Companies' participation in environmental management systems

Michaela Vlnasová

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Viz en.

Abstract:

Environmental management systems (EMS) have become a popular self-regulatory tool in the last decades in the field of the environmental regulation. This trend is supported by the many governmental decisions across Europe when the classical command-and-control style has been receding into the background and thus relinquished place for the self-regulation. The Czech Republic, a post-communist country with economy in transition, entered the European Union in 2004 and thereby joined developed countries of Western Europe and also committed itself to enhance the environmental protection. However, number of participating companies in EMS in the Czech Republic still lags behind in comparison with the figures of Western countries. This study, based on the questionnaire survey, explores behaviour of the Czech companies in relation to EMS and reveals the rationale behind their negative attitude towards EMS. The results show that the main reason of their negative approach is an anticipated increase in administrative work after the adoption of EMS. Among other relevant barriers towards EMS belong costs related to implementation and maintenance, insufficient governmental grants, and need for qualified employees. Furthermore, the study revealed that the reasons considerably vary among different industries; however, the size of an organization did not prove to have relevant influence.The study also suggests possible solution to support the development of EMS in the Czech Republic.

Keywords

Systémy environmentálního řízení, EMAS, ISO 14001, Česká republika

Keywords

Environmental management systems, EMAS, ISO 14001, Czech Republic

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 5. 4. 2011

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Richard Selby, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Economics and Management

Master programme:
Economics and Management