Environmental management systems experience among Latvian construction companies/Aplinkos apsaugos vadybos sistemu taikymo patirtis latvijos statybos imonese.
Tambovceva, Tatjana ; Geipele, Ineta
1. Introduction
The experience of the 20th century has visibly demonstrated that
solving of ecological problems, which are caused by separate subjects of
economy--economic development of companies, is possible only by applying
systematic approach. It is necessary to search new ways of more
effective ecological problem solving on company and state level. At the
present stage of development, as well as around the world, essential
influence on the enterprise work has the idea of sustainability
development. The concept of sustainable development has become
widespread amongst government agencies, politicians, corporations and
other organizations throughout the world.
The attempts to solve the existing ecological problems by applying
administrative and state regulatory methods have not lead to the
anticipated results. Obvious is the need to find fundamental, new
approaches for ecological problem solving that would allow merge
economic and ecological stability of companies. The experience of
foreign and local companies indicates that such a combination can be
ensured by environmental management. The priorities of the 21st century
were outlined in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), by declaring that
"environmental management is to be considered the dominant of
sustainable development and at the same time the highest priority of
production process and entrepreneurship" (Agenda 21... 1992).
Environmental management is part of the concept of strategic management
and involves safe management of economic activities that helps attain
optimal correlation with efficient environmental protection.
An EMS consists of a collection of internal policies, assessments,
plans and implementation actions. Once an organization implements an
EMS, it can be certified to the ISO 14001 standard. Developed by the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1996, ISO 14001
adoptions require certification by an independent third party auditor,
who helps to ensure that the EMS conforms to the ISO 14001 standard. In
preparation for certification, an organization must characterize the
procedures and plans that form its EMS.
Tambovceva (2008) offers their own definition of the term:
"Environmental management is the planning, implementation and
control of strategic, tactical and operational measures for prevention,
reduction and elimination of damage caused to the environment as well as
purposeful usage of market advantages gained thereof"
The goal of environmental management is to lessen the negative
impact of economic activity on environment and to ensure ecological
safety of production processes, as well as production of environmentally
and to human health friendly production. Implementation of the given
tasks has to go hand in hand with attainment of other priority goals of
the company, including preservation of its current and long-term
competitiveness. Environmental management increases the liability of the
company not only through production of safe and harmless products, but
also using reasonable use of natural resources and selection of
environmentally friendly technologies.
In recent years, an increasing number of private and public-sector
organizations have been engaged in the implementation and use of
environmental management systems (EMSs). By the end of 2007, around
129,031 organizations worldwide had an EMS certified according to ISO
14001, the global EMS standard, and thousands more had adopted
uncertified EMSs (ISO World 2007). Moreover about 5,389 organizations in
Europe had registered an EMS according to Eco-Management and Audit
Scheme (EMAS) (EMAS 2007). Within the last five years, the number of
organizations certified according to ISO 14001 in Latvia has doubled.
The first organizations have received the certificate in 1997. In the
first 3 years their quantity has reached 20. Strong growth of quantity
of the certificated organizations was observed till 2005. To date about
100 of certified according to ISO 14001 companies are located in Latvia.
Since 2005 in Latvia also there is a possibility to register an EMS
according to EMAS. Worldwide number of ISO 14001 certifications are
shown in Fig. 1.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
There is a lack of national evaluations of ISO 14001 in many
countries. But in many countries no complete lists of the national
certified / registered sites exist at all. In Latvia, since April 2003,
a list of ISO 14001 sites has been compiled and regularly updated by the
Latvian Quality Association. This presented the opportunity to conduct a
national study, which would also be of interest for communicating
experiences and effects from organizations working with ISO 14001 to
other organizations. Additionally, the ISO 14001 standard is currently
being reviewed. An investigation of the interpretation and translation
of the different elements in the standard ISO 14001 is therefore of
interest.
Construction is not an environmentally friendly process by nature
and has large environmental impact. It is estimated that buildings
account for about 40% of the materials entering the world's economy
each year and for 25% of the world's usage of wood (Kein et al.
1999). Large volumes of waste result from the production, transport, use
of construction materials and products. It is clear that construction
companies need to use systematic approach to environmental management.
As well as in other branches it is better to use worldwide popular
standard in construction too. ISO 14001 standard today is well
established throughout the world. In Latvia, the ISO 14001 standard was
adopted as a national voluntary standard in 1996, but now ISO 14001:
2004 version is used.
The purpose of this study is to explore and describe experiences
and effects of EMS in construction companies, based on study conducted
for the construction industry in Latvia. The paper describes a study of
all certified according to ISO 14001 companies in Latvia referable to
construction industry only.
2. Methodology
There has been no any serious scientific study of Latvia's
experience with EMS. The aim of the all certified with ISO 14001
companies research was to explore and describe experiences and effects
obtained by Latvian organizations working with ISO 14001 in order to
generate knowledge about the contributions of EMS implementations.
Different sources of data collection methodologies have been used: 1)
literature review--study and evaluation of the normative documents and
published scientific papers connected with EMS, ISO 14001, existing
evaluations of EMS etc. in the context of sustainable development; 2)
national questionnaire survey of construction companies.
The informative materials comprise reference scientific studies
from the international specialty literature, documents and reports of
different research projects, own research works inclusively, statistical
data and information. It is commonly assumed, that implementation of ISO
14001 or EMAS leads to both improved environmental management and
economic competitiveness of the organization. However, the relationship
between environmental management and economic and environmental
performance is complex (Schaltegger, Synnestvedt 2002).
Literature review was carried out in order to establish the
theoretical background and practical examples of the general drivers and
barriers encountered when implementing the environmental management
systems. Many researchers evaluate how the implementation of EMS
influences the environmental performance, and costs of companies, as
well as barriers of implementation. Grybaite and Tvaronaviciene (2008)
investigated approaches to measurement of sustainable development
adopted by international organizations, or institutions. Besides many
in-depth case-studies, there are evaluation studies with empirical data
of a qualitative and / or quantitative nature from numerous registered
or certified organizations; see, for example, Zackrisson et al. (2000);
Welch et al. (2002); Ammenberg and Hjelm (2003); Andrews et al. (2003),
Schylander and Martinuzzi (2007), Selih (2007) etc. Schylander and Zobel
(2003) examined methods used to investigate EMS effects. Bansal and
Hunter (2003), as well as Darnall (2006) have evaluated the reasons why
organizations adapt the EMS. Strachan et al. (2003) reviewed the
environmental management system motivation literature and found that an
EMS can bring benefits to organizations. Birke (2003) and Freimann &
Walther (2001) wrote critical summaries about EMSs in Germany. Freimann
and Schwedes (2000) summarized experiences of German EMAS companies
through a presentation of the empirical results of different German
questionnaires and case studies. In addition to that Steger (2000) took
a review of smaller, mostly German, but also other European, empirical
investigations of EMS in order to assess the impact that the EMSs have
had on organizations. He could see no differences in environmental
performance between EMAS, ISO 14001 or organizational specific systems.
Pecher et al. (2002) performed 13 evaluation studies meta-analysis
concerning EMAS, Cleaner Production, EcoProfit and environmental state
subsidies. The environmental performance of the organizations explored
Rondinelli and Vastag (2000) and Steger (2000). Kirkland and Thompson
(1999), Hillary (2000), Berthelot et al. (2003) and Strachan et al.
(2003) investigated also barriers for implementing an EMS. Selih (2007)
investigated current environmental management trends based on study of
construction companies in Slovenia and reported how the construction
SMEs perceived obstacles to the EMS implementation. Many of the examined
evaluations showed that there is a positive effect on environmental
performance, although the effect is hard to quantify.
For the purpose of studying the experience of Latvian companies
when identifying the importance and the potential of ISO 14001 the
authors used survey. The design of the questionnaire has been inspired
by Schylander and Martinuzzi (2007). Some questions, descriptions and
justifications were formulated in exactly the same way. The
questionnaire consisted of 26 questions concerning company's basic
information, general questions on ISO 14001, and integrated management
systems, environmental and economic effects etc. Basic data about
certified organization count were taken from the Latvian Quality
Association web-site. The questionnaire period was from 2007 November to
2008 May. The questionnaire was sent by e-mail or by post to the
environmental manager or person responsible for environment issues.
Total count of contacted respondents was 40 and authors received 25
answers, consequently response rate is 63%.
Construction and real estate industry is very specific. Many
smaller companies are subcontractors of large companies, and they
execute some parts of large enterprise's projects. Due to the fact
they have fulfilled all requirements, including those relating to
environmental protection. Even if such companies do not have ISO 14001
certification, however, working in projects with large companies are
forced to comply with all relevant requirements. Therefore, it can be
assumed that any response can be represented in all the realities of
construction companies.
3. Research findings and discussion
In order to do comparative analyses, basic data on the respondents
as well as on the certified organizations were collected (see Table 1).
Below, some of the most important findings from the questionnaire
are presented and related to existing research within the field.
3.1. Motives of an ISO 14001 implementation
We asked the organizations how important different stated driving
forces were for decision to implement the ISO 14001 to illuminate
whether the driving forces of implementation are similar to those in the
motivation literature, but also to compare our result with similar
studies. Further, we asked the organizations how well these expectations
were fulfilled (not at all, bad, good, good, very good). The results are
shown in Fig. 2. The right y-axis shows the averages of how the
respondents assessed their expectations. The left y-axis shows received
benefits; the values are expressed in terms of number of organization.
[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]
The most important point in our study was to improve public image.
But the high expectations are not always reached. It means that the
organizations primarily expect external recognition of their ISO 14001
activities. Also, in identifying potentials for cost reductions, the
high expectations have not been fulfilled for nearly half of the
companies. This can be explained by the fact that either expectations
were too high or there were some weak points in the implementation
phase. Ensuring legal compliance is another strong driving force that
seemed to be fulfilled by the implementation. Further, improvements in
environmental performance, a systemization of environmental activities
and risk minimization also seem to be achieved by the implementation.
A similar study, based on 93 certified Swedish organizations,
concluded that the most significant motive for implementing ISO 14001
was "corporate image" and 89% of the respondents indicate it
as important or very important. In the Swedish study the following four
highest valued motives for an implementation were: marketing advance
(84%), customer pressure (65%), relations with communities (63%) and
relations with authorities (62%) (Poksinska et al. 2003). This indicates
that Swedish organizations are primarily expecting external benefits
from an ISO 14001 implementation, which coincide with our results from
Latvia.
3.2. The standard ISO 14001
One aim of our study was to investigate how difficult the
application and understanding of the different elements of the ISO
14000:2004 standard was during the implementation phase. International
standards, especially ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, have received a lot of
criticism for being bureaucratic and hard to translate into practical
work. In the current review process of the ISO 14001 standard, one
discussion is about improving the clarity of the ISO 14000:2004 texts.
We asked respondents about each of ISO 14001 standard part
implementation. The right y-axis shows the averages of how the
respondents assessed difficulties in the implementation of the elements
of ISO 14001. The left y-axis shows each of ISO 14001 standard part; the
values are expressed in terms of percentage of respondents answering to
concrete position. The results are shown in Fig. 3.
[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]
There are two main findings. Firstly, the environmental policy
seems to be the easiest element in the standard to translate into
practical work. Only 1% of the respondents consider it very difficult
and 19% as a difficult. Secondly, the most difficult element in our
study was Environmental management system documentation: 3.5% of the
respondents marked this as very difficult and another 46% as difficult.
Legal and other requirements on the one hand seem to be a difficult
element: 3% of the respondents marked this as very difficult and another
36% as difficult. On the other hand, the results of our study show that
legal and other requirements are difficult to handle in the
implementation phase, but the effort seems be pay back after the
implementation. This coincides with our earlier results about perceived
expectations from an ISO 14001 system, since the expectations in
ensuring legal compliance are well fulfilled.
3.3. Economic effects
In this study, respondents were also asked about costs for building
and running the ISO 14001 system, cost savings and direct incomes as an
effect of the ISO 14001 implementation.
Table 2 shows the organizations' assessment of different costs
related to ISO 14001 implementation and certification.
The average cost to build an ISO 14001 system is assessed by the
organizations to be about 11,943 [euro] on average, where 31.5% is
attributable to internal costs, 30.2% consultants' fees and 38.3%
certification costs. The yearly cost for running the system is assessed
by the organizations to be 3,650 [euro] on average. However, costs could
be influenced by the size of the organization. In our study this value
is very relative. The reason is that the most of organizations did not
present real information or did not answer this question at all. Many
respondents motivated the reason of non-answers on business secret.
What are then the economic benefits of implementing an ISO 14001?
Only half of respondents gave answer on this question. 56% of the
respondents did not assess cost savings. 12% of respondents saw cost
savings till 1000 [euro], 4% saw cost savings of 1,000 [euro] to 2,000
[euro] etc. The most important contribution to these cost savings was
lower costs for waste, since the organizations had started to fraction
and sort their waste. Resource optimization was another cost saving,
which is related to a more efficient use of packaging, raw materials and
energy in the processes.
We also asked the respondents about direct income as a result of
the implementation of ISO 14001. Again approximately only half of
respondents gave answer on this question. 68% of the respondents could
not see any direct income as a result of the implementation of ISO
14001. However, the assessed direct incomes are in average terms 3,000
[euro]. These results indicate that the primary economic reason for
working with an ISO 14001 is cost savings rather than direct incomes.
3.4. Environmental effects
Environmental effects of ISO 14001 can be divided into
environmental awareness and direct environmental effects. It is
confirmed by many other studies. A summary of all results according to
environmental effects from our study is presented in Fig. 4.
Likewise, as in other national studies, our study shows that direct
environmental effects, e.g., energy, waste, transports, consumption of
raw material, etc., can be seen in improvements within waste and
recycling. From these activities, the organizations have also realized
considerable cost-savings by reducing and fractioning their waste (64%
of respondents). Most of the respondents (60%) noticed improvement in
energy consumption / C[O.sub.2] emission, and consuming of the raw
material. On the other hand, an implementation of ISO 14001 does not
seem to influence emissions to soil and transports to any larger extent.
In-depth analyses show high correlations within the direct effects
between the awareness of environmental issues and improvements in energy
consumption and waste, but no correlations to the sizes of the company.
[FIGURE 4 OMITTED]
Our results also show that an ISO 14001 does not seem to influence
product related activities. Only 8% of the respondents have recognized a
very strong increase and 16% strong increase in involvement of
life-cycle assessments of their products as an effect of the
implementation of ISO 14001.
Fig. 4 also shows how the organizations assess environmental
improvements as an effect of ISO 14001 implementation. We observed that
one large contribution of ISO 14001 was awareness of environmental
issues, i.e., 76 % of the respondents have observed middle, strong or
very strong improvements of environmental issues within the organization
recognized since the ISO 14001 implementation. Our results also show
that an ISO 14001 does not seem to influence product related activities,
only 8% of the respondents have recognized a strong increase in
involvement of life-cycle assessments of their products.
3.5. The standard ISO 14031
In the environmental management literature, there is a wide variety
of practical guidelines for choosing relevant indicators: in the
standards (the international standard for Environmental Management
System, ISO 14001, and the European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme,
EMAS) given in the sustainability literature as well as in the general
environmental literature. There is an idea that having an environmental
management system (EMS) will improve the performance of a company over
time, and that this improvement can be monitored and influenced by the
help of specific indicators. However, the standardized environmental
management systems and audits do not automatically lead to improved
performance (Ammenberg, Hjelm 2003; Zobel 2007). In practice, each
sector and each company can make their own selection from over hundreds
of examples of suggested indicators (LVS EN ISO 14031 2001; Scherpereel
et al. 2001; Morhardt et al. 2002).
One way may be to use the standard ISO 14031--Environmental
Performance Evaluation. By using this standard, companies can introduce
cost-effective, non-bureaucratic and process-related indicators that
help to clarify the link between management efforts and actual
improvements. We asked the companies about their knowledge and usage of
ISO 14031. The results are shown in Fig. 5.
The results show that more than half of respondents, i.e. 74% are
not familiar with the ISO 14031 standard. No one has built their own
indicator system based on this standard. 22% of respondents heard about
ISO 14031 as a part of the ISO 14000 family, but just briefly. It means
that they don't know about it too. It seems that ISO 14031 not to
be well known in Latvia. It is also similar to many other
investigations. But during recent years this standard became more and
more popular.
3.6. Integration with other management systems
One of the ways of realizing sustainable development principles and
corporate social responsible enterprise at the level of an
organizational unit is implementation of normalized systems elaborated
by International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Systems
integration is becoming one of the most popular catch--phrases in
business today. The proliferation of management systems standards, such
as ISO 9000, ISO 14000 and OHSAS 18000, has made it very difficult and
costly for most organizations to manage all of these separately. Instead
of having several separate management systems, organizations see
benefits such as timesaving and reduced costs in integrating systems.
Zwetsloot (1995) argues that integration of quality, environmental,
health and safety management can give positive synergy effects. For
instance, working carefully and safely with hazardous materials is
relevant both for the environment and the working conditions.
The environmental impact of products is a vital aspect not only of
environmental management but also of quality management. Good
"housekeeping" is important for all three areas. Zwetsloot
(1995) states that positive synergy aspects are: better definitions of
opportunities and problems, better understanding of the advantages and
disadvantages of potential solutions, and clearly defined deterrents.
[FIGURE 6 OMITTED]
The majority of the respondents said that they found advantages in
integrating their management systems. 76% of the organizations,
participated in our study, have integrated their EMS certified by ISO
14001 with other management systems. 64% have integrated their ISO 14001
with a Quality management system, mainly ISO 9001; 40% have integrated
their ISO 14001 with a Health and Safety Management System, and 4% with
Corporate Social Responsibility Management System (see Fig. 6).
Usually as advantages of integrated management systems are the
following, there is only one source of documentation and joint external
and internal audits. Disadvantages of working with integrated systems
are, according to the respondents, a high degree of bureaucracy,
complexity and high resource demands. That coincides with the results of
our study. Zeng et al. (2010) used questionnaire survey and interview
discussions to explore motivations and benefits obtained in implementing
an integrated management system (IMS) for enterprises in China. They
found that the main motivations for implementing IMS were: "To
satisfy customers' requirements", "To respond to
government's appeal" and "To cope with stress from
competitors" and the significant benefits achieved were:
"Simplify certification process", "Decrease management
costs" and "Decrease paper work".
One possible explanation for the high number of integrated
management systems in Latvian construction enterprises may be that
Latvia is very small country and there are not so many consultants here.
Simple fact is that many consultants have previously been implemented
ISO 9000 systems and therefore could easily to integrate it with ISO
14001 and / or OHSAS 18000.
3.7. Sustainability Management Systems
Different strategies can be adopted for developing the EMS
according to ISO 14001 system into a sustainability management system.
It may be environmental management focusing on increasing its
eco-effectiveness (Schaltegger et al. 2003), or synchronization with the
central value-chains of the companies (Birke 2003), or environmental and
social responsibility objectives including in their value-creating
statements, processes and products (Dobers, Wolff 2000).
[FIGURE 7 OMITTED]
We asked the Latvian companies about their attitudes concerning
different strategies for developing ISO 14001 into a sustainability
management system. The results are summarized in Fig. 7.
About 81% of the organizations estimated it greatly meaningful or
meaningful to develop the ISO 14001 system into a sustainability
management system through a better coordination between environmental
management and company's strategy. About 80% see the Instrument to
encourage organizational learning process as a very important. 76% of
respondents see Better coordination between the environmental management
and the company strategy as an important. 72% believe that direct
participation of all employees influences EMS developing in to
Sustainability Management Systems. 48% of respondents see the need for
better synchronization of the EMS and the central value chains of the
company. However, even if there is a strong will to develop EMS towards
a sustainability management system, there is still a long way to go
before a sustainability management system can be applied in reality. Our
study results are similar to Dobers and Wolff (2000), Freimann and
Walther (2001), Birke (2003), Schaltegger et al. (2003) and Schylander
and Martinuzzi (2007).
4. Conclusions
The purpose of this study was to explore and describe experiences
and effects of ISO 14001 in Latvian construction enterprises, based on
study conducted for the construction industry in Latvia. The percentage
of returned questionnaires is high (63%) and gives us an insight into
the quality and environmental management trends in Latvian construction
companies.
As similar studies conclude, our results show that organizations
primarily expect an external recognition of the EMS activities, such as
public image. ISO 14001 also fulfils many of the expectations within
other important motives regarding legal compliance, improvement of
environmental performance and systemization of environmental activities.
The most important contribution of ISO 14001 discerned in our
study, but also in other similar studies, is that it raises the
awareness of environmental issues. Another main benefit is that ISO
14001 ensures legal compliance. Our study shows that direct
environmental effects can be seen in improvements within waste and
energy consumption / C[O.sub.2] emission, and consuming of the raw
material. From these activities, the organizations have also realized
considerable cost-savings by reducing and fractioning their waste.
In-depth analyses show that it is not correlations to the sizes of the
company. All companies are focusing on waste control, energy saving and
air / water pollution reduction. Differences between large companies and
SMEs were found in energy saving, that are more important for large
companies. Also the count of integrated management systems in large
companies is bigger than in SMEs.
The majority of the responding organizations are working with
integrated management systems; mainly they have integrated their ISO
14001 with a Quality management system. In order to drive organizations
effectively into Sustainability Management Systems, the three most
important challenges are: to improve the coordination between the EMS
and the organizations' strategies; to use it as instrument to
encourage organizational learning process and to direct participation of
all employees are necessary. A good EMS allows companies to find ways
for the limitation of their environmental impacts and the reduction of
the costs or the increase of the productivity. Moreover, it helps them
to find ways to improve their organizational efficiency and
effectiveness.
One of the ways that help organizations to evaluate the EMS can be
ISO 14031. By using this standard, companies can introduce
cost-effective, non-bureaucratic and process-related indicators.
However, one significant conclusion of our study is that the most of
organizations in Latvia do not have knowledge about the ISO 14031
standard.
In our study we asked respondents about costs for building and
running the ISO 14001 system, cost savings and direct incomes as an
effect of the ISO 14001 implementation. Unfortunately approximately only
half of respondents gave answer on these questions. Many respondents
motivated the reason of non-answers on business secret. However, costs
could be influenced by the size of the organization. Nonetheless the
results indicate that the primary economic reason for working with an
ISO 14001 is cost savings rather than direct incomes. The most important
contribution to these cost savings was lower costs for waste, since the
organizations had started to fraction and sorts their waste. Resource
optimization was another cost saving, which is related to a more
efficient use of packaging, raw materials and energy in the processes.
It is important to note that the fact that the environmental
managers were those who filled in the questionnaire may have influenced
the results. The findings would probably be different if we had asked
other employees with different responsibilities in the organizations. On
the other hand, environmental managers were chosen as the respondents,
since they are the people with an overview of environmental issues.
The results of our study are similar to the results of other
author's studies, not only in construction industry, but also in
power industry, transport / transit, service and trade etc.
http://dx.doi. org/10.3846/20294913.2011.603179
Received 2 September 2010; accepted 9 February 2011
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Tatjana Tambovceva (1), Ineta Geipele (2)
Faculty of Engineering Economics and Management, Riga Technical
University, Mezha street 1/7-213, LV-1048 Riga, Latvia
E-mails: 1tatjana.tambovceva@rtu.lv (correspondingauthor); (2)
ineta.geipele@rtu.lv
Tatjana TAMBOVCEVA. Dr, Assoc. Prof., Faculty of Engineering
Economics and Management, Riga Technical University, Latvia. Riga
Technical University Engineer degree (1995). Riga Technical University
Master degree in Scientific Engineering (1996), Riga Technical
University Doctor degree in Economics (Management science) (2008). A
participant of many research projects. Author of more than 50 scientific
articles and author/co-author 10 training books. Research interests:
environmental management, integrated management systems, sustainable
development concept, sustainable building, project management and
scheduling, information management and technology.
Ineta GEIPELE. Dr, Prof., Faculty of Engineering Economics and
Management, Riga Technical University, Latvia. Riga Technical University
Engineer degree (1988). Riga Technical University Master degree in
Engineering Economics (1995), Riga Technical University Doctor degree in
Economics (Management science) (1998). A head/ participant of many
research projects. Author about 100 scientific articles and
author/co-author 5 scientific and training books. Research interests:
strategic management, construction and real estate management,
environmental management, integrated management systems.
Table 1. Basic data about the respondents and the certified
organization
Feature Data within this study
Title of respondent 20%--Environmental manager
36%--Quality manager
44%--Other (departmental manager,
logistic manager, office manager
etc)
Size of organizations 81%--Small and medium sized
enterprises (less than 250
employees)
19%--Large enterprises (250
employees and more)
Year of ISO 14001 implementation 1997-2008
Table 2. The organizations' assessment of average costs for
implementing ISO 14001
Costs Average % of
costs costs
in Euro
Building the ISO 14001--internal costs 3765 31.5
Building the ISO 14001--consultant costs 3608 30.2
Certification costs 4570 38.3
Sum of costs for building the system 11943 100
Fig. 5. Knowledge and usage of the standard ISO
14031
Yes, we have built
our own
indicator system 0%
Yes, we have been
involved with it,
but no built our
own system 4%
Yes, but just
briefly 22%
No, I don't know
this ISO norm 74%
Note: Table made from pie chart.
