Facilitating Sustainable Innovations: Sustainable Innovation as a Tool for Regional
Development
Co-organized by The Greening of Industry Network,
The Cartesius Institute, and The Province of Fryslân
June 26-28, 2008, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
From Environmental Management Systems to Sustainability Management Systems in
Swedish Local Authorities
Sara Emilsson,
Linköping University,
58183 Linköping,
Sweden
phone: +46 13 286602, +46 736 209439
e-mail: sara.emilsson@liu.se
Olof Hjelm
Linköping University
58183 Linköping
Sweden
Phone: +46 285647, +46 733 885647
e-mail: olof.hjelm@liu.se
Abstract
Many Swedish local authorities have long experiences from using standardised
Environmental Management Systems (EMSs). We have studied the EMS development in
Swedish local authorities during many years and we have seen a clear trend that the local
authorities tend to extend their EMSs by widening the scope of the systems. The purpose of
this paper is to study strategies and approaches that are important for the local authorities’
development of EMSs to Sustainability Management Systems (SMSs). Often in the beginning
of the EMS process, the systems are rather narrow in their scope, mainly focusing on issues
such as energy use, waste management and transportation. Newly implemented systems are
also often limited to include the local authority’s own organisation and are the concern mainly
of the environmental co-ordinator. Among the positive effects from implementing EMSs in
local authorities is mentioned improved organisational structure and improved internal
communication. Among those local authorities that have been successful in implementing
EMSs, once the way of thinking has settled within the organisation, the systems are
broadened to also include internal and external stakeholders. Furthermore, the scope of the
systems is expanded to also include the social and economic perspective of sustainable
development. The development trend towards sustainability management is not unique for
local authorities; in industry the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility has become
increasingly important over the last years. However, compared to industry, local authorities
have a more extensive responsibility since they need to ensure both environmental and social
security of their citizens. The paper explores how three of the most EMS experienced local
authorities (that have rather different approaches) in Sweden have extended their EMSs to
SMSs. The empirical evidence for this paper is based on case studies in these local authorities.
The paper presents the different approaches and discusses barriers and good practice from the
local authorities’ efforts towards sustainability management. It also discusses the general
development towards sustainability management using systems theory.
Introduction
Standardised Environmental Management Systems (EMSs, according to the principles in ISO
14001 and EMAS) has become a common way of organising and structuring the
environmental management efforts within organisations. This approach has been used mainly
in industry but also in the public sector. The focus of the systems have, along with the EMS
maturity in many organisations, shifted focus and expanded in their scope, to also embrace the
other dimensions of sustainable development: the social and the economic dimensions. To
meet and support this development in society, ISO is underway to develop a guidance on
social responsibility, ISO 26000 (see ISO, 2008). There are also a wide range of other
sustainability management initiatives such as Global Reporting Initiative (GRI, see Global
Reporting Initiative, 2008) and the UN initiative Global Compact (see Global Compact,
2008).
Although the EMS tool seems to have had a stronger hold in the private sector, local
authorities in many countries all over the world use EMSs – for example in the UK, Norway,
Canada, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, the US, and Japan (Riglar, 1997; Aall, 1999;
Bekkering and McCallum 1999; Honkasalo, 1999; Cockrean, 2001; Emilsson and Hjelm,
2002a and b; GETF, 2002; Ito, 2003). However, certification of the EMSs is seldom an aim
with the EMSs in local authorities (Emilsson and Hjelm, 2005). The local authorities rather
use ISO 14001 and/or EMAS as guidance and develop their own locally adapted standards
that suit their organisations.
Local authorities are no exception when it comes to the development from EMSs to SMSs.
During the last few years an EU project concerning integrated management systems
(Sustainability Management Systems) have dealt with the issue of integrating the EMSs with
e.g. the local authorities’ work with the Aalborg commitments, and local Agenda 21 (see
MUE25, 2008). The project resulted in guidance on how to develop an integrated
management system with departure from the already existing efforts within this field.
The role of, and perhaps also the expectations on, local authorities has changed over the last
ten years or so. From mainly being an authority controlling the local territory, they now often
take further responsibility that also includes the citizens and other stakeholders to a higher
degree. The local authorities are now more of a co-actor in the struggle towards sustainable
development, rather than only the authority controlling the situation.
The purpose of this paper is to study strategies and approaches that are important for the local
authorities’ development of EMSs to Sustainability Management Systems (SMSs). First, the
local authorities’ journeys from EMS to SMS are explored. This is done by studying issues
such as how they work today, what aspects they focus on and how they organise their work.
Second, the local authorities’ ideas of the prerequisites for working with sustainability
management is explored, and how they would like to work with these issues.
Many Swedish local authorities have long experiences from using EMSs and this has been
analysed in several research studies over the years (Emilsson and Hjelm 2005). The general
trend to develop EMSs to SMSs is evident in Swedish local authorities. As a response to this,
the Swedish Association for Local Authorities and Regions is developing a national guidance
adapted for Swedish public organisations on sustainability management in order to support
local authorities in their efforts to contribute to a sustainable development. This will be based
on the international ISO 26 000, but developed and adapted for Swedish local and regional
authorities.
Methodology
The empirical evidence for this study was gathered in two phases. The first data collection
took place in 2006 in a multiple case study where three Swedish local authorities were
analysed. Two years later, in early 2008, a complementary interview study was performed
with the central environmental/sustainability co-ordinators in the three local authorities.
The three local authorities selected for this study are Botkyrka, Uddevalla and Växjö. These
were selected since they have long experience from using EMSs. They are also among the
EMS forerunners among Swedish local authorities. Another important selection criterion is
that they are in the process of developing their EMSs to SMSs. Moreover, Botkyrka,
Uddevalla and Växjö have rather different approaches to EMSs, which make them interesting
to study from an SMS development perspective. Given the just mentioned selection criteria, it
is evident that these three does not represent the average local authority in Sweden. The
purpose of this study is rather to study a few interesting examples in the forefront rather than
generalising on the SMS development in Swedish local authorities. The case study local
authorities are presented further in detail in the results’ chapter.
The data for the case study was collected through interviews with key actors, EMS/SMS
documentation studies, and studying templates for EMS/SMS implementation. Another
important source of information was observation. Since we have performed studies in these
local authorities before, earlier collected empirical data was added to the new empirical
evidence in order to obtain a wider understanding of the local authorities’ development of
their EMSs to SMSs (see e.g. Emilsson and Hjelm 2002a, 2002b, 2004, 2005 and 2007). This
triangulation was important in order to establish different views on the issues and thereby
increase the external and internal validity of the study.
In total, 13 interviews were performed for the case studies. In each of the case study local
authority, interviews were held with:
 Central environmental co-ordinator
 Central activity planner/development manager
 Politicians those are responsible for planning and environmental issues.
The interviews were semi-structured, which means that there were a few predetermined
themes for the interviews, but the respondents were not tied to a strict interview guide. This
approach was chosen since we wanted a broad picture of their efforts to be revealed and that
the chance increased that this picture would be more properly described if the interviews were
not too structured. The interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed shortly after each
interview occasion. The transcriptions were then sent to each of the respondents in order to
check the accuracy.
The interviews in the case study concerned the development and scope of the local
authorities’ EMSs and how the EMSs were linked to other management systems/approaches.
The fact that the local authorities’ EMSs had been extended to also include the other
perspectives of sustainability to some kind of SMSs became clear very early in the case study.
The second phase of this study followed up this finding by focusing on the development
towards SMSs, how the local authorities would like to work with sustainability issues and
what they believe are the prerequisites are for managing sustainability. The data collection
included telephone interviews with the central environmental co-ordinators in Botkyrka,
Uddevalla and Växjö (the same persons that were interviewed for the case study). In all of
these local authorities, the central environmental co-ordinator also has the co-ordination
responsibility for sustainability issues.
The empirical evidence for this study was first compiled local authority by local authority in
order to get the picture of each local authority’s approach and efforts to SMSs. When
discussing and explaining the results, we use Senge et al’s (2005) theories on learning.
Three local authorities journey from EMS to SMS
The local authorities chosen for this multiple case study are among the forerunners in Sweden
when it comes to EMS in this kind of organisations. They are rather similar in population size,
but different in their character (se Table 1 below). The Swedish Association for local
authorities and Regions (SALAR) has classified the Swedish local authorities in nine different
categories based on the organisations’ structural parameters such as population, commuting
patterns and economic structure (SALAR, 2004). Botkyrka is a suburban municipality,
Uddevalla is categorised as “other municipality with more than 25 000 inhabitants, while
Växjö is classified as a large city. A brief summary of Botkyrka, Uddevalla and Växjö and
their EMS history and status is presented in the table below in order to give the reader some
background information on the local authorities that this study is based on.
Table 1. Brief description of the studies local authorities’ characteristics.
Characteristics
Botkyrka
Uddevalla
Växjö
Classification
Suburban municipality
Other municipality,
more than 25 000
inhabitants
Large City
Number of inhabitants
(as by the end of 2007)
79 031
50 921
79 562
Year of EMS initiation
Political decision 1992
Actual initiation
1996/97
1999
Political decision 2000.
Actual initiation 2002
Type of EMS
Locally developed
standard
EMAS
ecoBUDGET
Status of EMS
All departments
certified to locally
developed EMS
standard
EMAS registered on a
local authority basis
All departments have
ecological budgets
Other management
approaches
Balanced scorecards
Long term activity
plans
Balanced scorecards
Budget system as
activity planning tool
Added sustainability
components
Locally developed
sustainability standard
Aalborg charter
signatory
Citizen influencemethods (Rural
Sustainable Livelihood)
Integrated management
system
Aalborg charter
signatory
Social budget added to
Eco-budget
(SALAR, 2004)
Botkyrka
The practical EMS implementation started in 1996/97 in Botkyrka. This management
approach had support in the local Agenda 21 action plan. Botkyrka developed its own
standard (with ISO 14001 as inspiration), according to the local authority’s local conditions
and needs. The systems contains of eight criteria that all departments have to fulfil. These are
 designating EMS responsibility to a person in the management,
 develop a policy for EMS,
 forming a group that works actively with the issues within the specific department,
 performing a review (that describes how the department will manage the aspects that
are included in the certificate),




formulating targets
formulating action programmes,
training programme and
internal audit programme.
In Botkyrka, each department has to decide how to meet the criteria and how to design the
EMS. This means that there are several EMSs and that their EMS work is rather decentralised.
Botkyrka’s EMS is part of their quality management systems and is rather well integrated into
their organisation and its activities. All of the departments are certified according to their local
EMS certification. In the autumn of 2004, the work towards the development of a
sustainability management standard took off. One of the reasons to the expansion of the EMS
is that the departments found it difficult to find new improvements to their EMSs. The SMS
was launched and thought of as something that strengthened the already existing EMS and not
as some new management system. This means that the SMS has support in and supports the
local authority’s long term activity plans and their balanced scorecard.
Furthermore, Botkyrka has signed the Aalborg charter. The Aalborg charter was stipulated by
the participants on a conference in Aalborg in 1994, organised by the European Cities and
Towns campaign. The commitments encompass 10 themes under which the local authorities
formulate their challenges/commitments (The Aalborg Commitments, 2008). The themes are:
1. governance,
2. local management towards sustainability,
3. natural common goods,
4. responsible consumption and lifestyle choices,
5. planning and design,
6. better mobility, less traffic,
7. local action for health,
8. vibrant and sustainable local economy,
9. social equity and justice, and
10. local to global.
Today, more than 2500 local authorities in Europe have signed the Aalborg charter (Aalborg
plus10, 2008), which means that this approach is fairly wide spread. In Botkyrka, there are six
main challenges in their efforts (Botkyrka kommun, 2007). These are related to employment,
social security, education, climate changes, public health and democracy. The challenges
permeate and are integrated in the local authority’s core activities. This means that the
Aalborg commitments have a natural connection to both their local Agenda 21 and the
sustainability management system. The sustainability management standard in Botkyrka
contains the same eight criteria as the EMS. The main difference is that the sustainability
management systems, apart from the environmental perspective, also includes the economic,
social and employee perspectives. In 2005 they piloted the sustainability standard in 18 pilot
units and Botkyrka aims at sustainability certification of all their departments and units in
2008.
Uddevalla
The environmental management in Uddevalla is based on their balanced scorecard, where
environment is one of 18 strategies. The EMS work was initiated in 1999 and since 2004;
Uddevalla local authority is registered according to EMAS. One important factor of success
in Uddevalla is that the EMS was implemented as an environmental adaption of already
existing activities. They did not try and find new structures or organisations but used what
already existed. This means that their EMS is well integrated in the organisation and its daily
work. There are 15 general environmental targets that all departments have to work towards.
These are broken down on departmental level and the departments also design departmental
specific targets. The EMS work has until recently been limited to the local authority
organisation, but the efforts are now expanded to also include support and engagement for the
local businesses and citizens to increase their environmental awareness. Sustainable
Livelihood is one important approach that Uddevalla has focused on in their challenge to
develop their environmental management to sustainability management. There are several
definitions and ideas concerning this concept (Ashley and Carney, 1999). Scoones (1998)
describe some key elements that the concept could encompass:
 Creation of working days
 Poverty reduction
 Well-being and capabilities
 Livelihood adaptation, vulnerability and resilience
 Natural resource base sustainability
In Uddevalla, the focus has so far been on “sustainable citizen dialogue”, where broad based
participation has been the guiding star (see Uddevalla kommun, 2007). The purpose of this
pilot project is to find tools to measure the local authority’s achievements and customer
satisfaction, which in turn is seen as away of complementing the already existing EMS. In the
first pilot project they chose one neighbourhood (in a rural area), where the citizens had the
opportunities to contribute to environmental and sustainable changes in their close by
livelihood. Issues such as local environmental objectives, social measures (youth activities,
bus shelters, speed limits through the village and street lighting) were issues that were dealt
with.
Växjö
The budget system is used as the activity planning tool in Växjö local authority. This is also
one of the reasons why the local authority chose the ecoBUDGET model when designing
their EMS. The ecoBUDGET is a territorial political management instrument that includes
citizens, local business as well as the organisation of the local authority (ICLEI, 2004). This
means that it is developed for the organisations of local authorities. The development of
ecoBUDGET has its origin in the Aalborg Charter 1994. This instrument is developed by
ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability). The concept consists of three main principles
(ICLEI, 2004), where political commitment is of utmost importance;
 Resemblance of procedures and principles of financial budgeting
 Plan-Do-Check-Act management cycle (the Deming cycle)
 Sustainable development is the guiding star
The fact that the EMS in Växjö uses the same organisation and structure as the financial
budget system means that it is well integrated into the organisation and its overall activities.
The ecoBUDGET uses the same account system for reporting etc. Växjö made their first
ecological budget in 2003, however there had been several years with preparations, and
organisational anchoring before that. The ecoBUDGET in Växjö also follows their Local
Agenda 21 strategy from 1999 and the already existing environmental policy. It is the city
council that decides on the ecological overall budget and it is then down to each committee to
make the budget concrete. This means that it is the management that owns the system;
however there are representatives and coordinators through out the organisation. The
committees must deliver balance reports for part of the year and also annual reports to the city
council. The ecoBUDGET does not only include the local authority departments, but also
society and the stakeholders. Even though the intention of ecoBUDGET to include the
concept of sustainable development, it has, so far mainly been the environmental issues that
have been dealt with. Therefore, the ecoBUDGET system in Växjö was expanded with a
social budget in the autumn of 2007. This included issues such as integration, equality, child
convention, health and democracy). This will, once the new approach has settled become their
sustainability budget. Växjö has also signed the Aalborg charter and have been project partner
in an EU project that developed a framework for developing an integrated management
system (with regards to sustainability, the MUE25 project mentioned before). This latter also
have its point of departure in the Aalborg charter.
Preconditions for working with sustainability issues in the local
authorities
All three local authorities are rather content with the way they manage sustainability issues
and their SMSs. Despite the different approaches to SMSs in these local authorities, there are
some similarities. The SMSs being developed in these organisations all build on already
existing organisational structures and management systems and they are fairly well integrated
in day to day activities. The overall organisational management system (The balanced
scorecards in Botkyrka and Uddevalla and the budget system in Växjö) is the backbone of the
EMSs and SMSs. They all stress the importance of developing the EMSs and SMSs from
already existing structures and to do it in the departments own pace in order to succeed. They
also stress the importance of total support from the top management. It is important that the
management is aware of that implementing an EMS or SMS is not a time limited project, but
a long term commitment. Another issue that was discussed in many of the interviews was that
when developing the EMS to SMS, it could be necessary to ensure that there is enough
competency in the co-ordination function. In these local authorities, it is the EMS coordinator
that has the operational coordination responsibility also for the SMSs. The local authorities in
this study also stress the importance of having a functional overall organisation in place
before the EMS or SMS is being implemented.
General development towards SMSs
The local authorities in this study all have rather mature EMSs, however, their approaches
vary. They are all in the phase of reshaping their EMSs to SMSs. However, Växjö and
Uddevalla are rather early in this phase where the ideas of integrating the social issues are
rather new, while the SMS thinking in Botkyrka is settled. The Aalborg charter is important
for both Växjö and Botkyrka, while Uddevalla has chosen another approach. This study
shows that the systems perspectives have broadened along with the maturity of the EMSs in
the three local authorities. Together with our earlier research in this field (see Emilsson and
Hjelm 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2007) we have sketched a map of the development from EMSs
to SMSs in (Swedish) local authorities (Table 2). This is a rather schematic and generalised
picture of the development, which of course is not valid for all local authorities; however, our
earlier research shows that it is rather common. The development from EMS to SMS could be
seen as a maturity process where, in most cases, all phases of development are of importance
for the further development.
Table 2. Swedish local authorities’ development from Environmental Management Systems
(EMSs) to Sustainability Management Systems (SMSs).
Early EMSs
Organisational
focus
Mainly technical
departments
Mature EMSs
All departments
SMSs
All departments
Society
Internal
Scope
Direct environmental
impact
Direct and indirect
environmental impact
Direct and indirect
environmental impact
Sustainability
Actors
Position in
organizations
Mainly the environmental
experts in the
organization
Separate from other
activities
Central environmental
co-ordinator
Central environmental/
sustainability co-ordinator
Most employees
Most employees
External stakeholders
External stakeholders
Integrated in the overall
management system
Integrated in the overall
management system
Early EMSs can be understood as EMSs resembling those developed during the 1990: ies.
Many local authorities were in their initial phase of implementing EMSs and it was common
that only the technical departments were involved in EMS implementation. This was much
due to their resemblance to companies in the private sector and that the fact that technical
departments (that are in charge of heat production and distribution, waste management etc)
often were converted to subsidiaries (Emilsson and Hjelm, 2002b). They also were exposed to
competition with private companies. The EMSs mainly included issues that were fairly easy
to measure and follow up (such as use of resources, transports) and the EMS was most often
mainly the concern of the environmental experts in the local authorities. EMS pilot projects in
parts of the local authorities were also rather common in order to test different approaches.
Once the EMS methodology and ideas are settled in the organisation and the EMSs become
more settled in the organisations, the EMSs are often expanded to not only cover the direct
environmental impact (from e.g. transports and resource use) but also to encompass indirect
environmental impact (e.g. environmental impact from education, advice, decisions; Emilsson
and Hjelm, 2007a).). Furthermore, once the EMS thinking has settled it is common to widen
the organisational focus to cover the entire local authority organisation and to have a more
integrated approach to the EMS, where it is incorporated into the general management system.
Such EMSs can be described as mature.
The step from EMS to SMS is also due to the maturity of the way of thinking. There are
several different reasons behind this development, one being that some experience difficulties
to find new improvements in the EMS work. By expanding the EMS with the social
dimension it becomes easier to find improvements and also to motivate departments with less
obvious direct environmental impact to actively work with the EMS/SMS. Another reason for
developing SMSs is that the local authorities find it difficult to single out the environmental
issues in their management system, and find it more relevant to integrate other dimensions as
well in order to get a more effective general management where all aspects are taken into
consideration. The environmental dimension should have the same priority as all other
dimension in order to have a functional management system.
Widened perspectives via deeper learning?
The situation we observe now is similar to the situation in the beginning of the 1990:ies. Back
then, many organisations did many serious and good efforts to reduce their negative
environmental impact, but there was little co-ordination between the efforts. Then support
was found in the EMS standards and the EMSs implemented often worked (at least in local
authorities) as a co-ordinator of all the existing environmental efforts (Emilsson and Hjelm,
2002b). In some way the history repeats itself. The sustainability concept has gone through a
renaissance from mainly having an environmental focus to also include the other dimensions.
This generates a demand or need for something that supports and co-ordinates all the various
efforts that is done to encourage sustainable development. Ideas on how local authorities
EMSs could be transformed into SMS has flourished for more than a decade, e.g. Levett’s
thinking of transforming EMAS into a sustainability management and audit scheme SMAS
(Levett, 1996), and now we see this materialize.
The wider systems perspective (systems thinking) that comes with the SMS approaches in the
studied local authorities is evident. This means that the local authorities realise that the
environmental issues need to be dealt with in the greater context in order to make the overall
management work. The wider systems perspective in the local authorities and their
development could be described using the mental learning model (Senge et al 2005).
Doing
Action that increasingly
serves the whole
Increasing awareness of the
whole
U
Thinking
Figure 1. Theoretical model of deep learning (after Senge et al, 2005).
Learning is composed of the two components thinking and doing (Senge et al, 2005). The way
we act and react is dependent on situation, traditions and established mental models. Reactive
learning is when we rely on already existing practice and what is known. This is a rather
common way of learning leading to business as usual solutions. Deeper levels of learning
implies, according to Senge et al (2005) that there is an increasing awareness of the whole that
is converted to actions that increasingly serve the whole (See Figure 1). Senge et al (2005)
illustrates this as a “U” where there are different levels of learning (i.e. thinking connected to
action). Deep down the “U” means a deeper learning. However, to achieve deep learning it is
of utmost importance work up the “U” where the increased awareness is converted to action
or “doing”. The first phase when moving down the “U” is called sensing. This is where
perceptions are transformed. This begins with seeing issues from one’s own perspective and
gradually expanding the perspective to encompass the whole. The second phase, which is
down at the bottom of the “U” is called Presencing and this is where one’s own will and self
are transformed to enable for taking action according to one’s widened awareness. The third
and last phase in the “U” theory is where the awareness is transformed into action. The last
phase begins with crystallising what needs to be done and to test and ensure that this new
approach has support and is accepted. Finally the new way of acting or the new attitudes are
brought into action and institutionalised. In most learning processes, the movement through
the “U” is not a single trip but a repeated movement.
When relating this to the results in this study and the widened systems perspective in the local
authorities when it comes to EMSs, we can see that the studied local authorities realise the
need of expanding the EMSs with the social dimension in order to get a wider management
system and approach. This could be interpreted as if they are going down the “U” and getting
deeper levels of learning. So if this is the case, we can see that the local authorities in this
study is on their way down the “U” where they become increasingly aware of the importance
of looking to the whole and taking actions that serve the whole. The increased awareness of
that by only managing environmental issues in a systematic way, the management system
becomes rather limited, have made the local authorities look at the whole of their
organisations and see to their total responsibility towards their citizens and to the society. By
expanding their EMSs with other sustainability dimensions they get a more complete view of
their organisation’s total impact and issues that need to be dealt with. This may lead to a more
systematic and comprehensive management where all dimensions and perspectives related to
sustainability have the same importance. This, in turn, could result in an increased
performance of the organisation since it obtains a more holistic co-ordination of all its efforts.
However there might be a risk that it is only the terminology that is changed (from
environmental to sustainability) and that the actual doing continues as usual. In such a case,
the awareness might have increased but this is not or little connected to the “doing”.
There is also a risk that this widened systems perspective makes the management systems too
complex to be useful and practical. The social issues may be too difficult to manage within
these rather strict systems due to their complexity and softer nature. The strengths from
applying a widened systems perspective is that there are possibilities to get a more coordinated approach to the local authorities’ activities and management and could lead to
synergy effects and less double work in different departments. Furthermore, the local
authority may gain good will from its stakeholders by showing their efforts to be
environmentally and socially responsible.
To conclude, integrating the environmental dimension with the social en economic
dimensions by expanding the EMSs to SMSs could be a powerful approach for local
authorities, and most probably also for other organisations. It is however important that this is
done in a truly serious way with the deep learning in mid where the increased awareness of
the whole is connected to action that serves the whole. As mentioned earlier in the paper, this
development from EMSs to SMSs in local authorities in Sweden is rather novel and it is today
to early to estimate whether this is the most appropriate approach to sustainability considering
the structure of the EMSs and the character of the social aspects. A management system might
be too instrumental for managing for example social security and safety.
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