EMAS and ISO 14001 in the German industry – complements or substitutes?

Abstract

Both standards are comparatively successful in the German automotive and engineering industry which makes Germany an interesting place for researching their relationship. Two research questions are addressed in this study. First, (i) what explains why companies adopt both EMAS and ISO 14001?In the interviews that were conducted, this was addressed by asking what motivated the adoption of EMAS and ISO 14001, respectively, and how the two decisions were related at the firm. The second research question is which of two hypotheses can be confirmed:(ii) EMAS and ISO 14001 are complementary, i.e . implementation of one makes implementation of the other more likely (complementarity hypothesis).(iii) EMAS and ISO 14001 are substitutes, i.e. companies find one more compelling than the other and do not have an incentive to implement both (substitution hypothesis).It is found that the two standards are adopted for completely different reasons: while ISO 14001 is often done in response to external pressure, EMAS tends to be motivated internally.Further, it appears that EMAS and ISO 14001 are likely in a situation of direct competition at present which may well turn into complementarity in the future. The following Section is to Section 5 discusses them and shows the contribution of this study. Commission which manages it in cooperation with the competent bodies at the national level.Thus, EMAS is an instrument of public institutions whereas ISO 14001 certification is sold by private accreditation providers. Second, EMAS' requirements go beyond those of ISO 14001. (DIHK, 2010; ISO, 2005 ISO, , 2008. If the standards act as complements however, as suggested in hypothesis (ii), the two adoption curves should run more or less parallel. ***insert figure 2 about here*** DRIVERS OF STANDARDS ADOPTIONMany authors have distinguished external and internal factors driving corporate decisions about standard implementation. In the following, this distinction will be maintained although it should be noted that internal and external factors are likely to interact (Perkins and Neumayer, 2010). EXTERNAL FACTORSThe most relevant external factors for this study are (1) the organisational field, (2) the institutional environment of a firm, and (3) complementary standards such as ISO 9001.The organisational field in which a firm operates, i.e. its competitors and partner firms, influences corporate decisions and strategies (Bansal and Bogner, 2002;O'Neill et al., 1998 INTERNAL FACTORSThe two most important internal drivers suggested in the literature are (1) the availability of win-win possibilities (or perception thereof), and (2) , 2010) and that eco-efficiency is insufficient for obtaining sustainability (Dyllick and Hockerts, 2002;Young and Tilley, 2006). As will be shown below, the perception of how widely win-win opportunities are available depends mostly on the corporate culture.Other scholars argue that standard adoption may enable companies to pre-empt or avoid stringent regulation (Delmas and Terlaak, 2001;Khanna and Anton, ...

Why Companies Do Not Renew Their EMAS Registration? An Exploratory Research

“…ISO 14001 is mainly motivated by external factors, such as industry associations and client pressures. On the other hand, EMAS is more internally driven, and it can be considered a premium standard [11]. Moreover, according to HerasSaizarbitoria et al (2015), EMAS is more internally focused.…”

“…Since the 1990s, the European community has fostered proactive environmental policy instruments. Among the more flexible instruments, Environmental Managements Systems (EMSs) emerged [11]. The Environmental Management Systems (EMSs) represent a way through which firms can internalize environmental issues [12], showing a proactive attitude toward sustainability [13].…”

Promoting Sustainability through EMS Application: A Survey Examining the Critical Factors about EMAS Registration in Italian Organizations

“…Some studies focused on specific countries, especially those in which EMAS is more widespread, like Germany [15,20,[46][47][48][49][50] and Italy [19,21,[51][52][53][54]. On the other hand, fewer analyses took into consideration several countries, giving a more general European overview on EMAS organizations [55][56][57][58][59][60][61].…”

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“…According to Neugebauer, F. (2012), motivation on the implementation of the EMS are very different referring to EMAS or ISO 14001. While ISO 14001 is often a response to external pressure, EMAS is significantly coupled with internal drivers [20].…”