Adoption and Outcomes of ISO 14001: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyze the adoption and outcomes of the ISO 14001 standard through a systematic review of the main studies on this issue published in peerreviewed journals between 1996 and 2015. The 94 papers analyzed make it possible to paint a comprehensive picture of the effectiveness of ISO 14001 in environmental management practices, performance in this area and social aspects such as employee awareness. The systematic review also sheds more light on the main pitfalls and success factors of the standard. Nevertheless, the similarities and even redundancies of the literature in terms of objectives, approaches and methods used tend to produce quite predictable and optimistic results, which do not reflect the complexity of the impact of ISO 14001. The paper highlights the importance of more diverse and critical approaches that might challenge the successful rhetoric of the dominant literature, which tends to focus on positive aspects and be limited to a few countries that are not representative of the wide international distribution of certification. The findings of this systematic review can also help managers in making decisions on the adoption and renewal of certification.

Sustainability and Risk Disclosure: An Exploratory Study on Sustainability Reports

“…For instance, increasing attention is devoted to sustainability risks along the supply chain and the linked social and environmental risks-especially in politically, socially, and environmentally high-risk unstable countries [67][68][69]. Social and environmental management systems (EMAS, ISO14001, SA8000) and integrated guidelines such as the ISO26000 are mostly oriented to mitigate risks related to operations [70][71][72]. The accounting duties related to the adoption of such integrated management systems may vary from the downsized sites-level as in the case of EMAS and ISO14001 certifications, to supply chain assessment, as in the case of SA8000 and ISO26000 [73,74].…”

Contribution to Energy Management of the Main Standards for Environmental Management Systems: The Case of ISO 14001 and EMAS

“…ISO 14001 is an international certifiable standard for the adoption of EMSs as management tools that do not require specific performance levels for energy management. In other words, as underlined by Heras-Saizarbitoria and Boiral [21] and Boiral et al [36], ISO 14001 is not a performance standard and it does not measure the environmental quality of companies' products, processes or services. Organizations that adopt an SME based on ISO 14001:2015 could integrate energy management aspects into their EMS, but there no specific focus on environmental management as energy management.…”

“…Official (i.e., institutional), scholarly and practitioner documents for both the ISO 14001 and the EMAS standards were analyzed in depth. In the case of ISO 14001, the main reference and practitioner books that have analyzed the standard were examined (for this purpose, the literature reviews by Heras-Saizarbitoria and Boiral [21] and Boiral et al [36] were used as a basis). In the case of EMAS, the same procedure was followed (the literature review was based on Testa et al [37] and Heras-Saizarbitoria et al [38]).…”

“…Those documents are on the website of EMAS [27]. The mentioned reference standards for EMS are analyzed in the basis of their specific requirements because, as it has been underlined in both the practitioner and scholarly literature (e.g., [21,36]), reference standards for EMS are implemented and certified in the basis of their specific requirements, even though some organizations could go beyond those requirements. Figure 1 summarizes the research framework and the main specific documents analyzed in our study to follow better the analysis that was carried out and the outcomes of that analysis.…”

Sustainability & Risk Disclosure: An Exploratory Study on Sustainability Reports

“…For instance, an increasing attention is devoted to sustainability risks along the supply chain and the social and environmental risks linked especially in politically, social and environmental high-risk instable countries [67]- [69]. Social and environmental management systems (EMAS, ISO14001, SA8000) and integrated guidelines such the ISO26000 are mostly oriented to mitigate risks related to operations [70]- [72], The accounting duties related to the adoption of such integrated management systems may vary from downsized sites-level such in the case of EMAS and ISO14001 certifications, to supply chain assessment such in the case of SA8000 and ISO26000 [73], [74]. Despite the adoption of such integrated systems implicate communication efforts, the publication of a sustainability reporting covering all the triple bottom line indicators is not mandatory as well as third-party assurances [75].…”