Who adopts ISO 14001 standards in India?
Student name: Ms Sanskriti Goel
Guide: Dr Seema Sangita
Year of completion: 2017
Host Organisation: TERI University
Abstract: ISO 14001, as a process standard, aims to help a firm become more environmentally
responsible in its operations. It lays out for the firms, guidelines to adopt and implement an
environmental management system in sync with its day to day operations.
This analysis is a small step towards looking at its importance in the Indian manufacturing
industries. The aim of this study is to look at and analyze the determinants of adoption of
ISO 14001 in Indian manufacturing industries. Further, explore the role of ISO 14001 in the
improvement of the environmental performance of the Indian manufacturing industries. The
study is divided in two questions and three different analyses. Analyzing the ASI data using
a logit model on a cross sectional dataset, we look at the factors determining the adoption
of ISO 14001 standards by Indian manufacturing firms. OLS regressions on total energy
intensity, coal intensity, electricity intensity and gas intensity seek to confirm if adoption of
ISO 14001 has led to any reduction in them, making the firm more energy efficient.
Propensity Score Analysis, is an extension of the second model and has been adopted to see
if there has been a reduction in the energy intensity of the ISO adopting firms in comparison
to their counterparts.
The results of the study confirm exporting nature of the firm as one of the key determinants
of adoption of ISO 14001 by the Indian firms and, indicate that there seems to be no
greenwashing in Indian manufacturing firms. ISO 14001 has actually led to improvement
in the environmental performance of the firms.
Keywords: Firms, ISO 14001, exports, energy intensity, environmental performance, Logit
Estimation, Propensity Score Analysis.
