An Exploratory Study on Environmental Management Practices among Food and Beverages Processing Industries in Pakistan

Increasing demand for energy, food, and water has resulted in resource depletion. The Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) is becoming a big challenge for the developing countries like Pakistan. Being an agrarian country, the food sector is considered an important segment for the socio-economic development. Currently, the Pakistanis behind in resource efficiency as compare to other Asian countries. Environmental Management System (EMS) acknowledged as a key element to promote organizational sustainability. Previous studies elaborated that the main environmental problems related to food manufacturing are, solid wastes, water wastes, air emissions, noise, odor, and a huge consumption of energy and water. Thus, SCP practices provide safe and sustainable human settlements, and helps in reduction of wastages. In this study, Semi-structured interviews were conducted from the owners/managers in the food and beverages processing industries of Pakistan. Purposive with snowball sampling techniques were used to investigate the existing practices of environmental management, barriers and motives towards implementation of EMS. The main problems identified were lack of awareness, weak implementation of environmental regulations, and higher cost of certification, complex documentation procedures, and unavailability of latest technologies accordingly, the study presents managerial implications to overcome the above mentioned issues.