from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
The utilization of the diverse measures to reduce environmental impact in the industries characterized by the high level of energy and pollution intensity is essential for achieving sustainable development. Therefore, the main purpose of this article was to investigate the engagement of steel and metal companies operating in Poland in the implementation of the voluntary environmental management practices, and to explore its relationships with the scope of interorganizational cooperation, the knowledge sharing intensity and the level of eco-innovation. The research has shown that the planning and organizational environmental management practices and the operational environmental management practices are significantly related to the companies' level of eco-innovation. There have been also statistically significant relationships between the engagement in environmental practices implementation and the scope of interorganizational cooperation and the knowledge sharing intensity within companies. However, the results of conducted study reveal that the interorganizational cooperation and the knowledge sharing are not significantly related to the companies’ level of eco-innovation. Nevertheless, the study has proved that the more intensive the interorganizational cooperation and the knowledge sharing, the more developed voluntary environmental management practices are implemented. It means that the interorganizational cooperation and the knowledge sharing may indirectly support eco-innovation. This is because those activities directly foster environmental practices implementation which in turn significantly influences the level of eco-innovation.
Keywords: Environmental management practices, interorganizational cooperation, knowledge sharing, eco-innovation, steel and metal industry© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.