Marta Ormazabal

Environmental Management Evolution Framework Maturity Stages and Causal Loops

Environmental management has become a fundamental concern for organizations, customers, and citizens, yet there are few environmental management metrics that guide toward environmental excellence. This research presents a detailed qualitative model of the evolution of environmental management of a firm through the definition of maturity stages and causal influences. The model provides a technique for assessing maturity stages as well as steps that can assist or negate their ecological advancement. The causal-based classification helps companies to understand the need for nontechnical elements in the process, such as top management commitment. This article also contributes to the literature on integrative multimethod research, as it brings together several approaches to environmental management.

Using a Serious Game for the Practical Learning of Productive and Environmental Efficiencies

The increase in environmental and social awareness has triggered numerous green initiatives at companies. Traditionally, companies’ training related to environmental management focuses on technical aspects and theoretical concepts. In addition to these theoretical contents, it is necessary to carry out practical activities to impart the desired behaviors and skills. Serious games have been found to improve employees understanding of practical environmental sustainability challenges, by offering opportunities to obtain first-hand experiences that may otherwise be too costly and difficult to reproduce in reality. This work presents Pizz@green, a serious game which simulates the productive and environmental efficiencies generated by the improvements of processes in a pizza shop. The purpose of the game is the practical learning of the environmental impact caused by the production processes of a company.

Environmental comfort based (ECB) methodology as a tool for preparing Kaizen application in a catering service company

The purpose of this paper is to develop a methodology that is based on the concept of environmental comfort and can serve as a tool that can help companies and employees to implement Kaizen projects. This methodology focuses on the worker’s participation in analyzing and developing improvements related to their workplace.,This research is focused on the development of a methodology that encourages worker participation in improvement activities, through the analysis of their working conditions. For this purpose, the proposed methodology was developed in accordance with the dimensions of workplace comfort proposed by Vischer. The employees start working on the analysis of problems and their solutions through the logical framework approach, as it is a tool that encourages worker participation and consensus. The developed methodology was applied in a company, with three different groups of people, which enabled the authors to test its utility.,The findings reveal that the proposed methodology is effective in initiating workers in the path of Kaizen. The employees who applied this methodology were able to propose improvement actions that addressed the problems and opportunities that they had previously detected. Moreover, the questionnaire that was used to validate the methodology and was administered to employees shows that the methodology is useful in preparing them for adopting continuous improvement (CI) programs.,The methodology presented in this paper has been applied and evaluated by a small number of employees. These limitations suggest future research recommendations.,This participatory methodology could be used by different types of companies to initiate employees on the path of CI, even if they are not familiar with improvement programs or methodologies. In addition, its use could improve the capabilities of employees in areas such as participatory analysis, problem identification and proposal of objectives. These capabilities are necessary in any Kaizen project. As a result of the application of this methodology, the companies could obtain a list of areas of improvement related to their work and propose actions to work on.,The paper presents the use of environmental comfort in the workplace as the first step in accomplishing a Kaizen project, with a focus on the employee involvement and consensus.

Environmental management maturity model for industrial companies

Purpose Despite significant amounts of environmental management tools that are available for companies to use, no model guides them toward environmental excellence. As a consequence, the purpose of this paper is to develop an environmental management maturity (EMM) model that helps companies that are on the path toward environmental excellence. Design/methodology/approach An iterative process was used to develop this model, starting with some semi-structured interviews with 19 companies within the Basque Country and two workshops with environmental experts. Following these steps, the initial version of the model was developed. Data from subsequent surveys carried out in Spanish and Italian companies, and a survey and semi-structured interviews in companies in the UK were incorporated into the model, yielding the final, more robust version of the EMM model. Findings The EMM model proposes six maturity stages: legal requirements, responsibility assignment and training, systematization, ECO2, eco-innovative products and services, and leading green company. Each stage details a series of elements: description, agents involved, policies, tools, indicators, structure, and behavior over time graphs. This research confirms that a company’s environmental management evolves through several distinctive stages, regardless of the industrial sector. Originality/value The proposed model concludes that the defined maturity stages provide valuable guidance for industrial firms as it helps them identify their maturity stage as well as the steps they should follow to move to the next stage.

Environmental Assessment Using a Lean Based Tool

The increase on environmental awareness has triggered numerous green initiatives at companies. This paper presents the Overall Greenness Performance (OGP), a metric based on the well-known Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). The OGP is a hierarchy of metrics based in the Lean Manufacturing framework that measure how environmentally efficient a manufacturing operation is executed. The purpose of the metric is to quantify improvements in productive and environmental efficiencies, relative to a company’s initial situation, after implementing a lean-green manufacturing system.

An overview of environmental management in the Spanish food sector: a survey study

Purpose Environmental management is becoming increasingly important in all types of organizations. The food industry represents the top industrial sector of the Spanish economy; however, there is still little knowledge about how it is managed environmentally. This paper presents a descriptive analysis of the Spanish food sector. Design/methodology/approach This study undertook a descriptive analysis based on probabilistic sampling surveys from food companies in Spain. The survey was sent out to 900 companies obtaining 128 answers. Findings The results of this study show that companies with an environmental management standard tend to have a more developed system and greater presence of environmental management tools and actions. Moreover, statistical differences were identified among the characteristics of companies and various factors that affect the evolution of their environmental management. Originality/value There are no studies that reveal a clear picture of the status of environmental management in...

Developing engineering students’ engagement with Circular Economy practices

The support of the National Program for Fostering Excellence in Scientific and Technical Research of Spain (No. DPI2015-70832-R) is gratefully acknowledged.

Environmental training at companies. The case of Volkswagen Navarra

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from Catedra de Empresa, Volkswagen Navarra – Universidad de Navarra. The authors also want to give particular thanks to the environmental manager of Volkswagen Navarra, Ana Isabel Moreno, who has been an active participant through the entire project.

Analysis and Comparison of Life Cycle Assessment and Carbon Footprint Software

Environmental management is receiving increased attention by researchers, policy makers and companies as today’s world is facing major environmental problems such as global warming and waste. As a consequence, companies are progressively improving their environmental practices and behaviors with the aim of reaching more advanced stages in their environmental management. Specifically, those companies most committed to environmental issues have started to introduce the concept of life-cycle and footprint thinking in their organizations. Nevertheless, there are currently many different software tools and companies may not know which one is most suitable. Consequently, the main objective of this research is to study the different software applications to help companies choose the most suitable one in each case. To achieve this objective, the paper provides an in depth review of the literature on life-cycle and footprint thinking. As a result, more than 20 software tools have been analysed and compared. It is important to highlight that the appropriateness of one software program relative to another may very much depend on the user’s scope or objective, as the database of each program could be different.