# Organizations towards the Evaluation of Environmental Management Tools ISO 14001 and EMAS
## 4 Research Results and Discussion
Other authors' studies confirm that achieving compliance, as well as raising environmental standards, are crucial for an organization and appear as one of the most important benefits [55; 56; 57]. [PERSON] et al., in an article published in 2019 [55], have confirmed that EMS certified organizations have better performance than companies which have not implemented EMS. According to them, EMS may improve both the corporate sustainability and corporate business. They have underlined that sustainable development is crucial for contemporary organizations, taking into account social, economic, and environmental aspects [55]. [PERSON] et al., in an article published in 2018 [56], found that the internalization of standard requirements in terms of both strategies and the operational procedures may be helpful to achieve the environmental performance improvement. On the other hand, [PERSON] and [PERSON], in an article published in 2019 [57], ascertained that EMS adoption helped compliance with applicable regulations, but this incentive seemed to be unimportant. They concluded that in many cases, organizations and institutions comply with environmental regulations even prior to the EMS implementation [57]. Companies that have implemented ISO 14001 also indicated that after the implementation there was a noticeable improvement in the economic effects of the company's activity through the reduction of production costs (materials, raw materials, increased sales), and a reduction of current costs of environmental protection among the benefits. The lowest number of responses included the answer \"greater availability of more favorable bank loans and funding from various sources\". In the case of EMAS, this answer was indicated only by two organizations, and only by five for ISO 14001. This suggests that financial benefits are not an incentive for the companies to implement these schemes and are not perceived as a significant benefit. Similar conclusions are formulated by [PERSON] and [PERSON] in an article published in 2020. They ascertained that, taking into account the financial aspects, ISO 14001 can be negatively evaluated by investors [58]. However, it should be emphasized that results presented in our paper suggest that, in Poland, the financial aspects of EMAS may be evaluated worse than those of ISO 14001. The fourth question of the survey was to identify the external benefits stemming from EMAS/ISO14001 implementation (Figure 4). The results show that the most important premise for the implementation of EMAS system was that the \"green image\" is beneficial for companies. This answer was indicated by 22 companies, which represents 88% of surveyed organizations that implemented EMAS. This enables us to conclude that the implementation of EMAS, which is a more challenging system, may considerably improve the ecological image of company and increase its competitiveness on the market to a greater extent than ISO 14001 certification. In the case of ISO 14001, the most frequently answer was \"Improvement of the state of the environment and environmental safety of the business\". Figure 3: Answers to the third question of the survey: Internal benefits stemming from EMAS/ISO14001 implementation. This answer was indicated by 12 companies, which represents 48% of surveyed ISO 14001 certified organizations. Other authors point out similar benefits indicated by entrepreneurs implementing EMS [55; 59]. [PERSON] et al., in an article published in 2019 [55], concluded that EMS certified companies have positive effect on both environmental protection and society. [PERSON] et al., in an article published in 2014 [59], ascertained that the most important benefits related to EMS implementation were the reduction of the use of energy, raw materials and water. Additionally, they have concluded that EMS implementation positively influences the company image and the cost reductions. Furthermore, companies which implemented ISO 14001 and EMAS similarly often indicated the answer that the organization is more attractive to potential customers.