The Relationship between Employee Environmental Awareness and Current Environmental Management System

Background. Many publications have studied environmental management systems. Once a system is implemented and maintained, it should affect employee environ­mental awareness – the question is to what extent it does so. To date, published studies have defined awareness and highlighted its importance. The author, as a practitioner, was interested in whether the positive opinion about the system expressed in the system documentation (audit reports) was relevant for the development of environmental awareness of managers and employees.Research aims. Therefore, the purpose of this article was to establish the relationship between the state of the environmental management system and the environmental awareness of users. It was recommended to introduce surveys to raise awareness and improve the system.Methodology. Literature review and surveys were used to collect the data.Findings. The surveys showed that the vast majority of employees want their organization to be safe for the environment. But in practice, many employees do not know the environmental objectives or environmental improvement plans. This means that the system is not optimally maintained. Decision-makers rely on the reports from environmental audits and reviews to learn about the need to improve environmental awareness. In addition to analyzing the documentation, surveys are needed in an organization to understand the employees’ feedback.