Construction projects and activities are associated with large environmental impacts in different areas. Principles of sustainable development should therefore be followed during construction just like in other industrial sectors. At the organization's level, one of the ways of achieving this goal is implementation of an environmental management system (EMS). The purpose of the paper is to present current environmental management trends in construction companies, which can be used as a baseline for establishing a policy to promote EMSs in construction sector. Benefits and obstacles associated with ISO 14001-compliant EMS implementation are discussed. Results of a survey related to environmental and quality management systems (QMS) in construction companies in Slovenia are presented. They show that the majority of responding construction companies has implemented QMS, and a large proportion of the respondents have also established an EMS. The major obstacles to the EMS implementation, as perceived by the respondents, are the associated high costs, and excessive documentation accompanying the EM. A successful policy promoting the EMS implementation in construction has to be targeted to the contracting companies as well as to the clients.