For a variety of reasons, learning should be studied as a cultural phenomenon. The task of the first part of this article is to clear up the terminological questions about various ideal types of learning cultures, and how ideal type analysis may be used to study value and knowledge transfer and knowledge acquirement in various types of organisations. The important task of the second part is to analyse how implementation of environmental management systems, like BS-7750, contribute to a certain learning (...) practice. Moreover the task is to evaluate and discuss supplementing or alternative modes of learning to just formalisation of knowledge transfer. (shrink)