Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
practices. These critiques with respect to the lack of monitoring and oversight of the cor-
porations that have signed on to the GC prompted the introduction of new integrity mea-
sures in 2004. Corporations that fail to provide their communication of progress for two
years in a row are de-listed from the GC. As of mid-2007, some 791
rms had been listed
as inactive. While the integrity measures may go some way toward reducing the incentive
for
fi
ort to adhere to the rules, the GC is still entirely
voluntary and still lacks any stringent sanctions against
fi
rms to sign on without making an e
ff
fi
rms that fail to adhere to the
principles.
OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprise
The OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises is a set of voluntary guidelines
within OECD countries, which account for some 90 percent of FDI (Macklem, 2005,
p. 283). First adopted in 1976, these guidelines cover a wide range of issues such as infor-
mation disclosure, taxation, labor relations and the environment. A chapter on environ-
mental protection was added in 1991, and updated in 2000 (Bunn, 2004, p. 1277). These
updates included a recommendation for extraterritorial application of the guidelines for
MNEs operating in non-OECD countries. The guidelines promote environmental man-
agement standards already in existence, such as the ISO 14000. At the same time,
however, they encourage governments to employ performance standards rather than
simply management standards. But the OECD Guidelines do not set performance stan-
dards; they also recommend extensive consultation with communities a
ected by TNCs,
as well as improved access to information on the environmental activities of TNCs
(OECD, 2000).
Although the guidelines promote improved environmental performance rather than
simply improved management, which some see as a positive step, some environmental
groups have expressed disappointment with the guidelines because they lack any sort of
monitoring or enforcement mechanism (FOE Netherlands, 2002). Further, the guidelines
do not place any legal obligations on TNCs with respect to their performance. They are
merely guidelines for OECD member countries to encourage their TNCs to follow vol-
untarily. For this reason, environmental NGOs have been somewhat skeptical of the
ability of the guidelines in their current form to engender true change in TNC environ-
mental practices.
ff
Environmental management standards
Environmental management standards are standards for management within
rms,
rather than product or performance standards. The ISO 14000 standards, perhaps the best
known of the international environment management standards, were established by the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and are applied by
fi
rms around the
world (see Prakash and Potoski, 2006). These standards were established in the early
1990s following industry promises to self-regulate at the Rio Earth Summit. The ISO
14000 series of standards provides guidance on a number of fronts, and the ISO 14001
standard, on environmental management systems, is the only one to which
fi
fi
rms can
certify their facilities. This standard calls on
rms to be aware of environmental regula-
tions and to follow those regulations in the countries in which they operate as well as to
continually improve their internal performance. As of 2005 some 111 000
fi
fi
rms operating
in 138 countries had certi
fi
ed to the standard (ISO, 2006).
