 27. During the last years, however, questions focused on the effects of standardised EMSs have climbed up towards the top of the research agenda within this field. From an environmental perspective, this appears as a sound sign. Figure 6 shows common EMS research topics and few examples of references. From now on, this chapter will be focused on research methodologies and results on the connection between EMSs and environmental performance. However, in the next chapter and the concluding discussion, results from papers covering many of the areas in figure 6 are reflected upon.
27
There were also papers describing EMSs and experiences at single companies (e.g. Aldorfer, 1998; Fair and Kolarz, 1998; Gelber et al., 1997; Herreborg Jörgensen, 2000; Houthuysen, 2000; Johnston and Rourke, 1998; Polakowski and Mach, 1997; Reith, 1998; Simpson, 1998; Stoesser, 1997).
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Business effects, e.g.: Stakeholder relations, e.g.:
• Dowell et al., 2000
Legal compliance, e.g.:
• Petroni, 2000
• Hamschmidt, 2000
• Kwon et al., 2002
• Delmas, 2001
• Löfqvist et al., 2000
• Wilson and Thomas, 1998
Technical implementation guidance, e.g.:
Environmental performance, e.g.: • Freimann and Schwedes, 2000
• Hamner, 1997
• Hamschmidt and Dyllick, 2001
• Rezaee and Elam, 2000
• Schylander and Zobel, 2003
• Wolfe, 1998
Organisational theory, e.g.:
Drivers and barriers, e.g.:
• Burström von Malmborg, 2002
• Hillary, 1999
• Herreborg Jörgensen, 2000
• Poksinska et al., 2003
• Tinsley, 2002
• Rivera-Camino, 2001
EMS
EMSs for SMEs, e.g.:
Accrediting and auditing, e.g.:
• Biondi et al. ,2000
• Andrews et al., 2001
• Dahlhammar, 2000
• Burdick, 2001 EMSs in municipalities, public authorities, universities, etc. , e.g.: • von Malmborg, 2003
As a policy mean, e.g.: • Clausen et al., 2002
Connection to product development, e.g.: • Karlsson, 2000
• Murray, 1999
• Brezet and Rocha, 2001
• Emilsson and Hjelm, 2002
Figure 6. Common research topics on EMSs.
5.2 Studies on the environmental effects of EMSs As stated in chapter four, there are different methodological approaches to studying the connection between EMSs and environmental performance. Table 2 shows an overview of papers and reports that are aimed to illuminate environmental (and compliance) effects of EMS. It contains comments on aims, methodological issues and results.
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Table 2. Overview of papers and reports including information on environmental effects of EMSs Authors, year Relevant objective 28 Methodology Conclusions and title Andrews et al., 2003, Environmental Management Systems: Do They Improve Performance?
To study if and how EMSs affect environmental performance and legal compliance, and also to investigate how EMSs are implemented and used and how the results vary dependent on organisations’ characteristics.
Design of a database and collection of ‘standardised’ longitudinal data from participating firms. 83 facilities provided initial data, 58 EMS implementation data, 37 performance update data after one year and 22 update data after about 2,5 years. About two-thirds were, or intended to become, certified in accordance with ISO 14001.
Anton et al., 2003, Incentives for Environmental SelfRegulation and Implications for Environmental Performance.
To examine the implications of voluntary EMS initiatives.
Statistical analysis of data from many different sources, covering more than 100 companies. Most data seem to regard years earlier than 1996.
Berkhout et al., 2001, Measuring the Environmental Performance of Industry.
This project’s aim was to develop quantitative indicators for the environmental performance of manufacturing firms and then collect and analyse environmental and financial data for a large number of European companies, within six different sectors in six European countries.
The study covered 280 firms and 430 production sites. Of these 280 firms, slightly more than 40 were ISO 14001 certified or registered to EMAS (Berkhout and Hertin, 2001). Sets of performance indicators were developed and a lot of quantitative data was collected in relation to them. The data was statistically analysed.
28
EMSs can be expected to be at least somewhat beneficial to the environmental performance of most facilities. Motivated firms improved significantly more. It was also established that EMSs are highly variable in their contents, priorities, and judgments of significance. The EMSs did not significantly affect legal compliance. Comprehensive environmental management activities lead to lower toxic emissions per unit of output.
Companies using EMSs do not appear to perform better than those without, from an environmental point of view. In some cases they even had a worse performance.
Relevant for the purpose of this thesis, which means that the studies in some cases have other aims as well.
49
Comments Control groups of companies were used to check the effects of the voluntary participation and to be able to compare firms with and without an ISO 14001 certificate.
It should be observed that the data seem to regard years before the widespread use of standardized EMSs and that environmental management activities have been in focus, not formalized EMSs. The study does not take into account the time a certain company have been certified or registered. Since the data seem to regard the 1990s, most firms were probably rather recently certified.
Table 2. Continuation Authors, year and title
Relevant objective 29
Methodology
Conclusions
Comments
Bring Procopé and Axelsson, 2003, Förbättras Miljöprestandan Genom Miljöledningssystem? (Translated: Is the Environmental Performance Improved by Environmental Management Systems?)
To increase the understanding on the connection between EMSs and developments in environmental performance.
Interviews with environmental managers from 39 companies in Sweden, 2003. 31 of these were randomly selected (31 out of 40 selected participated) and 8 were selected from the energy sector.
It should be noted that the report does not clarify how environmental performance is defined, which is of major importance.
Dasgupta et al., 2000, What Improves Compliance? Evidence from Mexican Industry.
To investigate how different policy means affect companies’ legal compliance.
Studies on companies in Mexico, where in depth interviews were carried out at 236 facilities, in 1995.
Have defined four types of categories dependent of the character of the performance developments and divided the studied firms between them: excellent (13%), seriously committed (45%), static (32%) and poor (10%). In summary, 58 % seem to improve important performance indicators, while 32% choose less important improvements and 10% hardly improve at all. Plants that institute ISO 14001-type internal management procedures exhibit superior environmental compliance.
Florida, 1999, Adoption and Impacts of Environmental Management Systems.
To study impacts of EMSs and pollution prevention initiatives.
A survey of 583 manufacturing plants in Pennsylvania, U.S. The paper does not contain comprehensive information on methodological issues.
29
Firms with an EMS (or working with pollution prevention) are significantly more likely to improve environmental performance in terms of recycling, and reductions of air emissions, solid waste, and electricity use.
Relevant for the purpose of this thesis, which means that the studies in some cases have other aims as well.
50
It should be observed that data seem to have been collected in 1995, which is very early with an EMSperspective. The term EMS seem to comprise informal EMSs as well, i.e. only a part of the firms used an EMS in accordance with ISO 14001.
Table 2. Continuation Authors, year and Relevant title objective 30
Methodology
Conclusions
Comments
The paper includes a table which seems to present the answers from 139 environmental managers concerning environmental improvements. For example, 46% reported waste reduction, 34% energy savings and 32% improvements concerning use of water. Recycling and process changes were, peculiarly 31, scarce. EMSs lead to an increase in the importance of environmental issues. Modest decrease in materials and energy flows in relation to turnover, and even more modest decreases in absolute numbers. Some companies even reported deteriorations or that they did not know. Companies certified in accordance with ISO 14001 had better legal compliance than others.
The paper does only contain environmental performance data in terms of mean values, which means that it is not possible to see how reported changes are distributed between companies.
The results showed that a formalized EMS, certified in accordance with ISO 14001, leads to improved environmental performance. It should be observed that what has been collected is data on companies’ selfreported measures, which seems to be focused on EMS activities.
Judging by the paper, the environmental performance seems to be focused on issues of waste. Issues concerning waste are generally emphasized.
Freimann and Schwedes, 2000, EMAS Experiences in German Companies: A Survey on Empirical Studies
To summarise experiences of German companies with EMAS, based on empirical studies
A survey of existing empirical studies on companies’ experiences of working with EMAS. The paper does not reveal which studies that have been used or what methods these studies included.
Hamschmidt and Dyllick, 2001, ISO 14001: Profitable? Yes! But is it eco-effective?
To evaluate the effectiveness of EMSs, which included to study what measures companies take and what environmental effects they perceive.
Questionnaires sent to all 348 ISO 14001 certified organisations in Switzerland in 1999. The return rate became 48%. Also 4 case studies.
Kwon et al., 2002, A Study of Compliance With Environmental Regulations of ISO 14001 Certified Companies in Korea. Melnyk et al., 2003, Assessing the Impact of Environmental Management Systems on Corporate and Environmental Performance.
To compare legal compliance between certified and noncertified firms
Questionnaires were collected from 138 companies in Korea, in 1999. The paper does not include information on the response rate.
The study aims to evaluate if and how the existence of an EMS affects companies’ environmental performance.
A survey was sent to 5000 companies and 1510 usable responses were obtained. 1222 of them were used, to focus on manufacturing industries. The survey documents were sent out in 1997 and responses were received into 1998.
30 31
Relevant for the purpose of this thesis, which means that the studies in some cases have other aims as well. It is peculiar because the improvements suggest that such measures have been taken.
51
As the authors acknowledge, the low response rate probably means that the results are too optimistic.
Table 2. Continuation Authors, year and Relevant title objective 32 Mohammed, 2000, The ISO 14001 EMS Implementation Process and its Implications: A Case Study of Central Japan.
To study environmental effects of EMSs, implemented in accordance with ISO 14001.
Montabon et al., 2000, ISO 14000: Assessing Its Perceived Impact on Corporate Performance.
The study aims to evaluate if and how the existence of an EMS affects companies’ environmental performance. To illuminate the results of implementing a standardised EMS.
Morrow and Rondinelli, 2002, Adopting Corporate Environmental Management Systems: Motivations and Results of ISO 14001 and EMAS certification. Pecher, 2003, Examining EMS-Evaluation Studies.
32
To study if existing studies could be used to verify if EMSs lead to ecological effects and to elucidate which methods are suitable for evaluations of EMSs.
Methodology
Conclusions
Comments
Survey posted to 106 companies in Japan, 1997, of which 61 (58%) responded. The performance was measured by asking what the environmental objectives and targets promised, which means that the paper does not reveal whether the goals were obtained. Seem to be the same empirical study as Melnyk et al., 2003 (see above).
Impressive improvements were expected: reduction of paper purchases (69%), electrical consumption (56%), chemicals and toxic materials use (52%), fuel consumption (52%), and packaging volume for products (48%).
The survey was conducted in the end of 1997 and beginning of 1998, which meant that many firms recently had implemented their EMSs.
Interviews with managers from five companies in the German energy and gas industry, during the year of 2000.
Four of five companies stated that their EMS was not primarily used to improve the environmental performance. Improvements in regulatory compliance were reported.
A meta-evaluation of 13 existing studies on EMS performance. The focus seems to be on Austrian studies.
Some results indicated positive ecological effects of EMSs, although they could not be quantified. In some other cases no effects were found. A main problem was the lack of indicators for the monitoring of continual improvements. An important observation is that efforts are needed to improve methodological aspects of EMS evaluations.
Relevant for the purpose of this thesis, which means that the studies in some cases have other aims as well.
52
The used methodologies seem to have been studied but the paper does not include information on methodological characteristics.
Table 2. Continuation Authors, year and Relevant objective 33 title Rondinelli and Vastag, 2000, Pancea, Common Sense, or Just a Label? The Value of ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems. Schylander and Zobel, 2003, Environmental Effects of Environmental Management Systems: Evaluation of the Evidence. Steger, 2000, Environmental Management Systems: Empirical Evidence and Further Perspectives. Summer Raines, 2002, Implementing ISO 14001 – An International Survey Assessing the Benefits of certification.
Wallner et al., 2000, Evaluation of Cleaner Production Program in Austria.
33
Methodology
Conclusions
Comments
To elucidate the impacts of an ISO 14001 certification.
An in-depth case study at an aluminum plant, with an EMS certified in accordance with ISO 14001.
Found that the EMS had led to reductions of the number of chemicals and a more effective waste handling.
A lot concerning environmental performance is focused on waste.
To study existing empirical studies on EMSs to illuminate environmental effects, what methods are used and what methods are suitable for the task. To assess the impacts of EMSs on the business environment and the natural environment.
A meta-evaluation of 7 existing studies on EMS performance.
The reviewed studies did not contain consistent results, why it is not possible to conclude how EMSs affect environmental performance.
A central result is that more research is needed and that efforts are essential to improve methodological aspects of EMS evaluations.
A review of 24 empirical studies, conducted during the period from 1995 to 1999 (most of them quite early in this period), to investigate the validity of EMSs. A survey sent to companies in 15 countries. 131 firms replied, which gave an average response rate of 37%.
Standardised EMSs lead to an increase in legal compliance.
Questionnaire sent to 498 organisations of which 217 were certified/registered. 130 replied (43 of them were certified/registered). At 44 of the 130 companies interviews were conducted.
Standardized EMSs have positive effects on some performance parameters, but also seem to affect others negatively. The authors could not conclude that EMSs in general have a positive effect upon environmental performance.
To study the environmental impacts of ISO 14001 in developed and developing countries.
To evaluate how environmental management programs affect environmental performance.
The vast majority of the respondents reported environmental improvements related to their EMS implementation.
Relevant for the purpose of this thesis, which means that the studies in some cases have other aims as well.
53
The study seems to focus on overall environmental performance, i.e. no detailed analysis, and to some extent on expected changes rather than verified effects. This information is based on Schylander and Zobel (2003), because the author has not been able to get a copy of the report cited.
Table 2. Continuation Authors, year Relevant and title objective 34 Welch et al., 2002, Voluntary Adoption of ISO 14001 in Japan: Mechanisms, Stages and Effects.
To compare incentives and behavior of companies certified in accordance with ISO 14001 in Japan.
Wells and Galbraith, 1999. Proyecto Guadalajara: Promoting Sustainable Development through the Adoption of ISO 14001 by Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Zackrisson et al., 2000, Environmental Management Systems – Paper Tiger or Powerful Tool?
To evaluate the environmental effects of EMS implementation, focusing on a case were 15-20 small enterprises were supported by larger companies, authorities and consultants.
34 35
To investigate which actual environmental improvements that EMSs have lead to.
Methodology
Conclusions
Comments
In 1999 survey questionnaires were sent to 2918 facilities in four industry sectors. Both companies with and without a certified EMS were included. 364 of 718 companies certified in accordance with ISO 14001 responded (51%). The participating SMEs reported how their environmental performance developed.
Certified companies were found to have a higher degree of greening than other. It also appeared as if early EMS adopter were greener than those have implemented an EMS later on.
The extent of greenness does not seem to be focused on operational performance data, but rather on management data regarding targets, tools and green purchasing activities.
Over three-quarters reported reduced releases to the environment, about two-thirds reduced energy and/or materials use, improved waste handling and regulatory compliance.
The paper does not reveal whether a comprehensive and systematic review of the performance was carried out or if only improvements were reported.
The questionnaire seems to lead to a very rough estimation of how the companies perceive the environmental effects. Each company has estimated to what extent its EMS has reduced its environmental impact, on a scale ranging from 1 to 6, where 1 corresponded to “not at all” and 6 to “to a very great extent”. Slightly more than 60% replied 3 or 4. Furthermore, the interviews dealt with distribution of environmental targets and whether these had been achieved. Hence, only a part of the environmental performance was focused on.
From the research questions, the questionnaire used as the basis for the interviews, it is quite apparent that the researchers have presupposed positive environmental effects. It should also be observed that some important questions in the questionnaire may be interpreted in several different ways and that several relevant options are missing when multiple choices are used 35.
A survey study, conducted in Sweden during the period from November 1998 to October 1999. 172 companies (49% of those certified/registered) replied. In addition, interviews were conducted with environmental managers from 19 different firms.
Relevant for the purpose of this thesis, which means that the studies in some cases have other aims as well. That means that several answers known to be of great importance are not clearly included among the predefined choices.
54
There are many interesting conclusions that can be drawn from the presented studies. Firstly, there is no doubt that EMSs can be used to greatly improve environmental performance as well as overall business performance (for the latter, see e.g. Paper VI, Wells and Galbraith, 1999). This means that the potential of EMSs as an effective tool is verified, although this potential of course varies depending on internal and external conditions (see paper II). Secondly, it is very difficult to draw any general conclusions on how EMSs affect environmental performance. Interestingly, two of the meta-evaluations (Pecher, 2003; Schylander and Zobel, 2003) indicate that the results are divergent and that positive, neutral and negative effects are reported. Moreover, they both conclude that methodological issues are of great importance and that efforts are essential to improve the way effects of EMSs are studied. In the following sections some of the studies are commented on. They have been roughly divided into two groups, depending on the methodologies used 36.
5.2.1 Large statistical studies directed towards operational performance indicators Several of the papers and reports in Table 2 are based on studies of many companies, including detailed data of predefined environmental performance indicators, which have been analysed statistically. This means that the researchers decide which parameters are of interest and may get a comprehensive view of the environmental performance, in contrast to studies where environmental managers are encouraged to grade the environmental improvements (which is a leading formulation! 37) on a certain scale. Florida (1999) delivers the most positive results. However, this study does not only comprise standardised EMSs, but uses a wide EMS definition. Andrews et al. (2003) have conducted a very impressive study and seem to have considered all the methodological aspects elaborated on in section 4.1. They conclude that the ‘average’ environmental effects of the EMSs studied were positive, but also recognize that 22 companies are too few to draw any more general conclusions. One interesting observation was that companies that had been certified in accordance with ISO 14001 and consequently used third party auditing, were not statistically different from the others. Hamschmidth and Dyllick (2001) found that the positive changes in eco-efficiency, caused by standardised EMSs, were modest and the improvements in absolute numbers even more modest. Berkhout et al. (2001) have carried out a comprehensive and accurate study and interestingly found that companies using an EMS are not better than others. However, it must be observed that the period studied indicate that most EMSs probably were rather recently implemented. Nevertheless, according to the author’s experience, a lot of “low hanging fruit” use to be picked during the implementation phase. These improvements do not seem to have made companies with EMSs significantly better 38. Most likely, eventual long-ranging strategic effects would not be covered by the used data. The findings of Wallner et al. (2000, as referred to in Schylander and Zobel, 2003) seem to summarise the impressions rather well, since they found positive effects on some parameters, negative effects on others, and could not draw any general conclusions on how EMSs affect environmental performance. 36
Since some of the papers do not contain comprehensive information concerning methodological issues, it was difficult to divide them. 37 However, similar formulations seem to be rather common in studies of EMSs. 38 These results can also be interpreted as companies that are better from an environmental point of view are not more likely to implement an EMS.
55
For future studies of the effects of EMSs, for example, both the studies conducted by Andrews et al., (2003) and Berkhout et al., (2001) have comprised an analysis of wide-ranging environmental performance indicators, focusing on many important operational indicators in absolute numbers. They surely constitute an important base of knowledge 39.
5.2.2 Studies directed towards management indicators and/or highly aggregated information on environmental performance The majority of the existing studies on the environmental effects of EMSs seem to be focused on management indicators and/or on changes in a highly aggregated environmental performance. Focusing on operational performance, Mohammed (2000) concludes that if the studied companies are able to reach their established goals, major improvements will occur as results of EMS implementation. Summer-Raines (2002), also reports performance improvements. Concerning management activities, Melnyk et al. (2003) found that companies using an EMS in accordance with ISO 14001 conduct environmental management activities to a higher degree and also a wider range of activities. Likewise, Welch et al. (2002) conclude that certified companies are greener than others, focusing on management performance. Less positively, Morrow and Rondinelli (2002) state that a few companies in the German energy and gas industry do not regard their EMSs as important tools to reach environmental improvements. Finally, Bring Procopé and Axelsson (2003) deliver results indicating that 58% (of 39 companies of which all used an EMS) are trying to reach improvements for important environmental aspects, while the remaining 32% work with insignificant environmental aspects or does not improve at all. Concerning legal compliance, three of the studies report improved compliance (Dasgupta et al., 2000; Morrow and Rondinelli, 2002; Steger, 2000) while companies with EMSs according to one other study do not perform significantly better (Andrews et al., 2003). A general impression is that results based on companies’ self-reported measures, and concerning overall performance, are more optimistic than more detailed studies on operational performance. To analyse how managers perceive the changes in environmental performance is also interesting and may give important insight into issues on EMSs. However, it must be recognised that studies on operational indicators are more credible. Firstly, the managers delivering the answers (concerning interviews and questionnaires) in many cases have put a lot of effort into the implementation and maintenance of the EMS, therefore it might be tempting to emphasise positive effects and to moderate negative effects. This may also be the case when amounts concerning several operational indicators are to be reported, but authority control, environmental reports, etc., mean that made up results are easier to discover. In addition, it is difficult to know the comprehensiveness of answers concerning environmental performance, when managers are asked about changes on an aggregated level. Are their answers based on a detailed analysis or more of a hunch? Are they focusing on positive results or delivering a neutral picture? Secondly, it is difficult to estimate what would have happened without an EMS (since it should be asked if observed changes are consequences of the EMS).
39
Certainly, many of the other papers and reports are also of great importance and very thoroughly conducted, but both Andrews et al. (2003) and Berkhout et al. (2001) are comprehensive reports, that give good insights about results as well as methodological aspects.
56
6 Results In this chapter the results from the empirical studies are presented, that is the results from paper I-VII. They have to large extent been arranged in accordance with the selected key issues.
6.1 Environmental aspects As previously stated, EMSs are built up around the environmental aspects. According to the author’s experience, a strong motive for using the term “environmental aspect”, instead of focusing on more classical terms such as “environmental effects” or “impacts”, is to shift focus towards companies’ activities and clarify how those activities affect the state of the environment. If the employees understand how their daily activities affect the environment and get an overall understanding for the impacts, they can more easily find ways to improvement and also get a deeper understanding of the necessary procedures. There are several different categories of environmental aspects that match the definition of this term (see definition in chapter 3). A review of relevant literature (see e.g. Zobel and Burman, 2004; ISO, 2000) and studies of companies (see paper I), show that the following different types of environmental aspects are used: • • • • •
Direct environmental aspects – aspects over which a company has management control (see European Commission, 2001). For example, internal use of electricity. Indirect environmental aspects – aspects over which a company may not have full management control (see European Commission, 2001). For example, a supplier’s use of electricity. Operational environmental aspects – aspects that have a direct influence on flows of materials and energy, and where the adherent environmental impacts are rather well known. For example, transportation. Management environmental aspects – aspects of a management, or organisational, character. It is often difficult to define the adherent environmental impacts. For example, lack of knowledge or decision-making. Risks of accidents – meaning that the potential environmental impacts are considered. For example, risks of leakages.
It is noteworthy that these types of aspects overlap. For example, an environmental aspect may be both operational and indirect. Moreover, it should be observed that it is up to each company to interpret how the term environmental aspect, in line with the direction given by ISO 14001/EMAS. Since, the different types of environmental aspects as mentioned above have a different connection to environmental impacts, it is interesting to study how companies apply the term environmental aspect and how their choices affect methods as well as environmental impacts. 57
It should be observed that which category of aspects that is most important from an environmental point of view, depends on the type of organisation. For industrial sites, operational aspects normally are the most important ones (e.g. goods, emissions, transportation, use of energy, etc.). For other types of organisations, such as those in the service sector, management (organisational) aspects play a more important role and should be emphasised in the design phase and maintenance of an EMS. A few examples may illustrate this: • • • •
Banks; criteria for environmental funds, terms of loans, etc., have a major impact. Consultants; their advice may be of great importance. Local authorities; planning and decision-making are significant. Universities; education affects students’ behaviour in their future work.
Based on the characteristics of the different types of environmental aspects, Figure 7 shows how organisational (management) aspects directly affect operational aspects and indirectly environmental impacts. For banks, consultants, local authorities, universities, etc. the important operational aspects normally are not a part of the organisation in question. Rather, these operational aspects are handled by their ‘customers’ or suppliers.
Organisational aspects
Operational aspects
Environmental impacts
Figure 7. The relation between two types of environmental aspects and environmental impacts. For EMSs to be environmentally effective tools, it is important for them to comprise the most significant aspects. For most organisations, in addition to environmental aspects of an operational and management character, risks of accidents are relevant to observe. These issues – the different categories of aspects and their connection to environmental impacts – are important to have in mind when the key requirement regarding a continual improvement is discussed later on.
6.1.1 Identification, formulation and scope of environmental aspects Most implementation processes of EMSs start by undertaking an environmental review, that is a process to identify a company’s environmental aspects and the adherent environmental impacts (Zobel et al., 2002). Since there is no well specified, and generally accepted, instructions or rules for the efficient undertaking of such a review, the adopted methods for identification and formulation of environmental aspects vary considerably between different companies (paper I; Zobel and Burman, 2004). In addition, the procedures for the review are seldom documented, at least not within the EMSs. Consequently, it is often not obvious where and why the aspects arise (Zobel et al., 2002). According to Lawrence et al. (2002) two main approaches to identification of environmental aspects and impacts are frequently used; qualitative audits and quantitative mass balances. Zobel et al. (2002) conclude that the process of identification is commonly carried out by a group of 58
people focusing on the entire site or organisation in question. Another common approach is to identify environmental aspects for each department individually, followed by a summing-up process for the entire site or organisation. Information is normally collected via interviews, inspections, registers of public complaints, documents such as environmental reports, monitoring programmes, permits, etc. Based on paper I and Zobel and Burman (2004) it can be concluded that many companies find it difficult to conduct an environmental review and therefore to large extent turn to consultants for support. Paper I indicated that it often is difficult for an outside observer (in this case a researcher) to understand the physical boundaries of the environmental aspects. This observation has implications on two main types of boundaries. First, it is commonly unclear which parts of the supply chain that actually are included. For example, in some cases only transportation was presented as the environmental aspect. At some firms, this aspect covered all different types of transportation; transportation from suppliers, business travels, transportation within the site, and deliveries to customers. At other firms, although equally worded, it only covered one of these types of transportation, or even a part thereof. What was included could often not be understood by reading the documents – you had to ask the environmental manager(s). This issue in some cases is enlarged when goods bought from suppliers are identified as environmental aspects. For example, process chemicals have in some cases been specified as environmental aspects without any further explanations. This does not reveal whether the focus is on the extraction of raw materials, transportation of the chemicals, the manufacturing processes at the suppliers’ sites, within the site of the actual firm, etc. Second, in many cases it is difficult to understand the relationship between environmental aspects and the adherent environmental impacts. Some firms have clear and quite detailed descriptions of the impacts, while others provide very limited information. In general, it is very difficult (often impossible) to understand the systems perspective being considered for the environmental aspects, i.e. what is included and what has been left out. Moreover, the documents do not reveal the motives for different choices in terms of scope. The reasoning of the people involved in the review process, when establishing the system boundaries, is often very unclear. The scope of each environmental aspect and the adherent impact indicators do not always appear to be based on a conscious choice. When asked about the scope of individual environmental aspects, in the studies conducted for paper I, a majority of the interviewees were very uncertain, both concerning which parts of the life cycles that were included and which environmental impacts that were taken into account. Most of these results seem to be in line with similar studies conducted by Zobel and Burman (2004) and Zobel et al. (2002) and are also supported experiences from the work conducted in relation to paper V, VI and VII. Paper I also indicated that changes of staff are rather common concerning the role as an environmental manager. This means that proper documentation is of utmost importance for a good maintenance of the EMS. Moreover, it was found that consultants generally seem to have an important role and that they represent an important part of the knowledge base concerning identification, formulation and assessment of environmental aspects. This observation may also explain the reason why environmental managers have difficulties in explaining issues concerning scope and assessment.
59
Another important issue concerns the level of detail of the environmental aspects, i.e. how large a portion of the business they comprise. With a very high level of aggregation, the companies could deal with a few large environmental aspects, covering most of their activities. On the other hand, with a high level of detail – thousands of environmental aspects can be identified at each company (cf. Zobel and Burman, 2004). Hence one reason for emphasising this issue is that companies need at an early stage to adapt the level of detail resulting in a reasonable amount of aspects to deal with. Another, and from an environmental point of view important reason, is that the aspects are compared to each other in the assessment (a relative, internal comparison of their impacts). This means that the relative importance is higher for environmental aspects within Company X had assessed its aspects’ environmental impacts on a scale from 0-10. It was decided that environmental aspects that received more than 5 points were to be regarded as significant, which means that the EMS efforts were going to be focused around these aspects. In the assessment the environmental aspect “use of energy” received the highest point, i.e. 10 points, and was regarded as the most important aspect from an environmental point of view. The second most important was “transportation”, which received 8 points. Consequently both aspects were regarded as significant (situation A). The executive was pleased with having “use of energy” as significant, since the company had many ideas of improvements and found it easy to measure. However, he thought that “transportation” was a tough aspect to measure and that means of improvements were either too expensive or not known. Therefore he determined to divide the aspect of “transportation” into two parts, of about the same size; “deliveries of purchased goods” and “shipments to customers”. Each of these aspects then only received 4 points and became insignificant (situation B).
A:
B:
-Use of energy:
10 points
Significant
-Transportation:
8 points
Significant
-Use of energy:
10 points
Significant
-Deliveries of purchased good:
4 points
Insignificant
-Shipments to customers: Insignificant
Aspects that receive more than 5 points are significant
4 points
areas where the aspects are highly aggregated, and the other way around. This is exemplified in figure 8, which is based on a case from a certified firm 40. Figure 8. Example of how the resolution, that is the level of detail, may affect which aspects are regarded as significant. Although the respondents in the study conducted for paper I were given a few examples of how environmental aspects can be divided differently, many of them had difficulties understanding the posed questions on this issue. An absolute majority of the interviewees appeared not to have reflected upon the fact that the level of detail can be chosen differently and that this choice directly may have an effect upon the assessment of the aspects.
40
It is based on a statement from an environmental manager.
60
6.2 Assessment of environmental aspects The initial stages of the environmental review often result in a gross list of environmental aspects. The next step is to assess these environmental aspects to determine which of them are regarded as being significant. Since the main purpose of an EMS is to steer and control the significant environmental aspects, the assessment process is of major importance.
6.2.1 Inconsistency in the standard Judging by the definition of an environmental aspect in ISO 14001 and EMAS, the assessment to determine which environmental aspects should be regarded as significant should only be based on environmental considerations. However, there is an inconsistency in the standards (ISO, 1996a, European Commission, 2001), since the text on environmental aspects opens the possibility to include other considerations as well (Paper IV). Moreover, it is clear from the guidance standard ISO 14004 that the evaluation of the significance of the impacts can include both environmental and business considerations (ISO, 1996b). The studies conducted reveal that this inconsistency has practical implications as well, since auditors have different opinions on whether it is approved to include business parameters in the assessment (paper IV) and some companies obviously use assessment methods where business parameters play an important role with bearing on which aspects are determined to be significant (paper I; Zobel and Burman, 2004).
6.2.2 Included parameters and values, and their relative weights Before getting into details on the assessment methods, it may be useful to present general characteristics of an assessment process. Since the standards do not specify in detail how the assessment is to be carried out and as there are no commonly accepted guidelines for this assessment (Johnston et al., 2000), many companies develop their own methods, often supported by consultants (paper I; Zobel and Burman, 2004). The methods often include a few parameters, for which each aspect is assessed. Zobel and Burman (2004) found that the most commonly suggested parameters in literature were: • • • • • • •
“The scale of the impact; The severity of the impact; The probability of occurrence; The permanence of impact; The actual or potential regulatory/legal exposure; The difficulty of changing the impact; The concerns of stakeholders.”
In practise, companies normally decide a range of points for each of the selected parameters. For example, concerning the scale of environmental impacts, points may be distributed as: • • • •
0 points – the aspect does not cause any impacts. 1 point – the aspect causes minor impacts. 3 points – the aspect causes medium impacts. 5 points – the aspect causes major impacts.
61
According to this model each of the environmental aspects are assessed and given a value for all parameters 41, which means that points are distributed for each parameter. It should be emphasised that it to a large extent is up to each company to choose parameters to be included and to decide the range of the values, including their relative weight for each parameter. Since, the choice of parameters and their relative importance determines which aspects are significant and prioritised, the characteristics of the assessment methods are very interesting to study. Based on answers from 18 environmental managers, and a study of their companies’ documents explaining the assessment procedures, the characteristics of assessment methods have been summarised in Table 3 (paper I). The parameters have been divided into four categories: legal requirements, stakeholders, internal business and environmental impacts. The columns (3-20) represent an enterprise. Each row shows if the enterprises’ assessment methods include a certain parameter and what internal weight (in percent) the values for this parameter are given. For example, the table shows that “company A” has included “Legal/Authority requirements” in its method and given it the weight of 14.7%. This weight has been calculated as the ratio in percent, where each individual value has been divided by the total sum of all values included in that company’s method. It should be noted that some of the firms add all values together, while others multiply the values. “N.Q.” means that a parameter was included, but not given a quantified value (could for exampled be a “yes or no-question”). The first column after the enterprises shows the average weight of that parameter. Then the sum of the average weights for each of the four categories of parameters is presented (legal requirements, stakeholders, internal business and environmental impacts), which shows the importance of each group of parameters. It should be observed that Table 3 does not show how the different values for the parameters are combined within each method, which will be presented in the following text. Six (33%) of the companies have assessment methods where parameters other than the environmental ones affect which aspects are significant (companies A, B, F, H, K, N). Four of them handle environmental parameters equally to other parameters, which means that an aspect might be considered as significant even though the environmental impact is low, if factors such as economics or competitiveness are given greater weight. In addition, and worse 42, aspects with important environmental impacts might be considered as insignificant if they are not important from a shallow business perspective 43. Two of the six companies use methods consisting of two steps, where the first only includes environmental parameters and the second other parameters, and both of them affect which aspects are significant (companies B, K). This means that a value bigger than a certain minimum value, concerning environmental parameters, always makes an aspect significant. The largest portion (11 companies, 61%) used methods where only environmental parameters were decisive concerning this issue (companies C, D, E, G, I, J, M, O, P, Q, R). Ten of these companies only had an environmental assessment, which means that the methods did not include a step that encompassed business parameters. One manager (6%), at the remaining firm, stated that his company did not have a documented method, but that a consultant decided which aspects should be regarded as significant (company L). However, he said that the consultant has the national environmental objectives in mind during this procedure. To get 41
In some cases quantified values are not used. For example, “yes or no-questions” may be included (paper I). From an environmental perspective. 43 Since the limits for which aspects are significant are set in many cases based on the assessment results (the companies want work with a reasonable number of significant aspects). 42
62
correct values in the table this parameter was given 100% of the weight (see cell filled with grey colour). The respondents at five (28%) of the companies’ could not clearly explain how their methods work.
63
Company C
Company D
Company E
Company F
Company G
Company H
Company I
Company J
Company K
Company L
Company M
Company N
Company O
Company P
Company Q
Company R
Average weight (%)
Legal/Authority requirements:
14,7
16,7
7,7
-
-
-
7,7
-
-
21,7
N.Q.
-
-
16,7
-
-
7,7
7,7
5,6
External stakeholders
14,7
-
-
-
-
23,1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
2,1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
23,1
-
-
16,7
-
-
-
-
2,2
14,7
16,7
-
-
-
-
-
-
20,0
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
50,0
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Economics; use of resources
14,7
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Economics
2,9
N.Q.
-
-
-
N.Q.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
16,7
-
Technical possibilities
2,9
N.Q.
-
-
-
N.Q.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Production requirements
2,9
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Business requirements
2,9
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Internal requirements
-
-
-
-
-
23,1
-
-
-
-
-
Environmental policy
-
16,7
-
-
-
23,1
-
-
-
-
Competitiveness
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Possibility to influence
-
N.Q.
-
-
N.Q.
-
-
-
14,7
-
-
-
-
30,8
-
Environmental impacts: national environmental objectives
-
16,7
-
50,0
-
-
Environmental impacts: municipal environmental objectives
-
-
-
-
-
Environmental impacts: national environmental threats
-
-
-
-
Environmental impacts: health
-
-
-
Environmental impacts: ecology
-
-
-
Environmental impacts: air
-
-
Environmental impacts: water
-
Environmental impacts: forests and land
1
8
0
2
0
2
2,9
0
3
-
2,8
0
1
-
-
0,8
0
1
-
-
-
1,1
2
2
-
-
-
-
0,2
2
1
-
-
-
-
-
0,2
0
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
0,2
0
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
1,3
0
1
23,1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
3,5
0
3
-
23,1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
1,3
0
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
0,0
2
0
50,0
-
-
15,4
-
-
-
33,3
-
-
-
8,0
0
5
-
-
-
-
-
100,0
-
-
-
-
-
-
9,3
1
2
-
-
-
20,0
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
1,1
0
1
33,3
-
-
-
-
43,5
-
-
100,0
-
-
-
-
-
9,8
0
3
-
33,3
-
-
-
20,0
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
3,0
0
2
-
33,3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
1,9
0
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
16,7
-
-
0,9
0
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
16,7
-
-
0,9
0
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
16,7
-
-
0,9
0
1
Environmental impact (per unit)
-
-
23,1
-
-
-
23,1
-
20,0
-
-
-
-
-
-
16,7
23,1
23,1
7,2
0
6
Amount in relation to the aspects
-
16,7
23,1
-
-
-
23,1
-
20,0
8,7
-
-
-
-
-
16,7
23,1
23,1
8,6
0
8
Toxicity
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
16,7
-
-
-
-
0,9
0
1
Chemicals on special lists of dangerous substances?
-
-
15,4
-
-
-
15,4
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
11,1
15,4
15,4
4,0
0
5
Amount of emissions
-
-
23,1
-
-
-
23,1
-
-
-
-
-
-
16,7
-
-
23,1
23,1
6,1
0
5
Permanence of environmental effects
-
16,7
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
15,4
-
-
16,7
-
-
-
-
2,7
0
3
14,7
-
7,7
-
-
-
7,7
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
5,6
7,7
7,7
2,8
0
6
Probability of accident
-
-
-
50,0
N.Q.
-
-
-
-
13,0
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
3,5
1
3
Environmental consequences
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
13,0
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
0,7
0
1
LCA-data
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
66,7
-
-
-
3,7
0
1
Opinion/Trustworthiness Customer satisfaction/demands Stakeholder demands + economics Internal business:
Environmental impacts:
Amount of environmental impact
Risk of accidents
64
Sum (%)
No of quant
Company B
Legal requirements: Stakeholders:
No of non quant
Company A
Table 3. Characteristics of the assessment methods (see description in the text). The table shows which parameters that are included in each company’s assessment method and also each parameter’s inter-organisational weight. The second column from the right shows the average weight for a certain parameter’s values (for example, legal requirements represent an average weight of 5,6 %). The first column from the right shows the total average weight for each of the four categories of parameters (legal requirements, stakeholders, internal business and environmental impacts), which means that it shows the sum of the numbers in the previous column.
5,6 9,9
8,5
76,0
To further elaborate on the importance of parameters belonging in the different categories, it is of interest to look at the relative weights for the four companies that used methods where other parameters than environmental parameters played an important role when deciding which aspects are significant. For three of these companies, the values for parameters in relation to legal requirements, stakeholder requirements and internal business requirements represent about 50% of the total value, and for the fourth firm about 70%. Consequently, pure environmental concerns have a relatively low priority within these organisations. However, it must be recognised that many of the parameters characterised as legal requirements, stakeholder requirements and internal business requirements very well might have a high correlation with environmental impacts. For example, this depends on to what extent legal requirements are directed towards the most important aspects 44, the environmental awareness and priorities among customers and in the society45 and the environmental consciousness and seriousness in the boardroom 46. Looking at the other companies, pure environmental parameters represent about 70-100% of the total values, and the average is 76%, which is positive. These results show that environmental parameters generally dominate the assessment process and thereby are important when companies, using standardised EMSs, decide which environmental aspects to focus on. Nonetheless, the results also indicate that it is possible to be certified in accordance with ISO 14001, without giving environmental issues a high priority, even within the EMS. This last finding is of utmost importance concerning the trustworthiness of standardised EMSs. It is also very important to notice that the scope applied for most of the environmental parameters in the assessment, according to many sources (see the following sections), is facility-oriented. This implies that even if environmental parameters dominate the assessment, it is not a guarantee for the most important impacts to be covered 47. It is well known that many companies focus hard on measures to reduce costs and increase revenues. Therefore, it is a bit surprising that more than 50% of the companies do not have an assessment phase where classical business criteria are checked. A majority of the companies studied lack a systematised and formalised method to assist them when deciding on which environmental aspects to prioritise, for example when targets are established.
6.2.3 Reproducibility and effects of change in scope The interviewees (in the same study – paper I) were asked about the methods’ reproducibility, more precisely if they believed that the results would become similar if another environmental competent person assessed their aspects using the same method. Eleven (61%) of the respondents thought that the results would become similar, while seven (39%) believed the results to become significantly different. To further examine how the managers look upon their methods, and the issue of assessment of environmental impacts in general, they were asked if the results would change if the scope of the environmental aspects and the EMSs would be changed. Eight (44%) 44
It must be questioned whether legal requirements really are directed towards the most important environmental aspects. For example, levels of noise are often regulated through legal permits, while the choice of energy sources and the amounts of used energy may be up to the company. Swedish environmental policy, although having been modernised lately, still has a quite strong focus on point sources. 45 The awareness and the priorities affect what the companies consider when they assess criteria in relation to customer demands, opinion, trustworthiness, competitiveness, etc. 46 The consciousness and seriousness among the executives to large extent affect the internal business requirements. 47 Seen from a supply chain perspective.
65
did not believe that a change of the scope would affect the results significantly. Only three (17%) thought that the results would be considerably different, while the remaining part had difficulties understanding the question or answered that they did not know. This finding shows that only a few of the managers were aware of the fact that the relative environmental importance in many cases would change if they widened the scope of their aspects and systems. This observation suggests that the knowledge concerning environmental impacts in the supply chain is rather weak. Judging by the types of business that this study covers, many of the companies have products and/or services for which the phases both upstream and downstream in the supply chain are important from an environmental point of view. During the interviews, a majority of the respondents stressed that the impacts from their company were minor, of which many seemed to compare themselves with larger industrial companies. These results are in line with findings of Oliv (2000) and Tilley (1999).
6.3 Scope of EMSs In addition to the fact that it is difficult to understand the scope of the environmental aspects (see 6.1), it is important to notice that a dominant part of the aspects seems to be facility-oriented. This is also true for the whole EMSs 48 and has been verified through the empirical studies (see paper I, III and VI) and is a common result in studies of EMSs (see e.g. Andrews et al., 2003 and many of the references cited concerning the relation between EMSs and product development). Paper I includes the following figure.
14
No. of companies
12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Facility-oriented
Facility + customers
Wider scope
LC-perspective
Figure 9. Distribution of different scopes. In that study twelve of the eighteen companies (67%) seemed to have clearly facility-oriented EMSs, which means that almost all of the environmental aspects and the important procedures within the EMSs were directed towards their own sites (see figure 9). Since it is an ISO 14001requirement, all of them tried to communicate some kind of environmental requirements to their suppliers, but a majority of the managers described this process as rather trivial. They were of the 48
Meaning that not only the environmental aspects, but also the procedures within the EMSs are facility-oriented.
66
opinion that it does not to great extent affect the choice of suppliers, which is in line with the findings in paper III. Many of the enterprises tried to get general information about the environmental efforts of their suppliers, and few of them directed their questions or requirements towards the environmental impacts of the delivered products or services. A dominating impression from this study is that a certified EMS in many cases is taken as a guarantee for good environmental performance. One firm (6%) had little focus on its suppliers but tried to inform the customers how to handle its products in a responsible way. Five (28%) of the companies had a wider EMS-scope, of which four clearly used, and tried to affect, some environmental aspects with important parts outside the site. The fifth firm in many cases tried to get a grip of their products’ life cycles. However, some interviewed auditors (paper III) and consultants (paper I) declared that they had observed a trend lately, where the focus of manufacturing firms slowly is shifted towards their products. On a specific question elaborated on in paper I, concerning if the scope of the EMSs had changed since the certification, 13 (72%) stated that the scope to large extent was the same, 4 (22%) stated that it had expanded and 1 (6%) did not know. Issues concerning scope is further elaborated on in the next section.
6.4 EMSs and products Issues of boundaries and scopes are generally important within the environmental field, which obviously also is the case for EMSs. This part of the thesis is aimed to increase the understanding for the connection between EMSs and products/product development, that is the connection between EMSs and DFE (Design For the Environment, see also Ecodesign), which to large extent comprises and highlights such issues.
6.4.1 Motives for integrating EMSs and DFE Based on a review of literature and the author’s experiences 49, there are at least six strong motives, from a theoretical and environmental standpoint, to strengthen the connection between EMSs and DFE (paper II): Firstly, DFE-thinking could enrich EMSs by contributing a life-cycle perspective, helping the organisation to identify the most important flows of materials and energy upon which to focus. This means that it helps companies to focus on the most important environmental aspects. Secondly, prior experiences indicate that DFE-projects tend to become pilot projects, which, for example, means that environmentally adapted design activities are carried out for a certain product but then are not continued (Charter and Belmane, 1999; Rocha and Brezet, 1999). Consequently, it is suggested that EMSs may be useful to make DFE efforts become more permanent, that is lead to consistent and systematic DFE activities. A third incentive to strengthen the connection is to establish a better internal communication and to be able to use the staff’s capabilities more effectively. Charter and Belmane (1999) state that DFE activities tend to be managed by environmental management functions rather than being 49
It must be acknowledged that experiences of the co-author concerning paper II and III – Erik Sundin – are included here.
67
integrated into mainstream product development. They also conclude that EMSs used with the purpose to incorporate issues of product development, require higher co-operation amongst different business functions compared to conventional product development. In a study by Grüner et al. (1999), it was found that cross-functional groups, for the integration of environmental aspects into product development, were only implemented in a few of the investigated companies, and even in those companies the groups met too seldom to have a real influence. Paper III suggest a mixed picture, since some auditors were of the opinion that EMSs involve proper categories of staff concerning product development, while others acknowledged problems due to EMSs steered by former quality managers and due to problems in co-operating with and integrating unmotivated designers (engineers) who dislike environmental considerations, for example, since they limit their degrees of design freedom. However, it feels safe to claim that the potential improvements an EMS might arise if the co-operation among central categories of staff increases. Hence the third motive is to improve internal co-operation. Based on similar argumentation, the forth motive concerns co-operation in the supply chain, that is external co-operation. A substantial idea behind existing initiatives to create EMSs directed towards product issues is that they should improve the co-operation in the entire supply chain (from material extraction to end-of-life treatment). This is supposed to lead to concerted environmental action among the actors within a product’s life cycle (van Berkel et al., 1999). This is also in line with the thoughts of Sinding (2000), whose inter-organisational environmental management is intended to lead to learning about environmental impacts throughout the supply chain and to interaction with other firms in the supply chain to reduce these impacts. If the whole supply chain is regarded, the potential for improvements most probably increase and sub-optimisations may be avoided. Fifthly, a focus on products would mean that EMSs would be a better complement to the facilityoriented legislation. Without doubt, the facility-oriented environmental legislation has played (and still plays) an important role, since it has led to important pollution reductions at industrial sites (Andrews, 1999; cf. Markusson, 2001). However, many important environmental problems are related to the consumption society, and thereby to products, which means that the importance of EMSs as a policy mean would be strengthened if EMSs covered a wider perspective. A sixth motive, that is often mentioned when so called Product-Oriented Environmental Management Systems (POEMSs) are defined, is that they should be commercially beneficial (see e.g. van Berkel et al., 1999). As stated in chapter one, there is substantial evidence that environmental efforts very well may be economically beneficial, but it is difficult to generalise. The commercial effects depend on many different conditions, which is discussed in paper II.
6.4.2 Do normal 50 EMSs incorporate products and product development? A review of existing literature Paper II includes a review on the existing literature on the connection between EMSs and DFE 51. Studies of normal EMS show that researchers have different opinions concerning to what extent 50
The term normal EMS is here used to exclude EMSs that are especially designed to focus on products and product development, so called Product-Oriented Environmental Management Systems (POEMS). See paper II. 51 Some of the papers cited in this section are more correctly directed towards studies of how EMSs affect environmental performance, and therefore include results on the scope of EMSs. Results showing that EMSs to
68
EMS encompass and affect product issues. Their opinions appear to range from very positive to a bit hesitant. Some results bear witness to the fact that EMS and DFE activities are integrated in reality (Karlsson, 2001; van Hemel, 1998 52). Karlsson (2001) states: “many industries that have not considered environmental issues in product development start to do that when they implement ISO 14001. Furthermore, it has been found that a DFE management program can enhance an existing environmental management system through the broadening of its scope.” However, the dominating part of the findings indicates that the link between EMS and DFE is weak (Andrews et al., 2003; Cramer, 1999; Grüner et al., 1999; Hamschmidt and Dyllick, 2001; Hjelm et al., 2001; Klinkers et al., 1999; Ries et al., 1999; van Berkel et al., 1999). These results are in line with the finding in paper III, which will be summarised in the following section.
6.4.3 Empirical results on the connection between EMSs products and product development Some of the most interesting findings in paper III are illustrated by figure 9. In the figure results from five selected questions are presented that illuminates the auditors’ opinions on important issues. The answers were compared and classified into one of three groups, in accordance with which is more preferable from an environmental point of view. The five areas concerned (the three groups are within parenthesis): • • • • •
To what extent products are considered as significant environmental aspects (often; it depends, seldom) If environmental considerations are required in product development (yes; I try to influence; no) What these requirements encompass (life cycle; it depends; site) The scope of EMS (life cycle; first site, then life cycle; site) What kind of improvements are required to be reached (operational; only management OK; don’t know)
In addition to the three groups, a fourth was added for unclear answers. To be able to display the distribution of the answers, each group was given a score to indicate how preferable it was. Answers within the most preferable group were given five points, within the middle group three points, while the answers categorised in the third group received one point. Unclear answers were also given one point.
large extent are facility-oriented are here regarded as evidence of the fact that environmental product issues are not important. 52 As referred to in Rocha and Brezet, 1999.
69
Are products considered as significant aspects?
5 c
Often
3 c
It depends
1 c
Are environmental considerations required for product development?
Yes
Seldom
I try to influence
What do these requirements encompass?
What is the normal scope of an EMS?
Life-cycle perspective
Lifecycle
It depends
Unclear answer
Site
Unclear answer
Only management OK
Don’t know
No
Unclear answer
Operational
First site then lifecycle
Site
? c
What kind of improvements are to be reached?
Unclear answer
Figure 10. Distribution of the answers to five important questions. Each line corresponds to one auditor. 70
Unclear answer
The interviews conducted with environmental auditors showed that product-related environmental aspects exist on many different levels. On the overall level, environmental aspects exist that concern the whole product as such, which means that the manufactured products, or issues directly connected to these products, are regarded as environmental aspects. Relevant issues mentioned are, for example, the products’ recyclability and energy consumption during the use phase. On a more detailed level, product-related aspects such as usage of raw materials, energy, process chemicals, transportation, etc. are defined as environmental aspects 53. The scope, or focus, of these aspects varies along the product life cycle. This means that aspects formulated equally can have a different focus. For example, concerning chemicals one firm may focus on effluents at their site while another firm investigates the impacts of the supplier. The nine interviewed auditors claimed unanimously that a dominant part of the manufacturing companies, in the beginning of their EMS process, focuses on site-specific aspects. However, this site-specific scope to some extent includes goods and energy that are often declared as environmental aspects. This means that the EMSs often have links backward in the supply chain 54. So far, the auditors seem to agree. But concerning the question to what extent products are required to be included in an EMS for these systems to be approved and certified, the opinions differed. Two auditors were prepared to recommend certification of EMSs where the product issues were not included among the environmental aspects, while the remaining auditors required that product issues were regarded as environmental aspects. The experiences also vary concerning the question to what extent product issues are judged as significant environmental aspects. Six auditors stated that product related issues seldom are assessed as significant. Two within this group added that it would be annoying for the companies if their products were classified as significant environmental aspects. One auditor stated that the assessment of the significance of product related environmental aspects varies, depending on the type of product and design of EMS. Another auditor stated that products are often assessed as being significant. A majority of the auditors require that environmental considerations are incorporated into the product development process. One of these auditors emphasised that it is up to the company to decide if these considerations are to be prioritised in comparison with other product criteria. Three of the respondents said that they cannot find support in the standard for such requirements. Instead they bring this question up as a point for discussion. The scope of these environmental considerations differs somewhat, according to the auditors. Three of the respondents claimed that the checkpoints or criteria used are focused on the manufacturing facility. On the contrary, another two said that the products and their life cycles must be considered. Furthermore, one auditor said that the scope depends on companies’ available resources for this task. Concerning the scope of the complete EMS, five of the auditors stated that EMSs are often focused on a specific site, one of them added that suppliers are included as well. As a clarifying comment, one of these persons said that what is required concerning the scope is a kind of grey area where the requirements are adapted in accordance with the companies’ ambitions. One 53
These aspects were normally not referred to as product-related aspects by the auditors, but were mentioned in relation to more specific questions regarding the view of resources. 54 Where the supply chain concerns all steps from material extraction to end-of-life treatment.
71
interviewee said that the main focus is on the site, but emphasised that there are other relevant parts of the EMS that include other phases of the life cycle. Two of the respondents said that they allow a narrow, facility-oriented, scope in the beginning and then add tougher requirements later on. One of these auditors motivated this way of acting by saying that it is psychologically sound for the companies to get a good grip of the environmental issues within their sites, before widening the scope. Regarding the key commitment to continually improve, the auditors were asked what the companies are supposed to improve. Five of the interviewees answered that some improvements must be of an operational character, of which two emphasised that such improvements imply a reduced environmental impact. One-third approve progress solely of a management character 55. However, one of them added that the improvements must be linked to the significant environmental aspects, while another said that it is up to the company to decide the character of the progress. The remaining auditor said that he had no clear opinion on these issues. One of the auditors said that in Sweden, contrary to the application in some other countries, we have agreed that it is not enough to just improve the system – environmental performance has to improve. 56 What these different interpretations mean in terms of environmental impacts will be discussed further in section 6.7. Taken together, the results in figure 9 shows that one auditor’s answers were classified in the best group, that is the group including the most preferable answers from an environmental point of view, for all five questions. He and another auditor appear generally to pose significantly tougher requirements than the others do. At the other extreme, two of the respondents seem to accept EMSs that are very weakly linked to products. The remaining auditors are spread quite equally between these two groups of auditors. Only the highest ranked auditor was within the same category for all the questions. All the others’ opinions swung between the different groups, that is from preferable opinions to standpoints less advantageous for the environment.
6.5 Environmental targets and objectives Environmental objectives and targets are supposed to function as the engine in the work towards continual improvements. ISO 14001 and EMAS require that the significant environmental aspects be considered when they are established (ISO, 1996a; European Commission, 2001). Concerning objectives and targets there are some important facts that should be noted. The standards do not specify: • • • • •
55 56
How many objectives and targets that shall be established. Which aspects the targets shall be directed towards. The level of ambition. What type of objectives and targets that shall be used. That objectives and targets have to be reached.
For definitions of operational and management indicators, see ISO 14031. When later asked to clarify this statement, the auditor said that abroad it is sometimes approved to improve just your formulations. He continued by saying that in Sweden we demand that environmental performance is improved, which includes both operational and management performance.
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These issues will be elaborated on in the following sections, which also contain a discussion on if EMSs support or prevent environmental innovations.
6.5.1 The number of objectives and targets, and the aspects that they are directed towards It is to large extent up to each company to decide how many objectives and targets to establish. Paper IV concludes that eleven of the thirteen (85%) interviewed auditors said that it is approved to have only one target, while the remaining two (15%) requested more than one target. Amongst those who approved a single target, seven (64%) said that this target must concern a significant environmental aspect. Three (23%) of the auditors remarked that the number of targets needed, and to what extent these targets should concern the significant aspects, depends on the type and size of organisation, while another interviewee said this depends on how much the organisation can manage. Extremes were the auditor who did not raise any demands regarding the number of targets, nor regarding how many targets concerned significant environmental aspects, and the auditor who said it was mandatory to have at least two or three targets and all of them had to concern the significant aspects.
6.5.2 The level of ambition and different types of targets The standards do no specify any levels of performance improvements, that is they do not specify if targets shall yield improvements of, for example, one or fifty percent. In principal, it is approved to fail to reach all targets, as long as there is some improvement of environmental performance. Paper IV showed that no auditor said they have any predetermined absolute levels to decide if an organisation’s targets are ambitious enough. Further on, several auditors recommended the customer use measurable targets. Four of the thirteen (31%) interviewees spontaneously mentioned that a target’s improvement must exceed the margin of error when measuring. Many of the auditors emphasised the relation between the significant environmental aspects, environmental policy and the environmental objectives and targets. This means that the assessment of environmental aspects and ambition in the policy determine how the targets should be formulated. It is also important to observe that targets may be aimed to reach different types of improvements, for example, operational improvements (e.g. reduced amounts of used energy), management improvements (e.g. environmental training). During the work with this thesis the author, including his colleagues, has seen targets at certified companies like: – We shall translate our environmental manual to English. – We shall send more e-mail. – We shall communicate relevant procedures and requirements to our suppliers. – We shall identify coming legal requirements. – Person X shall receive environmental training. It must be noticed that it is difficult to in detail specify which improvements in terms of environmental impacts these activities will lead to. Moreover, at least two of these targets are required to be fulfilled according to the standards, which means that it is strange that they have been approved as targets. However, the author wants to emphasise that it is not known to what 73
extent targets like those exemplified are actually used. Probably, some of them are very uncommon. Nevertheless, they contribute to the understanding of what an EMS guarantees.
6.5.3 More or less innovations? There is an ongoing debate concerning to what extent EMSs support or prevent environmental innovations or environmental progress. On the one hand, it has been suggested that the striving for continual improvement supports innovations, on the other that companies tend to save improvements to ensure conformance in the future, which would prevent the improvement rate. Paper III concludes that about one-half of the interviewed auditors do not believe that companies save improvements to ensure future progress, while others admit that this sometimes is the case. These results indicate that EMS normally function as a driver for progress (although mostly facility-oriented progress). Nevertheless, they sometimes block innovations, which according to the answers seems to be most common at small firms. In a study conducted by Rennings et al. (2003, comprising 12 in-depth interviews and 1277 telephone interviews) it is concluded that EMSs in accordance with EMAS positively influence environmental innovations concerning aspects of organisation, products and processes.
6.6 Environmental auditing Since many of the standards’ requirements are imprecisely formulated, much is left to be interpreted by the companies and the external auditors (paper III, IV and NAPA, 2001). In practise, company’s managers and the auditors negotiate about how the requirements shall be interpreted and which implications are reasonable for the firms. However, in the end it is the external environmental auditors who determine what is approved. The widespread use of standardised EMSs and the fact that the standards contain unspecified requirements mean that the external environmental auditors must be classified to be among the key players in the environmental arena. During many of the studies that this thesis comprises, interesting findings concerning external auditors roles have been discovered 57. Firstly, it should be observed that the audited companies pay for these audits, which means that the certification bodies 58 are dependent on having a good relation to their customers. It is not known to what extent this is to be considered as a problem. However, paper IV showed that SWEDAC 59 had got signals from firms using EMSs indicating that there are certification bodies trying to gain customers through putting lower demands. This statement is supported by the statement by a majority of the interviewed auditors, who believed that other certification bodies competed by being less strict. Secondly, both the interview studies with auditors (paper III and IV) indicated that competing by shortening the time of audits, and thereby lowering the offered prices, is a problem. This observation should be taken seriously because shorter audits probably mean that the quality deteriorates. Thirdly, these studies also showed that a critical issue concerns to what extent auditors should function as consultants. 57
A reader with special interests in environmental auditing should observe that many of the most important results from interviews with auditors, are presented within other sections in this chapter on results. 58 That is the accredited companies where the external environmental auditors work. 59 SWEDAC (Swedish Board for Accreditation and Conformity Assessment) is the organisation that accredit the certification bodies.
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Some of the auditors (paper III and IV) and companies and an interviewed consultant (paper III) stated that that companies today want to gain more from the auditing activities. They require an increased value and want to have more than just notes concerning non-conformance, which leads to a complicated situation. On the one hand the auditors have to fulfil the companies’ wishes, on the other hand they should not become consultants and audit their own suggestions. Fourthly, in line with the findings of NAPA (2001) many of the results presented so far clearly show that central requirements in the standards are interpreted differently, which to great extent affects the connection between EMSs and environmental impacts. Paper III also showed that some of the interviewed auditors almost consistently pose tougher requirements than others (see figure 10). Finally, it should be observed that the certification bodies might consult auditors from outside their firms. Probably this leads to an increased divergence in interpretations (see paper IV and Nilsson, 2000). The author wants to emphasise that an absolute majority of the interviewed auditors have appeared to be very serious and environmentally competent, and they often express a whish for EMSs to be used as efficient environmental tools.
6.7 Continual improvements of environmental performance Even though previously stated, it is once again emphasised that neither ISO 14001, nor EMAS, include any absolute levels concerning environmental impacts or performance that a certified and/or registered company must conform with. This means that there, for example, are no predefined rules concerning which chemicals or materials might be used, neither any levels for amounts of used energy, generated emissions, transportation, etc. (ISO, 1996a, European Commission, 2001). Consequently, there is an important difference between EMSs and environmental labelling. It is not even crystal clear that it is required to comply with legal requirements (since the requirements in the standards mainly are directed towards procedures to identify relevant legal requirements and regulations and the existence of procedures to monitor compliance, see e.g. Welch et al., 2002 60). Instead of including requirements directed towards absolute requirements (which probably not is a realistic alternative if the standards shall be useful for all types of organisations), the standards require continual improvements of environmental performance. What this means, both regarding ISO 14001 and EMAS, can partly be understood by the text in EMAS: “continual improvement of the environmental performance shall mean the process of enhancing, year by year, the measurable results of the environmental management system related to an organisation’s management of its significant environmental aspects, based on its environmental policy, objectives and targets; the enhancing of the results need not take place in all spheres of activity simultaneously” (European Commission, 2001). It should be noted that the corresponding definitions in ISO 14001 says that it is the overall performance that shall improve, and do not specify that the improvements shall be directed towards the significant aspects (ISO, 1996a).
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This means that what is really required is the existence of a procedure to periodically evaluate the legal compliance, which is not the same as actually comply with these requirements. However, it should also be noticed that every company must include a commitment in their environmental policy to comply with relevant environmental legal requirements (ISO, 1996a).
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Apparently, some measurable results based on a company’s policy, objectives and targets are supposed to be improved. However, this improvement process does not necessarily have to cover all operations. Obviously, as for most requirements, these indistinct formulations leave a lot to be interpreted by companies using EMSs and by the external auditors who are supposed to verify continual improvement. Hence, it is relevant to ask: How can corporate environmental performance be measured and evaluated in general?
6.7.1 Measuring and evaluating corporate environmental performance – a review of the literature A review of the literature shows that many scientists and others have tried to answer this question or at least investigated relevant issues (e.g. Azzone et al., 1996; Bennett and James, 1998; Characklis and Richards, 1999; Dias-Sardinha and Reijnders, 2001; Epstein, 1996; Ilinitch et al., 1998; Jasch, 2000; Kleiner, 1991; Lober, 1996; Metcalf et al., 1995; O’Reilly et al., 2000; Pojasek, 2001; Thoresen, 1999; Young and Welford, 1998). This review demonstrates that there are several dimensions of corporate environmental performance. On an overall scale two dimensions exist, one concerning environmental management efforts and another concerning the environmental performance of operations, of which each consists of many subcategories. As previously stated, the performance of operations is more closely related to environmental impacts, while the link between management efforts and environmental impact is more indirect. When environmental performance is monitored and evaluated, indicators are selected for each subcategory. Regarding environmental indicators, many initiatives have been taken and there exist an abundance of papers, reports and guidelines (e.g. Berkhout et al, 2001; Habler and Reinhard, 2000; Johnson, 1998; Olsthoorn et al., 2001; Young, 1996; and the list of references above 61). Concerning, indicators in general, the literature suggests a flood of different alternatives, for example indicators concerning costs, eco-efficiency, energy consumption, emissions, environmental training, goods, legal compliance, products, spills, transportation, turnover, water consumption, etc. The standard ISO 14031, including guidelines for environmental performance evaluation, more directed towards the use of EMSs, also suggests the use of management performance indicators (MPIs) and operational performance indicators (OPIs) (ISO, 2000). According to Bennett and James (1998), ISO (2000), O’Reilly et al. (2000), and Young and Welford (1998), ISO 14031 can help organisations regarding the requirement of continual improvement. The purpose of ISO 14031 is to assist environmental performance evaluation (EPE), defined as a “process to facilitate management decisions regarding an organisation’s environmental performance by selecting indicators, collecting and analysing data, assessing information against environmental performance criteria, reporting and communicating, and periodically reviewing and improving this process.”
6.7.2 The meaning of continual performance improvements for companies with an EMS Combining all these facts, it can be concluded that there is no commonly accepted method for measuring or evaluating environmental performance. This is not surprising, since especially evaluations are difficult and very value dependent (see the section 2.3: “Difficulties in assessing environmental impacts”). Moreover, a company with an EMS is supposed to select a number of indicators, that can be both of an operational and/or management character (in the case of EMAS 61
Also, references concerning the concept of eco-efficiency can be added to this list: see “Methodology”.
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directed towards the significant environmental aspects). The developments concerning these indicators are supposed to be used for determining if approved improvements have been reached or not. These, to large extent theoretical, findings go well in line with the empirical results from the studies conducted by the author, which means that they have been confirmed by the interviewed auditors and environmental managers. However, to better illuminate the connection between environmental performance and environmental impacts, some additional results are of utmost importance. Firstly, paper III and IV showed that many auditors focus on the environmental objectives and targets when the requirement for continual improvement is controlled (which also many of the managers interviewed for paper I confirmed). This means that many of them do not seem to conduct a comprehensive analysis concerning the development of environmental performance. Since it has also been found that companies often work with a limited number of targets, it can be concluded that the requirement for continual improvements in practice might be applied for a relatively low number of aspects. Consequently, it might only cover a small part of a company’s environmental performance. Secondly, the selected indicators are often in the form of ratios, where, for example, the amounts of raw materials are divided by profit indicators. Consequently, deterioration in environmental impacts can be compensated by business improvements. One statement from an interviewed auditor illustrates the situation (paper III): “Everything is related to business performance and economic factors. We can only require that the company show us how they have prioritised and who is deciding on these issues”. Hence, at the extreme, with unaltered environmental impacts and an increased turnover, selected ratios might be improved and the requirement for a continual improvement might be regarded as fulfilled. Similarly, but based on a large empirical study of both eco-efficiency measures and absolute measures, Hamschmidt and Dyllick (2001) state ” … it becomes clear that the relative improvements in eco-efficiency are often offset by expansions in production.” However, it must also be recognised that it appears reasonable to use ratios to some extent as indicators, otherwise certified companies would have problems expanding their operations. Nevertheless, it is also important not to lose track of the total environmental impact. Thirdly, the selected indicators might be directed towards management (organisational) improvements. Paper III showed that the interviewed auditors had different opinions on what kind of improvements were to be reached. Three out of nine auditors said that it was approved only to reach improvements in management performance (for example, to increase someone’s environmental training) and a fourth had no clear opinion on what is approved. It is also important to notice that the standards’ formulations actually may be interpreted so that is the systems that are to be improved, and not even the environmental performance (NAPA, 2001). Since targets often are formulated as ratios, continual improvement might be reached although the total environmental impact is increased, even for the environmental aspects focused on. An ISO 14001 certificate does not tell very much about all other environmental aspects. From an environmental point of view, and based on the overall objective of ISO 14001, it seems crucial to clarify the requirement of continual improvement.
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6.7.3 Comparing performance evaluations for EMSs and life cycle assessments Some of the results presented in Table 2 showed that in some cases, the environmental performance indicators for firms with EMSs, improve while others deteriorate (see paper VII as well and the results in section 6.8.4). Consequently, in practise the auditors must be able to compare certain improvements with certain deteriorations and decide whether the overall development is positive or not. This means that the situation is very similar to the weighting step in life-cycle assessment (LCA). Udo de Haes (1999) says: “Weighting in life-cycle assessment (LCA) means that the results of all types of impact are converted into one single number. … This is probably the most controversial issue in LCA.” (cf. Finnveden, 2000; Krozer and Vis, 1998). The auditors somehow have to aggregate the information given by the indicators chosen at each firm to decide: Improvement or not? However, LCA studies are often focused on products and EMSs focus on organisations. This means that, normally, a LCA does not include any parameters concerning management efforts, that is the use of management indicators adds additional dimensions to the already intricate weighting problem. This is because judging continual improvement not only implies comparing different kinds of environmental impacts or performance measures directly connected to environmental impacts, but also comparisons of environmental impacts and management efforts. A question serves as an example illustrating the problem: How many hours of environmental training (management performance indicator) are needed to compensate for an increase in emissions of carbon dioxide (operational performance indicator)? From an environmental point of view, establishing indicators to illuminate and evaluate environmental efforts seems attractive and praiseworthy. At the same time, it appears relevant to question what kind of continual improvement an EMS guarantees, if there is an improvement at all. Considering the overall aim of ISO 14001, that is to support environmental protection and prevention of pollution, focus should be on performance closely related to environmental impacts.
6.8 EMSs for SMEs In chapter 3 it was stated that it is interesting to investigate and discuss whether EMSs are appropriate tools for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Mentioned reasons are, among others, that SMEs are an important group from an environmental point of view and that it is common that larger companies require SMEs to implement EMSs. This means that many SMEs, more ore less, are forced to implement an EMS. But are standardised EMSs effective tools for SMEs? Biondi et al. (2000), Dalhammar (2000), Drobny (1997), Gerstenfeld and Roberts (2000), Hillary (2000), and O’Laoire and Welford (1996) all have investigated, or at least discussed, barriers to the adoption of EMSs in SMEs. In summary, significant barriers are the lack of human and economical resources, problems related to company structures, systems, cultures and attitudes, lack of knowledge and experience, insufficient drivers, absence of information and guidance adapted to the size and type of enterprise, and problems achieving internal auditor neutrality. At the same time, reports show a positive effect connected to EMSs used by SMEs (Hillary, 1999; Löfqvist et al., 2000; Wells and Galbraith, 1999).
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6.8.1 The Hackefors model Concerning EMSs in SMEs, this thesis to large extent focuses on a special EMS model that has been developed to aid companies to implement and maintain an EMS, that is to overcome the mentioned barriers. The name of this model is derived from the name of an industrial district – namely the Hackefors industrial district in Linköping, Sweden. There 26 small enterprises, in the middle of the 1990s, formed an environmental group and a network and a few years later started to implemented a joint EMS (paper V). Of these enterprises 16 had 10 or fewer employees, 7 between 11 and 50 employees, and 3 between 51 and 80 employees. This means that a majority of the enterprises focused on were “micro-sized”. They represented a wide range of businesses, including manufacturing, waste recycling, transportation, construction, trade, graphic industries, etc. The network was established in 1995, the EMS implementation started with environmental reviews in 1997 and in the beginning of 1999 this group of enterprises was certified according to ISO 14001, applying a concept of group certification.
6.8.2 Joint EMS and group certification The EMS model used at Hackefors Industrial district is called the Hackefors model. It is constructed so that each enterprise within the group has an EMS of its own that fulfils the requirements of ISO 14001 and thus a certificate of its own. In this way the Hackefors model does not differ from other EMSs. There are, however, many unique factors of interest, such as the small size of the enterprises, the way the EMS has been implemented, the system administration and group certification. There are two leading ideas behind the Hackefors model. First, central administration, handled by a central co-ordinator and a support group, is meant to reduce the administrative burden for the individual enterprises. The EMSs have a very similar structure and many EMS documents are identical, or almost identical 62, for all firms. This solution removes some of the barriers mentioned, such as lack of knowledge and experience, and the absence of information and guidance adapted to the size and type of enterprise. Moreover, a group of internal auditors has been chosen and trained. This group conducts all internal audits at a fee per hour, which the enterprises decide together. The auditors do not audit their own company, so this solution solves any problems regarding impartialness. The second leading idea concerns cost-effectiveness. Many expenses are shared between the involved enterprises and by co-operation more efficient solutions are available. For example, since the documentation and procedures conform for enterprises within the same line of business, the external certification body has agreed only to audit one enterprise within each line of business at a time.
6.8.3 Business effects of the joint-EMS The overall business effects were judged as very positive by the participating companies managers (paper V and VI). The results showed that the Hackefors model had led to striking cost 62
The EMS documentation consists of two main binders, one of which is identical for all the enterprises – the “EMS manual”. The other main binder contains documents that are specific for each enterprise. For a majority of these specific documents, the central co-ordinator and the steering committee prepare documentary templates, which simplifies document completion. In addition to the two main binders, there are binders for each enterprise’s records.
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savings compared to individual certification. Moreover, three-fifths of the co-ordinators declared that it had become easier to receive a contract as a consequence of the EMS and it was clear that the EMS, in general, had improved many important business relations. A majority of the respondents declared better relations with existing customers and an increased interest regarding products and services from potential customers. Almost every environmental co-ordinator believed that their ISO 14001-based EMS resulted in positive business effects in general 63. In addition to the mentioned business effects, many benefits occurred as a consequence of the network and the co-operation. The companies started to co-operate in many areas. Electricity was bought together and the companies managed to get district heating to Hackefors 64. A common pool of workers was established and collective caretakers and security guards and some office equipment (such as a photocopier) was shared. The environmental training did bring about an increased interest in education, which resulted in courses in English, German, French, Chemistry and Natural Science.
6.8.4 Environmental effects of the joint EMS The environmental effects caused by the EMS implementation were studied using two different methods. The environmental managers were interviewed and then the companies’ environmental reviews were studied (they had updated their reviews after one or a few years) and the development in eco-efficiency was calculated. Results from the interview studies Based on the interviews, two major areas of improvement were noticed. First, before the formation of the environmental network, typically each company had two waste categories, one for incineration and one for non-combustible waste. In some cases there was also a category for hazardous waste. Today, there are about 20 categories for separation at the central unit, which has facilitated recycling. Before, the category for incineration included waste that should not be incinerated, for example electronics, and among the waste for landfilling there were portions that should be reused or incinerated. At the present time, some former waste categories are used by other companies. Since the companies changed their waste handling before the EMSs were implemented, these improvements must be seen as a consequence of networking, rather than of the EMS. However, a few of the respondents felt that the joint EMS also gave more strength to the efforts regarding waste. Second, the enterprises at Hackefors, together with a local power company and others, have managed to get district heating to this industrial district. According to the directors’ report of the city council, 30 enterprises are expected to change to district heating, which will reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide by 3282, 5.1 and 6.4 tons per year respectively (Johnsson, 2000). It can be concluded that about 10 of the enterprises included in this study are connected or intend to be connected to this district heating network.
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It should be noticed that this group of companies were certified relatively early. Therefore, it is probably more difficult to reach similar improvements today. 64 Which will reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide by 3282, 5.1 and 6.4 tons per year respectively (Johnsson, 2000).
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There are many other examples of improvements declared as direct consequences of the EMSs, as is shown in Figure 11. 10
Measures to reduce emissions 3
Requirements to suppliers
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Substitution of goods 2
Reduced risk of fire
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Changed storage and/or containers Technical measures to save energy
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Figure 11. The number of different environmental measures that are seen as consequences of the EMS. More than half of the enterprises (14; 56%) have substituted goods for alternatives better from an environmental point of view. For example, this includes the exchange of mineral oils for vegetable oils; changes in types of fuel, paint and refrigerants; and substitution of chemicals and PVC plastics. About 50% (13; 52%) have striven for a decrease in transportation or for improved transportation. Slightly more than 40% (11; 44%) have either improved the storage of chemicals, oils, batteries, etc. and/or obtained better containers to reduce the risk of accidents. An equal number of enterprises (11; 44%) have taken measures to decrease the amount of energy used, of which 6 are characterised as results of technical measures and the remaining 5 as consequences of changed staff behaviour. Moreover, almost one-third (8; 32%) has managed to decrease the amount of at least one of the goods/materials used. A few (3; 12%) have attained improvements through the use of supplier requirements and 2 (8%) have reduced the risk of a fire. In addition to the improvements presented in Figure 11, one firm declared reduced noise and more effective production that resulted in decreased amounts of goods needed. Also, another company has started to purchase from local suppliers. Results from the eco-efficiency study The quantitative study focused on eco-efficiency, gave results according to figure 12-16, where each row (A-L) represents one enterprise.
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Water
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Figure 12. The mean values for the total environmental performance score concerning energy. The black bars with boldfaced values are most trustworthy.
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Figure 13. The mean values for the total environmental performance score concerning water. The black bars with boldfaced values are most trustworthy.
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Figure 15. The mean values for the total environmental performance score concerning waste & by-products. The black bars with boldfaced values are most trustworthy.
Figure 14. The mean values for the total environmental performance score concerning goods. The black bars with boldfaced values are most trustworthy.
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Transportation
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Figure 16. The mean values for the total environmental performance score concerning transportation. The black bars with boldfaced values are most trustworthy. An initial observation is that every environmental performance evaluation depends on the availability and reliability of the data. Slightly less than 60% of the quantified results were judged to have both good availability and reliability, why they were regarded as most trustworthy (the black bars in the figures). It is noteworthy that only one firm had good data availability and reliability for all five groups of parameters studied (energy, water, goods, waste and by-products, and transportation). For two enterprises the data was considered to be unreliable or insufficient for all these groups. Moreover, it should be observed that 2 (17%) companies have accounted for some flows of material and energy in monetary values, which weakens the connection to the amount of material and energy used. It is a bit remarkable that the external auditors have approved the EMSs, indicating that the requirement of continual improvement was fulfilled, in spite of the fact that 54% of the results 65 must be characterised as unreliable and that two firms appear to have unreliable results for all five groups. Previously it was stated that it is difficult to determine whether there is an overall improvement in environmental performance if some indicators show improvements and others deteriorations, since it leads to a situation where different kinds of environmental effects have to be compared. It was concluded that this is similar to the weighting step used in life-cycle assessments (see 6.7.3), which is generally regarded as controversial. Therefore it is important to notice that 4 of firms have a decreased score, 2 regarding energy and 2 other concerning transportation (Figure 11-15). Consequently, if the auditors conducted analysis similarly and analogously to this example, which they normally do not according the previous sections 66 and the author’s experience, the critical decision points would be reached – the weighting step previously discussed. If the auditors had noticed this, they would have had to compare different types of environmental impacts, to deduce if there had been an improvement in total environmental performance or not. 65
There were 60 results in total, of which 48 were quantified and 12 not quantified. The 54% concerns that 32 of the 60 results were regarded as unreliable. 66 These results indicated that they normally are focusing on environmental objectives and targets.
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As auditors seem to focus on objectives and targets, it was interesting to study the objectives and targets established by the companies to see if the intended improvements could be observed in the eco-efficiency data. It could be concluded that, for some firms, it was difficult to trace the effects of environmental targets by studying their environmental reviews. For a majority of the targets it was not possible to conclude that there have been changes in environmental performance. Partially, this is a consequence of targets not directly intended to improve environmental performance. For example, this concerns targets like improving the storage of chemicals, assessing shipping agents, different kinds of inventories and investigations, etc. However, there are also many targets intended to lead to performance improvements, where the related data is not accounted for in the reviews. Fifteen positive connections between environmental targets and the environmental reviews could be established, which means that the improvements intended could be observed in the data. Three times the connection was negative, that is, the environmental performance worsened concerning the environmental aspects these targets were intended to improve. In three other cases, data regarding the environmental aspects in focus for the targets were available but no change could be observed.
6.8.5 Disadvantages with a joint EMS Besides the many positive environmental, organisational and business effects, some disadvantages that exist with a joint EMS should be mentioned. Much depends on the central organisation/co-ordination, which might make the solution vulnerable. It should also be noted that the central design of the EMSs, that is a kind of standardisation within the group of enterprises, results in decreased flexibility. However, the most striking disadvantage is that the comprehensive support might lead to a lack of understanding and competence for central EMS procedures. This is a result that is not only valid for the Hackefors model, but goes for every company supported by consultants (paper I). Nevertheless, in the investigated case the positive effects seemed absolutely dominant. The results of the network and joint EMS must be judged from the fact that many of the smaller firms lacked systematic environmental efforts before, and some did not consider environmental issues at all (paper VI).
6.8.6 A widespread use of the Hackefors model Since the case study on the first group of companies using the Hackefors model took place, the model has proved to be a viable solution for SMEs: for other groups of SMEs, for other industrial districts and even for industrial concerns, and it has been spread all over Sweden. Today, about 450 Swedish companies are certified using this model (Börjesson, 2003 67), which corresponds to 15% of the total number of certified companies.
67
B. Börjesson, pers.comm., October 6, 2003.
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7 Concluding discussion In this chapter the most important findings are summarised and the implications of these findings are discussed with reference to the use of EMSs . In addition, recommendations and discussion points are presented for how the EMS infrastructure, that is the standards and the systems for their application, could be changed to strengthen the connection between EMSs and environmental improvements, and thereby to increase the credibility of EMSs.
7.1 Main aim and methodological approach This thesis has mainly been aimed to increase the understanding for the contribution of EMSs to changed environmental impacts. The author wants to emphasise that this thesis to large extent has been aimed to illuminate minimum performance and weaknesses concerning standardized EMSs. Therefore, it is important for the reader to understand that only some parts of it are directed towards average performance. It should be stressed that EMSs, without any doubts, can be used to structure and reach efficient environmental efforts and thereby to reduce important environmental impacts. For sure, many companies use EMSs this way, which is very praiseworthy. To reach the thesis’ aims, two main roads have been followed. The first road concerns the studies conducted by the author (paper I-VII), which to large extent is an analysis of how important elements of the standards (ISO 14001 and EMAS), and the systems for their application, affect the relation between EMSs and the environment. This road has taken a dominant part of the time. The second road concerns a synthesis of knowledge on methodologies and results from studies conducted by other researchers, mainly on environmental effects in relation to EMSs. The idea is that the information gathered from the journeys along these two roads, combined, may contribute to an increased understanding for what is known about if, and how, EMSs actually affect environmental performance, and for important elements and practices that are vital to explain this picture and change it in a desired direction. In addition, the Hackefors EMS model has been analysed, both concerning its construction and the observed effects.
7.2 What do EMSs comprise? EMSs are built up around the so-called environmental aspects, of which those aspects that are judged as significant are cornerstones. It has been shown that the term environmental aspect can be interpreted in many different ways and that what types of aspects are used and focused on has an impact on the connection to the environment. Moreover, both the studies conducted by the author and other studies (see Zobel and Burman, 2004) bear witness to the fact that it is often difficult do understand which parts of, for example, a supply chain the aspects comprise and also
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which environmental impacts that have been taken into consideration for each aspect. The conducted studies showed that the scope of individual aspects and the adherent impacts seldom appeared to be based on a conscious choice, which can be understood by an outside observer, and managers’ knowledge of the effects of such choices generally seemed limited. It must be emphasised that companies working this way do not know if they are addressing the most important environmental aspects, seen from an environmental life cycle perspective. Furthermore, it should be underlined that the size of environmental aspects, in relation to the other aspects, directly might influence the assessment results, i.e. which aspects it is mandatory to work with for companies using EMSs. To further elaborate on issues in relation to scope, it must be concluded that a majority of the research findings indicate that EMSs, until now, to large extent have been facility-oriented. This means that most environmental aspects are focused on sites and also that only a very limited part of the EMS procedures and activities are directed towards the parts of the life cycle that are upstream or downstream from a company. This way of using EMSs means that their full potential as important tools in dealing with environmental problems in relation to the consumption society is not utilised. The study of assessment methods showed that environmental parameters, for the 18 companies studied, generally represented a large part of the distributed values. This is very positive, from an environmental point of view. Nevertheless, the same study (and also other studies) verified that there is a discrepancy in the standards, of a practical meaning, which means that it is possible to let non-environmental parameters dominate the assessment, and thereby to deprioritise environmental issues. Moreover, the results concerning the scope of EMSs, mentioned above, might mean that even if the focus to a large extent is on environmental parameters in the assessment, it does not have to comprise the most important impacts.
7.3 What do EMSs lead to in terms of environmental performance? The review of studies on the effects of EMSs showed that the results are very divergent. Based on the comprehensive studies on operational environmental performance, which are most trustworthy, it is not possible to decide whether companies that use EMSs perform better than others. In general, interviews with environmental managers seem to yield more positive results than studies focused on operational performance. Similarly, most studies indicate that EMSs lead to many environmental management activities, but it is not clear to what extent these activities induce reduced impacts. However, two out of three of the reviewed studies on legal effects, concluded that EMSs improve legal compliance. In addition, Granath and Toll (2003) found positive effects concerning risk management, both in terms of preparedness and the actual number of accidents. It should be emphasised that, without any doubts, EMSs can be used to effectively reduce environmental impacts and gain business benefits, which has been proved at many occasions. Nonetheless, based on the present knowledge, it is not possible to decide if EMSs generally lead to reduced environmental impacts, which is a very tricky research topic. It is neither possible to decide if companies using EMSs are better than others – which is a simpler and different question! An important finding is that methodological issues should be paid more attention, when the effects of EMSs are studied.
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Neither ISO 14001, nor EMAS, contains any absolute levels concerning environmental impacts, but the idea is that a company should improve its performance from its point of departure. The most important commitment for a company using an EMS is to continually improve (selected parts) of its environmental performance, why it has been of utmost importance for this thesis to elucidate how this requirement is applied in reality. It can be concluded that it to large extent is up to each company to select indicators to monitor the development of the environmental performance for some environmental aspects, where EMAS specifies that the significant aspects should be focused on. Moreover, there are two different types of performance indicators; operational indicators (more directly linked to environmental impacts) and management indicators (indirectly linked to environmental impacts). The external environmental auditors have different opinions on which type of improvements that are to be reached. From an environmental standpoint, there is a big difference between achieving reduced environmental impacts (improving absolute operational indicators) and improving a management indicator. For example, reductions of emissions of carbon dioxides can be compared with increased environmental training and even improved procedures – improvements of the systems. In addition, the studies showed that the environmental indicators often are in the form of ratios, which, for example, means that operational environmental indicators are divided by business indicators (e.g. the amount of raw materials divided by the turnover). Ratios of this type are commonly used in the society and it must be recognised that it appears reasonable to use ratios to some extent as indicators, otherwise certified companies would have problems expanding their operations. Nevertheless, it is also important not to lose track of the total environmental impact. For companies using ratios, deterioration in environmental impacts can be compensated by business improvements. Hence, at the extreme, with unaltered (or even worsen) environmental impacts and an increased turnover, selected ratios might be improved and the requirement for a continual improvement might be regarded as fulfilled. Clearly, it is approved to increase the total environmental impacts. Furthermore, many of the interviewed auditors stated that when they control the requirement for a continual improvement, the environmental objectives and targets are focused on. It is important to recognise that when this is the case, only a very small part of the environmental performance is controlled, since companies normally work with a limited number of targets, i.e. the objectives and targets normally seem to cover a small part of the environmental aspects. An important conclusion is that one has to go beyond the fact that a company has a certified or registered EMS to find out if they are performing well from an environmental point of view. It should be publicly known that the outcome to very large extent is up to each company, which depends on the unspecific formulations (the possibility to interpret central requirements differently), especially concerning continual improvements. There is a range of possible interpretations of each of the 52 requirements in ISO 14001 (and EMAS), and it is at the end up to the third party auditors to assess whether a company’s interpretations are adequate. An ISO 14001 certificate, or EMAS registration, in fact does not distinguish between a company that has improved one ratio and a company that has integrated environmental issues into core business strategies and has thereby been able to reduce its overall environmental impact. However, one important difference between a certification and a registration is that an outside observer has
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better opportunities with an EMAS registration to get information of the environmental efforts, because of the public environmental statement. The huge variety in the interpretation practices of the requirements for an EMS implies that the motives for the implementation are crucial (Andrews et al., 2003; Poksinska, 2003). A short review of motives shows that the there is no consensus concerning which motives are most important (compare, for example, Hamschmidt and Dyllick, 2002; Mohammed, 2000; Morrow and Rondinelli, 2002; Poksinska, 2003; Rivera-Camino, 2001; Summer-Raines, 2002; Zackrisson et al., 2000; Zutshi and Sohal, 2002). While some researchers have found that environmental improvements are the most important reason for implementing an EMS, others state that issues of public image are the principal reason (of which some do not even have that environmental improvements among the alternatives). As with most tools, the outcome is dependent on how they are used. Therefore, companies that only want to have a certificate for marketing reasons, most likely have a worse performance and improvement rate than companies really trying to reduce central environmental impacts. Poksinska (2003) states that “organisations standardised practise and did not practise the standards”, which means that the studied firms interpreted the standards so that they did not have to change much (see also Bansal and Hunter, 2003). A result of major importance concerns the environmental communication in the supply chain. Both ISO 14001 and EMAS require that relevant requirements be communicated to suppliers. The studied companies, and the auditors’ answers, indicate that this requirement in practise often means that companies require that their suppliers are certified/registered, or at least have some kind of an EMS. It was commonly stated that a questionnaire is sent to suppliers including questions on their environmental efforts. Some of them are formulated so that companies that have an EMS only have to ‘tick that alternative’ to be approved, while others may have to answer many more detailed questions. Based on this information two remarks are important. Firstly, companies that only require an EMS are not able to deduce if their suppliers are performing well from an environmental point of view. This is also true for other important actors in the environmental arena, for example, authorities that are supposed to put requirements when conducting public purchasing. Secondly, the use of EMSs may have reduced the environmental communication in the supply chain. This is true when detailed questionnaires (and reviews) are substituted for “yes or no-questions” concerning EMS certification/registration.
7.4 Different roles for EMSs in the society How the results presented should be judged depends on what role EMSs are supposed to have in the society. If EMSs only are used as internal tools, then the present situation may be accepted. On the other hand, the more EMSs are used externally, as a guarantee or for legitimacy, the tougher the requirements they have to fulfil. Today EMSs are used to market companies externally, to get environmental regulatory relief, as indicators for sustainable development, as a guarantee for better environmental performance, etc. According to the author’s opinion this is not reasonable taking what they really guarantee into account and as long as it is not known very much about their effects. It should also be emphasised that only limited improvements might be reached by adjusting the EMS infrastructure. For companies to really capture the potential of EMSs, and other similar 89
tools, it has to be beneficial to have a good environmental performance. Consequently, it is crucial that important actors try to create business markets and societal environments that make environmentally responsible companies successful.
7.5 Ways of improving the EMS infrastructure Knowing that EMSs can be used as effective environmental tools, and certainly are used as such by many serious companies, it would be unfortunate if their potential were not used. However, the fact that EMSs may be used in many different ways, of which some leads to environmental improvements and others do not, means that environmentally unserious companies put the credibility of EMSs at stake. The author believe that issues concerning trustworthiness are becoming more and more important concerning EMSs, and will determine the future for such systems, that is determine what will become of all the hours and dollars put into efforts of developing, implementing, auditing, etc., and also decide if the EMS potential might be captured. To ensure and strengthen the credibility of EMSs, and to utilise the potential of these systems, the author believes that it is important to consider ways of improving the EMS infrastructure and its application. This section includes a list of discussion points that are of relevance to increase EMSs’ contribution to reduced environmental impacts. This list must be seen as desiderata, which do not take the plausibility of really achieving these changes into account. The author is aware of the fact substantial efforts lay behind the EMS standards and the systems for their application, for example, in terms of tough negotiations concerning what the standards should comprise and the stringency of requirements. However, it may also block the creativity to consider some types of changes as impossible. The following points may be relevant to observe if efforts to change EMSs are initiated. To discuss: • how it is possible to clarify issues in relation to scopes of environmental aspects, both concerning the operations (supply chain) and the environmental impacts. It is also important to recognise that efforts are needed to increase the understanding for systems perspectives in relation to environmental impacts. • measures to strengthen the connection between manufacturing companies’ environmental aspects and their products. • how it can be ensured that companies and organisations for which management aspects are important (e.g. banks, consultants, universities, authorities), include and focus on such aspects. • how to remove the discrepancy concerning whether only environmental parameters are allowed or also classical business parameters, when environmental aspects are assessed to determine which aspects are significant. This goes for the wording in the standards as well as their practical application. It is recommended that the assessment is carried out using two steps, where the first only includes environmental parameters and decides which aspects are significant, and the second includes business parameters and determines which aspects to prioritise, for example when targets are established. • how to change the EMS infrastructure and its application so that environmental considerations are included into the procedures for product development for manufacturing companies (that conduct product development). It is important to observe
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•
•
and make use of the report ISO TR 14062 on environmental product development. Are the wordings of the standards suitable or should they be complemented with a special part that concerns product development? clarifications of the requirement for a continual improvement, so that it is clearly stated what kind of improvements are supposed to be reached. The author recommends that at least some operational improvements should be required, meaning that it is not enough to improve management aspects and definitely not to only improve the systems (e.g. the documentation). how auditing procedures might be harmonised, for example concerning the time for audits, and the interpretations of central EMS requirements. Moreover, the role of auditors should be discussed (e.g. consultanting or not?) and if there are any acceptable solutions to reduce the certification bodies dependence of the audited companies (if that is a problem). One controversial issue concerns if audits always must be announced in advance. According to the author’s experience, many companies tend to work with their EMSs in accordance with the dashed line in Figure 17. One possible reason is that the systems are not well adapted to the organisation and therefore is not really used in the daily work. It probably is not a sound signal if the work intensity concerning the EMS significantly increases the weeks before an audit. Another, probably even more controversial issue, concerns whether the same certification body always should audit the same firm. What is a possible and reasonable solution depends on the role of EMSs as previously has been discussed. There are also other (less controversial) alternatives that may be used to “audit” the certification bodies and the auditors to more extent. Some of the problems may be removed just by increasing the public communication.
Efforts
Internal audit
Internal audit
Internal audit
Time Certification
External audit
External audit
Figure 17. Illustration of how the efforts with an EMS might vary. The continuous line is supposed to show the efforts for an EMS that is well adapted to the organisation and actively used. The dashed line shows how it might look for companies that mainly want to have a certificate and are not really using the EMS for management. •
how to clarify and make it more obvious which part of an organisation that is certified, to prevent that for example only a marketing division is certified, but that this certificate us used so that is seems as the whole company is certified.
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• •
•
initiatives to increase the understanding for what an EMS is, among other reasons with the important aim to make companies, and public purchasers, focus on environmental performance (impacts) rather than on certificates and registrations. the need for an increased external communication on environmental performance measurements, so that an outside observer (the public) can understand which environmental aspects a certain company has identified and the adherent impacts, which aspects are considered as significant and why, which indicators have been selected to monitor each significant aspect, and the development for these indicators. Each company could specify clear motivations for whether the requirement for a continual improvement has been fulfilled. why it is very unusual that a certificate is withdrawn and if that is a problem. For example, criteria for withdrawal of a certificate because of non-conformance could be developed and clarified.
7.6 Final remarks The author believes in the potential of EMSs. However, a critical issue is that EMSs in many situations are regarded as a guarantee for good environmental performance in our society. This thesis has shown that the fact that a company has an EMS, does not assure a good performance, and definitely not reduced environmental impacts. This means that there also are companies that use EMSs mainly to improve their image, without really trying to improve the environmental situation. Therefore, it is important to elucidate minimum requirements and point out weaknesses that can be removed to increase the trustworthiness of EMSs. Otherwise, there is a big risk that the EMS potential is not captured. At the present, a standardised EMS can be seen as a toolbox that may very well be used to build a fine house, but not everyone that has a toolbox can manage, or wants to, build a house. Those who want to impress their neighbours, but do not allow them to visit, may to large extent focus on their facing. As an outside observer, it is difficult to judge the quality of what is inside. However, few people would buy a house without having inspected its interior!
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8 Information on the author’s efforts in relation to each paper This chapter is aimed to clarify to what extent the author of this thesis has contributed to each of the papers I-VII. For the papers I and IV-VII I have been the main author, which means that I have been responsible for the process of writing them. As my supervisor, Olof Hjelm has contributed with constructive critique for all of them. Concerning the research efforts in relation to each paper the following can be stated: •
Paper I: I conducted one half of the interviews and transcribed them. Charlotta Jonsson and Margareta Öberg did the same for the other half. Then I summarised, categorised and classified all the answers (and wrote the paper).
•
Paper II: I was responsible for about 70% of the literature review, that is carried out a majority of the work. Erik Sundin conducted the remaining part. We wrote the paper in co-operation.
•
Paper III: I conducted the interviews together with Erik Sundin. We transcribed about one half each and then summarised, categorised and classified the answers together. We also wrote the paper together.
•
Paper IV: Gunnar Wik carried out all the interviews and also transcribed them. I, in the role of a supervisor, assisted him concerning scope, interview questions, and to some extent concerning the interpretation. Gunnar Wik wrote a master thesis on this issue. In parallel to this process, I was responsible for writing the corresponding scientific paper.
•
Paper V: Information about the Hackefors model was collected together with Olof Hjelm, who also contributed with important feedback during the process of writing. Berit Börjesson supplied the important information that the paper is based on.
•
Paper VI: I conducted an absolute majority of the interview studies. Olof Hjelm carried out a few of them. I put the results together, assisted by Olof Hjelm concerning those interviews that he had conducted.
•
Paper VII: I collected the information from the environmental reviews. Moreover, I developed the used model for calculating eco-efficiency, in many ways supported by
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Olof Hjelm. Thereafter I carried out the eco-efficiency calculations, which we both reviewed and adjusted a little.
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9 Acknowledgements The journey as I PhD candidate to large extent has been very pleasant and contributed to important experiences. I often see it as a privilege to be able to work with environmental issues, since I am quite convinced that it is of outmost importance that the life sustaining systems are functioning. Rather often, I wish that more people took that basic fact into consideration. This shows the other side of the coin, which is that you as a researcher within this field constantly are reminded about that we are facing serious problems. Having that in mind, it is often confusing how narrowly, for example, world leaders and chief executives reason. Just an example: Is it really that smart to focus so much on economic growth? For me, that is a very blunt way of measuring, which only tells how fast it goes, but not much about in which direction. Why not focus on quality of life? Well, that was a sidetrack. Turning back to this thesis, I would not have been able to finish it without the support and contributions from many other people, whom I stand in gratitude to. Thank you! I cannot mention everyone, but would especially like to thank my supervisor, Olof Hjelm, for invaluable guidance and encouragement and also Richard Almgren for generously letting me share parts of his inexhaustible experiences, concerning environmental management systems and environmental efforts in general. I am also very grateful to all my colleagues at Environmental Technique and Management, Linköping University. Some of you, in the role of teachers, strengthened my interest in environmental sciences. All of you create a wonderful working atmosphere and have contributed with support and valuable comments. I would especially like to thank Sara Emilsson for her cheerful temperament. No matter how dark it is she sees sunlight. For having provided very valuable information, I want to thank the external environmental auditors. I would also like to express gratitude to the environmental co-ordinators at Hackefors, the central co-ordinator Berit Börjesson in particular, for your time and information, and NUTEK (the Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development) and CF (The Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers) for having financed my research. I am also very proud and grateful for the Royal award that I received for my research. Last, but not least, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my family and friends for their love and support. Sanna, you are really a treasure! Jacob, you have brought a new, wonderful dimension to my life!
Jonas Ammenberg Linköping, October 2003
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