A critical investigation into the barriers and opportunities for environmental management systems ‘EMSs’ implementation for the delivery of environmental benefits to the Industrial City in Jeddah, KSA.
The first Industrial City (IC) in Saudi Arabia was established in Jeddah; it is now suffering from serious environmental problems. Environmental Management Systems (EMSs) represent an internationally recognised tool developed to provide a systematic, self-monitoring approach for making continual improvements to all the environmental aspects of a business in line with local environmental regulations and standards. This research critically investigates the scope of the implementation of EMSs in this IC, which necessarily entails assessing the efforts of the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME), which is the government agency responsible for environmental protection. This research also details the barriers and possible environmental benefits to be derived from EMS implementation. These objectives are achieved through a multi-method case study research design, involving questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and document analysis. 183 organizations (32% of all organizations in the IC) participated in the questionnaires, and two sets of interviews were conducted: 14 with environmental managers in the IC, and 12 with officials from various relevant government agencies. The results show that the basic requirements of EMS are inadequately implemented, and that awareness of environmental legislation (and compliance with it) is extremely limited. The most important barriers facing the implementation of EMSs in this IC include lack of enforcement of existing legislation and low levels of environmental awareness. The cost of implementing EMSs is a further important obstacle, particularly for small- and medium-sized organizations (SMEs). Nevertheless, although the main motivations reported were economic, adopting an EMS in full can result in measurably improved environmental performance, through reducing natural resource consumption (chiefly energy and water). Those with an informal or partial EMS also experience environmental benefits relative to those who have no form of EMS. Improvements to operational safety are another benefit to be derived from implementing EMSs. It also argues that the widespread adoption of EMS could greatly assist the government in its drive toward sustainable development and improved management of natural resources. Accordingly, recommendations are provided to enhance the implementation of EMS in the IC as well as to overcome the aforementioned obstacles in order to effect changes towards achieving sustainable development. Keywords: Environmental management systems (EMSs); implementation of EMS; Sustainable development; Environmental awareness; EMSs; KSA.
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