Environmental Management Systems Experience among Latvian Construction Companies
Environmental Management Systems Experience among Latvian Construction Companies

Summary/Abstract: At the present stage of development in Latvia, as well as around the world, essential influence on the enterprise work has the idea of sustainable development. The concept of sustainable development has become widespread amongst government agencies, politicians, corporations and other organizations throughout the world. By the end of 2007, around 129,031 organizations worldwide have implemented environmental management systems (EMS) and certified it according to ISO 14001. About 100 of them are located in Latvia and 40 of them are construction companies. There is a lack of national evaluations of ISO 14001 in many countries, but in many countries no complete lists of the national certified / registered sites exist at all. In Latvia a list of ISO 14001 sites has been complied and regularly updated by the Latvian association for Quality. In spite of the fact that in Latvia increase using of ideas of ecological manufacture and environmental management, nevertheless there has been no any serious scientific study of Latvian experience of ISO 14001. The purpose of this study is to describe experiences and effects of EMS in construction companies, based on study conducted for the construction industry in Latvia. The results show that ISO 14001 often leads to reduced environmental impact, especially in the area of waste. A strong driving force behind implementation is the expected improvement of the organizations’ images. Legal compliance tends to be difficult to implement, but on the other hand, it works well in daily practice. To develop EMS into Sustainability Management Systems, the two most important challenges are to improve the coordination between the EMS and the organizations’ strategies and to improve learning process and direct participation of all employees.

• Details
• Contents