The rationale for ISO 14001 certification : A systematic review and a cost-benefit analysis

Abstract

This contribution presents the findings from a two-stage systematic review. It relied on PRISMA’s methodical protocol to capture and analyze high-impact articles, that were fo-cused on the International Standards Organization’s ISO 14001 - Environment Management Systems. Whilst stage 1 shed light on the most cited publications since 1995, stage 2 nar-rowed down the search results between 2015 and 2021. The findings suggest that the use of this certifiable standard may result in operational efficiencies through better utilization of resources and waste management systems. It provides opportunities for practitioners to re-conceive their license to operate and to enhance their credentials with stakeholders. It considered potential pitfalls like high certification costs, time constraints as well as an in-crease in paperwork and red tape. Moreover, it recognizes that managers and employees may not be willing to implement changes as they may prefer the status quo or could not be knowledgeable enough to integrate the standard’s environment management systems with existing practices.