INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 6, ISSUE 02, FEBRUARY 2017 ISSN 2277-8616 164 IJSTR©2017 www.ijstr.org Implementing EMS In The Manufacturing Industries Of Bangladesh: Drivers And Barriers Farid Ahmad, Dr. Md. Delwar Hossain, Shaikh Obaidullah Al Mahmood, Md. Moshrur Raihan Abstract: Encouragement of rapid industrialization poses damage to the environment of urban areas in Bangladesh. Appropriate Environmental Management System (EMS) could minimize the damage. This paper intended to explore the drivers and barriers of implementing EMS in the manufacturing industries of Bangladesh. A questionnaire based survey was carried out following a conceptual framework of EMS for this study. The study showed that major drivers of implementing EMS in the manufacturing industries of Bangladesh are international acceptance, compliance to local environmental legislation, international trading, pressure from the customers, production cost reduction and company’s policy for environmental safeguard. On the other hand, adoption of EMS is hindered by complexity in the process of EMS, management ignorance of its existence, lack of government incentives and awareness, lack of education and training, high investment and maintenance cost, ignorance of government regulations, and socio-economic culture. The study reveals that though the manufacturers are still reluctant to implement EMS in their industries due to the complexity faced in the process of EMS, they are heading towards adopting EMSs in manufacturing industries of Bangladesh crossing all the barriers and complexity of the process. Key Words: EMS, Barriers, Drivers, Industries ———————————————————— 1. Introduction Bangladesh has been developing industrially after its independence which is being encouraged for rapid economic development of the country. Industrialization is being concentrated mainly in the urban areas like Dhaka, Narayanganj, Narshingdi and Chittagong [5]. A number of environmental problems have been reported regarding industrial establishments in these areas like four major rivers near Dhaka namely Shitalakhya, Balu, Turag and the Burignanga receive more than 1.5 million cubic metres of wastewater every day, from the surrounding industrial units according to a World Bank study [8]. In January 2011, the concentration of dissolved oxygen (DO) of Buriganga was found almost 0 mg/L [1].Environmental management of industries has now become a very important issue of the country. This concern has prompted manufacturing industries of Bangladesh for using some form of environmental management system (EMS) as an option to environmental management. Motivations are important in promoting EMSs, but the barriers to implementation must be acknowledged and addressed in order to minimise them. The adoption of an EMS is a complicated procedure where difficulties can appear in the different stages, acting as barriers for its implementation [2]. These can vary depending on the characteristics of the organization, such as, size, business sector, and even country [3]. Setting up an environmental management system (EMS) will provide a company with a framework through which its environmental performance can be controlled and improved. The main objective of the study was to investigate the drivers and barriers of implementing EMS in manufacturing industries of Bangladesh. 2. Methodology A conceptual framework was developed to carry out a questionnaire based field survey. As this is a descriptive conceptual framework there are some limitations of this model. Other variables which might influence in implementing the EMS would not be revealed and there might some other factors which are interlinking with other or interactive to other might be missing in this model. Barriers of implementing EMS are not shown in the model and how the barriers would influence the model is also absent. For the acquisition of primary data the questionnaire was administered to the manufacturing industries in the study area. Figure 1: Conceptual Framework of EMS for this study _______________________  Farid Ahmad: Assistant Professor, Institute of Appropriate Technology, BUET, Dhaka 1000 Tel: +88-02-9665650/7148, 7792; +8801712967190 Email: ahmadfaridjune28@gmail.com; fajune28@yahoo.com  Dr. Md. Delwar Hossain, Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, BUET, Dhaka 1000 Tel: +88-02-9665650/7523, 7970; +8801552015534, +8801199072264, +8801741905306 Email: delwar@ce.buet.ac.bd  Shaikh Obaidullah Al Mahmood, Research Officer, Ozone Cell, Department of Environment, Poribesh Bhaban, E-16, Agargaon, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka Tel: +88-02-8181801, +88 01716223614 Email: obaidullah_al@yahoo.com  Md. Moshrur Raihan, Management of Technology Institute of Appropriate Technology, BUET, Dhaka 1000 Tel: +8801747094260 Email: moshrur.raihan@gmail.com