Environmental management system (EMS) is a tool for managing the impact of an
organization’s activities on the environment. The most well-known EMS model is ISO
14001. ISO 14001 is touted as the most successful global environmental standard which
provides the framework to control and reduce impact on the environment. Although the
standard believed to be one of the best environmental management model, there are studies
reveal that industries are currently facing a number of challenges to maintain
competitiveness, productivity and minimal environmental impact. Besides that, studies also
shows that the standard lack of guidelines to accomplish “continuous improvement”
element, operational definition on continuous improvement and method to assess it. This
turns to be the main factor influence the standards sustainability. Lean is a tool for process
improvement focusing on key processes that affect the output to the customer and focuses
on continuously improving the process management elements. Lean pushes for continuous
improvement and empowers companies to better their environmental performance. The
purpose of this study is to integrate lean principles with ISO 14001 standard to achieve
sustainability through continuous improvements. Three objectives were identified to
achieve this purpose. First objective, identify both system’s characteristic through literature
review and questionnaire survey, then continue with the second objective, find the linkages
between both system and develop an integration model and finally the third objective,
validate the model using focus group. This study uses combination of qualitative and
quantitative research methodology. Reliability test and descriptive statistics using
statistical package of the social science software were used to record, analyze and interpret
the raw rata. Finding shows that there is positive correlation between both systems; as a
result, new model called Lean Environmental Management Integration System (LEMIS)
has been developed. The model creates measurement standards for evaluating the
organization, making its environmental efforts more realistic, focused and attainable. The
model’s validation results shows that by integrating the standard with Lean principles
through LEMIS model helps to specify the performance measures and leads the standard to
achieve sustainability and continuous improvement. This study presents a unique approach
of integrating the two main models as a single framework benefiting contemporary
organizations. The study concludes by stating that more case studies in this direction are
required to be conducted for examining the feasibility of amalgamation and implementing
ISO 14001:2004 standards with the philosophy of Lean Principles to enable the
achievement of world class standards