Construction of a Decision Analysis Tool for Choosing Corporate Environmental Management Systems
Abstract
<p>Environmental managers are continually faced with new challenges to improve stakeholder
relationships, save money and reduce the organization’s environmental footprint. Many
of these challenges can be efficiently addressed by implementation of an environmental
management system (EMS). However, there are a number of different environmental management
systems which are available. Selecting the system that is the best fit for an organization
can be difficult.
<p>Fortunately, multicriteria decision analysis is well-suited to this type of decision
problem. The objective of this project was to construct a decision analysis tool to
differentiate among environmental management systems based on organizations’ preferences.
The project focused on three environmental management systems: ISO14001, Eco-Management
and Audit Scheme (EMAS) and The Natural Step (TNS). The tool was built using the expertise
of environmental management system practitioners to evaluate the systems on criteria
representing financial, logistical and environmental goals. I tested the tool using
the preferences of environmental managers at two chemical and two manufacturing facilities
to show that the tool is useful. I improved the tool’s user-friendliness based on
comments from a typical user.
<p>The results showed that the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme system scored best
on the majority of attributes, and was the preferred alternative for three out of
four sample cases. Additionally, the most important attributes amongst all respondents
were verification reliability and environmental stewardship. Slight similarities in
the importance rating of attributes were seen between the facilities of equivalent
size.
<p>Overall, the process demonstrated that how an EMS is implemented at an organization
will be based on the preferences of the organization and what they are hoping to accomplish
with their system. While some organizations want to focus on saving money, others
choose to focus on a reduction in emissions. The decision analysis tool I developed
is flexible enough to accommodate such differences in priorities.
<p>Finally, this research showed that none of these three systems scored perfectly
on all company objectives. It is possible to identify the single system that best
matches a facility’s preferences, but the best environmental management system may
be a hybrid among the three.
Type
Master's projectSubject
environmental management systemsmulticriteria decision analysis
ISO 14001
Eco-Management and Audit Scheme
The Natural Step
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/2189Citation
Bomher, Mary Pat (2010). Construction of a Decision Analysis Tool for Choosing Corporate Environmental Management
Systems. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/2189.Collections
More Info
Show full item record
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Rights for Collection: Nicholas School of the Environment
Works are deposited here by their authors, and represent their research and opinions, not that of Duke University. Some materials and descriptions may include offensive content. More info