Minimizing redundancies and ways to deal with trade-offs in decision making within integrated management systems

Integrated Management Systems (IMS) are supposed to contribute to sustainable development. However, the moment a company only uses short term win-win situation to comply, the real contribution to sustainable development may be questionable. As trade-offs between sustainability aims and the company’s goals appear, companies may behave opportunistically, and externalize the elements which are difficult to fulfil in an IMS, e.g. by way of outsourcing. At such a moment, the IMS may function on paper, while the whole industry or logistic chain does not improve its contribution to sustainability. As a consequence, it may be necessary to assess the whole industry or logistic chain (logistic chain integration for IMS) regarding the impact of an IMS on sustainable development. After presenting the aims of the IMS and “the business case” for reducing redundancies and dealing with trade-offs, the issue of “externalizing” problems to parties outside the IMS is discussed. After a presentation of different solutions for dealing with this problem, some conclusions will be drawn.