US industry was first in the world to develop voluntary EMS and environmental auditing, and the instigation and dissemination of environmental auditing around the world was largely due to the influence of USA subsidiary companies operating abroad (Worthington, 2014). Budget cut-backs in the USEPA since the mid-1980s limited its capacity to monitor and enforce environmental policies. The result was more citizen enforcement actions against companies violating laws and against the EPA for slack enforcement. This led to a trend of devolution in the regulatory regime towards encouraging firms to carry out voluntary actions to supplement regulations. This trend broadened to the use of market forces whereby environmental information about companies and products was provided to enable citizens to show preference for responsible companies (e.g. the Toxics Release Inventory, discussed further in 4.12.2). These efforts by government were augmented by NGOs (e.g. the Environmental Defense Fund), which inform about chemical risk, name and shame large polluters, and rank firms based on environmental and social performance. Also part of this trend of devolution, a number of industry- led programmes for self-regulation were initiated, for example Dow Chemical, AT&T and 3M redesigned products and processes as part of pollution prevention programmes. The best-known of these programmes is Responsible Care, a set of guiding principles and codes of management practices to
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improve environmental and social responsibility in the chemical industry. All of this activity was very different to the government-led approach to environmental protection of the 1980s (Khanna, 2001).
4.12.1 Farm planning in the USA
Early forms of EMS were farm planning systems, the model NZ used for its farm planning systems. Farming systems extension in the USA began in the 1920s and 1930s and had a resurgence period in the 1980s and 1990s. The early approach was called ‘balanced farming’, where whole-farm systems were planned, which was a form of EMS that involved conservation of soil and other farm resources, as well as production, economics and preserving the family farm (Flora and Francis, 2000).
The resurgence of whole-farm systems in the 1980s came about from farmer concerns about farm sustainability and a need for a more inclusive farming systems approach than what was practiced at the time. This second period coincided with the return to the US of a number of scientists who had worked long-term in other countries, and brought new ideas and approaches that were being practiced in the developing world (Flora and Francis, 2000).
4.12.2 Voluntary industry EMS
The proliferation of environmental regulations in the 1970s produced significant reductions in air and water pollution and improvements in waste management, but the regulations generated a preoccupation with regulatory compliance, rather than a proactive approach of incorporating environmental considerations into core business functions. At this early stage of EMS, industry considered environmental management as either an extension of product quality assurance or as a passing fad. Industry believed environmental management restricted production; corrections to processes were not considered to have potentially positive results on business activities, but instead were reactive: end-of-pipe solutions to ameliorate impacts (Tinsley, 2014).
The key factors encouraging development of EMS and environmental auditing in the US were CERCLA/Superfund (section 4.12.3) and the Bhopal disaster (section 4.12.4). In order to better adapt to the changing regulatory landscape, numerous associations, corporations and government departments developed and implemented a range of EMS frameworks, for example the Chemical Manufacturers Association created the Responsible Care program in 1988 (which actually originated from the Canadian
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4.12.3 CERCLA/Superfund
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) 1980, commonly known as Superfund, was one of the first triggers to motivate companies to begin environmental audits. In the late 1970s, high levels of toxic wastes discovered in Love Canal, upstate New York, and the related unusually high cancer rates and birth defects of residents in the area prompted Congress to establish the Superfund to clean up the increasing number of uncontrolled and abandoned hazardous waste- disposal sites (Revkin, 2013). These sites had resulted from corporations not fully applying the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (1976) because of the light penalties for non-compliance (Holland and Boon Foo, 2003). After the EPA began publishing estimates of Superfund clean-up costs for particular sites, many companies’ annual reports started to include environmental disclosures that reflected the national interest in hazardous waste site remediation (Holland and Boon Foo, 2003). This had wider implications for the development of environmental auditing in other developed countries, not just the USA.
The Superfund Act was strengthened in 1986 and the amended act included formal corporate financial responsibilities for activities adversely affecting soil or groundwater (Holland and Boon Foo, 2003). The law made companies liable for releases of hazardous waste. It created a tax on chemical and petroleum industries to respond to release of hazardous substances, and provided a fund to clean up abandoned toxic waste dumps (USEPA, 1992b). EMS can help a company to adapt and can supplement efforts to comply with regulation when combined with the right environmental standards, certifiable audits and public reporting of results.
4.12.4 Bhopal and the Toxics Release Inventory
The 1984 Bhopal disaster, the world’s worst industrial accident, showed the need for enforceable international environmental safety standards and preventative strategies to avoid similar accidents. A toxic cloud of methyl isocyanate had drifted from the US-owned Union Carbide plant that ultimately killed more than 11,000 people (Sheiman and Doniger, 1985). In response, environmental auditing practices quickly expanded in the US and the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) was created in 1986. This is a publicly available database containing information on toxic chemical releases and other waste management activities in the US. TRI was part of a new approach to environmental management; for the first time, actual quantities of pollutant releases by many major businesses were documented. As a
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result, new incentives were generated for firms themselves to identify and reduce their toxic discharges, and thereby encouraged EMS use. The TRI is different to other federal environmental programs, which aim to improve environmental performance by setting standards and specifying how facilities must operate (USEPA, n.d.b).