Abstract:

International and national corporations around the world adopt environmental management systems (EMS) and certify them according to international standards. One of the tools of environmental management is the environmental management system compliant with the PN-EN ISO 14001 standard. This standard is becoming the dominant international standard for assessing environmental management processes. It is a non-obligatory system, but due to the need to protect the environment, many organizations undertake to implement it with a view to seeing specific benefits. The analysis carried out in the study was based on the results of the questionnaire survey (conducted in 2018-2019) and a review of both domestic and foreign literature. The results of the research indicate that organizations have implemented ISO14001, expecting a number of benefits for the organization. However, at the implementation stage, there were also numerous difficulties that the organizations were not always prepared for and which lengthened the implementation period or caused some organizations to withdraw from using the standard. The research presented in this study may be the basis for the development of new procedures facilitating the implementation of environmental management systems in the company. The subject matter of the paper is important and topical due to the necessity to limit the impact of the organization on the environment and implementing the principles of sustainable development.