Adopting Corporate Environmental Management Systems:: Motivations and Results of ISO 14001 and EMAS Certification

Multinational and domestic corporations around the world are adopting environmental management systems (EMS) and certifying them by international standards. ISO 14001 is becoming the dominant international standard for assessing environmental management processes and in Europe many firms are also registering their EMS according to the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). Yet, relatively few studies have explored the motivations of firms adopting and certifying EMS and even fewer have examined the results or impacts on the companies that do so. The few empirical analyses and case studies that have been done on corporate EMS provide insights into motivations and results primarily for large multinational corporations in the United States and Europe. We compare these findings with those of five in-depth case studies of smaller domestic energy and gas companies in Germany.