An investigation of the drivers, barriers and incentives for environmental management systems in the Malaysian food and beverage industry

Food  production  and  consumption  is  one  of  the  major  causes  of  global  environmental degradation. One  way to  address environmental  impacts  in the food  and beverage  (F&B) sector  is  via  the  adoption  of  environmental  management  systems  (EMS). To  date,  EMS research  has  focused predominantly  on  countries  and  sectors  based in  the  Global  North despite  growing  recognition  of  the  global  extent  of  environmental  impacts  from  food production and  consumption. In order  to widen  our knowledge  of this  topic in an  under-researched  developing  country,  this  study  examined  factors  determining  EMS  adoption within the  Malaysian  F&B industry.  Drawn from a  survey of  42 companies  this research investigated  the  drivers,  barriers,  and  incentives  to  the  adoption  of  the  internationally recognized  standard,  ISO  14001.  Discrepancies  between  the  perceptions  of  small  and medium sized  enterprises  and  large  companies’ as well as  different product market groups were observed. It was found that large companies tend to have better understanding of the EMS concept and the enhancement of company image and improvement of environmental performance were the main drivers to implement EMS. High implementation costs and the lack of knowledge on the ISO14001 standard were identified as the primary barriers to EMS adoption. Tax relief for certified companies as  well as training and capacity building were considered  as  the  most  important  incentives.  Strategies  were  proposed  to  improve  the environmental  performance  of  Malaysian  F&B  companies  which  can  strengthen  the competitiveness of Malaysian F&B products in the global food market.