Abstract:
The main objective of the study was to investigate the drivers and barriers of implementing
environmental management system in manufacturing industries of Bangladesh. The study
also investigated the current environmental management initiatives taken by different
manufacturing industries in Bangladesh and their motivation for adopting the system as
well as their level of compliance with the local environmental legislation. To achieve these
objectives a questionnaire survey was carried out. A conceptual framework was developed
by the common perception of the implementation of EMS in Bangladesh at the outset of
the research to frame the study and find suitable literature as well as to design the
questionnaire. The questionnaire was primarily developed from the conceptual framework
and from the review of the relevant literature.
A convenient purposive sampling method was employed to collect data from industries
located mainly in industrially populated areas like Dhaka, Chittagong, Gazipur and
Narayanganj and popular in their respective manufacturing field. From the study it was
found that major drivers of implementing EMS in the manufacturing industries of
Bangladesh were international acceptance, compliance to local environmental legislation,
international trading, pressure from the customers, production cost reduction and
company’s policy for environmental safeguard. The major barriers identified from the
study were complexity in the process of EMS, management ignorance of its existence, lack
of government incentives and awareness, lack of education and training, high investment
and maintenance cost, ignorance of government regulations and socio-economic culture.
Results also show that most of the manufacturing industries have developed some from of
EMS like waste management, pollution control and energy conservation in their
operations. From this study it was realized that manufacturers are still reluctant to
implement EMS in the industries.
