What are Environmental Management Systems?

Environmental Management Systems first gained traction in the early 1990s, growing more popular over time as individuals from places of power in governments (such as the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro) to the consumers of the products in the retail industry have become more aware of environmental concerns. In 2015 more than 300,000 organisations had implemented EMS and were certified according to the ISO 14001 system standard; while more than 4400 organisations followed the values of EMAS (Zilahy, 2017). This increase in popularity has reasons beyond meeting the government’s legislation. EMS’s allow for the possibility of the reduction of costs, the improved efficiency of the organisation’s practises, along with the public image of the organisation being enhanced.