Analysis of the relationship between management system standards (ISO 9001, ISO 14001, NBR 16001 and OHSAS 18001) and corporate sustainability

Abstract

Sustainability may be inserted into the business context as a way to minimize the negative impacts caused by production processes. Organizations use management system standards to satisfy the stakeholders’ aspirations. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the relationship between management system standards (ISO 14001, ISO 9001, OHSAS 18001 and NBR 16001) and corporate sustainability. The goal was achieved with following steps. First, the corporate sustainability requirements were identified based on Corporate Sustainability Index, Ethos Indicators and Global Reporting Initiative. Next, the matrix that lists the sustainability and standards requirements was built. The matrix was completed by the researcher and six experts. The responses were consolidated generating the Consolidated Relation Matrix, which was then analyzed and interpreted. The correlations were classified as strong, moderate, weak or null. The research results show a weak relationship between corporate sustainability and the ISO 9001 and OHSAS 18001 standards; moderate relationship with ISO 14001 and a strong relationship with NBR 16001. The study concluded that these regulatory standards can help companies to introduce sustainability in their context, however, ISO 9001 and OHSAS 18001 are standards that approach only some elements of corporate sustainability. The NBR 16001 is the standard with more elements of sustainability in its scope. Thus, companies aiming to introduce sustainability into corporate environments could focus on the implementation of the NBR.

Keywords:
ISO 14001; ISO 9001; OHSAS 18001; NBR 16001; Corporate sustainability