This paper conveys the experiences of the South African automotive industry as it attempted to implement the ISO 14001 standard. Through a questionnaire-based survey, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as larger companies were asked about the key motivations for engaging in environmental change, the benefi ts accrued and the barriers that prevented them from doing so. This paper analyzes the variation in adoption rates in order to establish different relationships between them. The results reveal substantial differences and some similarities with regard to the hurdles, benefi ts and motivations behind the implementation of environmental management systems (EMSs) that are hidden behind corporate rhetoric and commitment to sustainability. This paper concludes by prescribing robust recommendations that would set off the pace for government offi cials to incorporate effective and realistic incentives into future policy to better encourage environmental compliance and improved performance while minimizing costs both to businesses and to the Government.

In the past decade, the plea for corporate sustainability has gathered momentum and protecting the environment is one aspect for organizations to address if they are to conduct business in a sustainable manner. In this paper, we present the results of a questionnaire survey on the state of corporate sustainability within the South African automotive industry. The survey focused on the meaning and relevance of sustainability to South African automotive companies, and their use of different approaches to implement sustainability in corporate practice. On this score, the paper seeks to analyze and compare the levels of voluntary environmental initiatives between large and small and medium-sized enterprises within the automotive milieu. Survey results reveal that a majority of automotive companies have sought to improve their environmental performance by integrating environmental considerations into their core activities. Although the majority of these companies have standardized EMSs, our analysis reveals considerable differences between companies' approaches to corporate sustainability. In particular, they varied in the extent to which procedures were formalized and documented behind the corporate rhetoric of a high commitment to sustainability. The paper concludes by prescribing a number of recommendations as to how to engage and promote more widely the South African automobile manufacturing companies in environmental change.