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Environmental
management
By Dr. Norbert Kopytziok
Extract from: Kopytziok, Norbert: Waste and sustainable development.
Global aspects for regional environmental planning on the basis of material
stream related processing observations.
Rhombos-Verlag,
Berlin 2000
Until
the beginning of the 1990s the ruling business philosophy was that environmental
protective measures would merely cost money and result in no profit.
Government environmental protective taxes were seen as a hinderance to
business and enjoyed the reputation of provoking the export of production
to foriegn countries. In order to prove that ecology and economy could
complement one another, a systematic study of the material streams in
several operations had to demonstrate this. From this business material
point of view of company operations, specific environmental goals were
developed which lead to positive economic results.
To further such effects the International Organisation for
Standardisation (ISO) as well as the EU Commission developed standards
for environmental management systems at the beginning of the 1990s. Along
with this they combined the hope that positive effects would be seen for
corporations through the collection and dissemination of environmentally
relevant business information. On the basis of this information it should
be demonstrable to businesses that they can achieve positive economic results
by implementing particular environmental protection measures. And through
this - such is the vision of the commission - there should arise an impulse
to save on resources. The EU passed the EU Eco-Management and Audit Regulation
Nr. 1836/93 put into effect in the Fall of 1995. One year later the world-wide
effective norm for environmental management systems ISO 14001 was put into
effect. Both systems put heavy emphasis on the fact that corporations should
voluntarily set up an environmental management system, and that the results
be documented and open to the public.
Influence
of ecological aspects in the choice of company location
The
attached expert article demonstrates how the spectrum of ecological aspects
can have a bearing on the decision of a new location for operations.
Text in German
Download (PDF formated, ca. 110 KB)
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