Information, Environmental Performance, and Environmental Management Systems

The way businesses handle their environmental responsibilities has evolved over time. Some companies have become more aware of and accountable for the environmental consequences of their actions. As they have done so, they have begun to recognize the value of taking a more systematic and, in a few cases, even a strategic approach to environmental issues ¹ (Hoffman 1999). To support the transition to systematic and strategic management of their environmental responsibilities, many companies and government facility managers have begun to adopt environmental management systems (EMSs), defined as suggested by Nash and Ehrenfeld in Chapter 3: “formal structures of rules and resources that managers adopt to establish organizational routines that help achieve corporate environmental goals.”