Corporate Environmental Management 1

Systems and Strategies

Richard Welford

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781844079667
• eBook ISBN: 9781317836926
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Ethics
• Index: Business

This volume presents a comprehensive analysis of the role of business in safeguarding the environment. It introduces general issues and context, and then gives a detailed, critical examination of all the key tools of corporate environmental management systems and standards: environmental policies, guidelines and charters, environmental auditing, life-cycle assessment, the measurement of environmental performance, and environmental reporting. The book emphasizes systems-based environmental management, and also considers how such an approach might be integrated within local authorities and small and medium-sized companies. It then extends the systems approach to cover continuous environmental improvement, building a corporate environmental profile and moving towards sustainability. Written in a clear and informative style with checklists, explanatory notes and references for further reading, the book draws on the existing environmental strategies of a number of leading firms. Each chapter is written by contributors involved in ongoing research and consultancy in their specialist area. The book's focus makes it useful reading, not only for students and researchers, but also for managers faced with the challenge of introducing environmental management strategies into their own organizations.

Part 1
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The Context of Corporate Environmental Management

Chapter 1
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Environmental Issues and Corporate Environmental Management

Richard Welford

INTRODUCTION

Since the 1960s, there has been a growing interest in the environment, or more specifically in the damage being done to the environment, in Europe and North America. This may have fluctuated in its intensity as other issues have also gained in importance, but those fluctuations have been around an upward trend. The process of European integration and the growth of international trade has brought the transnational nature of the environmental problem to the forefront. The hole in the ozone layer and global warming is the result of not one country’s or one company’s action but that of many. There is a role for individual governments and for intergovernmental agencies to put in place policies which begin to rectify the situation. There is also a role for the individual to re-evaluate his or her consumption patterns. This book, however, concentrates on what businesses can do to improve their environmental performance and together to contribute to the common good.

We have seen a rapid growth in environmental legislation and other policies such as the introduction of eco-taxes and levies. Such policies are likely to be further strengthened in the future and this will affect the way in which every business is run and the way in which managers must recognize their responsibility, not only to a company, but also to the environment in which it operates. Perhaps more importantly, many of the more recent initiatives on the environment, emanating from the European Commission, have been market driven and are voluntary. Collectively their impact is to demand that businesses take more responsibility for the environmental damage which they create and to approach corporate environmental management in a more proactive way.

The effects of different industrial sectors upon the environment vary enormously. At one end of the spectrum we might put the oil companies whose very business is environmentally damaging and at the other end we might put retailers and the service sector who have less of a direct impact on the environment, although who, in most cases, could still make environmental improvements through recycling and improved transportation policies. But there is still much confusion both for consumers and companies about what constitutes an environmentally friendly product or operation, and the ‘green revolution’ to date has provided few answers, although many misrepresentations, particularly in the area of product marketing, have been exposed.

Everything which consumers, companies and other institutions do will have some impact on the environment. Even substances which in their final form are environmentally benign may have been unfriendly in their manufacture especially if that manufacture was energy greedy. They may have been produced using non-renewable resources and may also pose problems after they have been used and come to be disposed of. If we take what is commonly called a ‘cradle to the grave’ view of products, where we examine their environmental impact through their life-cycle from raw material usage to disposal, then there are few, if any, products which will not have some negative impact on the environment. The key question is therefore not how we completely eliminate environmental damage, but how we reduce it over time and how we achieve a state of balance such that the amount of environmental damage done is repairable and therefore sustainable.

It is generally accepted that the world cannot go on using the resources of the planet at the present rate. But there is a free rider problem at work. Everyone thinks that something should be done, but many people just assume that everyone else will do it, and since their individual impact is minute it will not matter to the environment. The trouble is that when too many people or firms think in that way then nothing is ever achieved. The world has scarce resources and only limited capacity to deal with the pollution caused through production and consumption. The ability to deal with that pollution is also being reduced as we strive for further economic growth by, for example, cutting down forests which help to control carbon dioxide emissions.

Industry, particularly in the developed world, must increasingly take into account the costs of the effect of its operations on the environment, rather than regarding the planet as a free resource. In the past few companies have counted the costs of the pollution which they discharged into the atmosphere, and the debate has now turned to legislation aimed at forcing companies to comply with certain standards and taxing firms which pollute. The so-called ‘polluter pays principle’ is now central to legislation. The implication here is clearly that prices will rise for consumers as firms experience the increased costs associated with environmental improvements. Less energy consumption and more efficient use of resources are obvious targets for improvement and should not conflict with industry’s aims since their attainment can actually reduce costs.

Many of the products now considered to be environmentally hazardous were at the time of their discovery regarded as an invaluable resource. The best example of this has been the use of chlorofluorocarbons in refrigerators which have since been found to be a major ozone-depleting agent. Predicting a product’s long-term impact on the environment is a difficult process and, until recently, has rarely been done. This will change as firms are forced to consider cradle to grave management of their products and as we increasingly give the benefit of the doubt to the welfare of the planet, as demanded by the precautionary principle. Moreover, industry has a responsibility to ensure that its products are less harmful to the environment, and there is a need to push along a very steep environmental learning curve.

Governments across Europe and the European Commission have all been implementing increasingly stringent environmental legislation. There is even renewed debate within the European Union’s Fifth Environment Programme (see below) regarding the provision of information about products and processes to the public. However, the statutory bodies which do exist with responsibility for monitoring the environmental performance of companies have limited resources and powers in most cases. Companies themselves have often, in the past, proven to be ignorant of current environmental legislation, particularly with regard to European Union environmental directives and legislation on issues such as waste disposal, air pollution and water quality. However, such ignorance is not an excuse for non-compliance. Moreover, non-compliance which can be attributed to negligence can not only result in fines but also occasionally in imprisonment for company directors.

In the USA the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent environmental body with significant power. In 1980 the US Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, better known as Superfund. Under the provisions of the Act, companies must report potentially toxic spills and releases greater than a clearly defined minimum. Violations of this are criminal offences with penalties of up to one year in jail and fines of up to $10,000. Superfund also deals with uncontrolled hazardous waste sites, where previous or present owners and operators of a site must help to pay for whatever remedial action is necessary. If the previous firm has gone out of business the EPA has often managed to obtain funds from companies which sent the waste there for treatment or disposal in the first instance.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The ultimate aim of corporate environmental management must be to reach a situation where companies are operating in a way which is consistent with the concept of sustainable development. One key idea which lies behind the concept of sustainable development is that there is a trade-off between continuous economic growth and the sustainability of the environment. Over time growth causes pollution and atmospheric damage. Sustainable development stresses the interdependence between economic growth and environmental quality. It is possible to make development and environmental protection compatible by following sustainable strategies and by not developing the particular areas of economic activity that are most damaging to the environment.

The Brundtland Report, commissioned by the United Nations to examine long-term environmental strategies, argued that economic development and environmental protection could be made compatible, but that this would require quite radical changes in economic practices throughout the world. They defined sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In other words, mass consumption is not possible indefinitely and if society today acts as if all non-renewable...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface to the second edition
• About the contributors
• Part 1: The Context of Corporate Environmental Management
• Part 2: The Tools of Corporate Environmental Management
• Part 3: Wider Applications of the Systems Based Approach
• Appendix
• List of acronyms and abbreviations
• Index