Product-orientated environmental managenment: lessons from total quality management

Environmental management issues are becoming ever more prominent in business, and their focus is broadening from process orientation toward product orientation. Until now, little attention has been paid to an organizational focus on the environmental performance of products. This article therefore considers product-oriented environmental management (POEM), an approach to organizing and operating a firm in such a way that improving the environmental performance of its products and processes becomes an integrated part of operations and strategy. First, the POEM concept is introduced. Because this concept addresses some issues similar to those of quality management, the possibilities of using insights from total quality management (TQM) in developing POEM are investigated. Based on an overview of the literature and conceptual studies of TQM, a coherent set of several elements are described that can contribute to the organization of POEM. These elements are grouped in a framework, the POEM matrix, which can be used to guide research within this emerging area of organizing for the environmental characteristics of products. This matrix could also provide guidance to practitioners by delivering an integrated perspective on the organizational elements that are conducive to organizing POEM. An example from case study research in the chemical industry illustrates such an application of the matrix.