Developing and implementing environmental management systems for small and medium-sized construction enterprises

Abstract

Environmental aspects are gradually becoming factors of importance for construction businesses, their operations and their management. These factors can be seen as new change makers for construction management itself. New criteria need to be taken into account when structuring construction activities, in decision making, and throughout the production control. Instances of construction management solutions that also encapsulate environmental aspects are likely to appear. A contractor’s environmental management system (EMS) is an example of such an instance. As a management solution an EMS is targeted at minimizing a contractor’s environmental impacts. An experiment has been carried out where an EMS solution was formed and tested for small and medium-sized contractors. Fifteen small and medium-sized construction companies were involved. Along with the action research approach, a set of workshops with company people were arranged for EMS structuring and for its testing. Within these experiments the researcher acted as a developer and inside observer. The proposed EMS solution presents the structuring of environmental aspects for management attention. Moreover, this structuring can be used as a basis for a formal environmentally conscious management system. All companies involved in the research have started to use the EMS solution or its parts.

Keywords:

• Action research
• environment
• environmental management system
• SMEs