Environmental Management Systems and Sustainability

To check rapidly deteriorating environmental conditions, many management tools are being used by different industries. In order to address environmental issues the corporate sector has seen a drastic increase in the use of environmental management systems. There is strong need to check how these environmental management systems are rendering environmental management services. Study shows that environmental management systems are mistakenly expected to prescribe technical and environmental objectives. Further, environmental management itself is seen in isolation of a socio- ecological context, which makes environmental management lose ground and operate in a virtual vacuum. For the analysis of the current reality, a framework for strategic sustainable development and methods incorporating “backcasting from principles of sustainability” have been used. The present study illustrates the possibilities for integration of sustainability objectives into environmental management systems beyond of some contemporary sustainability gaps in traditional environmental management systems.