En studie om förutsättningarna att certifiera sig enligt ISO 14001 är desamma för stora och små företag

Sammanfattning: As the environmental awarenesshas increasedin recent decadessohas the society’s demand forenvironmentalresponsible companies(Ammenberg, 2004).One way for companies to take responsibility and work with environmental issues is to implement anenvironmental management system(EMS). EMSserves as a tool for companies to systematically work with environmental issues and develop the company's environmental efforts. ISO 14001 is theEMSaccording to whichthat the majority of companies today choose to get certified(Brorson & Almgren, 2007). The introduction and operation of the ISO 14001 requires significant financial and human resources and it can therefore be questioned whether the environmental managementsystem is adaptable forall companysizes.The purpose of this studyis to examine whether EMScan provide environmental and economic benefits for companies of all sizes and ifthe conditions to get certifiedaccordingto ISO 14001 is the same for large and smallcompanies.A literature study was made to collect information on company'simplementation of ISO 14001. Furthermore, as a complementto the literature study,an empirical investigationincluding e-mail correspondence with four consulting companies thatoffer services for companies that want to get certifiedaccordingto ISO 14001was made. The result of the study showsthat there are different conditions for large and small companies to get certified to ISO 14001, and these differencesis mainly because large companies have morefinancial and human resources.There are disagreementsin the literature whether ISO 14001 is designed for both large and small companies, where critics argue that the EMS primarily are adapted for large companies, and then transferred to small companies.The more positive arguments to ISO 14001 arethat the EMS is flexible and therefore adaptable, in similarity with the arguments put forward by the informants.Despite the factthat all of the informants replied that ISO 14001 is designed for both large and small companies, two of them also claimthat there are some difficulties for small companieswhen implementing and working with the EMS.