Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment * Correspondence to: Anderson Gwanyebit Kehbila, Environmental and Resource Management PhD Program, Department of Industrial Sustain- ability, Brandenburg University of Technology, Cottbus, Germany. E-mail: kehbilaa@yahoo.co.uk Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Mgmt. (2009) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/csr.188 Strategic Corporate Environmental Management within the South African Automotive Industry: Motivations, Benefits, Hurdles Anderson Gwanyebit Kehbila, 1 * Jürgen Ertel 2 and Alan Colin Brent 3 1 Environmental and Resource Management PhD Program, Department of Industrial Sustainability, Brandenburg University of Technology, Cottbus, Germany 2 Department of Industrial Sustainability, Brandenburg University of Technology, Cottbus, Germany 3 Chair of Life Cycle Engineering, Graduate School of Technology Management, University of Pretoria, South Africa ABSTRACT This paper conveys the experiences of the South African automotive industry as it attempted to implement the ISO 14001 standard. Through a questionnaire-based survey, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as larger companies were asked about the key motivations for engaging in environmental change, the benefits accrued and the barriers that prevented them from doing so. This paper analyzes the variation in adoption rates in order to establish different relationships between them. The results reveal substantial dif- ferences and some similarities with regard to the hurdles, benefits and motivations behind the implementation of environmental management systems (EMSs) that are hidden behind corporate rhetoric and commitment to sustainability. This paper concludes by prescribing robust recommendations that would set off the pace for government officials to incorporate effective and realistic incentives into future policy to better encourage environmental com- pliance and improved performance while minimizing costs both to businesses and to the Government. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. Received 2 September 2008; Revised 15 October 2008; Accepted 16 October 2008 Keywords: South Africa; automotive industry; environmental management systems (EMSs); ISO 14001; original equipment manufacturers; small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); survey/questionnaire Introduction T HE SOUTH AFRICAN AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY, WHICH OPERATES AS MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES, INCORPORATES THE manufacture, distribution, servicing and maintenance of motor vehicles and components with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) being the critical role players (Smink et al., 2006). This industry is South Africa’s largest manufacturing sector contributing during 2005 to 28% of manufacturing output (NAAMSA, 2006). Recently, the automotive industry has grown into one of the most successful in the