…The book presents many intriguing findings and ideas ... For instance, professors from the Politecnico di Milano describe the application of an environmental performance evaluation tool at Coca-Cola and Nestlé in Italy ... It is a tribute to the expertise of the authors that the book confirms precisely what the drafters of the international standard [ISO 14001] intended when they wrote it.
www.crosslandsbulletin.com, August 2007

The last decade has seen increasing awareness of the importance of understanding corporate environmental management systems (EMSs) and their relationships with sustainability, competitiveness and institutional practice. It is now assumed that most large companies have some version of an EMS in place with systems ranging from informal policies and practices to formalised third-party certified systems that are widely publicised by companies and are now integral to their strategic direction. No matter what level and type of system a firm chooses, both practitioners and researchers wish to examine and better understand the extent to which these systems are cross-functional, how they impact on performance evaluation, their capability to monitor supply chains and the life-cycles of products and services and, most importantly, whether these systems actually make a contribution to better environmental performance.

This book provides intriguing insights into strategic and sustainable EMSs. It provides clear evidence of benefits that should exceed the costs (tangible and otherwise), and help practitioners understand the attributes of well-developed and strategically focused EMSs. It also demonstrates the link to performance measures such as reputation, improved position in the marketplace, cost, quality, waste reduction and numerous sustainable development-based metrics and issues. The comprehensive scope of topics spans several industries and provides environmental systems insight involving sustainable management systems, strategic and operational impacts of environmental systems, cross-country comparisons of EMS design processes and results, product-based environmental systems, EMS impacts at innovative organisations and environmental systems integration within specific industries.

The book is split into three sections. First, the book covers the broad issues of planning and designing an EMS and includes topics such as performance evaluation, comparisons between multinational environmental systems, sustainable development and links between already established quality systems and an EMS. The second section focuses on EMS implementation and operation and incorporates some corporate or industry-specific case studies. The third and final category of the book highlights the use of an EMS to evaluate business processes.

Strategic Sustainability will be essential reading for both managers faced with decisions regarding their own EMSs and to researchers seeking additional insights from state-of-the-art examples for further theoretical development and testing.

Environmental management systems are key to the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of sustainability strategies, and Sroufe and Sarkis have selected and encouraged a wide range of authors to provide their important perspectives on EMSs. These authors, hailing from different countries and addressing different industry sectors, illuminate the complexity of EMSs, from their initiation through their assessment, providing both qualitative and quantitative evidence that EMSs matter for organisational, including sustainability, performance.  If you are looking for a sophisticated, panoramic view of the strategic approach to environmental management systems, this is a broad and deep source of interesting and useful research on this vital sustainability topic.
Professor Mark Starik, George Washington University School of Business; Co-Editor, Organization and Environment

This thoughtful, detailed, and useful book demonstrates that good environmental management is good business practice. An environmental management system (EMS) properly delves into all aspects of a company's management and performance, from assessment and benchmarking through to quality, performance, profitability, competitiveness, and survival. Our environment benefits from an effective EMS, and so does the company's overall management as the demands for environmental performance encounter opportunities and imperatives for performance in quality, efficiency, effectiveness, and social factors. Sroufe and Sarkis conceive of the EMS as a path to greater understanding of a company's obligations and performance capabilities. They demonstrate the creativity of companies in going beyond black box regulation to produce original, far-reaching and beneficial management strategies. There is much to be learned here for businesses, policy-makers, regulators, and activists of all kinds.
Kurt Fischer, The Greening of Industry Network

...not only presents recent findings of research involving formal environmental systems, it also features studies that provide arguments for the short-term and long-term implications for the development and certification of management systems. The book also provides evidence of expanding EMS both strategically and incorporating additional organisational and social dimensions.
Robert H. King Jr, President of the ANSI ASQ National Accredition Board (ANAB), USA

Part I: EMS Planning and Design

Part II: Implementation and Operation

Part III: Environmental Management System Evaluation