oai:ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk:56836
type: CreativeWork
name: 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.
description: 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 n…
abstract: 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 n…
author: Alsiary, Waleed
language: en
date published: 2015-05
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:12:10Z
provider: University of East Anglia
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of East Anglia