Illustration of the Benefits and the Shortcomings of Environmental Management Systems - Term Paper Example

 Illustration of the benefits and the shortcomings of Environmental Management Systems Introduction EMS (Environmental Management Systems) is among the crucial systems used to check that organizations remain environmentally sensitive and proactive.1 Through the adoption of an EMS system, a corporation demonstrates to its customers and the general public that they take the measures needed to check their environmental impact and take environmental issues seriously. Additionally, an effective EMS system helps an organization in improving its operational processes, which yields unbounded economic benefits. Since the development of the first EMS system (BS 77500) in 1992 by the British Standard Institute, different organizations and countries have developed other models, including ISO 14001 by the ISO and the EMAS system by the EU.2 Sustainability is a social, economic and environmental concept. The concept is intended at offering the means for configuring human activity and civilization, so that the members of society can satisfy their needs and meet productivity potential, while at the same time preserving natural resources for future generations. The implementers and the members of community pursuing sustainability do so through the adoption of an EMS system, which is the set of practices and processes aimed at reducing the environmental impact of organizations and communities. An EMS also helps a community or organization to attain higher levels of operational efficiency. On the other hand, embeddedness is the level, to which economic activities are controlled by non-economic institutions, so as to check that economic organizations and systems participate in environmental protection.3 This paper will explore the benefits and the shortfalls of EMS from the case of Center Parcs holiday villages, which is a major industry player in the tourism industry. The ISO 14000 series of standards The ISO 14000 series of standards is a set of EMS guidelines that offer to organizations and businesses, a comprehensive outlook on how to manage their environmental impacts. The series of standards gives guidelines about the environmental management practices to be adopted by a business, so as to ensure that its business processes and practices meet the thresholds set through the objectives and the policies on environmental protection and law-induced guidelines.4 Businesses as the focal players in environmental management The guidelines set through the standards has emphasized that environmental protection is mainly a responsibility of managerial teams, and that has indirectly led to the formulation of the ISO 14000 standards. These guidelines are regarded as the standards set for the management of the environment. The enforcement of these sets of standards is mainly left to the ISO, which oversees adherence to the guidelines in partnership with national EMS standards agencies. In particular, ISO 14001-14004 guidelines are targeted at organizations; major emphasis is channelled towards their introduction, their implementation and the evaluative outlook of the functionality of EMS systems.5 The set of standards streamlines the business of companies, directing it towards matching with internationally adopted operational criteria. The directives of these standards are very important, taking into account that many countries have set performance thresholds that are not in line with one another. The differences in the sets of standards put forward calls for a uniform set of international standards; universal standards eliminate the possibility of conflicts of interests and those arising from the adoption of different models of environmental protection. Further, the interpretation of good practices that favour environmental protection has not been a unanimously agreed upon field. Governments as the focal players in environmental management Now, more than ever before, governments are acknowledging the responsibility that the institution of law-induced regulations to check the environmental management practices of businesses and organizations is helpful, but not the major driving force behind change. Drawing from the command-control principle, law-induced regulations have been set in the past, and in many cases, they have not helped companies to meet national thresholds and objectives in environmental protection. The acknowledgement of this situation has compelled governments towards the introduction of environmental management policies that are voluntary in nature; these have proven, fully, goal-directed and efficient.6 Due to the effectiveness of these models, they have been viewed as complementary to the initial legislative devises used to drive change in environmental management. Individuals as the focal players in environmental management Managers, during the course of implementing organizational EMS models, have gained the understanding that a use-friendly model of operation building on site operations and procedures are correlated with conventional systems like ISO 14001.7 The new approach has allowed managers to incrementally improve the performance of workplaces and the management of facilities. The economic benefits arising from this outlook and system include that working practices have been made more effective, the inputs channelled into production systems have reduced and the costs of operation have reduced incrementally. The changes have given birth to the development of an environment, which is more proactive to the making of future legislation. The effects of the changing outlook of management, towards the role of the individual in pursuing the common goal of environmental management include that, work practices have been continually improved.8 The improvements in work practices have resulted from the creation of a work environment that supports proactive attitudes and staff morale levels that favour change and also the introduction of various stakeholders into the processes of decision-making.9 In line with the functional roles adopted by the three major player-groups, there is also a variety of ways in which the conformity of an organization, against set standards of ISO 14001 guidelines among others can be reviewed. The first manner of review is internal evaluation, where the organization evaluates its own performance, especially the performance related to individuals and respective organizational functions. For example, the R & D department can be reviewed on the levels, to which it has devised methods of eliminating wastage throughout the production system of the organization. The second approach is that, where business partners or other stakeholder groups require the organization to be reviewed by an external agency, to establish its level of conformity. In this case, the organization does the external evaluation of its conformity to EMS, based on ISO 14001, without the need to secure official certification.10 Lastly, the organization can seek to be reviewed, so as to receive a form of registration; this evaluation is administered by the accreditation agency or oversight body. In this case, the accreditation body certifies conformity to EMS based on ISO 14000 guidelines, and the organization is either certified or declined certification. The shortcomings of adopting EMS systems EMSs are formal models emphasizing on the formal cycle of management and the assembly evidence related to environmental performance and management. These systems have predominantly been applied to the case of large manufacturing organizations; only a small number of recreational and tourism organizations are using them to the fullness of their potential.11 The limited utilization of EMS systems by small recreation and tourism companies can be verified using the findings of the study done to explore the environmental management adopted by small and micro tourism ventures.12 The study, also, sought to explore the levels of interest and awareness found among owner-managers of small and micro tourism businesses, as reflected by the adoption of the schemes aimed at the improvement of the environmental performance of the businesses.13 The conclusions of the study indicated that the owner-managers of the businesses had implemented limited knowledge related to environmental management, for example, in areas like the cost and the durations taken for business processes. Based on the fact that few owner-managers posses the knowledge related to EMSs, one of the shortcomings related with the adoption of the systems is the costs of introducing and getting the EMS system operational.14 The first area of costs is related to its application, notably the costs incurred to do the internal evaluation of the business and also the external verification and the inspection of the business for conformity with model standards. These shortcomings of using EMS systems have more negative effects on small enterprises, because many of them are forced to employ external consultants to facilitate the process.15 The second area of costs is the investment costs required for the consultant to facilitate the environmental aspects of the enterprise. For example, the adoption of EMS requires an enterprise to invest in high-quality, modern technology, which may not have been used by the organization before. Further, studies in this area have shown that it can take a long time before the initially invested resources are recovered. Apart from the problem of costs, there are the change barriers that are solved as time goes by; these problems include sustaining a continuum between the organizational reviews made during the adoption of the program and the program actions to be implemented. Other problems include overcoming organizational inertia, the inadequacy of the structure and the terminology of the current managed – which often does not fit mainstream models like ISO 14001 – securing data and guaranteeing sufficient access to important stakeholders.16 These problems, in many cases can be traced to the fear of information misinterpretation or abuse after it is made public; there are also the pending dangers that may face the organization, due to publicising information. For example, in many case, the staffs of the organization will consider adopting EMS an additional burden, which calls for staff empowerment and involving them during processes of decision-making.17 The benefits of adopting EMS systems The adoption of EMS at Center Parcs included that it benefited from the use of a company logo, showing that it was accredited for EMS.18 The identification of being a business that has successfully gained accreditation can form a source of recognition when competing for business with non-accredited industry players; the accreditation also improved the image of the company in the eyes of the general market and the public.19 The marketing advantages arising from such certification include that the public views such enterprises as more transparent, commitment to social courses and considerate of different stakeholder groups, as compared to the apparently – industrial enterprises. Most importantly, being a player in the tourism industry, where the production and the consumption of services are almost immediate, having EMS certification improves the reputation of the enterprise in the market. The second benefit arising from the adoption of EMS and receiving certification include that state authority/ authorities), often discriminate enterprises in favor of those that are EMS certified. It is expected that this trend will continue to dominate the market during the coming years, taking into account that governments, among other agencies are getting more and more involved in the environmental management talks and business.20 Positive discrimination takes place in different forms, including that EMS certified enterprises are awarded more contracts and favored by the financial agreements made between the public and the private sector. Further, EMS certification is viewed as an indicator of an enterprise’s conformity to legislature, and that will often attract a relatively non-complicated inspection process during inspections. Thirdly, some of the strategies taken towards meeting environmental management thresholds yield positive impacts on the profitability of a company like Center Parcs. The positive impacts include that the adoption of EMS entails the reduction of energy consumption and the reduction of the raw materials consumed by the production process, among other inputs. The adoption of EMS also comes with a reduction in the waste levels accumulated by a company and cuts in the pollution levels contributed to the environment.21 From the case of Center Parcs, market communication allowed the company to inform potential customers about environmental improvement initiatives. The information about an enterprise’s engagement in environmental protection initiatives is interpreted by customers among other stakeholder groups, as a sign of delivering high quality services, which attracts more business to it. EMS certification lays the foundation for the making of further decisions related to environmental protection and performance. The information gained through the adoption of the EMS offers an enterprise, the complex knowledge required to solve many problems, as well as the information needed to help in developing frameworks for the accurate articulation of objectives.22 This process features in the different stages of self-criticism and self-evaluation, which increase the impact of the many areas of ineffectiveness and the dysfunctions of enterprises. For example, the periodical evaluation of the EMS model reveals inconformity and deviations from legal guidelines. Discovering deviations helps businesses in correcting them before they are discovered by the relevant authorities. Doing that enables an organization to escape a variety of sanctions and penalties, and more adverse effects like environmental disasters are avoided. In the case of Center Parcs, the adoption of EMS improved the relations it kept with state authorities, which allowed it to go through inspections faster and also getting permits easily. By having EMS certification and performance, there is an underlying guarantee made to third parties that all hidden environmental risks are addressed, especially those that may affect the cooperative business between them.23 These third parties who will view EMS certification as a guarantee of their interests in the business include creditors, insurance companies and financial institutions. Further, in the case that the enterprise is being repackaged for sale, EMS certification makes the process easier, because buyers do not express the concerns related to hidden environmental risks or past policy breaches that may face the business in the future. Conclusion Environmental Management Systems are among the systems used when checking the environmental sensitivity of an enterprise. Sustainability is the concept intended to offer guidelines to enterprises, by directing them to exploit available resources, while at the same time safeguarding the wellbeing of future generations. Embeddedness refers to the level of control exerted on economic activities by non-economic institutions, which helps in checking their environmental sensitivity. The ISO 14000 series of standards offer enterprises, including tourism companies like Center Parcs, the framework for environmental management. The ISO 14000 series defines the role of the government, the business and the individual in environmental management, which also define the style of organizational review, made for compliance to EMS. The shortcomings that come with the adoption of EMS include the costs of adopting EMS, the change difficulties that face organizations and the limited knowledge held by business owners about EMS. The benefits of adopting EMS include EMS certification offers an enterprise recognition, it receives positive discrimination from state authorities, EMS yields economic advantages, it lays the framework for business activities and it guarantees the safety of third parties, including shareholders and creditors. Bibliography Amposta, Josep. “Looking for environmental excellence in tourist destinations.” Tourismos 4, No. 2 (2009): 91-106. Collins, Heidi. Enterprise Knowledge Portals. New York: American Management Association, 2003. 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