An Assessment of Impact of Environmental Management System on Corporate Environmental and Economic Performance: An Empirical Study in Chemical Industry in Zhejiang Province

The governments, businesses and communities throughout the world have been faced with a variety of environmental challenges for several decades, ranging from air and water pollution to natural resource depletion and climate change. A severe debate about the relationship between environment and economy has been undergone over more than 10 years. During this period, an increasing number of businesses, government facilities, and other organizations have implemented formalized environmental management system (EMS) to manage the environmental aspects and impacts of their activities. By surveying 94 companies in chemical industry in Zhejiang province, this study aims to assess the impact of EMS on environmental and economic performance. After analyzing the data with SPSS regression model, it is found out that EMS does have a significant impact on both environmental performance and economic performance of surveyed corporations in Zhejiang province.