In recent years there has been an increasing awareness of the adverse impact of human activity on the natural environment. Fears of global warming have escalated and the environmental impact of industrial accidents has been generally widely publicized. As a result, businesses have been subject to both government and market pressures to adopt a corporate environmental strategy that will minimize damage to the environment in the future, and help in rectifying legacies from the past. Despite a diversity of literature addressing the issues of environmental management, managers often remain sceptical as to the importance of environmental considerations within corporate strategy. However, the economic reality of environmental management and its failure has not gone unaccounted. For example, Union Carbide faced claims of over US$3 billion after a chemical leak at Bhopal, and Exxon has spent over US$2 billion cleaning up after an Alaskan oil spill. Closer to home,Shell was fined a record £1 million for a crude oil spill into the Mersey and charged £1.4 million for clean-up costs (Corbett and Wassenhove,1993).Alternatively,Minnesota Mining and Manufacture’s Pollution Prevention Pays programme has saved over US$500 million since it was introduced in 1975.
Legislation
Finance
The reaction of lenders
Trends within ethical investment
The reaction of insurers
Developing an environmental management system
Conclusion
References
