the success factors of implementing ISO 14001-based EMS were directives related to EMS certification implementation, adoption of sustainable manufacturing practices, reduction in the cost of EMS certification, environmental efficacy, increased competition, leadership. The study also examined that the major drivers that motivate manufacturing companies to adopt EMS are benefits such as competitive advantage, reducing costs about waste reduction, and increasing the client base that is received by EMS implementation. It was examined that the factors such as environmental regulations, commitment to sustainability, lowering costs, increased competition and environmental performance, and leadership also played a major role in motivating the different industries in UAE to adopt environmental management systems. It was examined that the companies that did not implement EMS adopted the Ecolabel and carried out sustainable commercial activities to preserve the environment.
The key challenges that must be overcome to implement the Environmental Management System are unawareness among employees, lack of competent persons including an unskilled workforce, EMS documentation including the complexity of documents, lack of understanding and documentation cost, practical challenges, inadequate regulations framework, lack of legal authorities for EMS certification including lack of EMS enforcement and lack of support from governing authority, lack of support from top management including lack of commitment and lack of communication, and higher costs.
The practical challenges such as planning of EMS, and Environmental Aspect Assessment requirements (EAA) are faced by firms that create issues in the forming firm’s aims and objectives. The inadequate regulations framework includes a lack of compliance of firms towards following guidelines for the implementation of EMS certification. The higher cost includes the cost associated with the conduction of internal and external audits, training of employees, certification cost, cost of implementing technology, the cost for implementing
objectives and targets, consultant cost, environmental monitoring cost and preparation of documentation that creates issues in implementing EMS. It was examined that because of these barriers, the adoption of the Environmental Management System gets hampered within the manufacturing organizations that adversely impact the environment and the natural surroundings. The reduction in the cost associated with the adoption of EMS certification in the UAE will encourage its implementation in UAE firms.
While focusing on the third objective which is related to developing the improvements required to overcome the challenges in implementing EMS, it was found that to overcome the issues and challenges that are faced while adopting EMS, the manufacturing companies in UAE must adopt advanced environmental technologies that could support the EMS workings and operations, increasing the level of awareness of EMS among the different levels of employees will encourage the firms and industries to effectively implement EMS in their daily working operations, enhancing the enforcement of laws about environmental standards including the Abu Dhabi emirate wide legislative framework for the EMS along with the allocation of adequate resources, management commitment, employees involvement and participation and enhancing the communication process will support to overcome the challenges in the implementation of EMS. The study includes other factors that are associated with overcoming the challenges in implementing EMS which includes recognizing the risks to the environment that can be caused by the working process of the firm. It emphasizes implementing environmental improvement programs, emergency plans, or operational controls to reduce or eliminate environmental risks. The study also examined that certain measures such as performing work as per the environmental impact guidelines and preparing a comprehensive statement for acquiring an environmental permit from the concerned government authority could also encourage the adoption of EMS by the
companies in UAE. It was found that EMS is beneficial for organisations as it helps in improving the image of the company, conservation of resources, and minimization of waste.
It was also examined that the manufacturing industry in the UAE has been highly contributing to the overall economic development of the country. However, the manufacturing sector faced issues of environmental challenges that imposed threats to sustainable industrial development. It was examined that the industrial sector emitted harmful gases and chemicals that polluted the environment and the natural surroundings.
Thus, the manufacturing industry must adopt ISO standards and implement frameworks so that there will be an improvement in environmental conditions. Thus, by adopting EMS, there will be a spread of environmental awareness among individuals. It will encourage the adoption of constructive approaches toward the preservation of the environment. The study examined the challenges such as lack of support from people; governing authorities, EMS documentation complexity, high cost, and stakeholder pressure experienced while implementing EMS. It was also found that the employees of the company were also not much aware of EMS and its benefits. Thus, it is recommended that the manufacturing industry managers must provide training and education about EMS so that its implementation by the firm increases. The other challenges that were experienced while implementing EMS were lack of industrial support, lack of capital, lack of understanding and skills, the pessimistic approach of administration and workers, low level of implementation of environmental directives, and limited community involvement. The challenges could only be resolved by involving the top management in the EMS implementation process. It also includes providing training to the working staff and enforcing regulations that support EMS practices in the firm.
6.2 Recommendation
Based on the above details concerning objective 3, it can be said that several recommendations are necessary for the manufacturing units in the UAE to ensure sustaining and implementation of effective EMS. Further, the below-summarised recommendations can be used for following up on this research work.
i. The adoption of EMS by the manufacturing industries could be increased by developing compliance between the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) prescribed plan-do-check-act (PDCA) model), local governing bodies (Environmental Agency Abu Dhabi) and industry standards (developing business associations with the UAE federal government) that are followed in UAE. It includes implementing stringent laws that will compel the top management to adopt EMS. For example, the rules related to EMS certification could be stringent and made mandatory for companies looking for expansion in the local and international markets.
ii. It’s necessary to carry out the economic feasibility study along with the technical and operational feasibility study to address high costs/increase in costs related to the implementation and certification of EMS because of introducing precautionary and protective measures in the operations, training of workforce for making them EMS compliance, documentation costs, conduction of internal and external audits and any other cost associated with the implementation of EMS. This process will encourage industries and firms to adopt the EMS effectively and the employees could be motivated for the effective implementation in their daily routine activities. Also, based on these feasibility studies, employers could allocate the necessary/appropriate
budget to address any issues arising out of the cost related to the implementation and certification of EMS.
iii. The adoption of EMS practices within the enterprises requires introducing change in the organizational management and communication procedures so that there is effective adoption of environmental management system standards and practices.
Additionally, the support and cooperation of leaders and senior management are required so that there is the adoption of EMS practices such as reducing water, air and soil pollution, augmenting recycling propensities, enhancing resource utilization, and others. The adoption of EMS could also be increased by promoting the use of green supply chain processes so that there is less generation of pollution and waste.
The spread of awareness about EMS implementation is to be increased among the companies (public and private sector enterprises) so that an increasing number of firms adopt EMS into their work operations.
iv. To reduce the management support issue that is faced by organizations while the adoption of EMS, effective communication and interaction is to be established with the workers and employees. It will help the management, top executive, and seniors to explain the benefits of EMS to the employees and encourage them to adopt EMS practices. The involvement of top management, seniors, and leaders of the firm in the adoption of the EMS procedure will help to spread awareness about the benefits of EMS among employees.
v. The policymakers in UAE must also spread awareness of environmental management issues and benefits that will be received by the firms by adopting EMS certification.
With respect to this, the UAE governing body must provide support and assistance to the firms so that they could adopt innovative technologies to overcome financial
issues and execute EMS activities. The imparting of education and learning about EMS to the local public will encourage the individuals to purchase green products that will improve EM practices within the firms.
vi. The EMS adoption could be strengthened by encouraging the clients and consumers to get associated with the company that is having EMS certification. As a result, to retain the consumers and increase the client base, the firms in the UAE will adopt EMS in their working systems.
vii. The involvement of local communities, customers, and market sources in the promotion and adoption of EMS will encourage the industries to the adoption of EMS. For example, if the market sources restrict the entry of companies in the commercial promotion of products or services in case of non-compliance to EMS and promotion of companies adopting EMS will certainly encourage EMS adoption in UAE industries.
6.3 Limitation
This research study has provided key inputs on the current status and adoption of EMS in manufacturing industries, in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Several studies have been reviewed extensively and critically to derive conclusions about the key drivers motivating organizations to implement EMS, the challenges encountered in effectively implementing EMS and certain strategies that can assist the organizations in successfully implementing EMS. During this review, several research gaps were identified, where it was noticed that there were no relevant studies in the context of Abu Dhabi, UAE. Furthermore, there were very few studies focusing on EMS implementation and its effectiveness in the manufacturing firms of the emirate of Abu Dhabi, UAE. When considering the research methods adopted by different researchers, most of the studies are using quantitative methods, particularly
surveys, as their data collection research method. There is a need to adopt qualitative methods to lay the theoretical foundation and provide the means for unique knowledge acquisition in this field. A lot of existing research is also based on studies, focused on evaluating the implementation and adoption of EMS in certain companies.
There is a lack of evidence concerned with the impact made on the financial performance or growth of manufacturing firms when EMS is implemented. It would be interesting to understand whether an increase in environmental performance augments financial performance or not. Also, ambiguity is there regarding the cost factor. Less research is there on cost-benefit analysis, which is integral for providing more clarity.
6.4 Future Scope
The research is necessary to be carried out to get a better knowledge and understanding of the different aspects of the Environment Management System in particular with context to the Manufacturing Industries in Abu Dhabi, UAE. In terms of knowledge / theoretical contribution, this research work provides a new study framework for the region of Abu Dhabi, UAE. The identification of the different challenges that are faced by organizations in the implementation of EMS in the operating system of the organizations will enable the reduction of the causes of its hindrances. It was found that organizations were experiencing retardations in growth which had hampered the development and progress of the organisations. So, this research is necessary for evaluating the effectiveness of the Environmental Management System (EMS) that is used in the manufacturing industry.
The research will surely help to bring about positive changes in the working conditions of the organizations and improve their image in the markets and in-between the customers. The organizations will be able to reduce their operation cost and there will be an
effective utilization of natural resources and will be in a better position for reviewing EMS tools such as measurement and improvement, pollution prevention and resource conservation, environmental gap analysis, environmental benchmarking, and environmental best practices. The research also helps to gain knowledge about the global perspectives of EMS and the level of acceptance and adoption of EMS activities by various organizations.
This will highly impact improving the environmental conditions of different organizations at global levels and help in developing an integrated framework for the implementation of the EMS by the manufacturing industries in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
The major areas identified that need further attention from the researchers are environmental reporting, customer behaviour, legal authorities for EMS certification, technologies and quality tools used, and strategies for increasing employee engagement in implementing EMS. Further, more research is needed on environmental technologies, EMS documentation, auditing, enforcement measures, and cost-benefit analysis. Apart from this, the implications of the social and environmental performance of an organization on its financial performance can be researched in the future to offer more in-depth information in the current research domain.
Moreover, the research can be further extended to all the other organisational sectors in Abu Dhabi as well as all the other emirates of UAE. It is suggested that to reduce the gaps that have been identified in the study, it is essential to carry out further study on this topic by including the facts from manufacturing and other industries. It will spread awareness about EMS and promote its implementation by the companies. This study will be useful to the candidates looking for research in the other emirates of UAE whilst evaluating the effectiveness of the EMS implementation amongst different industries.
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