Revision av miljöledningssystemen i statliga myndigheter
Utvärdering av ett verktyg i det systematiska miljöarbetet
The Swedish government decided in 1996 that the governmental authorities are to implemementenvironmental management systems. Each year, the Swedish Environmental ProtectionAgency compiles the authorities? reports on their environmental management systems. Thecompilation shows that not more than 20 % of the authorities perform environmental audits.This study aims to investigate the authorities? view of internal environmental audits, the incentivesof performing them. It also investigates if the environmental audits contribute to continuousimprovements. The study is a case study of nine participating authorities that all reportedto have performed environmental audits in 2005. The interviews were analysed basedon the extent of the internal environmental audits. The result shows that three of the nine participatingauthorities did not perform any environmental audit at all. The results suggest thatthe incentives of the greatest importance for internal environmental audits in the other sixauthorities are external requirements, mainly requirements in ISO 14001, as well as commitmentin environmental issues among the employees and the organisational management. Thestudy also suggests that continuous improvement is a result of the internal environmental audit.This is mainly due to the increased environmental awareness within the administrationand because of the continuous improvement of the environmental management system.