As stated previously, ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 seem to overlap in terms of specifications. ISO 9001 further advocates quality standardization in a company's process, which is also reflected in ISO 14001. ISO 14001 can be used to develop Hart's strategies to provide companies with environmental sustainability that would allow them to have a competitive advantage. The ISO 14001 standard advocates three principles for companies: pollution prevention, continuous improvement and voluntary participation (Joaquín Cañón-de-Francia and Concepción Garcés-Ayerbe, 2009). Pollution prevention reduces pollution before production even begins. This is one of the strategies Hart discusses in his study. By eliminating pollution early in the process, the enormous costs associated with end-of-pipe pollution can be avoided. Besides this benefit, pollution prevention could lead to increased efficiency and productivity. Again, this fits well with Porter's cost advantage strategies. ISO 14001 is a process-based standard and states that companies should implement environmentally friendly concepts not through drastic changes but by seeking continuous process improvement. Thus, standards can be easily integrated and “Life Cycle Analysis”? advocated by Hart can be implemented using these environmental management systems as this is the basic principle of ISO 14040. A question may arise whether companies should necessarily opt for certification instead to form their own management system without resorting to ISO certification. The answer to this question would be that even if a company has its own quality management, by obtaining certification it becomes easier to integrate...... middle of paper ...... pp. 1199?1214.19. Lambert G. and Ouedraogo, N., 2008. Empirical investigation into the impact of ISO 9001 quality management systems on organizational learning and process performance. Total Quality Management, 19(10), pages 1071-1085.20. Pignanellia A. and Csillag, JM, 2008. Quality and financial performance, a review of empirical studies. 19th Annual Conference, pp. 1-5.21. Prakash, Aseem (2000) Greening the Firm: The Politics of Corporate Environmentalism. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.22. Russo, MV and Fouts, PA, 1997. A resource-based perspective on environmental performance and corporate profitability. Journal of the Academy of Management, 40, pp. 534–559.23. XEROX, 2008. XEROX and Paper, a reference guide to sustainability. [Online] Available on . [Accessed February 25, 2011].