Environmental regulation 1

1
Environmental regulation (1)

• In the United States, the Environmental
  Protection Agency (EPA) is the federal body
  responsible for coordinating pollution control.
  (A number of important federal environmental laws
  are noted in your text.) Issues addressed by the
  EPA and federal environmental legislation include
  air quality, water pollution, land pollution, and
  cross-media pollution.

2
Environmental regulation (2)

• Governments have a variety of tools at their
  disposal to control pollution and promote
  environmental responsibility, each of which has
  positive and negative aspects
• environmental standards,
• market-based mechanisms (like tradable allowances
  and government incentives, and emissions fees and
  taxes),
• information disclosure, and
• civil/criminal enforcement.

3
Stages of environmental responsibility

• There are three stages of corporate
  environmental responsibility
• Pollution preventionFocuses on minimizing or
  eliminating waste before it is created.
• Product stewardshipManagers focus on all
  environmental impacts associated with the full
  life-cycle of a product.
• Clean technologyBusinesses develop innovative,
  new technologies that support sustainability.

4
Green companies

• Proactive green companies share the following
  elements with regard to environmental management
• top-management involvement,
• line-manager involvement,
• codes of environmental conduct,
• cross-functional teams, and
• the use of rewards and incentives.

5
Corporate social and environmental performance (1)

• Corporate activities create social impacts
  (positive and negative) that are experienced by
  stakeholders. While developing principles and
  policies is important, what really matters to
  stakeholders are the impacts (and changes to the
  impacts) themselves. There needs to be alignment
  across all of a companys systemsincluding
  employee evaluation and compensationif its
  environmental performance is to improve.

6
Corporate social and environmental performance (2)

• Good environmental performance can allow
  companies to reduce costs, differentiate
  themselves in the market, and create innovative
  technologies. Concerns about environmental
  performance need to be integrated into strategic
  planning, and many companies are undertaking
  efforts to work in partnership with communities
  and environmental organizations.

7
An example Environmental justice (1)

• The EPA defines Environmental Justice (EJ) as
  the fair treatment for people of all races,
  cultures, and incomes regarding the development
  of environmental laws, regulations, and
  policies.
• More broadly, EJ refers to the differences in
  environmental harm suffered by people in
  low-income and minority communities as compared
  with high-income and majority communities.

8
An example Environmental justice (2)

• The first step in dealing with environmental
  justice issues is to specify what ethical
  principles companies ought to follow in their
  interactions with communities of any kindand
  then to focus on the particular context of EJ
  communities (which lack access to power and
  resources).
• After identifying ethical principles, specific
  policies and practices (codes of environmental
  conduct, managerial incentives, environmental
  partnerships, stakeholder dialogue mechanisms,
  etc.) need to be developed and implemented.

9
An example Environmental justice (3)

• Ongoing monitoring, evaluation and (internal and
  external) reporting can then help an organization
  (1) better describe its environmental record to
  external stakeholders and (2) create an impetus
  for continuous improvement with regard to
  environmental performance.

10
An example Environmental justice (4)

• Because EJ communities are directly affected by
  the activities of the corporate facilities in
  their midst, they need to be involved at all
  stages of corporate processes of corporate social
  responsiveness.