FACTORS AFFECTING THE ADOPTION DECISION OF VOLUNTARY ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN THE APPAREL INDUSTRY IN SRI LANKA

Textile and apparel industry represents41% of total export earnings and 52% of industrial export earnings in Sri Lanka. There are about 350 BOI registered textile and apparel manufacturing factories located island wide including 16 textile and fabric manufacturing firms. The textile and apparel factories produce sportswear, lingerie, loungewear, bridal wear, safety worker’s wear, swimwear, children’s wear. Apparel manufactured in Sri Lanka are considered as high quality, reliable, socially and environmentally accountable. Specially, Sri Lankan apparel manufacturers are considered as pioneers in environmental friendly apparel producers in the world. Therefore, the study aims to examine the factors that affect the adoption decision of voluntary environmental management practices among textile and apparel manufactures in Sri Lanka. Using a pre-tested and structured questionnaire primary data were collected from 55 factories randomly in the Western province. Voluntary environmental management practices are considered as the dependent variable and regulatory pressures, buyers’ pressure, competitors pressure, and firm’s characteristics are considered as the independent variables. I measure the effects of each independent variable to the adoption decision based on Poisson Model estimation. The study found that factory characteristics and buyers pressure are the most significant factors for the firms to adopt voluntary EMS. Keywords: Environmental Management Practices, Apparel and Textile Industry, Central Environmental Authority, ISO 14001, Board of Investment For full paper: fmscresearch@sjp.ac.l