In recent years, an increasing number of private as well as public organizations have been engaged with implementation and use of environmental management systems (EMSs). This raises questions as to the reasons for implementing and use an EMS and, not least, about the roles and contributions of an EMS in an organization. Based in particular on research and experiences of environmental management in different countries, this paper argues that an EMS may be understood not only as a technical tool for analytical management, as is traditionally done, but also as a most important tool for achieve sustainability. The modern enterprises consider the sustainable development as the one of basic conceptions of one’s activity. In article reflect different factors influencing environmental management and the analysis was done. Company’s external and internal environment elements cluster were shown. The author distinguishes between the following groups of factors: production – technical, economic, political – legal, organizational, ecological and risk factors, as well as education and culture level and mixed factors. The study is based on the theoretical analyses of literature and scientific publications, as well as on research based on survey results collected from Latvian companies.