Investigations on Implementation and Compliance Of Environmental Management Systems by Companies in Kenya

Abstract

There is a general lack of standardized Environmental Management System (EMS).International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 is a specification standard and benefits associated with its compliance are many.The main aim of this study was to investigate factors that influence implementation and compliance of ISO 14001 based Environmental Management Systems by industries in Kenya.The specific objectives were: to evaluate current status of EMS adoption by Kenyan industries; determine key factors that influence adoption of Environmental Management practices and extent of compliance to local environmental regulations by industries in Kenya. The study adopted the quantitative research method. It was based in all the major industrial towns of Kenya that included Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Naivasha, Kericho, Eldoret, Kitale,Thika and Machakos. Stratified random sampling was employed whereby three strata were chosen namely; agricultural, manufacturing and service industries. The target population was 30 respondents companies. The current status of EMS adoption indicated that 31% of the companies had waste management systems in place, while 20% of them had been certified to ISO 14001 EMS. The study also noted that pollution prevention was the major driver (27.5%) for the implementation of EM, followed by cost reduction, (23.2.%),facilitation of compliance to local environmental regulations,(18.8%), international acceptance,(14.5%), while pressure from customers took 8.7%.The study concluded that pollution prevention was the major driver for development of EM practice by Kenyan industries. The study recommended that to enhance good environmental quality, enforcement of applicable legislation should be combined with education on voluntary EMS, which is a new area of strategies for EM in Less Developed Countries(LDCs).More research is therefore needed in sectors that have significant impacts on the environment and rural livelihoods like the mining sector. Furthermore, it is essential to examine how auditors perceive EMS within small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in LDCs.