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European Management Journal Vol. 18, No. 5, pp. 499–510, 2000
2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Pergamon
Printed in Great Britain
0263-2373/00 $20.00
PII: S0263-2373(00)00039-6
Panacea, Common Sense,
or Just a Label?
The Value of ISO 14001
Environmental
Management Systems
DENNIS RONDINELLI, Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina
GYULA VASTAG, Stuttgart Institute of Management and Technology, Germany
An increasing number of corporations around the
world are certifying their environmental manage-
ment systems by ISO 14000 series standards. Advo-
cates of ISO 14001 claim substantial operational,
managerial, and competitive benefits for corpora-
tions that adopt the international guidelines. Critics
contend that ISO 14001 does not ensure either legal
compliance or continued performance improve-
ments. They claim that at plants or facilities already
complying with environmental regulations, ISO
14001 certification may merely be an image-build-
ing or public relations effort.
Theoretically, ISO 14001 could serve as a compre-
hensive framework for significantly improving per-
formance in a firm with minimal environmental
management capacity (in a sense, a ‘panacea’) or as
a set of common sense guidelines for enhancing
performance in a firm with regulatory compliant
practices. Some firms may, indeed, simply use ISO
14001 as a ‘label’ for image-building. The following
Case Study of an operationally efficient and regu-
latory-compliant aluminum plant that certified its
environmental management system under ISO
14001 guidelines in 1996 identifies the impacts three
years later. Drawing on the literature of program
evaluation, and using archival material, interviews
with managers, and a concept mapping exercise,
four sets of impacts were found of certifying the
plant’s environmental management system by ISO
14001 standards. They included improvements in
(1) employee awareness, (2) operational efficiency,
European Management Journal
Vol 18 No 5 October 2000
499
(3) managerial awareness, and (4) operational effec-
tiveness.
Many of the world’s largest multinational corpora-
tions have certified their environmental manage-
ment systems (EMS) under ISO 14000 standards
during the past few years, and many other compa-
nies are in the process of doing so. ISO 14000, the
International Organization for Standardization’s
guidelines for environmental management systems,
has become the international benchmark by which
corporations can voluntarily develop and assess
their environmental practices. The ISO 14000 stan-
dards, approved in 1996, describe the components
and characteristics of an effective system for man-
aging a corporation’s environmental impacts (Tibor
and Feldman, 1996). They offer a format for
developing an environmental policy, identifying
environmental aspects, defining objectives and tar-
gets, implementing a program to attain a company’s
goals, monitoring and measuring effectiveness, cor-
recting deficiencies and problems, and reviewing
management systems to promote continuous
improvement.
Some firms are using ISO 14000 guidelines to
develop new environmental management systems,
or adapting their environmental practices to the
international standard, without formally certifying
them. Other corporations, government agencies,
and environmental interest groups are skeptical
about the real impacts of ISO 14000 certification,
PANACEA, COMMON SENSE, OR JUST A LABEL?
and either ignore the guidelines or question their
effectiveness in improving environmental perform-
ance (Krut, R. and Gleckman, H. 1998). But an
increasing number of corporations are, through
external registrars, formally certifying their EMSs
based on ISO 14000 standards or the European Eco-
Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS).
Despite the growing interest in voluntary environ-
mental management standards for industry, little
empirical information exists and few in-depth case
studies have been done on the effects of adopting
an ISO 14000-certified EMS. Why and how do com-
panies adopt voluntary EMSs? What impacts does
ISO 14000 certification have on a plant or facility?
How does certification affect the operations and
management of a manufacturing plant? Is certifi-
cation merely a formality, or does it change the way
management and employees conceive of and deal
with the environmental impacts of their operations?
Are there significant benefits to companies that
have certified their quality management systems
under ISO 9002 of also certifying their environmen-
tal management systems under ISO 14001?
In this article we assess the impacts of ISO 14000
certification through an in-depth case study of a
plant that began preparing in 1995, more than a year
before the international standards were officially
approved. The analysis focuses on the Alumax
aluminum ingot production facility, called Mt
Holly, in South Carolina. Alcoa purchased the plant
in 1998. This study traces the history of the ISO
14001-certification process at Alumax — which
already had strong environmental practices in place
and had earlier certified its quality management
system under ISO 9002 — and analyzes its impacts.
The case study demonstrates how the certification
of a manufacturing facility affects both its oper-
ations and management processes. Data were
derived from archival sources, from plant site visits,
from interviews with key personnel involved in the
development of Mt Holly’s EMS, and from a con-
cept-mapping exercise involving 15 of the plant’s
managers and pollution prevention team members.
The researchers also interviewed environmental,
health, and safety (EHS) managers at other Alcoa
facilities and drew heavily on the program evalu-
ation literature in applying the concept mapping
exercise. 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights
reserved
Keywords: ISO 14001, Environmental Management,
Quality Management, Certification.
ISO 14000 Guidelines for
Environmental Management Systems
Companies use ISO 14000 standards in two ways.
Some document their environmental management
European Management Journal
Vol 18 No 5 October 2000
500
systems and self-declare that their EMSs meet ISO
14001 standards; others officially certify their EMSs
through a registered external auditor. ISO 14001 cer-
tification acknowledges that a company has an
acceptable environmental management program.
Other standards in the ISO 14000 series provide
guidelines for environmental auditing (ISO 14010),
environmental labeling (ISO 14020), performance
evaluations (ISO 14031), life-cycle assessment (ISO
14040), and product standards (ISO 14060) (von
Zharen, 1996).
By the end of 1998, nearly 8000 organizations in 72
countries had formally certified their environmental
management systems under ISO 14001 (IOS, 1999).
Nearly 54 per cent of the certificates were held by
organizations in Europe. Japan became an early
leader in encouraging its companies to certify. More
than 330 organizations (mostly corporations) were
certified in the United States by early 1999
(International Environmental Systems Update, 1999).
Many other companies use the ISO 14000 guidelines
to create or improve their environmental manage-
ment systems without formally certifying. And some
companies, such as Procter & Gamble, simply use
ISO 14000 as an informal benchmark. P&G, which
had gradually improved its environmental manage-
ment over 30 years at more than 150 sites around the
world, concluded in 1996 that its environmental man-
agement system met or exceeded the ISO 14000 stan-
dards, obviating the need to certify (Victory, 1997).
Other large corporations with operations in the
United States, however, have certified their plants
officially through approved registrars. Rockwell
Automation, Lucent Technologies, Motorola, Sony
Corporation, IBM, Mitsubishi Electric, United Tech-
nologies Corporation, Texas Instruments, Lockheed
Martin, and Philips have all certified plants and
facilities under ISO 14001. Internationally, the Volvo
Car Corporation was one of the first companies to
certify a product — its S80 sedan for 1999 — under
ISO 14040 for life cycle assessment and ISO 14031 for
environmental performance evaluation through
Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (Hart, 1999). And
others, such as Xerox Corporation and Ford Motor
Company, have not only certified their own plants
but also encourage a third-party certification of all of
their suppliers worldwide (International Environ-
mental Systems Update, 1999). General Motors called
for all of its suppliers to have their EMSs certified by
external auditors to either the ISO 14001 standard or
its European equivalent, the Eco-Management and
Audit Scheme (EMAS) by 2002 (McCully, 1999).
Advocates of an international standard for assessing
corporate environmental management systems claim
substantial benefits for companies that adopt ISO
14001 guidelines. Others argue that because the stan-
dards do not measure environmental performance
directly they are inadequate instruments for improv-
ing environmental sustainability (Krut and Gleck-
PANACEA, COMMON SENSE, OR JUST A LABEL?
man, 1998). Because of the paucity of studies of certi-
fied organizations, questions remain about the real
impacts of adopting an environmental management
system prescribed by ISO 14001.
ISO 14000 Environmental Management
Systems
ISO 14001 guidelines grew from calls at the 1992 Rio
Summit on the Environment for standardized pro-
cesses for developing and implementing environ-
mental management practices. Technical committees
and working groups composed of industry and
government representatives nominated by national
standards associations approved the standards in
1996 and continue to refine and update them.
ISO 14000 Requirements
ISO 14001 provides guidance on EMS requirements,
based on a simple ‘plan-do-check’ framework. It
focuses on five major components:
❖the development and adoption of an environmen-
tal policy to which senior management is commit-
ted
❖a planning process that identifies all of the
environmental aspects of a facility’s operations,
legal and other requirements, a set of clearly
defined objectives and targets for environmental
improvement, and a set of environmental manage-
ment programs
❖a system of implementation and operation that
includes a clear structure of responsibility for
environmental management, programs for train-
ing, awareness and competence among all
employees of the facility, internal and external
communication of the EMS, a system of environ-
mental management documentation, a docu-
mentation control system, procedures for oper-
ational controls of environmental impacts, and
emergency preparedness and response
❖creation of a system of checking and corrective
action that includes monitoring and measurement,
for reporting non-conformance and for taking cor-
rective and preventive action, of record-keeping
with regard to environmental management, and
EMS audits
❖a management review process through which
senior management reassesses the suitability,
effectiveness and adequacy of the EMS at appro-
priate intervals to assure continuous improve-
ment.
Advantages of ISO 14000 Certification
Advocates of ISO 14000 claim that an international
standard assists corporations to harmonize and sim-
European Management Journal
Vol 18 No 5 October 2000
501
plify their environmental management practices in a
coherent framework and thereby reduce the need for
multiple registrations, permits, and requirements
under different national or local regulations (Cascio,
1994). An international standard makes it easier for
corporations to develop voluntary EMSs and for
shareholders, government regulatory agencies,
insurance companies, and financial institutions to
assess a company’s commitment to improving
environmental performance and reducing risks
(Donaldson, 1996). Advocates claim that adoption of
an ISO 14001-certified EMS helps companies reduce
their environmental incidents and liabilities, increase
efficiency of operations by removing waste from pro-
duction and distribution processes, increase aware-
ness of environmental impacts of operations among
all employees, and establish a strong image of cor-
porate social responsibility (IISD, 1996). Unlike regu-
lation, ISO 14000’s voluntary approach gives compa-
nies the flexibility to develop EMSs that are
appropriate to their operations, characteristics,
location, and levels of risk (Rondinelli and Vastag,
1996).
Other proponents claim that in offering external veri-
fication that a company’s EMS conforms to inter-
national standards of management through third-
party auditing, ISO 14001 certification improves
investor confidence in a company and gives it inter-
national competitive advantages over those that do
not adopt and certify their EMSs (Kirkpatrick and
Pouliot, 1996). The guidelines’ strong emphasis on
pollution prevention can save companies money by
improving efficiency and reducing the costs of
energy, materials, fines, and penalties. Certification
can not only increase attention to negative environ-
mental impacts but also spread responsibility for
maintaining high environmental standards through-
out the organization and, potentially, to suppliers,
vendors, and contractors.
Limitations of ISO 14000
Critics of ISO 14000 point out that it is not a panacea
for environmental management problems and ques-
tion its efficacy in moving corporations toward sus-
tainable development. The most often heard criticism
is that ISO 14001 certification does not measure the
actual environmental performance of a plant or com-
pany (Krut and Gleckman, 1998). The standards
merely assume that a company that certifies its EMS
has a management system in place to deal effectively
with its environmental impacts. Certification implies
that companies meet regulatory mandates and go
beyond legal requirements to achieve continuous
environmental improvements, but there is no way of
externally verifying that such improvements actually
occur. The ISO 14001 guidelines simply assume that
good environmental management systems will, if
they are implemented effectively, reduce or eliminate
negative environmental impacts and move a com-
PANACEA, COMMON SENSE, OR JUST A LABEL?
pany toward better environmental performance.
Skeptics contend that voluntary approaches such as
ISO 14000 often result in developing goals and objec-
tives based on consensus within a company that may
be sub-optimal and implementation often relies prim-
arily on peer pressure and management incentives
that may be ineffective (Wallace-Jones, 1998). Critics
point out that the costs of developing, documenting,
and certifying EMSs may discourage many small-
and medium-sized companies from seeking certifi-
cation (Carraro and Leveque, 1999). Maintaining
environmental management systems and improving
performance can be compromised because there is no
provision for de-certifying a company that becomes
lax in its environmental practices (Powers, 1995).
ISO 14000 Certification at Alumax
Alumax’s Mt Holly in South Carolina was one of the
first industrial facilities in the United States to seek
certification under the ISO 14000 standards. When it
began operations in late 1980 it was the only all new
aluminum reduction plant built in the United States
since 1973. The plant was an industry leader in pro-
duction efficiency, energy utilization, and environ-
mental control. Mt Holly uses about 400,000 tons of
alumina annually to produce T-shaped, rolling,
extrusion, and 30-pound foundry ingots. Most of the
metal is alloyed to meet customer specifications and
then shipped to fabrication plants throughout the
United States. The company’s aluminum is recog-
nized worldwide by industrial users for its extremely
consistent high quality. The Aluminum Company of
America (Alcoa), which has its own stringent
environmental management standards, acquired the
plant from Alumax in 1998 (Rondinelli and Vastag,
1998, 1999).
The ingot plant is located on 6000 acres of land (the
former Mt Holly Plantation). Its large site gives it an
advantage because environmental pollution
(especially air pollution, which is the most significant
type at aluminum smelters) is measured at the fence
line. When the plant was constructed Alumax
invested more than $40 million in the environmental
control systems to make the $340 million facility one
of the cleanest plants in the world. The plant has
never paid an environmental fine. The smelter, which
employs more than 600 people, produces ingots in a
one million square foot facility with a carbon plant,
a cast house, and a potline operation. The plant oper-
ates 24 hours a day throughout the year.
Alumax had a history of quality management long
before Alcoa purchased it. The Mt Holly plant was
registered under ISO 9002 total quality management
standards in 1992. The plant’s managers saw certifi-
cation under ISO 14001 as an extension of its ISO 9002
registration to improve the plant’s overall operations.
In addition, the plant’s managers considered certifi-
cation under ISO 14001 a good way to demonstrate
European Management Journal
Vol 18 No 5 October 2000
502
publicly its commitment to protecting the environ-
ment. As a plant that supplied products to both dom-
estic and international customers, managers saw
possibilities of obtaining competitive advantages as
well as environmental benefits from pursuing ISO
14001 certification. When the environmental team
began to develop the requirements for ISO 14001,
expectations grew that the review and development
of the EMS could help conserve materials and energy
and perhaps facilitate obtaining permits from local
and State government agencies, improve industry–
government relations and, possibly, obtain regulat-
ory relief. Managers expected the EMS to help reduce
costs, eliminate incidents that resulted in liabilities,
contribute to developing and sharing new environ-
mental solutions, improve maintenance, insure con-
formance to policy, and better meet vendor require-
ments.
The ISO 14001 Process at Mt Holly
In March 1995, the plant manager approved the
environmental manager’s proposal to pursue ISO
14001 certification based on preliminary guidelines,
and chartered a pollution prevention (P2) team
within the plant. The P2 team consisted of a team
leader (environmental manager) and representatives
from warehouse, cast house, quality and laboratory
facilities, engineering, environmental, human
resources, potline, potline service, mechanical and
electrical maintenance, carbon plant, and adminis-
trative services (purchasing, traffic, accounting, MIS,
Administration building and contractors) depart-
ments. The management representative had experi-
ence in both environmental and quality management.
The P2 team was formally charged with monitoring
environmental activities, helping to improve com-
munications among departments in assessing the
environmental aspects of the facility, and initiating
preventive and corrective action (Alumax, 1996). The
team conducted a pre-assessment in November 1995.
The Mt Holly team was able to complete the process
quickly because it found that the plant had already
met about 75 per cent of the requirements for ISO
14001 through its earlier registration under ISO 9002.
Significant elements of structure and responsibility,
training, document control, non-conformance and
corrective and preventive action, records, internal
audits and management review of ISO 14001 directly
overlapped or had been completed under ISO 9002
(see Figure 1). Moreover, there was indirect overlap
with environmental policy, legal and other require-
ments, environmental management programs, EMS
documentation and monitoring and measurement.
The Mt Holly team had to focus most of its attention
on those elements of ISO 14001 that had no overlap
with ISO 9002: identification of environmental
aspects, selection of objectives and targets, communi-
cation, and emergency preparedness and response.
The team decided to seek registration as soon as
PANACEA, COMMON SENSE, OR JUST A LABEL?
Figure 1 Overlaps Between ISO 14001 and ISO 9002 at Alumax Mt Holly Plant
possible after the ISO 14001 guidelines were formally
issued by International Organization for Standardiz-
ation, and to begin developing an environmental
quality management manual. Alumax had already
adopted many elements of the ISO 14001 require-
ments, including an environmental policy, and the P2
team reviewed and suggested appropriate changes in
them. Alumax’s environmental policy, reissued in
1994, had committed it to protecting the environment
‘by maintaining high environmental quality stan-
dards, which meet or exceed those required by
regulation.’(Alumax, 1996, s. 4.2) The policy pledged
to install the best available pollution control equip-
ment for the aluminum industry and provide the
resources (budgetary and properly trained
personnel) to maintain those standards. The policy
goals included the following:
❖Establish and maintain programs to ensure all
employees know, understand and comply with all
applicable environmental laws and regulations.
❖Adopt scientifically and environmentally sound
standards and practices to guard against environ-
mental degradation, even if such measures are not
required by law.
❖Promote public understanding of its operations
and work with government agencies and others to
develop laws and regulations that encourage
environmentally sound growth.
❖Establish an appropriate audit or review program
and procedures to periodically evaluate environ-
mental compliance at reasonable intervals.
❖Promptly report all areas of non-compliance in
accordance with applicable governmental
reporting requirements.
❖Correct promptly any practice or conditions not in
compliance with this policy.
European Management Journal
Vol 18 No 5 October 2000
503
In 1996 the P2 team began to identify the plant’s sig-
nificant environmental aspects as required under ISO
14001. The team found that the EMS had to address
six major sets of environmental aspects: energy
losses, air impacts, solid waste impacts, water
impacts, recyclables, and raw material and labor
inputs (see Figure 2). The team conducted environ-
mental training for all employees in 1996 and com-
pleted a draft of the environmental quality manage-
ment manual to serve as its environmental
management system (EMS). In July 1996 the P2 team
conducted an internal audit and took corrective
action prior to inviting an external audit in October
1996. When evidence that all corrective actions had
been completed, the official audit was conducted and
the plant was certified in November, 1996, at a time
when only about 34 facilities in the United States
were ISO 14000-certified.
Impacts of ISO 14001 Certification
In our research on the impacts of ISO 14001 certifi-
cation at Mt Holly we used a ‘structured concep-
tualization’ methodology. The process is a sequence
of concrete operationally-defined steps that yields a
conceptual representation of an evaluation result or
idea domain — in this case the impacts of ISO 14001
certification of the EMS on the Mt Holly plant —
through ‘concept mapping’ (Trochim and Linton,
1986). Concept mapping involves six steps: (1) sel-
ecting participants (at Mt Holly, plant managers and
P2 team members) and developing the focus or
domain for the conceptualization; (2) generating
statements (e.g. ‘one specific impact of the ISO 14001
environmental management system was that…’) ide-
ally representing the conceptual domain for the topic
PANACEA, COMMON SENSE, OR JUST A LABEL?
Figure 2 Environmental Aspects Identification at Alumax Mt Holly
of interest; (3) obtaining information from parti-
cipants about how the statements are related to each
other; (4) representing the conceptual domain graphi-
cally; (5) producing several different maps that pro-
vide different views of the same structure and inter-
preting them; and (6) utilizing the maps. Our study
focused on the first five steps and left utilization to
the plant’s employees.
At Mt Holly, the concept mapping exercise was car-
ried out by electronic mail (e-mail) over three months
at the end of 1999 after personal interviews and a
plant site visit by the researchers. Fifteen Alcoa Mt
Holly employees participated in the concept map-
ping process; ten members of the P2 team and five
managers. All of the P2 members except two had
been working at the plant since 1980. The managers
represented different functional areas (including Car-
bon Plant, Engineering and Maintenance, Quality
and Alcoa Production System, Production,
Laboratory) and were one level below the plant man-
ager. The P2 team members covered all units of the
plant (quality, environmental management, mainte-
nance, potline department, purchasing, safety, and
warehouses) and showed some variety in job titles
(engineer, supervisor, specialist, technical advisor,
analyst, coordinator, planner, and director).
We received 80 statements from the 15 participants.
We combined, randomized and removed personal
identifiers from the individual response lists and sent
the combined list of 80 statements back to all parti-
cipants with a request to eliminate overlaps, correct
wording, and add new statements if necessary. After
several iterations, the group reached a consensus on
40 statements describing the ‘conceptual domain,’ i.e.
the impact that ISO 14001 certification of Mt Holly’s
EMS had on the plant. The next step examined how
these statements, the perceived impacts, were related
to each other using an unstructured card procedure
(Rosenberg and Kim, 1975; Weller and Romney,
1988). We sent all participants a complete set of 40
cards with the statements written on them and asked
them to sort the cards into piles ‘in a way that makes
European Management Journal
Vol 18 No 5 October 2000
504
sense to you.’ There were two sorting restrictions:
each card could be placed in one pile only and the
number of piles had to be more than one and less
than 40. We also sent the participants the statements
in questionnaire form and asked them to rate each
statement on a five-point scale in terms of how
important they thought the statement was, where 1
⫽‘relatively unimportant (compared with the rest of
the statements)’ and 5 ⫽‘extremely important.’ Fig-
ure 3 shows the final cluster map of impacts of ISO
14001 certification of Mt Holly’s EMS that was selec-
ted by the participants and the ‘layer values’
(importance) that they attached to the clusters.
Environmental Awareness
One of the strongest impacts of ISO 14001 certifi-
cation and the adoption of a strengthened EMS was
behavioral. Managers at the plant noted that the ISO
14001 certification made everyone more aware of
environmental aspects, regulations, and impacts, not
only at work, but at home and in the community.
Management organized training classes to inform all
personnel of what ISO 14000 was about and how it
impacted specific daily routines. The EMS required
managers or superintendents of each division to con-
duct a training needs assessment annually and to
develop a training plan based on the assessment.
Training programs were focused on making
employees aware of the importance of conforming to
environmental policy and procedures, significant
impacts of their work activities, and the environmen-
tal benefits of improved personal performance. The
training was designed to make all employees aware
of their individual roles and responsibilities in
implementing the plant’s EMS, including require-
ments for emergency preparedness and response,
and the potential consequences of not following
specified operating procedures (Alcoa Mt Holly,
1999).
One statement on which there was strong consensus
was that ‘the single most significant impact of the
PANACEA, COMMON SENSE, OR JUST A LABEL?
Figure 3 Impacts of ISO 14001 Certification: Attitudinal and Operational Changes
ISO 14001 process was the improved environmental
awareness that the preparation, registration and sur-
veillance process brings to all employees. The man-
agement system that the standard requires drives
awareness to all facets of the organization. It clarifies
that environmental responsibility is everyone’s, not
just the Environmental Department’s.’
Employee training programs, for example, increased
awareness of how important waste reduction was on
a plant-wide basis. A manager in the environmental
department observed that ‘now, many departments
are tracking their waste and monitoring it to see why
it was produced and how it can be reduced. They are
looking at the possibility of what could happen if
there were to be a problem in the system. What
would it impact in the environment, such as water,
air, animals and personnel?’ All of the workers
learned of the plant’s environmental objectives and
the environmental goals for their departments, and
what they were expected to do to attain them.
Increased awareness also resulted in many
employees volunteering for the plant’s ‘Adopt a
Highway’ program.
Managers also noticed that the plant’s reputation in
the community, the State, and the region was
enhanced by the fact that it was one of the first facili-
ties in the United States to receive the certification.
Personnel from many other facilities requested and
received information about, and free ‘benchmarking’
of, the Mt Holly system.
Waste Reduction and Recycling Efforts of
Employees
The certification of Alcoa Mt Holly’s EMS led to more
ideas among employees for materials recycling
European Management Journal
Vol 18 No 5 October 2000
505
within the plant and increased their commitment to
recycle at home. Pollution-reducing ideas were sol-
icited from all employees and recognition was given
to individuals for their ideas. Employees improved
their outdoor picnic area at the plant using money
earned by recycling materials collected at the plant
and those brought from home. The pollution preven-
tion team spearheaded trash pick-up on Highway 52
in front of the plant site. Workers began to use color
coded or marked containers for readily recyclable
items such as plastic bottles, aluminum cans, paper,
magazines, cardboard, steel, brass, copper, alumi-
num, oil filters, florescent tubes, lead-acid batteries,
and used motor oil.
Waste Reduction and Recycling at the Plant
The ISO 14001 certification process not only made
employees more sensitive to opportunities for recyc-
ling but also led to waste reduction in the plant. For
example, the Administration Department increased
paper recycling and the Purchasing Department
began recycling its trash more carefully. Managers
provided the color-coded and marked containers that
employees used to recycle materials throughout the
plant.
The plant’s annual trash generation fell from more
than 3500 tons in 1989 to about 1500 tons in 1995, and
during the period following adoption of the ISO
140001-certified EMS by almost half of the 1995 out-
put by 1998. The amount of waste that had to be sent
to landfills was reduced from 7608 tons in 1995 to
4960 tons in 1998. The waste cost of production per
ton of aluminum dropped from $8.33 in 1995 to $6.50
in 1998.
An Environmental Department manager pointed out
PANACEA, COMMON SENSE, OR JUST A LABEL?
that ‘prior to 14001, I rarely was consulted on proper
waste management choices (e.g. “Can this be
recycled?”) and most employees did not recognize
the environmental aspects of their jobs.’ The environ-
mental training programs that resulted from Alcoa
Mt Holly’s ISO 14001-certified EMS led workers to
begin chipping waste wood scrap for fuel outside the
plant, thereby reducing the amount of waste sent to
the landfill. Managers worked with employees to
reduce the number of chemicals in inventory in the
laboratory by 47 per cent between 1997 and 1999. In-
plant sharing of discontinued products among
departments created new uses for materials that had
previously been considered waste. The maintenance
department purchased a Pall Oil Purifier to expand
the useful life of tube oil and hydraulic fluids, not
only reducing the volume of waste oils but also
reducing maintenance costs. The ISO 14001 certifi-
cation process, according to a Maintenance Depart-
ment manager, also increased ‘contractor awareness
that they are responsible for spoil material generated
when they do work on our facilities. If they dig a
hole — they arrange for getting rid of the dirt. If they
break up concrete — they do something with the rub-
ble. Also the contractors have had to furnish infor-
mation about any chemical they bring on the plant
site. This is required by OSHA, but ISO 14001 pushed
this so that it got written into our procedures.’
Management Practices
The process of developing the EMS for ISO 14001 cer-
tification highlighted procedures already in practice
that addressed environmental impacts, but also gen-
erated procedural improvements. After examining
them in more detail, managers improved existing
practices for processes, equipment, and areas of the
plant that could increase emissions. ISO 14001 pro-
grams required the Environmental Department to
develop and maintain environmental management
manuals for wastewater management, cooling water
treatment, waste management, chemical manage-
ment, air quality control, storm water pollution pre-
vention, spill prevention, control and countermeas-
ure plans, and emergency preparedness and
response.
The EMS required more and better record keeping
and documentation and forced managers and work-
ers to find better ways to do these things. Managers
in several departments improved controls. Planning
and scheduling of environmental tests and instru-
ment equipment calibrations became more structured
and precise. As one manager noted, ‘implementing
MSDS (material safety data sheets), through the
Environmental Department, prior to any product
being brought to the plant, has promoted better con-
trol of hazardous products.’
ISO 14001 certification also required the plant’s man-
agers to set specific and measurable goals for improv-
European Management Journal
Vol 18 No 5 October 2000
506
ing performance in environmental aspects of the
facility’s operations. In solid waste, for example, the
plant developed specific targets for reducing landfill
waste, assigned responsibility for solid waste costs to
each department, and performed waste hopper ‘auto-
psies’ to identify the types of materials that were
being disposed.
As a result of ISO 14001 requirements, supervisors
felt stronger pressures to ensure environmental com-
pliance because it was seen as a plant-wide and com-
pany-wide priority. Management created a Monthly
Environmental Report to track both recycled and
non-recycled waste, by crew, and routed them to all
crews each month. ‘It increased the amount of
internal and external auditing of our documentation,’
a manager in the Quality Department observed, and
‘internal auditing of the environmental department
for elements other than quality system docu-
mentation helped identify improvement opport-
unities that could better ensure compliance …
especially with emergency preparedness and
response.’ Preparations for ISO 14001 certification
‘uncovered weaknesses that crossed over into Safety
and Health with regard to emergency preparedness.
Requirements to review procedures after the occur-
rence of an emergency situation has brought substan-
tial benefit to our organization to help us take pre-
ventive measures that we might not have taken if the
requirement to review procedures was not in effect.’
Achieving Goals and Benefits
The strongest impacts of ISO 14001 certification
identified by participants in the concept mapping
exercises were that it helped them to achieve the
plant’s environmental goals and to obtain new bene-
fits. The ISO 14001 certification process required
managers to set specific and measurable environmen-
tal goals and implement appropriate practices to
attain them. As one division representative noted,
‘supervisors feel the pressure for environmental com-
pliance because it is a Mt Holly goal, not just an
Environmental Department goal. ISO 14001 has
allowed upper management to demand better work
practices and [waste] reduction efforts out of every-
one.’
The ISO certification required management to get
involved in reporting observations and adding
environmental concerns to procedures for waste dis-
posal. It forced management to look at and list every-
thing (raw materials, parts, lubricants, manpower,
office supplies, etc.) that went into the process and
the final disposition of these items. As a result the
plant reduced its solid waste going to landfills by 37
per cent from 1997 to 1998.
ISO 14001 certification required third party auditors
to examine the plant’s EMS and operations. The
impact was significant. As the plant’s quality man-
PANACEA, COMMON SENSE, OR JUST A LABEL?
ager observed: ‘Third party audits helped keep
people more honest. People tended to give more
attention to the things they knew they were sup-
posed to do by knowing that someone might expose
their shortcomings if they let down. Third party audi-
tors were far more effective at getting attention than
internal auditors.’
The Environmental Management System also estab-
lished a formal management review process. The
EMS management representative was made respon-
sible for reporting on the plant’s environmental per-
formance at Management System Review Meetings.
Senior management was responsible for assessing the
extent to which the EMS’s objectives and targets were
being met, the need for changes to EMS checklist
items resulting from audit results, and appropriate
site-specific environmental management issues
(Alcoa Mt Holly, 1999, s. 4.6).
Recognition of EMS Implementation Complexities
Managers noted that ISO 14001 certification made
them aware that environmental improvement is a
never-ending process. Some of the products they
would have to use in the future to replace existing
products had not been invented yet, and to maintain
their EMS they would have to be continuously alert
to new ways of improving environmental perform-
ance. At the same time, the certification process made
managers and supervisors more aware of the diffi-
culties of making improvements that depended on
changing the attitudes of employees and customers.
Alcoa Mt Holly managers’ attempts to encourage
customers to adopt ISO 14001 standards had met
with little success by the end of 1999.
Participants emphasized that the process of certifying
the plant under ISO 14001 allowed them to combine
documents required for both ISO 14000 and ISO 9000,
but that ‘while this documentation pulled together
loose ends into a structured format it has also, at
times, been a significant burden to maintain.’
Increased efforts were needed in the Environmental
Department and in some of the divisions to stay abre-
ast of reporting and documentation procedures. As a
maintenance manager pointed out, ‘there is a lot of
additional paperwork associated with ISO.’
Managers in the Environmental Department were
surprised that ‘customer impact has not been evi-
dent’ but noted that ‘some customers are indicating
that registration or adoption of the Standard may be
required in the near future.’ Some managers also
expressed disappointment that the plant received no
direct regulatory benefits from State or local govern-
ment agencies as the result of certifying the plant.
Environmental management department personnel
noted that ISO 14001 certification also created more
work for them in maintaining the system.
European Management Journal
Vol 18 No 5 October 2000
507
As a manager in the Quality Department confirmed,
ISO 14001 does not ensure compliance. ‘There was a
certain amount of trust that if you put a system in
place to comply with the Standard that it will ensure
compliance. Not so, unless the people putting the
system in place are fully aware of compliance issues
and are committed to adhering to compliance.’ The
same manager noted, however, that ISO 14001 certi-
fication ‘brought to my attention all the various regu-
latory issues our facility must comply with concern-
ing environmental aspects. This information was
privy only to the Environmental Department prior to
ISO 14001.’
Management Lessons from the Mt
Holly Experience
Alcoa Mt Holly’s experience with ISO 14001 certifi-
cation is interesting because the plant, like many
owned by multinational corporations, had strong
environmental- and quality-management systems
prior to certification. Some critics argue that ISO
14001 is merely a formality or an empty ‘label’ in
such companies having no net benefits aside from
image-building and public relations. Others see ISO
14001 as a panacea for companies that have weak
environmental management systems. The Mt Holly
case confirms that in plants that already have
environmentally efficient operations ISO 14001 certi-
fication is neither a panacea nor merely a label. Certi-
fication per se may not bring significant performance
improvements. It can, however, have important
behavioral and managerial impacts that contribute to
better environmental performance.
ISO 14000 Can Have Positive Impacts Even in Companies
with Good Environmental Performance
Although relatively few studies have been done of
the impacts of ISO 14001 certification, or preparations
for it, some evidence supports Mt Holly participants’
conclusion that it can yield improvements even in
firms that have good environmental management
systems or relatively clean environmental perform-
ance. As Figure 3 indicates, the Mt Holly participants
identified four clusters of impacts on the plant from
ISO 14001 certification that included improvements
in: (1) employee awareness, (2) operational efficiency,
(3) managerial awareness, and (4) operational effec-
tiveness.
Experience in other companies reinforces these find-
ings (Victory, 1998). Johnson & Johnson’s audits of
its EMS in preparation for deciding whether or not
to certify under ISO 14001 found that although the
company had highly effective practices, additional
efforts were needed to consolidate and improve the
systems to conform to ISO standards. The Anheuser-
Busch Companies found that although their environ-
PANACEA, COMMON SENSE, OR JUST A LABEL?
mental management systems were comparable to ISO
14001 standards, facilities seeking certification would
have to improve their planning systems and develop
mechanisms to identify and consult stakeholders.
Important Impacts of ISO 14001 Certification May be
Attitudinal as Well as Operational
The Mt Holly plant is a state-of-the-art facility in a
process industry where operational improvements
are mostly design limited, and it had already adopted
ISO 9002 quality management standards. It should
not be surprising, therefore, that most of the impacts
of ISO 14001 certification were attitudinal and mana-
gerial rather than process-oriented. Other studies
come to the same conclusions. Even in companies
such as Formosa Plastics Corporation USA (FPC), for
example, which did see notable improvements in
environmental performance (reduced releases, spills
and instances of non-compliance by half) after certi-
fying its plants under ISO 14001, managers are reluc-
tant to attribute all of the improvements to certifi-
cation. FPC’s environmental manager noted the
attitudinal changes that certifying an EMS can gener-
ate: ‘…you pay extra attention. You raise people’s
awareness about the program; and it is getting notice
from senior management, so people tend to be more
careful. That’s the whole idea — people trying to
improve.’ (Victory, 1998, p. 41)
Significant Impacts of ISO 14001 Certification May Not
be Quantifiable
With the exception of reducing solid waste and the
number of chemicals in the laboratory, which were
easily measurable, all of the other positive changes
at Mt Holly were attitudinal and managerial and
were much more difficult to quantify. During inter-
views prior to the concept mapping exercise, some
participants expressed the belief that the plant had
received some regulatory relief due to its early ISO
adopter status. They noted, but these impressions
cannot be documented and perhaps that is the reason
that they were not listed ‘officially’ in the respon-
dents’ statements in the concept mapping exercise,
that environmental permitting became faster after
certification. Most of the attitudinal changes that took
place at Mt Holly were identified through observed
changes in employees’ and managers’ behavior with
regard to waste reduction, recycling, and materials
substitution. But once attitudes begin to change from
the adoption of an EMS and subsequent training pro-
grams, it becomes difficult if not impossible to quan-
tify the degree to which ISO 14001 certification was
the causal factor.
ISO 14001 Certification Can Lead to Managerial and Pro-
cedural Changes Beyond Those Required by ISO 9002
Quality Management Programs
Evidence from Mt Holly and from the few other stud-
ies that have been done of ISO 14001 certification
European Management Journal
Vol 18 No 5 October 2000
508
indicate that registering the EMS does move a com-
pany or facility administratively beyond normal
quality management standards. Clearly, as Figure 1
indicates, certification under ISO 14001 required
managers at Mt Holly to supplement and extend its
ISO 9002 quality management practices to identify
environmental aspects of the plant’s operations
(shown in Figure 2), articulate environmental objec-
tives and targets, improve communication processes,
and enhance environmental preparedness. Moreover,
because some of the overlaps with ISO 9002 were
only indirect, ISO 14001 certification required man-
agers at the plant to review environmental policy and
legal requirements, integrate quality management
planning procedures with environmental manage-
ment programs, develop EMS documentation,
tighten operational controls, and enhance environ-
mental monitoring and measurement.
These findings at Mt Holly are reinforced by obser-
vations at other plants that certified their EMSs. In
preparing its Pennsylvania plant for ISO-14001 certi-
fication, Warner-Lambert had to revise and update
its environmental documents, develop a stronger
staff training program, and synchronize processes
and personnel with procedures. A study of the
impacts of ISO 14001 certification on environmental
goal-setting in ten international companies con-
cluded that ‘while the firms interviewed did not sub-
stantially modify the stringency of their environmen-
tal goals, they increased their commitment to goal
attainment, as demonstrated by increased senior
management commitment, more measurable goals,
and more specific designation of roles and responsib-
ilities’ (Switzer et al., 1999).
Conclusion
Our study of Alcoa Mt Holly adds additional evi-
dence about the potential advantages of ISO 14001
environmental management systems for a plant that
is already performing well environmentally. Its con-
clusions are reinforced by those of the relatively few
other studies that have been done on the impacts of
certification. The primary benefits at Mt Holly seem
to be in reinforcing and strengthening good environ-
mental management practices, reviewing and
improving management procedures, increasing oper-
ation efficiency and effectiveness, and enhancing
employee awareness of the environmental impacts of
their activities.
The Mt Holly case confirms that ISO 14001 certifi-
cation is not a panacea for alleviating all of a manu-
facturing plant’s potentially negative environmental
impacts. It does not measure or ensure improved
environmental performance, nor does it guarantee
that a certified facility will always remain in regulat-
ory compliance. The adoption of an EMS, alone, does
PANACEA, COMMON SENSE, OR JUST A LABEL?
not assure that a company will attain environmen-
tal sustainability.
The experience at Mt Holly since it adopted its EMS
in 1996 does indicate, however, that ISO 14001 certi-
fication is not merely a meaningless label in plants
with good environmental performance. External
registration requires managers of certified facilities to
develop or upgrade environmental management sys-
tems, create or strengthen environmental manage-
ment programs to international standards, establish
procedures for monitoring and correcting negative
environmental impacts, and train employees in good
environmental management practices.
When corporations follow the spirit of the ISO 14001
guidelines, they can — as did Alcoa Mt Holly — see
attitudinal, managerial, and operational changes and
their attendant benefits. The ISO 14001 standards can
provide good ‘common sense’ guidelines for reduc-
ing the negative environmental impacts of industrial
operations, thereby saving companies money from
waste reduction and pollution prevention and at the
same time contribute to the environmental quality of
the communities in which they operate.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for the assistance of Andy Duncan,
Quality Manager at Alcoa Mt Holly, for assisting us in all
aspects of our study and for coordinating the responses of the
participants in our concept-mapping exercise.
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PANACEA, COMMON SENSE, OR JUST A LABEL?
DENNIS RONDINELLI, GYULA VASTAG,
Center for Global Business Stuttgart Institute of Man-
Research, Kenan Institute of agement and Technology,
Private Enterprise, Kenan- Filderhauptstrasse 155, D-
Flagler Business School, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany.
University of North Carol-
ina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599- Dr Gyula Vastag is Pro-
3440, USA. E-mail: dennis- fessor at the Stuttgart Insti-
rondinelli@unc.edu tute of Management and
Technology (SIMT). Born in
Dr Rondinelli is Glaxo Dis- Hungary, Vastag earned
tinguished International Ph.D. degrees from the Bud-
Professor of Management and Director of the Center apest University and Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
for Global Business Research at the University of North Prior to joining SIMT, Vastag was on the faculty of
Carolina. His research focuses on changing business Michigan State University, the University of North
conditions in emerging market countries, privatization Carolina and Indiana University. Vastag has co-auth-
and corporate restructuring, corporate environmental ored two books, written ten business cases, numerous
management, and the international competitiveness of book chapters and he has published more than 20 art-
firms in metropolitan areas. icles in a variety of academic and professional journals.
European Management Journal
Vol 18 No 5 October 2000
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