FORUM WARE INTERNATIONAL 1 (2012) - 1 - INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: THE APPLICATION OF THE ITALIAN BEST4 SCHEME. STATE OF THE ART IN ITALY AND PROPOSAL FOR ITS EVOLUTION Riccardo BELTRAMO*, Stefano DUGLIO**, Alessandra BIANCO*** Abstract: The introduction and evolution of the concept of sustainability has led the organizations to discuss the values inherent the environmental and social issues. Among the instruments adopted in recent years, organizations have begun to adopt the Integrated Management Systems, in order to merge into a single management tool the internationally models of Quality (ISO 9001), Environment (ISO 14001), Health and safety (OHSAS 18001) and Social Responsibility (SA8000). Although the same international standards clearly expressed a chance to integrate into a single management system, on the actual implementation procedures has opened a debate. The paper reports a peculiarity of the Italian case, in which a certification body has devised the BEST 4 Scheme, which stands for Business Excellence Sustainable Task, to bring the four mentioned certification standards in one model. Today, 29 Italian corporate groups join this model. Keywords: sustainability, indicators, Integrated Management System, BEST 4 Scheme, Italy Introduction From the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and up to about half of the ‘900, the only "social responsibility" that the firms considered in their strategies was to maximize their profit (Leoci 2008 pp. 396-400). Since the mid-70s, with the development of the environmental studies and the increased public awareness, spurred in part by some international events, business organizations had to be compared about their relationship with the surrounding environment, approaching the concepts of sustainability. After a debate that has seen an evolution of the concept of sustainability (WCED 1987, IUCN 1991, ICLEI 1994), now is universally accepted that this concept has a three-fold significance: economic, environmental and social. Then, part of attentions has been directed at developing a set of indexes and indicators to assess the so-called "Quality of Life”. However, the only use of indicators on the one hand has the advantage to realize a one-shot picture of a current situation, but in the other hand it doesn’t permit to adopt a perspective of continuous analysis. This last can be pursued only relating indicators to a context of rules intended to improve performances. In this way, indicators become an important tool to understand whether you are achieving the goal or not. It follows that it is necessary to adopt methodologies that recognize the centrality of the process. These instruments are known as "Management Systems" (MS). There are several management systems for a "social responsibility" for the organizations, understood in the broadest sense of the term. Recent researches have focused their attention to integrate social and environmental concerns in the business of the companies (Dobers 2009 pp. 185- 191) to extend these concepts through models that could relate with the territory (Beltramo 2007 pp. 19-27, Beltramo 2009 pp. 75-84).