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In recent years there has been an increasing awareness ofthe adverse impact of human activity on the naturalenvironment. Fears of global warming have escalated andthe environmental impact of industrial accidents has beengenerally widely publicized. As a result, businesses havebeen subject to both government and market pressures toadopt a corporate environmental strategy that willminimize damage to the environment in the future, andhelp in rectifying legacies from the past.Despite a diversity of literature addressing the issues ofenvironmental management, managers often remainsceptical as to the importance of environmentalconsiderations within corporate strategy. However, theeconomic reality of environmental management and itsfailure has not gone unaccounted. For example, UnionCarbide faced claims of over US$3 billion after a chemicalleak at Bhopal, and Exxon has spent over US$2 billioncleaning up after an Alaskan oil spill. Closer to home,Shell was fined arecord °Í1 million for a crude oil spillinto the Mersey and charged °Í1.4 million for clean-upcosts (Corbett and Wassenhove, 1993). Alternatively,Minnesota Mining and Manufacture°Øs PollutionPrevention Pays programme has saved over US$500million since it was introduced in 1975.It is the purpose of thisarticle to provide an insight intothe need to integrate environmental considerationswithin corporate strategy. Given that a company°Øsfinancial strategy commonly holds some of the mostimportant considerations for the success of the business,it is on thisbasis that the article shall exploreenvironmentalconsiderations addressing corporatefinancial objectives and the role of key financialstakeholders. A discussion of how the concept of liabilityis changing within the current legal system provides agrounding for environmental risk assessment. Finally, aguide to establishing an environmental managementsystem will be defined as a tool to complement such astrategy.
LegislationRecent developments in environmental legislation havebeen a significant weapon in plans by the UKGovernment to enhance corporate environmentalawareness, posing financial threats to corporatemanagers who fail to manage their environmental impact.For example, the Environmental Protection Act (EPA)1990 makes manufacturers and disposers responsible forwaste management under a °∞duty of care°± order andrequires operators of prescribed processes to demonstratean application of BATNEEC, the °∞best availabletechniques not entailing excessive cost°± and where aprocess discharges to more than one environmentalmedium the BPEO, °∞best practicable environmentaloption°± must be considered. (ENDS, 1993a). To facilitatethese principles a new system of integrated pollutioncontrol (IPC) has been developed allowing industrialpollution to be looked at for its effect on the environmentas a whole.
Current UK legislation is based on a system of fault-based liability. In claims for environmental damage, theinjured party, or their representative, needs to prove legalculpability on the part of the polluter. There are signs thatthe law may soon widen to incorporate principles of strictand retrospective liability.
Legal principles underlying environmental legislation inthe UK are being increasingly driven by the EuropeanCommission towards stricter liability regimes forindustry, or at least specific本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。