استاندارد ISO 14001 در شیوه های زنجیره تامین زیست محیطی

This paper focuses on the role of ISO 14001 in environmental supply management practices in Swedish companies. It discusses the existing and potential role of ISO 14001 for three key operational tasks of environmental supply chain management: to communicate the requirements to the supplier, to motivate and enable the supplier, and to verify that the supplier follows the requirements. The study used three different research methods: interviews with environmental managers, focus group discussions and a survey of two multinational companies and their operating units in several countries. It concludes that cooperation between the purchasing and environmental functions within a company is frequently not sufficiently achieved in implementation of ISO 14001; this makes the communication of customer requirements to suppliers less efficient. Building close relationships with suppliers is important to overcome initial difficulties, but this often conflicts with having a large supplier base. For the supplier to have an ISO 14001 certificate is seldom an absolute requirement, however, preference is often given to such suppliers. The value of the ISO 14001 certificate, as a proof of environmental performance, is a combination of the supplier's environmental ambitions, the advancement of supply chain practices of the customer and the ambitions of the certification bodies. Supplier audits are not commonly used as they are resource-consuming. Monitoring and verification approaches need further development.

The general level of environmental awareness is increasing and as a result of this, there is a growing interest in the environmental performance of industrial companies. The environmental challenges do not stop at the gates of the companies. Many companies operate on a global arena and competition motivates them to seek economically preferable manufacturing alternatives. This often results in outsourcing of manufacturing to low-cost countries and sourcing of materials, components and services from a range of suppliers. Recognizing that the environmental footprint of the product is not limited to the final manufacturing phase, increasingly more attention is being given to the overall environmental aspects not only related directly to operations of one company, but increasingly to the entire supply chains (e.g. see Refs. [1] and [2]). This puts pressure on companies to address environmental issues and manufacture products with an environmental profile that satisfies the customer requirements, but also to inform about the environmental impacts of the production processes and of the products during their entire life cycle. To meet the increasing market pressures and to comply with more demanding environmental legislation, many companies invest in voluntary environmental management and communication tools, for example, standardized environmental management systems (in particular ISO 14001), life cycle assessments, environmental labeling of products, carbon disclosure projects, and sustainability reporting schemes.

In this study, several of the environmental managers and participants of the focus groups were involved in the development of ISO 14001 and were, and still are, front-runners in the implementation of the standard. It goes without saying that most of them have an overall positive attitude to the value of ISO 14001 certification and use the standard as a tool in their daily work. This does not mean that they couldn't see the shortcomings of standardized environmental management systems. Therefore, during the interviews and focus group discussions, a number of interesting insights were provided about the role of ISO 14001 in general, and the current role of the standard and its potential as a useful tool in the management of environmental supply chain issues. First, ISO 14001 has a facilitating role in the environmental activities between a customer and a supplier. For example, if both organizations are certified according to the standard, this creates confidence and brings companies closer and thus, communication of environmental requirements will be facilitated. Moreover, a closer relationship with suppliers was seen as beneficial both for the successful outcomes of projects and as a facilitator for environmental work. However, building close relationships with suppliers was seen as difficult as many companies source from a large pool of suppliers. The purchasing function, and its interplay with the environmental function and other company functions, was seen as important for engaging in supply chain activities. However, this interaction was not always sufficiently achieved in the framework of ISO 14001. It appears that the customer's control of compliance with the environmental requirements suppliers is mostly based on questionnaires. Environmental audits were recognized as a reliable tool for more detailed follow-up of suppliers. However, in most cases, the lack of resources limits the use of audits in the supply chain work. According to the results of this study, the value of the ISO 14001 certificate in the supply chain context is a combination of the supplier's own environmental ambitions, the advancement of environmental supply chain practices of the customer company, and the ambitions of the certification bodies. Whether, or rather under what circumstances, the supplier's ISO 14001 certificate can be sufficient as a proof for the customer should certainly be further investigated and discussed by practitioners and scientists. More implemented examples of advanced uses of ISO 14001 in supply chain management will, in the future, make it easier to make more informed conclusions of the real potential for the standard to act as an efficient supply chain environmental management tool.