ISO 14063
drivkrafter och mervärden för miljökommunikation
MiljöKommunikationMiljökommunikationStandardDrivkrafterMervärdenIntressenterDialogVägledningNyttaMiljöledningssystemEnvironmentCommunicationEnvironmental communikationStandardisationDriving forcesGuidelineStakeholdersDialogueGuidanceBenefitISOISO 14000ISO 14001ISO 14063.
The enterprises of today are beginning to realize that environmental issues are a important part of their activity. Companies and organizations are expected to a greater extent communicate their environmental work to the world surrounding them in a trustworthy and structured way. Lack of information or information that is incorrect may bring farreaching consequences. Communication is mentioned in several of the ISO 14001-standards. But what is missing is a guideline how companies should act to create and be sure of the quality of the data that can be used in the environmental communication. There are a lot of report standards but little is said about how the company should conduct their environmental communication. The companies have, many times, not identified their stakeholders to create a picture of what the stakeholders demand. Furthermore, the dialogue with their stakeholders is occurring without planning or any preparation. In the year of 2000, a new ISO standard was created, which was named ISO 14063. It provides a guideline for environmental communication.
The aim of the master?s thesis is to examine in what way the new standard, ISO 14063, can guidance in their environmental communication efforts. Questions of special interest are; is the standard needed? Can the new standard give companies any new benefits such as economic profit or reduced costs? Will companies be able to use it in their daily work? Can the standard help companies to improve their dialogue with the surrounding world?
A selection of ten companies in five different branches has been done for the interviews about environmental communication. The questions are asked about the content of the ISO 14063 standard, but they do not go in to it directly except for one question. Because none of the companies have had the time to read the standard or worked with it yet. One interview has been conducted in each company, except for some cases when we had to complement with another contact in the same company.
Our study led to the following conclusions: One driving force for the standard is that it is a guideline and not a standard of demands. Another driving force is that the companies need to improve their environmental communication to reach out with the right message to their stakeholders. We consider the standard as needed, because the companies express an interest for it and they lack in their identification of strategic stakeholders. The future benefits for the companies lie in that the companies have a need to improve their environmental communication to receive economic profits. The companies can reduce their costs by being aware and honest in their communication, which avoids misunderstandings. We believe that the standard will be used by the companies in their daily work without any great costs. We also believe that the standard can be a good help for the companies to improve their dialogue with the surrounding world thanks to the fact that it is a guideline. The companies can use the parts of the standard that is necessary in different situations. A successful creation of a sustainable environment requires the interplay between markets. Profitability and environment must be balanced, and the condition for this balance is a good communication.