The purpose of this article is to describe how Quality Management (QM) is perceived today by scholars at three Swedish universities, and into what QM is expected to develop into in twenty years. Data were collected through structured workshops using affinity diagrams with scholars teaching and performing research in the QM field. The results show that QM currently is perceived as consisting of a set of core of principles, methods and tools. The future outlook includes three possible development directions for QM are seen: [1] searching for a “discipline X” where QM can contribute while keeping its toolbox, [2] focus on a core based on the traditional quality technology toolbox with methods and tools, and [3] a risk that QM, as it is today, may seize to exist and be diffused into other disciplines.

Purpose: There is a lack of a recognized conception of quality management (QM) comprises of, as well as a clear roadmap of where QM is heading. The purpose of this article is to investigate how QM is perceived today by scholars at three Swedish universities, but also how and into what QM is expected to develop into in twenty years.Methodology: Data have been collected through three structured workshops using affinity diagrams with scholars teaching and performing research in the QM field affiliated with three different Swedish universities.Findings: The results indicate that current QM is perceived similarly among the universities today, although the taxonomy differs slightly. QM is described as a fairly wide discipline consisting of a set of core of principles that in turn guide which methods and tools that currently by many are perceived as the core of the discipline. The outlook for the future differs more where three possible development directions for QM are seen: [1] searching for a “discipline X” where QM can contribute while keeping its toolbox, [2] focus on a core based on the traditional quality technology toolbox with methods and tools, and [3] a risk that QM, as it is today, may seize to exist and be diffused into other disciplines. Originality/value: This article contributes with a viewpoint on QM today and its future development from the academicians’ perspective.

is often conceptually suggested that frameworks for the practice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) that take all the needs of a company’s stakeholders into consideration can emanate from management systems based on international standards. This study addresses the research question of whether the adoption of established management systems is useful for putting stakeholder management into practice. It takes the form of an in-depth case study of a Swedish mining and metals company and employs an analytical framework based on the ISO 26000 CSR standard. The company in question has well-integrated and implemented work systems regarding both labor practices and the environment. This indicates that certified management systems are effective tools for CSR and can be used rather effectively as a means of stakeholder management in practice. However, analysis also shows that such management systems contribute neither to the use of more renewable energy resources nor to a systematic reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In addition, important CSR issues, such as fair operating practices and community involvement and development, fall outside the scope of the adopted management system.

Extractive industries such as mining and oil, as well as the forestry industry, are in the forefront concerning Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The research body concerning CSR in these industries is substantial. The purpose of this study is to review the part of the research in this field that primarily focuses on the ‘how’ issues of CSR in order to provide valuable information concerning which subareas of CSR that have been addressed and the characteristics of those areas. The identified research concerning extractive industries is focused mainly on CSR practices in Africa, Oceania and South America. Even if research concerning forestry to a large extent includes European activities there seem to be a lack of knowledge regarding CSR development in Europe. Several differences and similarities have been identified in how the industry sectors are practicing CSR. Forestry seems to be practicing CSR mainly through environmental issues and mining companies are focusing primarily on community involvement and development as well as environment issues. The most comprehensive and applied CSR practice is found in the oil industry. Despite the fact that most of the literature claimed to address the practical side of CSR, it still remains unknown how some CSR issues are practiced in real company life

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to design a case study to explore how a mining and construction company, located in the Zambian Copperbelt, practices corporate social responsibility (CSR), which has a vital role to play in the mining industry because of its importance in a range of areas including: the local economy, avoiding a negative impact on the environment and society and occupational safety. This is especially true in the developing parts of the world. Numerous initiatives, guidelines and tools have been made available for CSR practice but very little is known about the usefulness of the new CSR-standard International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 26000. Design/methodology/approach– A case study was designed to explore how a mining and construction company, located in the Zambian Copperbelt, practices CSR within the health area and to discuss the possible merits of ISO 26000 for CSR development in the mining industry in the developing world. Findings– Our findings show that, despite the fact that ISO 26000 is primarily a series of guidelines, it can be used to evaluate and improve a company’s CSR practice even if that company is already considered as a frontrunner within CSR. The standard can give valuable advice when designing community development programs and allocating the use of charity donations. Further, our study has shown that traditional management systems based on occupational health and safety standard 18001 and ISO 14001 can rather effectively support actions and expectations in ISO 26000. Research limitations/implications– The research context is Zambia, so there might be limitations when applying the results to other cultural and geographical settings. Practical implications– The paper is a useful source of information about the practical implementation of CSR within the health area. Originality/value– Much of the literature within the field of practical implementation of CSR is focusing on the philanthropic activities. This paper brings more information about practical implementation of CSR in core corporate business.

Quality Management is considered to be suitable as support forthe integration of sustainability considerations in areas such as productdevelopment. The purpose of this paper is to review research in whichQuality Management methods, tools or practices have been used inconjunction with sustainable development initiatives. We have identifiedfour themes that synthesize the research on Quality Management and itssupport to approaches for sustainable development: (1) supportingsustainability through integration of management systems, (2) QualityManagement as support to the implementation of Environmental ManagementSystems and to the management of sustainability, (3) supportingintegration of sustainability considerations in daily work, and (4)supporting stakeholder management and customer focus. By far the mostresearch has been conducted within the first two themes. This paper alsocontributes with proposals for future research, such as the need to movebeyond existing standards and management systems to enable more radicalimprovements, and the need for empirical evidence of the effect ofintegrated management systems on environmental performance. We alsohighlight the point that Quality Management practices and tools must bedeveloped and adapted in order to support sustainability considerations.

Uganda is expected to join the group of African oil producing countries in 2018. The Government of Uganda (GoU) has high hopes for the sector and expects oil to transform the country from a low-income into a competitive upper middle-income country by 2040. However, despite these claims, the GoU’s management of the sector is already being criticized, specifically over corruption and tax disputes with oil companies. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiativ (EITI) has, during the last decade, gained increased recognition as a standard for promoting transparency and revenue disclosure for resource-rich countries. In the 2008 National Oil and Gas Policy (NOGP), the GoU expressed its intention to adopt the standard. The objective of this paper is to analyze why the GoU, seven years later, has still not made any progress with an EITI process. Furthermore, it assesses the leverage and motivation for non-government stakeholders (development partners, civil society and oil companies) to take the lead on the EITI and compensate for the lack of political will.

The heart of an environmental management system is the implementation of environmental policy in an organisation by the use of environmental aspects, goals and management programmes. The aim of this paper is to characterise this implementation and discuss how it could be improved. In order to achieve the objective of the paper a multiple-case study was performed in ISO 14001-certified or EMAS-registered organisations in Sweden. It is concluded that the implementation of environmental policy is strictly controlled by specifications in ISO 14001 or EMAS. Some organisations, mostly smaller, are forced to form their environmental policy implementation in a way that is not suited for their type of organisation. Many organisations find it hard to measure their environmental goals and to set long-term or medium-long-term time periods for their goals. In addition, the organisations do not involve their employees to a very great extent in the implementation of the environmental policy. If they do let middle managers and line personnel to participate, it is usually early in the process, as early as in the identification of environmental aspects.

In the early 1990s, the environmental work in the private sector around the world started to become less driven by legislative requirements and compliance and more by internal strategy. A development begins where environmental and sustainability issues have greater and greater strategic importance for business, and different approach in terms of concepts, methods or tools are starting to be created with the purpose to systematically improve business performance. The tool that has undoubtedly become the most popular in the1990s and the 2000s with companies to effectively and systematically assure compliance, develop environmentally more efficient processes, and gain increased competitiveness, is environmental management systems (EMS). Many of the implemented EMSs are based on the international standard ISO 14001. As EMSs has increased in popularity the interest in the world to evaluate the systems financial, environmental and organizational effects has grown. Several evaluation studies have been conducted both in Sweden and internationally. Some of these studies argue that EMSs lead to improvements while others are more hesitant in their conclusions. With few exceptions, the studies have relied on company representatives perceived benefits of EMSs. Subjectivity is problematic since research shows that business representatives often have reason to give a positive image of their company. Since the studies based on subjective assessments tend to show more positive effects of EMSs than the few studies based on real environmental data, new studies should be based on objective data in the form of various types of environmental parameters. In addition, evaluation studies rarely focus on the systems impact on regulatory compliance, so there is every reason to continue to study this. The impact of the EMSs on compliance is an interesting issue for environmental monitoring authorities. Sweden has chosen not to impose regulatory relief for companies that have introduced EMSs while this is done in several other countries in Europe. To help with decisions regarding the situation in Sweden, the purpose of this study to study if Swedish ISO 14001-certified companies improve their compliance at a higher rate than other companies. This study focuses on change in environmental performance over time as EMS is a tool for continuous improvement and does not say anything about the level of performance. Furthermore, the study includes not only companies with EMSs but also business without systems for comparison. Finally, the improvements in the companies before the introduction of EMSs are taken into account through the use the historical rate of improvement in the analysis step of the study. The analysis in the study is based on credible environmental data from the environmental reports that companies with environmental permits must submit to the regulatory authority every year. Data has been collected from 66 companies that were ISO 14001-certified in year 2000 and 50 randomly selected non-certified companies. Comparisons have been carried out between the two groups of companies using established statistical methods, especially t-test. Comparisons have been made over the periods 1997-2003 (short term) and 1994-2006 (long term). Comparative analysis has been carried out for nine different areas: air emissions, water emissions, resource consumption, energy consumption, waste, parameters in the companies' permits, parameters not included in the permits, the overall environmental performance and violations and incidents.The analysis of various environmental parameters in the nine areas shows that overall there is no statistically significant difference of changes in the improvement rate between certified and non certified companies at 95% confidence level. The results show that in most cases we have a situation where the degree of suspicion that there is a difference between groups is low. However, we have on several occasions a situation where we may suspect that a difference between the two groups exists. In some cases, the results give us reason to suspect that the certified companies are increasing their improvement rate faster than those not certified (e.g. energy consumption and waste). In some other cases, the situation is reversed (e.g. air emissions and overall environmental performance), which means that the image of environmental management systems effects are not uniform. Consequently, it is difficult to give any recommendations for operational monitoring authorities how to take into account the existence of certified EMSs in the monitored objects based on the direct results of the study. Possibly, one could propose that, in the certified companies, one could focus monitoring activities on emissions to air and water while one do not need to focus as much on the energy and waste areas. Unfortunately, the results regarding compliance and overall environmental performance are divergent and sometimes also difficult to explain and it is therefore difficult to come up with some concrete recommendations. However, the results of this study together with results from other studies give us a picture of the impact of EMSs on corporate environmental performance. In some cases, the systems have positive effects on environmental performance but in most cases it is not possible to find any effects at all. In the cases we see positive effects on environmental performance the improvements are relatively small and limited. In other words, companies planning to introduce an EMS and move towards certification should not expect any dramatically improvement in environmental performance.

Corporate environmental management is becoming less driven by regulatory compliance and more driven by corporate strategy. In order to gain competitive advantage, systematically assure regulatory compliance and develop more efficient operations an increasing number of organisation adopt the environmental management system (EMS) tool. Ever since the introduction of the EMS standard ISO 14001 in 1996, the effects of EMSs has been evaluated. Using meta-evaluation, the existing evidence on environmental effects of EMS is in this thesis evaluated. The reviewed studies are not consistent regarding benefits of EMS and it is therefore not possible to generally suggest a causal linkage between EMS implementation and improved environmental performance. Another meta-study in this thesis focused on the influence of different organisation characteristics on environmental effects of EMS. The results indicate that benefits of EMS seem to be inert of the drivers for adoption and the cultural setting. Large organisations as well as smaller ones benefit from EMS, but for different reasons. EMS appears to be a functional tool in the industrial sector but also in service organisations with complex environmental impact. EMS has the disadvantage that it is developed with larger organisations in mind. A common approach used by small and medium-sized organisations to facilitate the implementation of EMSs is joint EMS and group certification. Through a case study, it was found that the approach, despite a few short cuts, is effective for small and micro-sized companies in achieving ISO 14001 certification as fast and cost effective as possible. The identification and assessment of environmental aspects and the implementation of environmental policy through objectives, targets and programmes are in this thesis characterised by the use of two multiple-case studies. It is concluded that the implementation of environmental policy is strictly controlled by specifications in EMS standards. Some organisations are forced to design their environmental policy implementation in a way that is not suited for their type of organisation. Many organisations find it hard to measure their environmental goals and to set long-term or medium- long-term time periods for their goals. In addition, the organisations do not involve their employees to a very great extent in this policy implementation. Six problematic elements when identifying and assessing environmental aspects have been identified: definition of environmental aspects, update of aspects, aggregation of aspects, exclusion of business considerations in the assessment, employee and stakeholder participation, competence levels of people involved in the process. In addition, inadequacies exist regarding the reproducibility of the methods used for identification and assessment of environmental aspects. In order to improve the reproducibility, an approach to a new method is suggested which is based on life cycle analysis (LCA) methodology.

The Environmental Policy Deployment (EPD) process is identified as the heart of an Environmental Management System. Since so little is known about EPD, the aims of this thesis is to characterise the EPD process and identify factors of importance, with focus on the processes of identification and assessment of environmental aspects, and deployment of environmental goals. This new knowledge constitutes the basis for development of new methods within EPD. The empirical base for this thesis is taken from 46 organizations from three counties in Sweden and from 14 business units within the integrated forest product company Stora Enso in Sweden. Six major areas where the process of identification and assessment of environmental can be improved are identified: the definition of environmental aspects, the procedures for update of aspects, the aggregation of aspects, the exclusion of business considerations in the assessment, employee and stakeholder participation and the competence levels of people involved in the process. In addition to these six problem areas, results from the study within Stora Enso also indicate great problems with subjectivity in the identification and assessment process. It is concluded that the subjectivity has negative effects on the stringency and transparency of the process. This thesis includes an approach for a new method based LCA methodology, with focus on the identification of aspects. The goal deployment process within EPD was also characterized. This process is strictly controlled by specifications in ISO 14001/EMAS. Many organizations find it hard to measure their environmental goals and to set long-term horizons for their goals. In addition, the organizations usually do not involve their employees in the process.

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of organizational characteristics on the environmental benefits of environmental management system (EMS) adoption. Methodology/Approach - This study is a meta-study based on secondary analysis of data and findings published in more than 80 previous studies. As a meta-study it is a type of review but an attempt is made to identify patterns and relations not sought by the original authors.Findings - The results of this study indicate that the benefits of EMS seem to be independent of the drivers for adoption. Not only large organisations but also smaller ones benefit from EMS. EMS implementation in smaller organisations is associated with significant barriers, but improvement occurs because these organisations often look at environmental issues for the first time when adopting an EMS. EMS appears to be a functional tool not only in the industrial sector, but also in those more service-oriented organizations that have the most complex environmental impact. No significant differences in benefits from EMS have been found in different cultural settings. Research limitations/implications – Since the analysis is based on findings in previous studies, it is not possible to influence the data. The findings have to be validated with empirical studies preferable in the form of larger surveys. Originality/Value of paper – Adoption of EMS constitutes one of the most important elements of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate sustainability in recent years. Most of the previous studies on the effects of environmental management systems (EMS) treat all organisations as one homogenous group and do not examine the benefits of EMS implementation in relation to the differences in organisational characteristics. However, it is plausible that the benefits do indeed depend on different organisational characteristics. During a review of EMS evaluation studies and other relevant literature, four characteristics have been identified that can be assumed to affect the outcome of EMS implementation; drivers for EMS adoption, organisation size, business sector and cultural setting. In addition to these organisational characteristics, other attributes most probably also affect the results of EMS adoption, but these characteristics where chosen since they, in contrast to other characteristics, could be identified in already published studies and therefore constitute a suitable point of departure for research penetrating deeper into the possible environmental benefits of EMS.

Jakt- och fisketurismen är två turismgrenar som av många anses ha goda utvecklingsmöjligheter i norra Sverige och som därför på sikt kan ge betydande effekter på sysselsättning och ekonomi. Trots den förväntade ekonomisk potentialen i jakt- och fisketurismen är omfattningen av dessa turismgrenar för närvarande låg, vilket troligtvis är ett tecken på att det finns olika faktorer som hindrar jakt- och fisketurismföretagen i deras utveckling. Målet med denna studie är att identifiera dessa faktorer samt även de möjligheter som finns för utveckling av hållbar jakt- och fisketurism. Studiens geografiska fokus är Västerbotten och Norrbotten. Studien är en syntesstudie som baseras på existerande studier inom jakt- och fisketurism med relevans för norra Sverige. Servicenivån hos befintliga jakt- och fisketurismföretagare i norra Sverige är generellt sett låg. Omfattande utvecklingsinsatser måste till för att företagen ska kunna kvalificera sig för en internationell marknad. När det gäller jaktturismen skiljer sig den generellt från andra turismgrenar genom att det ofta inte är efterfrågan utan jaktmarkernas produktionsnivå av vilt som styr hur många kunder företagen kan ta emot. Därför blir det svårt för jaktturismföretagarna att öka sin omsättning genom att ta emot fler kunder. Istället bör det göras genom att öka servicenivån och därmed attrahera mer penningstarka internationella kunder. Även fisketurismen begränsas till stor del av mängden fisk i de nyttjade vattnen, även om vissa arter som är attraktiva för fisketurister, t.ex. gäddan, medger ett ökat nyttjande. Även här gäller således att en ökad omsättning framförallt bör komma från en högre servicenivå och en högre andel internationella kunder. En stor del av befintlig jakt- och fisketurism i norra Sverige bedrivs i fjällen på statens mark ovan odlingsgränsen där fisket och småviltsjakten i princip är fritt för alla sedan 1993. Den fria småviltsjakten och det fria fisket i dessa områden är det största hindret för utveckling av jakt- och fisketurismen i dessa områden eftersom företagarna inte har exklusiv tillgång till viltet och fisken och därmed inte kan garantera kvaliteten på sina produkter. Jakt- och fisketurismen kan troligen fortsätta att öka i omfattning även inom rådande förvaltningssystem i fjällen men även i skogslandet och vid kusten. Utvecklingen kommer dock att vara starkt begränsad av nuvarande förvaltning. Om samhället vill ha en betydande tillväxt inom dessa turismgrenar måste förvaltningssystemet ändras på ett sådant sätt att turismföretagen i högre grad än i dag får exklusiv tillgång till vissa marker och vatten. Om sådana förändringar genomförs bör man dock vara medveten om att avsättning av jaktmarker eller fiskevatten exklusivt till turismentreprenörer kan ha negativ påverkan på hur attraktivt området är för inflyttning eftersom jakt och fiske spelar en viktig roll för människor främst som rekreation.

Environmental management systems based on the international standard ISO 14001 have become widespread in companies globally during the last two decades. This chapter aims to contribute knowledge as to which companies are most likely to adopt ISO 14001, environmental frontrunners or poor performers in need of effective approaches. In addition, the chapter aims to assess the impact of ISO 14001 on concrete environmental performance. The context in focus in this study is manufacturing companies in Sweden. The study focuses on changes in performance over a period of 12 years and includes both ISO 14001-certified companies and non-certified companies. The analysis has been carried out using statistical methods for five different environmental areas: air emissions, water emissions, resource use, energy use and waste. In none of these environmental areas have we been able to find any significant differences between certified and non-certified companies regarding performance improvement prior to ISO 14001-certification or the corresponding period in non-certified companies. Certain positive concrete effects as a result of the ISO 14001 adoption have been found but, in general, the standard seems to have limited effect on the improvement of corporate environmental performance. There are many examples in the literature that ISO 14001 has been successful under certain circumstances but at the same time it seems that ISO 14001-certification does not appear to be a guarantee of neither superior environmental performance nor concrete environmental improvements.

Adoption of environmental management systems (EMSs) based on ISO 14001 has constituted one of the most important developments in sustainable industry management in recent years. Previous research on the impact of EMSs has relied heavily on corporate representatives’ subjective perception of benefits. Moreover, studies tend to focus on the systems’ impact on firms’ overall environmental performance, not distinguishing between the differences in different environmental aspects. This study aims to contribute knowledge about the influence of certified EMSs on industrial waste generation based on objective industrial waste data derived from mandatory annual environmental reports. The study focuses on changes in waste generation over a period of 12 years and includes both ISO 14001-certified firms (66 firms) and non-certified firms (50 firms). Consideration is given to the improvement efforts in the firms before EMS adoption. Analysis has been carried out using statistical methods for three different industrial waste parameters: hazardous waste, waste to landfill and the total amounts of waste. The results indicate that the certified EMSs have no statistically significant effect on any of the three waste parameters.

Adoption of environmental management systems constitutes one of the most important elements of corporate sustainability in recent years. The purpose of this study is to contribute knowledge as to which firms are most likely to adopt an environmental management system, those which are in greatest need of effective approaches or those which are already environmental frontrunners. A comparison between the improvement in environmental performance over a six-year period prior to ISO 14001 certification and the corresponding improvement in firms choosing not to adopt a system was performed. Environmental data was analyzed by using t-tests for six different areas: air emissions, water emissions, resource use, energy use, waste and overall environmental performance. In none of these environmental areas have we been able to find any statistically significant differences between certified and non-certified firms at 95% confidence level regarding the change in environmental performance prior to ISO 14001-certification or the corresponding period in non-certified firms. Our results indicate that it is equally likely that firms showing less or no improvement choose to implement and certify an environmental management system as it is for firms showing more improvement to do so.

The corporate environmental management tool that has undoubtedly become the most popular in recent years is environmental management systems (EMS), which often are based on the international standard ISO 14001. With few exceptions, studies on effects of EMS are relying on firm representatives’ perceived benefits, which is problematic since firm representatives often have reason to give a positive image of their employer. This study therefore aims to contribute knowledge about the environmental effects of environmental management system based on more objective environmental data. The study focuses on changes in performance over a period of 12 years and includes both firms with an EMS (66 firms) and firms without systems (50 firms). Consideration is given to the improvement efforts in the firms before EMS adoption. Analysis has been carried out using statistical methods, e.g. t-test, for six different areas: air emissions, water emissions, resource use, energy use, waste and overall environmental performance. The analysis shows that there was no statistically significant difference concerning the change in the rate of improvement between certified and non-certified firms in any of the six areas.

The debate concerning the environmental effectiveness of environmental management systems (EMS) based on ISO 14001 is still open and scholars have called for further studies that can explain the contrasting evidence in previous research. As a response, this study aims to contribute knowledge about the effects of ISO 14001-based EMS by presenting fact-based environmental data. The study focuses on changes in performance over a period of 12 years and includes both firms with an EMS (66 firms) and firms without one (50 firms). Consideration is given to the improvement efforts in the firms before EMS adoption making it possible to neutralize any selection effects where better environmental performance precedes ISO 14001 adoption. Analysis has been carried out using statistical methods for six different environmental areas. No statistically significant differences between certified and non-certified firms concerning the change in the rate of improvement could be found in any of the six areas. However, it can be suspected that EMS adoption has positive effects on energy use and waste production whereas the non-adopting firms seem to perform better concerning air emissions. These mixed results mirrors previous research, which is rather worrying considering the worldwide popularity of EMS based on ISO 14001 in industry.

Adoption of environmental management systems (EMS) and ISO 14001-certification of those systems constitutes one of the most important elements of sustainable industry management in recent years. Research on EMS is rather extensive, but with few exceptions, studies of the influence of EMS are relying heavily on firm representatives’ perceived benefits. Moreover, previous studies tend to focus on the systems impact on firms’ overall environmental performance, not identifying differences in different environmental aspects. This study aims to contribute knowledge about the influence of certified EMS on industrial waste generation based on objective industrial waste data derived from mandatory annual environmental reports. The study focuses on changes in waste generation over a period of 12 years and includes both ISO 14001-certified firms (66 firms) and non-certified firms (50 firms). Consideration is given to the improvement efforts in the firms before EMS adoption. Analysis has been carried out using statistical methods, for example t-test, for three different industrial waste parameters: hazardous waste, waste to landfill and the total amounts of waste. The results indicate that a certified EMS has a positive impact on hazardous waste reduction. No effect has been found regarding waste to landfill or the total amounts of waste.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are collectively responsible for a significant portion of the total environmental burden worldwide. A common tool used by SMEs to improve their environmental performance is the environmental management system (EMS), which has the disadvantage that it has been developed with larger organizations in mind. A common approach used by Swedish SMEs to facilitate the implementation of an EMS is joint EMS and group certification. This paper evaluates this approach by means of a case study. It is found that the approach is effective for small and micro-sized companies in achieving ISO 14001 certification as fast and cost effectively as possible. A few short cuts including joint environmental policy and objectives and insufficient environmental organization are however threatening to undermine the trustworthiness of the approach. Notwithstanding these flaws, however, it must be concluded that the joint EMS approach is a good alternative for small and micro-sized companies.

Identification and assessment of environmental aspects are crucial to an environmental management system, since significant aspects are decisive for other parts of the system. Stringency and transparency in identification and assessment are necessary if this process is to be reproducible. Reproducibility is in turn important for the credibility of the entire management system. A survey of the identification and assessment processes within the integrated forest product company Stora Enso has shown inadequacies regarding the reproducibility. Positive features and areas of improvement have been identified. The results of the survey are the basis for the development of a new, more reproducible method. This paper includes an approach for this new method that focuses on the identification process. The method is based on life cycle assessment methodology according to the international standards ISO 14040-42 and the documentation format in ISO 14048. The environmental aspects are aggregated in a classification and characterisation into impact categories. The categories are then used as operations environmental performance indicators

Research is lacking on the process of identification and assessment of environmental aspects in an environmental management system (EMS) context. The aim of this paper is to contribute knowledge by identifying factors of importance for the process that can be used as a basis when developing existing methods for identification and assessment of environmental aspects. The empirical base is quantitative and qualitative data from 46 ISO 14001-certified or EMAS-registered organizations from three counties in Sweden. Problem areas are also identified through a review of the concept literature in the EMS area. Six important areas where the identification and assessment process can be improved are identified: the definition of environmental aspects, the procedures for update of aspects, the aggregation of aspects, the exclusion of business considerations in the assessment, employee and stakeholder participation, and the competence levels of people involved in the process. Since the empirical data is taken from Swedish organizations, the results of this study are valid for Swedish conditions and may not be valid for other countries.

Voluntary environmental management systems (EMS) based on the international standard ISO 14001 have become widespread globally in recent years. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of voluntary management systems on energy efficiency in the Swedish manufacturing industry by means of objective industrial energy data derived from mandatory annual environmental reports. The study focuses on changes in energy efficiency over a period of 12 years and includes both ISO 14001-certified companies and non-certified companies. Consideration is given to energy improvement efforts in the companies before the adoption of ISO 14001. The analysis has been carried out using statistical methods for two different industrial energy parameters: electricity and fossil fuel consumption. The results indicate that ISO 14001 adoption and certification has increased energy efficiency regarding the use of fossil fuel. In contrast, no effect of the management systems has been found concerning the use of electricity. The mixed results of this study are only partly in line with the results of previous studies based on perceptions of company representatives

Voluntary industrial environmental management initiatives such as management systems based on the international standard ISO 14001has been widely spread over the world in recent years. Previous research on the influence of these systems relies heavily on how the benefits of the systems are perceived by companies’ representatives. Additionally, most studies tend to focus on the impact on the overall environmental performance of the companies, not identifying differences in different environmental aspects. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of voluntary environmental management systems on energy efficiency in Swedish manufacturing industry by means of objective industrial waste data derived from mandatory annual environmental reports. The study focuses on changes in energy efficiency over a period of 12 years and includes both ISO 14001-certified companies (66 companies) and non-certified firms (50 companies). Consideration is given to energy improvement efforts in the companies before ISO 14001 adoption. Analysis has been carried out using statistical methods for two different industrial energy parameters: electricity and fossil fuel consumption. The results indicate that ISO 14001 adoption has an impact on the energy efficiency regarding the use of fossil fuel. In contrast no impact has been found concerning the use of electricity.