The effect of ISO 14001 certification on toxic emissions: an analysis of industrial facilities in the north of Spain

During recent decades, the impact of industrial organisations on the environment has become clearly evident. It has also become more difficult to hide and more expensive. Globally, this has caused many enterprises to put all their efforts into seeking management instruments that allow them to reduce their negative impact on the environment as well as improving their economic efficiency. This environmental interest is either voluntary or forced by customers or by legal pressure. Environmental Management Systems (EMSs) are among the many tools that have appeared to fulfil that goal and that have drawn international researchers’ attention. The most popular system and the one most often used is the ISO 14001 standard.This paper examines empirically the influence that this certification exerts on the company’s pollutant emission policy. The analysis was carried out in four regions of Spain: Asturias, Cantabria, Galicia and Castilla-León and includes 126 industrial organisations. The goal of this paper is to investigate the behaviour of the companies according to their emissions policies once they have achieved the ISO 14001 certification. In the paper the Toxics Release Index of 56 certified companies is compared with the Index of 70 non-certified companies. Through a statistical analysis based on the Student’s t-test and the Mann–Whitney U test, it was concluded that ISO 14001 does not represent an environmental proactivity signal clearly enough to result in a reduction of the company’s environmental polluting index.     

Best practices for corporate commitment to biodiversity: An organizing framework from GRI reports

Corporate operations can have significant impacts on biodiversity. Nevertheless, the literature has overlooked the analysis of the organizational practices underlying corporate commitment to biodiversity. The objective of this article is to contribute to this under-researched issue by shedding light on the best practices of biodiversity conservation of companies whose operations pose high risks to biodiversity. For this purpose, we carried out a systematic analysis of the sustainability practices reported by 163 mining and forestry companies whose operations pose high risks to biodiversity. The article proposes an organizing framework describing the main approaches and practices for corporate biodiversity management. The contributions and implications for managers, policy makers and other stakeholders are discussed.     

Land use indicators in life cycle assessment. Case study: The environmental impact of Mediterranean greenhouses

The importance of land use evaluation has recently been recognised in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Even so, there is still a considerable lack of definition, particularly concerning what parameters should be considered and – as a result – what particular methodology should be used. This paper presents a review of the different methods proposed for assessing the environmental impact of land use. The methodology is specially developed for assessing endpoint categories such as biodiversity and life support systems. We evaluated the environmental impact associated with protected horticulture and compared it with other forms of human activity. The study was carried out in the area of El Maresme. This has traditionally been an agricultural area, although it is now under heavy pressure from urban and industrial developments due to its proximity to Barcelona. On the basis of the results obtained in the case study, it was demonstrated that agricultural uses ranked at the same level or slightly below those of urban uses, and that both uses clearly scored lower than forest uses, from the point of view of biodiversity. When a productivity indicator was used, agricultural use registered a smaller environmental impact than urban use, but larger than for forestry. Finally, we discuss the problems and limitations encountered when these methods were applied in our case study.     

南中国海地区红树林的利用和保护

南中国海具有丰富的浅海和热带的生物多样性,是全球红树林分布的中心之一.南中国海地区红树林面积大约占全球的28%,该区红树植物的多样性为世界最高,共有46种真红树分布于此.由于受人口增加和经济发展的巨大压力,南中国地区红树林资源破坏严重,退化趋势明显.虽然南中国海周边国家过去都实施了相应的海洋环境保护行动计划,然而缺乏区域协调措施大大降低了这些行动的有效性.本文在对南中国海地区红树林资源的利用现状和退化原因进行分析的基础上,提出南中国海地区红树林资源保护与管理的建议,以期能在双边或区域的层面上共同协作,采取适当的措施去扭转南中国海地区红树林生境退化趋势.     

Critical factors for implementing ISO 14001 standard in United States industrial companies

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of an empirical study carried out on a sample of certified industrial companies that operate in the United States, with the aim of identifying some of the critical factors for successful implementation of the ISO 14001 registration process. The paper reveals that it takes most of the companies between 8 to 19 months to obtain ISO 14001 certification. In addition, the ISO 14001 elements requiring the greatest effort are: identifying environmental aspects, environmental management system (EMS) documentation, training, EMS audits, operational control, environmental management program, objectives and targets, and document control. The survey also reveals that high certification cost and lack of other available resources are the greatest obstacles for implementing the ISO 14001 standard.     

Cost-effective forest conservation and criteria for potential conservation targets: a Finnish case study

Selecting reserves for forest biodiversity maintenance is often done by setting criteria for components of structural elements of biodiversity, such as a volume of decaying wood. We tested how the different threshold values for the components of structural elements affect the cost-effective site selection. Using Finnish National Forest Inventory information and remote sensing data, we determined a habitat quality index and economic value for each site in Satakunta region in Finland. Moreover, we defined several sets of potential conservation targets using alternative criteria for the habitat quality index developed for the Finnish case study. These figures were used in the site selection model in order to maximize the sum of habitat index of selected areas under a given budget constraint. We found that the production possibility frontier for the outputs of timber and biodiversity is only slightly concave when using the given threshold values. Thus, the optimal combination of the outputs is sensitive to the relative values of these goods. Our results suggest that an integrated approach in forest conservation could provide to environmental managers considerable cost savings compared with current management practices. Environmental managers could also reduce conservation costs by loosening the criteria for potential conservation targets. This would not lower considerably the quality of conserved forests.     

The role of environmental management system on introduction of new technologies in the metal and chemical/paper/plastics industries

Pollution prevention with the use of modern cleaner technologies in industrial sectors is the cornerstone of successful environmental policy certified according to the requirements of the international standard ISO 14001. The analyses were performed with the objective of assessing general aspects of technology modernisation as a result of the ISO 14001 certification in industrial enterprises in order to develop a better understanding whether the ISO 14001 certification can accelerate initiatives for the adoption of new and cleaner technologies within the certified firms on one hand, and, on the other hand, to find out to what extent it helped to upgrade their environmental performance. The research was performed within Slovene metal and chemical (including pharmaceuticals, paper and plastics) manufacturing companies with an additional emphasis on firms which are committed to implementing the IPPC directive. In general, certified enterprises consider ISO 14001 as a very useful tool in promoting and adopting new cleaner technologies. ISO 14001 seems to be particularly important to create better conditions for the technology changes in companies which are committed to the IPPC Directive. Companies in chemical and related industries, to a much higher extent, used predominantly modified technologies to diminish their environmental impacts, while companies in metal industries, to a higher extent, used a combination of existing and new technologies after ISO 14001 certification. It seems that better environmental performance is associated with higher productivity in ISO 14001 certified firms.     

生物液体燃料发展的环境影响研究进展

第二代生物燃料生产技术已发展起来,有关生物液体燃料发展的环境影响研究,毁誉参半、争论激烈。论文在查阅大量国内外相关文献的基础上,评述了生物液体燃料的发展进程及其对温室气体减排、水土资源及生物多样性等方面的影响,并就生物液体燃料环境影响的研究趋势与发展方向进行了讨论。研究认为:①一些学者认为,就温室气体减排来看,尽管效益不同,但生物液体燃料均在一定程度上减轻了温室气体排放。也有学者认为生物液体燃料与化石燃料相比并没有减少温室气体排放,甚至更糟。②大规模的能源作物集约种植消耗了大量水资源,污染了地下水,破坏了土壤碳库,降低了土壤肥力,加剧了水土流失。此外,土地利用方式改变造成的潜在影响具有很大的不确定性。但也有研究表示选择合适的能源物种及科学的耕作方式也有可能对水土资源带来积极的影响。③生物液体燃料发展对生物多样性产生了危害,但恰当的管理方式亦可能带来正效益。导致研究结论差异巨大的原因主要在于研究角度与尺度不同、研究方法的复杂性和数据的精度及可获得性等。明确边界、统一路径,细化指标、规范标准,系统分析、定量评价应是生物液体燃料的环境影响研究的发展方向。     

中央环保督察“回头看”的市场反应——基于重污染行业上市公司的影响分析

运用事件研究法和非参数检验,探究了中央环保督察“回头看”的宣布实施对于沪深两市A股重污染行业上市公司收益情况的影响及其差异情况,结果显示：事件窗内中央环保督察“回头看”使得重污染行业上市公司的平均累计异常收益率降低至-2.005%,且这一负面冲击在时间上有延长趋势;不同公司性质、子行业的重污染行业上市公司所受影响存在显著差异.就企业性质差异而言,非国有公司累计收益率所受的负面冲击平均比国有公司高1.696%.在不同行业中,建材、制药、石化行业所受负面冲击最大,纺织、造纸、制革行业所受影响则较小.此外,市场对于火电、化工行业企业的反应并非多为负向,注重环境管理使得部分企业在中央环保督察“回头看”中得到了市场的正向回馈.建议持续推进中央环保督察“回头看”制度,以切实促进公司开展节能减排,同时,重污染行业公司特别是非国有公司以及上述行业公司应加强自身环境管理,积极进行环境信息披露,从而尽可能避免在类似的环境规制中受到负面冲击.     

Towards a climate change adaptation strategy for coffee communities and ecosystems in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, Mexico

The mountain chain of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas in southern Mexico is globally significant for its biodiversity and is one of the most important coffee production areas of Mexico. It provides water for several municipalities and its biosphere reserves are important tourist attractions. Much of the forest cover outside the core protected areas is in fact coffee grown under traditional forest shade. Unless this (agro)forest cover can be sustained, the biodiversity of the Sierra Madre and the environmental services it provides are at risk. We analyzed the threats to livelihoods and environment from climate change through crop suitability modeling based on downscaled climate scenarios for the period 2040 to 2069 (referred to as 2050s) and developed adaptation options through an expert workshop. Significant areas of forest and occasionally coffee are destroyed every year by wildfires, and this problem is bound to increase in a hotter and drier future climate. Widespread landslides and inundations, including on coffee farms, have recently been caused by hurricanes whose intensity is predicted to increase. A hotter climate with more irregular rainfall will be less favorable to the production of quality coffee and lower profitability may compel farmers to abandon shade coffee and expand other land uses of less biodiversity value, probably at the expense of forest. A comprehensive strategy to sustain the biodiversity, ecosystem services and livelihoods of the Sierra Madre in the face of climate change should include the promotion of biodiversity friendly coffee growing and processing practices including complex shade which can offer some hurricane protection and product diversification; payments for forest conservation and restoration from existing government programs complemented by private initiatives; diversification of income sources to mitigate risks associated with unstable environmental conditions and coffee markets; integrated fire management; development of markets that reward sustainable land use practices and forest conservation; crop insurance programs that are accessible to smallholders; and the strengthening of local capacity for adaptive resource management.     

Does ISO 14001 work in Brazil?

As a result of increasing global awareness about the importance of the environment, depletion of natural resources and legal pressures for companies to manage their processes in a sustainable manner, ISO 14001 systems have been gaining increasingly more importance in the organizational scenario. These elements are even more critical in emerging nations due to less awareness and fewer demands by governments and the population in relation to environmental issues. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to verify the benefits and difficulties of Environmental Management Systems based on ISO 14001 at industries in the state of São Paulo – Brazil (an emerging country) by conducting a survey to subsidize the proposal for actions in the public, academic and private sectors to promote the use of this standard of reference and strengthen its results in Brazil. A questionnaire was sent to 194 companies from the National Institute of Metrology, Standardization and Industrial Quality database. 69 answered, representing a return rate of 35.36%. The main benefits identified are related to the development of preventive environmental actions, reduction in the consumption of power, water, gas and fuel oil, and a positive influence on other internal management processes. The main difficulties are related to cost increases from ISO 14001 management systems and the constant changes in environmental legislation in Brazil. Some actions are proposed at the end of the analyses to intensify the use and improve the results of this standard, such as changes in government legislation and its collective development and implementation in industries.     

Environmental analysis of the production of natural cork stoppers in southern Europe (Catalonia – Spain)

The wine industry has developed greatly over recent years, and it could be stated that what was once a traditional industry has become a very productive and technical sector. One aspect that has not been studied until now is the cork stopper, despite the fact that most wine bottles are sealed with this product, and practically all corks are produced in the Iberian Peninsula.This study presents the environmental analysis of the production of natural cork stoppers, using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The research was supported by data from four Catalan representative companies and all the stages involved in the production after the forest management have been taken into account. The purpose of this research was to provide reference data for the Catalan cork industrial sector (Northeast Spain), and also contribute to deciding which aspects of natural cork stopper production must be improved and further researched. Another objective of this research was to emphasise and demonstrate that LCA methodology could be an interesting tool for improving traditional industry, from a cleaner production perspective.Results could be used by other sector companies to analyse and compare themselves with in order to know if they could improve their production with the current available technology. Impact assessment results indicate that the manufacturing stage was the stage causing the greatest impact, but also an evaluation of the influence of the initial transport from the forest reveals that this stage could notably increase the impact when raw cork was moved from distant forests.     

我国生物多样性保护体制及其改进建议

在对我国生物多样性保护的政策和体制进行详细阐述的基础上分析其中存在的主要问题,提出改进建议.首先分析了生物多样性保护的实质,认为所谓生物多样性保护就是通过有意识地限制和调节人类活动对生物的干扰破坏,使地球上的生物多样性得以保持和恢复.因此,在本质上,生物多样性保护就是要协调人与自然之间业已失衡的关系,其目标在于实现人与自然之间的和谐和可持续发展.其后,讨论了我国生物多样性保护面临的主要挑战,指出巨大的人口压力和剧烈的人类活动是造成生物多样性破坏的主要原因.特别针对保护体制中的多部门管理和协调机制、中央和地方政府的责任和义务、保护区设立和管理以及国际合作等方面进行了分析,指出了在多头管理的体制下,各部门职责、权利和资源分配不明确、不匹配,保护区管理中重减轻管、事企合一等问题.最后,提出了相应的政策建议.     

Consistency and “awareness gaps” in the environmental behaviour of Hungarian companies

This paper is designed to provide a contribution to the analysis of corporate environmental awareness, describing the concept along its five components: environmental knowledge, values, attitudes, revealed willingness to act and actual behaviour. Due to research experiences companies’ environmental behaviour is not always consistent in practice, which indicates “gaps” emerging between and within awareness components. A questionnaire-based analysis of 466 Hungarian manufacturing companies shows that environmental knowledge is a necessary but not sufficient precondition for adequate organisational behaviour; the impact of favourable attitudes and willingness to act is more essential and can override the impact of knowledge. However, “gaps” also exist between attitudes and actions, as well as within components of corporate environmental awareness which makes the resulting organisational behaviour different from expected.     

Biodiversity conservation incentive programs for privately owned forests

In many countries, a large proportion of forest biodiversity exists on private land. Legal restrictions are often inadequate to prevent loss of habitat and encourage forest owners to manage areas for biodiversity, especially when these management actions require time, money, and other resources. Environmental programs encouraging these actions through economic incentives can be used instead of additional legal restrictions, although to be efficient and successful, an incentive program must be thoughtfully developed and its conservation goals must be clear. In addition to being economically efficient, programs must be acceptable to landowners and ecologically appropriate, especially with respect to the case-specific objectives and the ecosystems in question. We introduce a sample of voluntary incentive programs for private forests in Europe and North America. We briefly describe the economic, social, and ecological characteristics of the programs and the forests they aim to conserve, and evaluate the success of these programs with respect to their explicitly stated goals and the ecological status of the forests in that country or state. Important factors contributing to program success include an allowance for some economic productivity in enrolled forests, a long period since time of program inception, and little interference from other incentive programs.     

The determinants mostly disclosed by companies that are members of the Carbon Disclosure Project

Concerns about climate change as a result of anthropic actions have led to an increase in the volume of information disclosed about it in the reports of companies that are members of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). In this context, the factors most disclosed remain obscure due to both the complexity of climate change impacts and the stakeholders’ different interests. This study aims to identify which factors are most disclosed in the reports of companies that are members of CDP. For this purpose, it is necessary to investigate if the factors indicated by managers and experts are the main ones disclosed in the reports of Brazilian companies that are members of CDP, as well as to identify which companies stand out in climate change disclosure based on these factors. To this end, 463 reports submitted by 48 companies between 2014 and 2016 were examined and 32 factors were investigated using the NVivo® software. Some companies submitted reports with unified titles, which reduced the sample. The results indicate that certain factors—prevention of pollution, prevention of loss, management of environmental assets, volume of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and climate change strategy—account for 50.03% of the total volume of information disclosed about climate change. The main lesson learned from this research is that climate change mitigation strategy is strongly supported by the evidence of corporate annual reports, and it has relation with the following determinant factors: pollution prevention, loss prevention, environmental asset management, GHG emissions, and the strategy chosen by the companies to deal with climate change. Due to the low volume of research related to loss prevention and pollution prevention, we have identified that little attention has been paid to these items. Based on our results, we recommend that climate change mitigation strategies begin to consider these determinant factors in their structure because both have a strong influence in demonstrating how companies are managing these factors for stakeholders. Therefore, companies can benefit from this data to manage their resources for the maintenance of the social contract (legitimacy) through the factors most disclosed, especially companies with lower scores on the scale of ranking presented. Hence, stakeholders can have access to more information on strategies that mitigate climate change and help companies improve the disclosure of the actions that contribute to reduction of GHG emissions.     

欧盟的环境与资源保护——法律、政策和行动

欧盟是各个成员国之间为消除贸易的环境障碍,首先在环境保护的共同标准上进行协商和签订条约,所以乃是以环境为中心,覆盖资源保护问题。现在欧盟已成为超国家的地区主权的实体。欧盟的环境保护局已经成了一个大袋子,把环境保护、资源保护、自然保护甚至与工农业生产有关的问题都包括了进去。它的好处就是有利统一协调。欧盟的环境保护在４０多年中,走过了从各成员国自行负责到形成共同的法律和行动,从工业环境为主到全面生态环境保护,从治理污染到主动预防,从国家到区域到全球行动,在环境保护行动中欧盟将变得更为活跃和日益重要     

ISO 14001 in environmental supply chain practices

This paper focuses on the role of ISO 14001 in environmental supply management practices in Swedish companies. It discusses the existing and potential role of ISO 14001 for three key operational tasks of environmental supply chain management: to communicate the requirements to the supplier, to motivate and enable the supplier, and to verify that the supplier follows the requirements. The study used three different research methods: interviews with environmental managers, focus group discussions and a survey of two multinational companies and their operating units in several countries.It concludes that cooperation between the purchasing and environmental functions within a company is frequently not sufficiently achieved in implementation of ISO 14001; this makes the communication of customer requirements to suppliers less efficient. Building close relationships with suppliers is important to overcome initial difficulties, but this often conflicts with having a large supplier base. For the supplier to have an ISO 14001 certificate is seldom an absolute requirement, however, preference is often given to such suppliers. The value of the ISO 14001 certificate, as a proof of environmental performance, is a combination of the supplier's environmental ambitions, the advancement of supply chain practices of the customer and the ambitions of the certification bodies. Supplier audits are not commonly used as they are resource-consuming. Monitoring and verification approaches need further development.     

Environmental management in the Brazilian non-metallic small-scale mining sector

Non-metallic mineral resources, albeit very important to meet the needs of the Brazilian population and for exportation, are ill-favored by governments and ignored by the public. Most of this mining is performed by small-scale companies and informal operations that cause extensive and widespread environmental damages. In addition to examining the current state of the industry and its environmental impacts, this paper outlines a series of initiatives for improving (environmental) performance. The suggestions made include improved coordination among public entities responsible for the control of the mining sector; the undertaking of environmental management and reclamation initiatives; research and diffusion of mining and environmental technology; the development and implementation of appropriate licensing procedures for small-scale mines; and the reviewing of environmental impact evaluation and enforcement procedures, and improved regional planning. It is concluded, however, that the proposals will only become a reality if the necessary political actions are taken, and are supported by adequate financing and technical assistance.     

Science–policy interface for addressing environmental problems in arid Spain

Science–policy interfaces are avenues for finding solutions for environmental challenges through strengthening collaborations between research disciplines and public administrations. Here we present a methodology for the conduct of science–policy interfaces between scientists and policymakers for addressing day-to-day environmental problems in the southeastern Spanish drylands. A knowledge brokering approach based on six consecutive workshops was used to facilitate mutual understanding and trust between scientists and policymakers. Water policy and biodiversity loss were identified as major environmental concerns in the region, and 12 final environmental problems were agreed as priorities. A graphical tool was used for diagnosing each environmental problem according to the available scientific knowledge, the current regulatory capacity of administrations, and the level of public engagement necessary for addressing the problem. The use of the graphical tool also allowed for (a) the clarification of roles involved in problem solving, and (b) the promotion of a culture of shared responsibility for the implementation of management actions based on collaborative work. We discuss lessons learned and propose recommendations for future experiences.