There is a broad spectrum of proactivity in environmental management practices in companies and industries, ranging from purely reactive efforts to adhere to minimum regulatory standards to ...innovative projects to develop new pollution preventing technologies and risk mitigation strategies. In fact, the importance of a proactive environmental management is increasingly recognized by academics, practitioners and policy makers alike. However, proactivity is still not clearly captured by current environmental management models, which often do not include it as a core element and lack practical guidelines on how to operationalize it at firm-level. In order to systematize the fragmented understanding on proactive environmental management practices applied in companies and industries, including their operationalization and determinants, we conducted a comprehensive review of 116 academic papers. Our results are presented and discussed along three main perspectives: (i) evolutionary stage models; (ii) typology models; and (iii) proactive practices. By comparing these three perspectives, we found that only the evolutionary stage models can fully capture proactive environmental management approaches in an integrative way, while the other two perspectives assume proactivity is highly specific of an organizational sector or function. The results also allow us to clarify and distinguish proactivity-related terms and concepts that are often used interchangeably, such as cleaner production, pollution prevention and eco-efficiency. Finally, we developed a synthetizing framework of the current literature on firm-level environmental proactivity that integrates proactive practices (divided into three dimensions: organizational, operational, and communicational), drivers of proactivity and evolutionary maturity stages towards increased proactivity. This framework not only consolidates the current state-of-the-art in terms of proactive environmental management practices but it can also be thought of as a starting point for further research on the topic.
•This paper systematize proactive environmental management practices.•Evolutionary stage models for environmental management are compared.•Typology models for environmental management are compared.•Proactive practices for environmental management are listed.•We listed organizational, operational, and communicational practices.
Este estudo tem como objetivo principal evidenciar as particularidades da importância de disciplinas da Gestão Ambiental na formação acadêmica dos futuros administradores de empresas. Para isso, é ...analisada a relação de temas como Gestão Ambiental, Educação Ambiental, Sustentabilidade e Desenvolvimento Local Integrado e Sustentável com o fortalecimento da conduta ambiental frente a atividade do Administrador de Empresas enquanto promotor de desenvolvimento local em manutenção da atividade voltada à subsistência econômica. A metodologia está baseada em consultas bibliográficas e pesquisa de campo, de natureza qualitativa e quantitativa, onde a coleta de dados foi realizada por meio da utilização de questionários aplicados na Universidade Estadual de Mato Grosso do Sul. Se propõe evidenciar a importância educacional de disciplinas voltadas à Gestão Ambiental na formação ética, profissional e ambiental dos futuros gestores. Objetiva-se identificar a importância da Gestão Ambiental como disciplina na grade curricular do curso, além de analisar a necessidade da aplicabilidade da disciplina como fator de redução de danos ao meio ambiente. Além disso, busca-se verificar se há evidência da abordagem deste conteúdo na formação acadêmica, analisar o conhecimento de conceitos básicos relacionados à Gestão Ambiental e, por fim, verificar a preocupação ética frente à questão ambiental. Percebe-se a necessidade de aprofundamento as questões relacionadas ao meio ambiente e seus recursos naturais, necessários ao desenvolvimento de atividades empreendedoras. Neste contexto, coexiste a importância fundamental do ambiente acadêmico como provedor de conhecimentos em um processo de ensino-aprendizagem entre os agentes envolvidos.
The impact of environmental regulation on technological innovation has been widely discussed in the academic circle. Based on the panel data of 403 Chinese manufacturing firms from 2010 to 2015, this ...paper explored the role of voluntary environmental regulation in technological innovation. The results showed the following: First, both voluntary environmental information disclosure and environmental management system certification had a positive effect on corporate innovation investment. Second, compared with the impact of environmental information disclosure, the impact of environmental management system certification on corporate innovation investment was more significant. Third, there was a significant positive interaction between environmental information disclosure and environmental management system certification. Finally, the effect of voluntary environmental regulation on corporate technological innovation in heavily polluting industries was stronger than that in lightly polluting industries.
With the rise of environmental problems caused by human activities, such as misuse of natural resources, rapid deforestation, and discharge of radioactive and other chemical waste into water bodies, ...soil and the atmosphere, environmental management accounting has emerged as a tool for promoting sustainable development and reducing negative environmental impacts in businesses. This area of accounting provides a means for analyzing, assessing, controlling, and managing the environmental performance of companies. However, there is a dearth of studies in the scientific literature that systematically assess the potential for introducing and developing environmental management accounting in an enterprise. Therefore, this study aims to identify the areas, instruments, outcome, impact measures, and other elements of environmental management accounting, and integrate them in a targeted manner to develop a conceptualized environmental management accounting system. The results of the literature review and systematic analysis are summarized to provide a conceptual framework for an environmental management accounting system consisting of the following elements: 1) objectives; 2) inputs; 3) processes; 4) outputs/outcomes; 5) feedback; and 6) external environmental conditions. The introduction of such a system would improve the development of environmental management accounting for the long-term sustainability and eco-efficiency of companies.
Daugėjant aplinkosauginių problemų, susidarančių dėl žmogaus vykdomos veiklos, kaip antai netinkamas gamtos išteklių naudojimas, spartus miškų naikinimas, radioaktyviųjų ir kitų cheminių atliekų išmetimas į vandens telkinius, dirvožemį ir atmosferą, verslo aplinkoje pradėjo formuotis darnaus vystymosi ir neigiamo poveikio aplinkai mažinimo praktika – aplinkosauginė valdymo apskaita. Ši apskaitos kryptis tapo svarbia priemone, padedančia analizuoti, vertinti, kontroliuoti ir valdyti aplinkosauginį įmonių efektyvumą. Vis dėlto mokslinėje literatūroje platesnių tyrimų, sistemiškai vertinančių aplinkosauginės valdymo apskaitos diegimo ir plėtojimo įmonėje galimybes, yra nepakankamai. Todėl šiuo tyrimu siekiama identifikuoti aplinkosauginės valdymo apskaitos sritis, instrumentus, rezultatų ir poveikio matavimo priemones bei kitus šios apskaitos elementus, juos tikslingai sujungti ir sukurti konceptualizuotą aplinkosauginės valdymo apskaitos sistemą. Apibendrinus mokslinės literatūros bei sisteminės analizės tyrimo rezultatus, pateikiama konceptuali aplinkosauginės valdymo apskaitos sistemos struktūra, sudaryta iš tokių sistemai būdingų elementų: 1) tikslai; 2) įvestis; 3) procesai; 4) išvestis/rezultatas; 5) grįžtamasis ryšys; 6) išorės aplinkos sąlygos. Tokios sistemos įdiegimas leistų pagerinti aplinkosauginės valdymo apskaitos plėtrą, užtikrinančią ilgalaikį įmonių veiklos tvarumą ir ekologinį efektyvumą.
The environment, and how humans affect it, is more of a concern now than ever. We are constantly told that halting climate change requires raising awareness, changing attitudes, and finally altering ...behaviors among the general public—and doing it fast. New information, attitudes, and actions, it is conventionally assumed, will necessarily follow one from the other. However, this approach ignores much of what is known about attitudes in general and environmental attitudes in particular—a huge gap lies between what we say and what we do. Solving environmental problems requires a scientific understanding of public attitudes. Like rocks in a swollen river, attitudes often lie beneath the surface—hard to see, and even harder to move or change. This book helps us read the water and negotiate its hidden obstacles, explaining what attitudes are, how they change and influence behavior. Rather than trying to change attitudes, we need to design solutions and policies with attitudes in mind. Heberlein illustrates these points by tracing the attitudes of the well-known environmentalist Aldo Leopold, while tying social psychology to real-world behaviors throughout the book. Bringing together theory and practice, this book provides a realistic understanding of why and how attitudes matter when it comes to environmental problems; and how, by balancing natural with social science, we can step back from false assumptions and unproductive, frustrating programs to work toward fostering successful, effective environmental action.
Structured Decision Making Gregory, Robin; Failing, Lee; Harstone, Michael ...
2012, 2012-02-17
eBook, Book
This book is about the creative and messy process of making environmental management decisions. The approach we describe is called Structured Decision Making, a distinctly pragmatic label given to ...ways for helping individuals and groups think through tough multidimensional choices characterized by uncertain science, diverse stakeholders, and difficult tradeoffs. This is the everyday reality of environmental management, yet many important decisions currently are made on an ad hoc basis that lacks a solid value-based foundation, ignores key information, and results in selection of an inferior alternative. Making progress – in a way that is rigorous, inclusive, defensible and transparent – requires combining analytical methods drawn from the decision sciences and applied ecology with deliberative insights from cognitive psychology, facilitation and negotiation.The authorsreview key methods and discuss case-study examples based in our experiences in communities, boardrooms, and stakeholder meetings.The goal of this bookis to lay out a compelling guide that will change how you think about making environmental decisions.Visit www.wiley.com/go/gregory/sdmto access the figures and tables from the book.
This study investigates the implementation of environmental management accounting in translating environmental management strategy into organizational performance. Further, the study identifies the ...influence of institutional pressures on environmental management strategy and environmental management accounting to provide a better description of the impact of the institutional environment on corporate environmental practices. The data were collected from 144 business entities in Sri Lanka using a web‐based survey and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. We found statistically significant evidence to state that the environmental management strategy is positively associated with the environmental and economic performance of organizations, whereas environmental management accounting mediates this relationship. Further, a firm's institutional environment positively affects both environmental management strategies and environmental management accounting. This study emphasizes that the organizational information systems such as environmental management accounting are useful in providing information on environmental costs and monitoring environmental and financial performance when implementing environmental management strategies in the pursuit of corporate sustainable development.
We hypothesize a model where domestic and international institutional pressures lead to the successful implementation of ISO 9000 and can in turn lead to the successful implementation of ...environmental management systems such as ISO 14001 environmental certification systems or total quality environmental management (TQEM) systems. Using appropriate tests for mediation with dichotomous mediators and outcomes, we find that the model holds for a sample of 377 Chinese manufacturers in six major industrial groups in Suzhou, Dalian, and Tianjin. Our findings are consistent with the theory linking internal capabilities to heterogeneous external (in this case, institutional) pressures on organizations for environmentally proactive efforts. Our findings suggest that institutions in developing countries with significant environmental concerns such as China as well as foreign suppliers and partners to firms in these countries should encourage and support ISO 9000 implementations by local firms. These findings may influence other developing nations' adoption of quality and environmental process systems.
► We examine the effect of ISO 9000 for environmental management systems adoption. ► Empirical evaluation from 377 Chinese manufacturing firms using a robust logistic regression approach. ► ISO 9000 is helpful for ISO 14001 and other EMS adoption given various institutional pressures. ► International organizations may justify ISO 9000 as a supportive tool for implementation of broader systems.
The integration of sustainability in general and environmental aspects in particular into management control systems (MCS) are now being addressed in MCS research. We argue that the concept of ...environmental management control systems (EMCS) provides a promising approach for integrating presently fragmented lines of inquiry concerning the internal drivers and managerial processes that may foster firms' environmental performance. Addressing the apparent fragmentation of research on EMCS, we develop a ‘positioning framework’ to locate EMCS within the topic of sustainability and to show how EMCS relates to other subsystems of management, especially to environmental management accounting (EMA) and to environmental management systems (EMS). Second, applying the ‘invisible college’ approach, which delivered responses of 22 eminent scholars, we analyze scholarly perspectives on useful conceptual frameworks for EMCS. Third, we specify the concept of EMCS and elaborate its elements by drawing on the general MCS framework of Malmi and Brown (2008), which we integrate in our ‘positioning framework’ to structure instruments and concepts that have been discussed in the literature. Finally, we summarize current empirical research on EMCS by means of an integrative literature review. The integrative literature review allows us to summarize the existing empirical evidence and to outline what we know and do not know about EMCS. Our findings suggest different avenues for future research: Exploring interfaces between the different dimensions of our ‘positioning framework’ (e.g., different configurations of EMCS elements; combinations of design and use of EMA instruments and EMCS elements; intergenerational controls; potential trade-offs between the dimensions of sustainability), addressing so far neglected aspects of the EMCS framework (e.g., clans; organizational and corporate governance structures), and focusing on more profound theoretical foundations, construct validation, and potential associations of EMCS with innovativeness, capabilities, and organizational learning.
