Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to provide academic and practitioner insight into environmental business practices and, specifically, strategic and sustainable environmental management systems (EMS). The increasing awareness, importance and understanding of environmental management systems (EMS) has demonstrated relationships with sustainability, competitiveness and new institutional practice. The book considers sustainability and system integration through the lens of qualitative analysis involving several case studies from a variety of organisations. It argues that small and medium-sized enterprises need a reliable means of managing environmental issues. The book looks into the difficult issues surrounding change and sustainable development. It explores the factors influencing implementation before comparing systems in the US and Thailand and discusses the challenges of change management and sustainable development. The book provides a unique organisational environment for environmental systems development and integration with a case study of Athens International Airport.