Changing Corporate Behavior Through Environmental Management Systems
19 Pages Posted: 21 Sep 2007
Abstract
This Article examines one potential policy tool that has received considerable recent positive attention among scholars and researchers: the environmental management system ("EMS"). An EMS is a formal set of internal procedures and policies that create a framework for an organization to identify, minimize, and manage environmental impacts, ensure compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations, and reduce wasteful uses of natural resources. This Article considers EMSs within the context of the search for new strategies to supplement and improve the ability of the existing regulatory regime to control the harmful environmental impacts of industrial activity. Part I of this Article discusses the importance of corporate behavioral change as an objective of environmental regulatory policy. Part II examines factors which have encouraged the evolution and substantial growth of the existing voluntary regime of EMS adoption by many organizations, especially large industry standard setters. Part II also discusses the leading EMS standards and guidelines as well as the basic components and principles underlying formal EMSs. Part III focuses on linkages between formal EMSs and public environmental information disclosure mechanisms as a potential means of driving desirable corporate environmental behavioral change. This Article concludes with a brief discussion of the potential role for environmental protection policies that encourage or mandate formal EMS adoption within the existing environmental regulatory regime.
Keywords: Environmental Management Systems, Corporate Behavioral Change
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