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Critical Factors For Implementing ISO 14001 Standard in United States Industrial Companies
Critical Factors For Implementing ISO 14001 Standard in United States Industrial Companies
www.cleanerproduction.net
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.
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
two biggest obstacles encountered by respondents. The the most critical ISO 14001 elements (in terms of time
remaining obstacles received lower mean scores which and effort); and obstacles encountered during the ISO
indicate that they were not major obstacles for 14001 certification process. This information could be
implementing the ISO 14001 standard, especially useful to companies that are in the process of adopting
employee resistance (mean score of 2.7) and lack of con- the standard where they do not have clear pictures of
cern about environmental issues (mean score of 2.53). the critical factors for successful implementation of
ISO 14001.
4. Conclusions
References
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