Journal of Cleaner Production 11 (2003) 749–752

www.cleanerproduction.net

Critical factors for implementing ISO 14001 standard in United

States industrial companies
Khalid A. Babakri ab,∗, Robert A. Bennett a, Matthew Franchetti a
a
The University of Toledo, Environmentally Conscious Design and Manufacturing Laboratory, College of Engineering, MIME Department,
2801 West Bancroft Street, Toledo, OH 43606, USA
b
The Lucas County Solid Waste Management District, 761 Key Street, Maumee, OH 43537, USA

Received 18 February 2002; accepted 7 August 2002

Abstract

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, objec-
tives 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.
 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: ISO 14001 certification; Environmental management system; Environmental performance

1. Introduction framework for establishing or improving an EMS. The

Since the introduction of ISO 14000 standards in
1996, many corporations around the world are adopting
ISO 14000 and requiring that their suppliers move
toward adopting the same set of standards. ISO 14000
is series of voluntary international standards for
implementing an effective EMS. ISO 14000 series
include 20 separate standards ranging from environmen-
tal labeling to assessing the life-cycle of products [1].
ISO 14000 standards are designed to help organizations
establish management processes for controlling and
improving their environmental performance and reduc-
ing their impact of operations on the environment.
The most important of ISO 14000 standards is the
EMS specification standard, ISO 14001. ISO 14001 is
the only standard of the ISO 14000 series to be used
for certification [2]. The ISO 14001 standard provides a
∗
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-419-530-7395; fax: +1-419-530-
8275.
E-mail address: hkhalid80@hotmail.com (K.A. Babakri).
ISO 14001 standard is made up of five main elements:
the environmental policy, the environmental plan,
implementation and operation of programs to meet
objectives and targets, checking and corrective action,
and management review.
Globally, many countries are adopting ISO 14000
standards. By mid-2001 more than 30,300 organizations
worldwide were ISO 14001 certified [3]. In the United
State, the adoption of ISO 14001 certification was not
attractive at the beginning. In December 1997, there
were only slightly more than 70 facilities certified to the
standard in the US, compared to approximately 2,300
worldwide [4]. The number of ISO 14001 certified com-
panies started to increase by the end of 1998. More than
330 organizations were certified in the United States by
early 1999. The real push for ISO 14001 certification
came from the “Big Three” automakers in the US. By
the end of 2002, General Motors Inc. will require its
suppliers to certify the implementation of EMS in their
operations, in conformance with ISO 14000 [5]. Like
General Motors, Ford Motor Company announced that
it will require suppliers to certify at least one manufac-

0959-6526/03/$ - see front matter  2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0959-6526(02)00146-4
750 K.A. Babakri et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 11 (2003) 749–752

turing site to the ISO 14001 standard by the end of 2001 Table 2
and all manufacturing sites shipping products to Ford by Firms’ size by the number of employees
July 1, 2003.
Number ofemployees Number ofresponses Percentage
This paper reports the results of a survey which
explored some of the implications of ISO 14001 stan- Over 500 58 32.77%
dards for US industrial companies. The objective of this 251–500 49 27.68%
paper is to identify the important information about ISO 101–250 39 22.03%
14001 certification for companies that are in the process 51–100 18 10.17%
of adopting the standard to make their certification pro- 1–50 13 7.34%
Total 177 100%
cesss more efficient and successful. This paper reports
the time it takes companies to obtain an ISO 14001 cer-
tificate. This will allow the companies to anticipate how
long it may take them to obtain the certificate. Another 2.2. Critical factors considered
important feature is to point out the ISO 14001 stan-
dard’s elements which require the greatest effort and In order to gain understanding about some of the ISO
time to implement. Finally, the paper identifies the 14001 implications, the following critical factors were
biggest obstacles encountered by firms seeking ISO considered:
14001 certification.
앫 Time to obtain the ISO 14001 certificate. The value
of this variable was obtained by a direct question in
2. Methodology of the research the survey where companies were asked how long it
had taken them, in months, to obtain the ISO 14001
2.1. Description of the sample certificate.
앫 ISO 14001 elements that require the greatest effort.
The data used in this paper comes from an extensive The respondents were asked to rate the level of effort
survey that attempted to analyze the impact of ISO required for each element on a five-point Likert scale
14001 registration on recycling performance in US where, 1=very low and 5=very high.
industrial companies. The first draft of the questionnaire 앫 Problems companies experience in implementing ISO
used in this study was developed in August 2001 based 14001. These problems may occur during the prep-
on a comprehensive literature review. The questionnaire aration for the certification or during the certification
was pretested by three faculty members of The Univer- process. Eight obstacles for ISO 14001 certification
sity of Toledo and eight ISO 14001 coordinators from were identified from the literature review. The respon-
different industrial companies. In January 2002, the dents were asked to rate their agreement on the impor-
finalized survey questionnaire was sent to 584 ISO tance of each obstacle using a five-point Likert scale
14001 certified industrial companies in the United States. where 1=strongly disagree and 5=strongly agree.
Of the 584 surveys, 177 completed surveys were
returned, yielding a response rate of 30.3%. Company
profile information in term of type of industry and com- 3. Results of the analysis
pany size is presented in Tables 1 and 2.
An analysis was performed on the research data to
determine time to obtain an ISO 14001 certificate,
elements requiring the greatest effort, and major
Table 1
Respondents by industry
obstacles encountered during implementing ISO 14001.

Industry type Number of Percentage 3.1. Time to obtain an ISO 14001 certificate
companies
With respect to the time to obtain the certificate, 177
Automotive 69 39.0% companies answered this question. The results are shown
Computer and electronic 28 15.8% in Table 3. It has taken most companies (75.6%) between
Miscellaneous 21 11.9%
Fabricated metal 16 9.04%
8 to 19 months to obtain the certificate. The minimum
Chemical products 15 8.47% reported time to obtain the certificate (only 3
Machinery and equipment 12 6.78% respondents) was 3 months or less. The maximum
Electrical products 7 3.95% reported time (only 10 respondents) was more than 20
Primary metals 5 2.82% months. This result is similar to that found in Spain
Textile manufacturing 4 2.26%
Total 177 100%
where it took most companies (85.4%) between 12 to
24 months to obtain an ISO 14001 certificate [6]. This
 K.A. Babakri et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 11 (2003) 749–752 751

Table 3 problem. As can be seen in Table 5, the cost of certifi-

Time to obtain an ISO 14001 certificate cation obtained the highest mean score (3.57). Lack of
available resources (mean score of 3.47) was the second
Months Number ofresponses Percentage
implementation problem. The high cost of certification
0–3 4 2.26% is due to the extensive documentation, employee train-
4–7 months 29 16.4% ing, and hiring of a third party auditor required by the
8–11 months 50 28.2% standard. The cost of certification could be reduced by
12–16 months 65 36.7% the existence of an organization or a network of organi-
16–19 months 19 10.7% zations that share and document information about how
20 or more 10 5.65%
to implement the procedures necessary for ISO 14001
certification [8]. European government agencies helped
in reducing the EMS certification cost by providing tech-
nical assistance to firms seeking to adopt the ISO 14001
result shows that the time to obtain an ISO 14001 certi- standard [9]. In Germany, for example, the chamber of
fication does not differ to any great degree from one commerce and industry associations have published
country to another. detailed information and case studies of companies who
have implemented the EMS and provide an extensive list
3.2. Elements requiring the greatest effort of contact points for further information. In the United
States, by contrast, EPA with the support of the Multi-
Out of the seventeen ISO 14001 elements, eight state Working Group on Environmental Management
elements received high mean scores (indicating greater Systems (MSWG) and with 50–100 participating facili-
effort) in this survey. These elements are reported in ties, created the National Database on Environmental
Table 4. The survey result indicated that “identifying Management Systems (NDEMS) to provide systematic
environmental aspects” requires the greatest effort. This empirical evidence on the effects of ISO 14001
element obtained the highest mean score (4.079). This implementation. Similar effort on a larger scale in the
supports the result of an in-depth case study published US will help to offset some of the costs of adoption of
by Rondinelli and Vastag [7]. The second most effort the ISO 14001 standard and give incentives to new firms
required was the “EMS documentation” (mean score of to obtain the certification.
4.078). The remaining six elements received mean Uncertainty about the benefit of ISO 14001 implemen-
scores between 3.9 and 3.6 indicting that they were eas- tation and additional training requirements were the next
ier to execute.
Table 5
3.3. Problems companies experience in implementing Obstacles to ISO 14001 certification (by number of respondents)
ISO 14001
Responsea (Likert scale)
Obstacles encountered 1 2 3 4 5 MeanScore
According to the respondents, the “high cost of certi- during implementing
fication” was considered the greatest implementation ISO 14001:

High cost of 4 26 43 73 31 3.57

certification
Table 4 Lack of available 5 30 45 70 27 3.47
IS0 14001 elements requiring the greatest effort (by number of resources
respondents) Uncertainty about the 11 27 47 68 24 3.38
benefit implementing
a
Response (Likert scale) the 14001 standard
ISO 14001 elements 1 2 3 4 5 Meanscore Additional training 7 33 51 69 17 3.32
requirements
Identifying environmental 0 8 34 71 64 4.079 Lack of top 32 40 22 51 32 3.06
aspects management
EMS documents 2 6 39 68 62 4.028 commitment
Training 1 10 44 76 46 3.881 Lack of environmental 22 53 44 55 3 2.80
EMS audit 2 9 45 79 42 3.847 performance
Operational control 2 16 52 65 42 3.729 improvement
Environmental management 2 13 50 81 31 3.712 Employee resistance 22 60 55 29 11 2.70
program Lack of concern about 40 55 37 39 6 2.53
Objectives and targets 0 14 49 91 23 3.695 environmental issues
Document control 4 24 53 51 45 3.616
a
1=strongly disagree, 2=mildly disagree, 3=neutral, 4=mildly agree,
a
1=very low, 2=low, 3=moderate, 4=high, 5=very high. 5=strongly agree.
752 K.A. Babakri et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 11 (2003) 749–752
two biggest obstacles encountered by respondents. The
remaining obstacles received lower mean scores which
indicate that they were not major obstacles for
implementing the ISO 14001 standard, especially
employee resistance (mean score of 2.7) and lack of con-
cern about environmental issues (mean score of 2.53).
4. Conclusions
The ISO 14001 implementation process was examined
using a questionnaire distributed to 584 firms in the
United States. The results from the survey indicate that
the time to obtain the certificate ranged from 8 to 19
months. In addition, the ISO standard’s elements which
required the greatest effort and time to implement were
“identifying environmental aspects”, “EMS docu-
mentation”, “training”, “EMS audits”, “operational con-
trol”, “environmental management program”, “objec-
tives and targets”, and “document control”. Firms
seeking ISO 14001 certification should note these time
consuming elements and allocate sufficient resources to
them. Moreover, the results of the survey showed that
the high cost of certification was the greatest obstacle
for ISO 14001 implementation. Lack of available
resources was the next greatest obstacle to implemen-
tation. The mean scores for the obstacles ranged from
3.57 to 2.53. This suggests that the ISO 14001 certifi-
cation was not considered by most respondents to be
very difficult to obtain.
The study provides information on what a firm can
expect to encounter during implementing ISO 14001 in
terms of the time needed for obtaining the certificate;
the most critical ISO 14001 elements (in terms of time
and effort); and obstacles encountered during the ISO
14001 certification process. This information could be
useful to companies that are in the process of adopting
the standard where they do not have clear pictures of
the critical factors for successful implementation of
ISO 14001.
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