Premium
Strategic corporate environmental management within the South African automotive industry: motivations, benefits, hurdles
Author(s) -
Kehbila Anderson Gwanyebit,
Ertel Jürgen,
Brent Alan Colin
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
corporate social responsibility and environmental management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.519
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1535-3966
pISSN - 1535-3958
DOI - 10.1002/csr.188
Subject(s) - automotive industry , business , incentive , sustainability , pace , government (linguistics) , marketing , order (exchange) , corporate sustainability , corporate social responsibility , industrial organization , public relations , economics , finance , engineering , ecology , linguistics , philosophy , geodesy , political science , geography , biology , microeconomics , aerospace engineering
This paper conveys the experiences of the South African automotive industry as it attempted to implement the ISO 14001 standard. Through a questionnaire‐based survey, small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as larger companies were asked about the key motivations for engaging in environmental change, the benefits accrued and the barriers that prevented them from doing so. This paper analyzes the variation in adoption rates in order to establish different relationships between them. The results reveal substantial differences and some similarities with regard to the hurdles, benefits and motivations behind the implementation of environmental management systems (EMSs) that are hidden behind corporate rhetoric and commitment to sustainability. This paper concludes by prescribing robust recommendations that would set off the pace for government officials to incorporate effective and realistic incentives into future policy to better encourage environmental compliance and improved performance while minimizing costs both to businesses and to the Government. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.