Adoption of voluntary environmental tools in Slovak Republic - focused on ISO 14001 and EMAS

摘要

The aim of paper is to analyse the use of voluntary environmental instruments in enterprises in Slovakia (small, medium-size, small and micro) with focus on ISO 14001 and EMAS, to identify the underlying factors that influence the use of environmental tools and to evaluate their impact on increasing the ability to compete with other entities in their field. The basic assumption of research is, that the use of voluntary environmental instruments is growing because they improve organisation's image, create market-related advantages, reduce administrative burden, enables participation in domestic or transnational contracts, improve relations with the state and the state administration and has the positive impact of economic results. Survey results highlighted significant barriers to the use of voluntary environmental instruments and a small incentive for Slovak companies to adopt ISO 14001 and EMAS.