Environmental Management Systems: costs, benefits and an activity theory approach to understanding their knowledge-generating capabilities

This paper outlines the approach taken by a UK, non-profit, rural small-to-medium sized enterprise (SME), to develop an environmental management system (EMS). A discussion of the problems encountered and solutions employed is presented along with the tangible and intangible benefits. The paper also reviews the salient knowledge management literature and outlines the approach taken to understand the knowledge generating capabilities of the process of developing an EMS. It finds that organisational relationships are the most prominent inhibitors to knowledge generating activities yet rely upon social events that lie beyond the locus of control of the organisation. This paper was initially presented at IEMA’s Knowledge Exchange Event in Manchester, in January 2010.