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Good Environmentalism Is Good Business
| Article
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20630 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1992 |
2,252 Words |
| Author
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Thea Browder
Thea Browder is a Washington, D.C.-based writer who has
researched and written on a wide range of environmental topics
for the Investor Responsibility Research Center. |
The corporate world is "greening". The environment, once perceived as being incompatible with economic growth, is gaining popularity among corporate executives who view waste reduction and efficiency as basic business sense and who realize that environmental liability can have a powerful impact on the bottom line.
Corporations are adopting a wide range of measures to confront environmental issues in their operations. In part, they are being forced to do so by increasingly stringent environmental regulations. But companies are also realizing that even in areas where regulations are not yet in place, voluntary efforts pay off financially as well as environmentally. Being ahead of the regulatory curve can help them save some of the costs incurred later by inability, retrofitting, and penalties.
"Protecting the environment is not only good for the planet, it's good for business," says AT&T's A. Lee Blitch. Companies that are perceived as being "greener" than others also win points with concerned consumers and investors. Moody's Investor Service has warned that environmental liabilities may affect credit ratings. And companies are finding that the environmental changes they make, whether by cutting waste in response to EPA regulations or by reducing packaging in response to consumer demand, are good for the bottom line.
Concern at the Top
As a result of this awareness, leading U.S. companies are elevating environmental responsibilities right to the top. In a recent Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) survey of nearly 200 companies, two-thirds of the respondents had a board of directors committee responsible for addressing environmental issues, and a majority said that environmental performance had become a consideration in executive or operating manager compensation. A full 83 percent said they had a written environmental policy in place.
Because environmental awareness is relatively new to the boardroom, most companies are still working to integrate environmental concerns throughout their operations and to coordinate the exchange of information among their many divisions. Environmental audits are widely used: More than 80 percent of the IRRC survey respondents had audit programs in place, and most companies said they audited facilities every one to three years. Usually the audit staff are internal to the company, but sometimes environmental consultants are brought in. only 6 percent used environmental units from financial
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