This article analyzes the contribution of certifiable environmental management standards—such as ISO 14001 and the Eco‐Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS)—to corporate environmental performance. Based on a content analysis of 414 third‐party‐verified environmental statements from EMAS‐registered Spanish organizations, which included information for around 6,700 detailed indicators, a weak improvement in environmental performance was found. Less than half of the analyzed indicators—namely, 48.27%—revealed a net improvement. Similarly, analysis of the justifications of the registered companies for the lack of improvement points to a rather symbolical adoption of the certification, intended to do only the bare minimum. These findings call into question the prevailing opinion about the positive impact of voluntary certifiable environmental management standards on environmental greening. Implications for managers and public policy makers, as well as for other stakeholders, are discussed.

The adoption of environmental management systems (EMSs) based on standards such as ISO 14001 and EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) has become very popular and the academic literature has studied the adoption of these standards extensively. However, the variety of ways in which EMSs are adopted and internalized has not been fully analyzed and the few studies that have analyzed this issue have focused on the analysis of the outcomes of just one of the main reference standards for EMSs, namely, ISO 14001. Considering this shortcoming in the literature, this work contributes to the empirical literature on the analysis of the adoption of standards for EMS by analyzing the case of the three main reference models used by organizations: ISO 14001, EMAS, and the alternative models for EMSs. The present work summarizes conclusions of interest for the different stakeholders involved in the adoption of EMSs. Implications for scholars and other stakeholders are discussed. It is recommended that further studies should focus on the analysis of the real effects of the adoption of the main standards for EMSs.

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