Strategic environmental management: The emergence of a new competitive requirement for American industry
- EMCON, San Jose, CA (United States)
The environmental management infrastructure that has evolved in the United States over the last 25 years or so, since {open_quotes}the environment{close_quotes} burst into the national consciousness with events like Love Canal and Earth Day in the early 1970s. Increasingly, U.S. businesses must successfully compete with those of other nations to survive. Organizational re-engineering, cycle-time management, concurrent engineering, and lean manufacturing are just a few examples of corporate efforts to become better global competitors. U.S. environmental management systems, with their various inefficiencies, can hardly be excluded from these improvement initiatives. Businesses must find ways to reduce or control their environmental costs and, where possible, find ways that {open_quotes}environment{close_quotes} can add positive value to their goods and services. Secondly, although considerable progress has been made in some areas, such as the development of cleaner combustion technology, the net total impact on our global ecosystem continues to rise. Ozone depletion, global warming, reduction in biodiversity, and depletion of non-renewable natural resources are a few of the more frequently cited examples. With the Earth`s population growing at a rate of approximately 100 million people per year, these global impacts can be expected to intensify. Social, regulatory, and economic forces will increasingly be brought to bear in addressing these growing impacts on our environment. As such, the environmental protection mandates placed on corporations can also be expected to increase over time.
- OSTI ID:
- 96690
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9504134-; TRN: 95:005315-0039
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: HAZMACON `95: hazardous materials management conference and exhibition, San Jose, CA (United States), 4-6 Apr 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of HAZMACON `95: Hazardous materials management conference and exhibition; Bursztynsky, T.; Loss, M.L.; PB: 790 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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