Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Humanity’s increasing consumption has resulted in an increasing use of resources and thus an increasing environmental impact. Hence, the environment has become an important political issue. The increasing demands from stakeholders on companies to "green" their products and work internally with environmental issues makes it more and more important for enterprises to address these issues. Small enterprises constitute the majority of all enterprises and therefore they have a significant impact on environmental problems. An environmental management system (henceforth referred to as EMS) is a management tool that enterprises can use to reduce their negative environmental impact. The use of EMSs can lead to many benefits for a company such as competitive advantage, cost savings and improved image. ISO 14001 and EMAS are the most established EMSs. It can be difficult for small enterprises to work with these systems because they are often costly and difficult to understand. A “simple EMS” is meant to make it easier for small enterprises to introduce an EMS.

The aim with this thesis is to analyze how simple EMSs can meet the obstacles that small enterprises experience when implementing an EMS. The research propositions are formulated as follows: What restricting factors do small enterprises experience when implementing an EMS and how can simple EMSs be used to meet these factors? The thesis is addressed primarily to actors interested in developing the environmental performance of Swedish companies. The framework of the thesis is based on an organizational perspective intended to allow a broader understanding of how small enterprises are obstructed from implementing an EMS.

A literature study has been performed to meet the aim of this thesis. The study is supplemented with a case study of the simple EMS Svensk Miljöbas. Enterprises with an EMS approved according to the standard of Svensk Miljöbas receives an environmental diploma. The case study consists of interviews with representatives from the board of the society Föreningen Svensk Miljöbas and interviews with enterprises that have or have had an environmental diploma.

The results of the thesis show that the obstacles that exist for small enterprises when implementing an EMS can be related to lack of financial and human resources, lack of knowledge about environmental management, negative culture towards working with environmental issues, and inadequate incentives. A simple EMS is a way for small companies that want to introduce an EMS to address the restricting factors. Simple EMSs address the obstacles that are rooted in structural factors such as resource shortages and lack of expertise in environmental issues. However, there are several obstacles that are based on organizational culture and legitimacy that probably can not be tackled solely by the EMS. It is important for enterprises that their EMS has a high degree of legitimacy among the customers. Organizations responsible for simple EMSs should work to ensure that their EMSs have high legitimacy among corporate customers. In the current situation, it seems that there is a weak or uncertain demand from the market when it comes to environmental performance and this implies that companies have only weak incentives to work with environmental issues.