Premium
New instruments – old practices? The implications of environmental management systems and extended producer responsibility for design for the environment
Author(s) -
Kautto Petrus
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
business strategy and the environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.123
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1099-0836
pISSN - 0964-4733
DOI - 10.1002/bse.454
Subject(s) - extended producer responsibility , design for the environment , linkage (software) , process (computing) , business , product (mathematics) , environmental policy , environmentally friendly , cleaner production , environmental management system , environmental resource management , process management , product design , environmental economics , industrial organization , computer science , engineering , economics , ecology , mathematics , waste management , chemistry , municipal solid waste , biology , operating system , biochemistry , geometry , gene , irrigation
As the focus of environmental policy and management is shifting from cleaner production at the process level towards greener products, there is a need for new kinds of policy instruments and initiatives. Environmental management systems (EMSs) and extended producer responsibility (EPR) systems are efforts to overcome the limitations of the traditional regulatory approach. In this paper, I illustrate how EMSs and EPR systems have influenced the emergence of greener products in three case companies. These case studies are complemented by results from a survey on design for the environment in the electrical and electronics industry. Both the case studies and the survey indicate that the linkage between EMSs and product development is weak or completely missing. Therefore, the mere existence of an EMS can hardly be used as a convincing indicator of the implementation of an environmentally friendly design process. The results regarding the EPR systems are more positive. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.