1. ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBILITY
Chapter 13 1

2. Environmental responsibility
Learning objectives
Evaluate the relevance of certain key principles for decision making in relation to environmental responsibility.
Identify contextual issues for strategic decisions relating to environmental management.
evaluate certain optional solutions for organizational environmental issues.
Identify key features of environmental measurement systems. 2

3. Environmental responsibility
TOPICS
Framing the link between business and the environment
Principles: Responsibility and precaution
Context: Social, political and legal aspects
Solutions to environmental problems
Environmental measurement and management 3

4. Environmental responsibility
FRAMING THE LINK BETWEEN BUSINESS AND THE ENVIRONMENT
A strategic (environmental) decision may be mapped out in many ways, such as:
identifying principles and vision
clarifying the context
evaluating potential solutions
implementing and measuring the impact of decisions 4

5. WHO PAYS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE? (RESPONSIBILITY)
Environmental responsibility
PRINCIPLES: RESPONSIBILITIES AND PRECAUTION
WHO PAYS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE? (RESPONSIBILITY)
PRECAUTIONS 5

6. WHO PAYS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE? (RESPONSIBILITY)
Environmental responsibility
PRINCIPLES: RESPONSIBILITIES AND PRECAUTION
Issues to consider:
How far should an individual company or industry be required to pay for environmental damage that may persist in many years?
Is it the responsibility of society to pay for environmental damage, after all it is society that gains or loses from the economic activity of business.
Many agents are responsible for the erosion of natural resources.
WHO PAYS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE? (RESPONSIBILITY)
Philosophical view over agent, reward and responsibility. 6

7. Environmental responsibility
PRINCIPLES: RESPONSIBILITIES AND PRECAUTION
PRECAUTIONS
Assumes that some damage to the natural environment has occurred as a result of human activity, and that we should work to reduce this now.
Is a practice likely to avoid undesirable results.
It expresses a virtue of prudence. 7

8. Environmental responsibility
CONTEXT: SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND LEGAL ASPECTS
Environmentalism and colonialism
Society and environmental damage
Legislative framework 8

9. Direct reduction approaches
Environmental responsibility
SOLUTION S TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
reduce environmental damage
‘Plant a tree’
recycling
cleaner manufacturing processes
involves the end-user
can be ineffective if not followed through
Direct reduction approaches 9

10. Environmental responsibility
SOLUTION S TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
market mechanisms to control emissions
emissions trading
countries are allowed certain allowances to carry out certain activities
energy-consuming companies and lobbying
based on global inequalities
Trading approaches 10

11. ENVIRONMENTAL MEASUREMENT AND MANAGEMENT
Environmental responsibility
ENVIRONMENTAL MEASUREMENT AND MANAGEMENT
The measurement of environmental performance occures within a
range of contextual factors:
National and trans-national legislation
Social structures
Dynamics and key player of the industry
Implications of specific environmental outcomes
Resources that enables measurement 11

12. Environmental responsibility
ENVIRONMENTAL MEASUREMENT AND MANAGEMENT
Environmental measurement can bring a range of advantages for an organization:
Demonstration of progress towards achievement of environmental targets
Demonstration of compliance with external goals set by governments and industry wide consortia
Collection of examples of practices as a mean of organizational learning
Identification of areas for further attention and improvement 12

13. Environmental responsibility
ENVIRONMENTAL MEASUREMENT AND MANAGEMENT
Environmental auditing: the regular, formal collection of information to evaluate environmental performance, covering key processes across the whole value chain.
Environmental impact assessment (EIA): data collection similar to auditing, but often with a future perspective to help evaluate proposed projects.
Life-cycle assessment: ‘…an analysis covering every stage and every significant environmental impact of a product from the extraction and use of raw materials through t he eventual disposal of the components of the products and their decomposition back to the elements. 13

14. Environmental responsibility
ENVIRONMENTAL MEASUREMENT AND MANAGEMENT
Other things to consider includes:
Ecological footprint
output of carbon dioxide
consumption of land
Standardized environmental management systems
European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS)
ISO 14001
Drawbacks to environmental management
Integrated effects of environmental management
Complicated data collection
Lack of clear understanding of key environmental variables. 14

15. Environmental responsibility
SUMMARY
There is a duality of influence on the environment and the part of government – as legislator, but also as e employer, purchaser and investor.
The free-market environmental position has provided a series of strong arguments in favour of specific kinds of response to the questions of how to create greater environmental responsibility
Measurement is highly problematic in this field and social practices play a significant role as well as corporate ones in the many different approaches taken to this task.
Further issues is how democratic environmental protection is – do all stakeholders have sufficient say in the process.
There is a ‘colonial’ question that environmental management as currently conceived seems almost to require a continued disparity in wealth between the north and the south. 15