Abstract:
Textile and apparel industry represents41% of total export earnings and 52% of industrial
export earnings in Sri Lanka.There are about 350 BOI registered textile and apparel
manufacturing factories located islandwide including 16 textile and fabric manufacturing
firms. The textile and apparel factories produce sportswear, lingerie, loungewear, bridal wear,
safety worker’s wear, swimwear, childrens wear. Apparel manufactured in Sri Lanka are
considered as high quality, reliable, socially and environmentally accountable. Specially, Sri
Lankan apparel manufactures are considered as pioneers in environmental friendly apparel
producers in the world.
Therefore, the study aims to examine the factors that affect the adoption decision of voluntary
environmental management practices among textile and apparel manufactures in Sri Lanka.
Using a pre-tested, and structured questionnaire primary data were collected from 55 factories
randomly in the Western province. Volunatry environmental management practices are
considered as the dependent variable and regulatory pressures, buyers pressure, competitors
pressure, and firm’s characteristics are considered as the independent variables. I measure the
effects of each independent variable to the adoption decision based on Poisson Model
estimation. The study found that factory chracteristics and buyers pressure are the most
significant factors for the firms to adopt voluntary EMS.
