Shedding light on the motivations and performance of the eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS)

This work aims to shed light on the motivations and environmental performance of Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) registration, the more demanding voluntary certifiable international standard to adopt environmental management systems in organizations. Based on a systematic review and analysis of the outcomes of 73 scholarly empirical works published in the period from 1998 to 2021 the work makes an original contribution to the scholarly literature with the definition of a research agenda with avenues for further research. The sources of motivations related to EMAS are found to be diverse and contingent to a set of factors. Regarding performance, the results showed a mixed picture with a greater prevalence of studies underlining a positive impact of EMAS adoption. Deep implications for managers, policy makers and other stakeholders are discussed.