Environmental Management Systems (EMS) are a relatively new and rather innovative system of management practices that provide firms with additional sources of information and leverage over their environmental and business processes and performance. They are basically an extension of the total quality approach to the area of environmental management. This article reports the results of a survey of manufacturing plants that examined the reasons why firms adopt environmental management systems (EMS) and their impacts on businesses and communities. EMS is being adopted by a fairly large group of manufacturing plants. EMS is associated with factories that are larger, more committed to total quality management, and more innovative in general: These enterprises are motivated by the bottom line quest to increase productivity and as well as by government regulation. EMS also appears to be a useful tool for managing community relationships and dealing with key stakeholder groups on potentially controversial environmental issues. EMS factories actively share information with community groups and involve key stakeholders in their environmental activities. Furthermore, EMS plants appear to pose less environmental risk for communities, and report that their adoption and use of EMS is an important factor in achieving this result. In the end, EMS appears to be an effective tool for managing environmental costs and risks inside and outside the factory in ways that adds to --rather than detracts from --the bottom-line.

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