The Role of Environmental Management Systems

Over the past twenty years, and especially since the introduction of the International Standards Organization (ISO) 14001 standard for environmental management systems (EMSs), there has been much discussion about the role EMSs could or should have in environmental compliance programs. Underlying all these discussions is the premise that EMSs have the potential to generate enhanced environmental performance through a process designed to achieve continuous improvement. The emergence of EMSs also coincided with the exploration of transforming regulatory systems from governmental command-and-control policies to more flexible regimes that allow private actors a greater range of options to meet governmental requirements. At the same time, the laws of individual nation-states have become just one of several considerations operating entities must take into account to compete in an increasingly global marketplace. Because EMSs provide an internationally recognized standard for evaluating environmental processes, they have been suggested as a mechanism providing for a more uniform global approach to environmental management as well as leveraging the capabilities of constrained environmental enforcement agencies, something particularly important for developing nations. EMSs have the potential to produce significant environmental performance benefits. Those benefits have already been well recognized in many markets, as demonstrated by both the number of companies that make having an EMS a requirement of doing business and the dramatic growth of EMSs throughout the world. What could use more focus is how governments can utilize EMSs better, to supplement their regulatory programs, as well as to encourage improvements in overall environmental performance which might be beyond their regulatory powers