Harvard Business School Professor discusses importance and benefits of ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and SA8000
01/24/2012
In this LRQA Business Assurance interview, Professor Mike Toffel of the Harvard Business School, discusses some of the outputs of his research into corporate environmental sustainability.
In this LRQA Business Assurance interview, Professor Mike Toffel of the Harvard Business School, discusses some of the outputs of his research into corporate environmental sustainability and specifically discusses the importance and benefits of ISO 9001, ISO 140001 and SA8000.
Within his research, Professor Toffel examines companies’ environmental, safety, and quality programs. His work seeks to identify which voluntary programs and management standards actually distinguish participating companies as having superior environmental, safety, or quality management or performance, and which of these programs help companies improve their performance in these areas. His work ranges from academic articles based on econometric analyses of large datasets to case studies of individual companies.
In this interview, Profesor Toffel talks about:
• the organizational drivers and benefits for certified management systems as a whole
• the opportunity for standards like the ISO 14001 and SA8000 to differentiate adopters
• how an Environmental Management System such as ISO 14001 addresses continual improvement
• how ISO 14001 can help organizations harmonize their approach across various plants
• how ISO 14001 adoption can earn suppliers points in a supplier scorecard where ISO 14001 is a criterion desired by a buyer
• how performance metrics can improve over time, including prior to and after certification adoption
• how many ISO 9001 adopters realized faster sales growth, employment growth, and were more likely to survive several years later
• evidence that ISO 9001 adopters were subsequently more likely to report zero injuries through their worker compensation system
Listen and Learn More