Making a Case Study for the Real Business Value of ISO 14001 Implementation in the Automotive Industry, Chemical Industry and Small Business

This graduate thesis, Making a Case Studyfor the Real Business Value ofISO 14001 Implementation in the Automotive Industry, the Chemical Industry, and Small Business, demonstrates how companies within the automotive industry, the chemical industry, and small business are experiencing business value post ISO 14001 Environmental Management System implementation. This paper analyzes the benefits and pitfalls of ISO 14001 post implementation as well as customer and supplier requirements and the business value the companies studied are experiencing. The ISO 14001 standard was published in 1996. The program was more widely adopted in Europe and Asia, but in North America, it was the larger automotive manufacturers who were to grasp the system and to implement it throughout their organizations. Those automotive manufacturers then started to require their suppliers to become certified by certain dates. This prompted many companies to have to implement this system out of a requirement to continue business, not out of an actual desire to implement by the company for simple environmental benefits. This has lead to the examination ofjust how much value is being brought to these businesses from the implementation of the ISO 14001 EMS