Analysis of benefits and difficulties associated with firms' Environmental Management Systems: the case of the Spanish automotive industry

Adopting an Environmental Management System can offer firms a number of benefits, but also runs up against some difficulties. Firms need to weigh up these benefits and difficulties to evaluate their investment in such a system. This work aims to examine the use of Environmental Management Systems in a strategic sector in Spain: its automotive industry. We identify the main benefits firms obtain from these systems, and the difficulties they face in their implementation and certification. The literature offers homogenous results for the difficulties, but not for the benefits, which are conditioned by the sector and country under analysis. We obtain data via a questionnaire from 228 firms including manufacturers and suppliers. We then carry out a factor analysis to determine the latent constructs relating to benefits and difficulties. According to our results, the benefits of these systems are improvements in the firm's market position, stakeholder relations, and environmental performance, and access to environmental technologies. The difficulties are the requirements of the system, the organisational structure and commitment of the human resources (managers and workers), and the environmental information in terms of establishing objectives, calculating outcomes and establishing workers' environmental responsibilities. •Analysis of environmental management systems in Spanish automotive industry.•Differentiation of most important benefits and difficulties.•Identification of four latent factors of benefits and three of difficulties.•Proactive environmental management in Spanish automotive industry.