ABSTRACT
In the future, environmental performance will be an increasingly important factor in determining the competitive success of manufacturing companies. Economic and ecological goals do not necessarily contradict each other (Braun, 1998; Hurt and Ahuja, 1996; Porter and van der Linde, 1996). However, the environmental challenge will require considerable changes in the organization of firms as they respond to ever-tightening environmental legislation and to the needs of more environmentally aware consumers, investors and employees. The so-called 'greening of industry' will also have long-term consequences for technological change and regional development. This paper explores an increasingly important facet of these profound changes, namely, the implementation of environmental management systems (EMS) as a way to combine industrial and environmental knowledge.
