Lessons from the French experience with voluntary agreements for greenhouse-gas reduction

The paper analyses the French experience with voluntary agreements (VAs) for the reduction of industrial greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. It is based on evidence from two case studies: the VAs signed by the main aluminium producer and by the packaging glass industry association. The analysis suggests that the considerable reductions in specific GHG emissions can hardly be seen as a direct consequence of the VA commitments. Instead they seem to have been triggered by other environmental regulations, and above all, by industry's heavy investments in technology modernisation and cost reduction efforts. Therefore, the observed reduction in specific emissions appears to correspond to industry's business-as-usual behaviour, suggesting that VA objectives were poorly ambitious. These results appear consistent with other VA evaluations. In the French GHG-related VAs, the failure to achieve more ambitious goals appears to result from the lack of a well-articulated policy-mix involving the VAs for GHG policy and energy efficiency promotion, as well as from policymakers' concerns over the potential competitive impact of GHG policy. The question of how to provide incentives for more ambitious GHG reductions without a high impact on firms' competitiveness remains a challenge for future policy.     

Case study evidence that direct regulation remains the main driver of industrial pollution avoidance and may benefit operational efficiency

Environmental regulation is required to reduce industrial pollution to levels that are socially acceptable and economically efficient, but there is debate over the most efficient form of such regulation. Typically, a limited range of environmental and economic parameters are accounted for in the econometric studies that inform that debate. This paper integrates evidence from two separate studies to assess a broad range of parameters related to the efficiency of industrial environmental regulation. Questionnaire responses from 25 Italian manufacturers of building-chemicals and 28 Irish pharmaceutical manufacturers provided evidence on the environmental effectiveness and operational impacts of different regulatory instruments. Combined with extensive emissions data from Irish pharmaceutical manufacturers, survey results enabled a quantitative estimation of pollution avoidance specifically attributable to direct regulation. The monetised social benefit of avoided pollution was found to be equal to direct compliance costs. Chemical manufacturers in Italy and Ireland stated that direct regulation is a more important driver of industrial environmental performance than economic or voluntary regulation, and their responses indicated that direct compliance costs may be countered somewhat by stimulated operational improvements. It was concluded that direct regulation is an effective approach for multi-pollutant control in an industrial context, and that the efficiency of such regulation may be underestimated in studies that do not consider the full range of pollutants and operational effects.     

Negotiated environmental and occupational health and safety agreements in the United States: lessons for policy

The interest in so-called voluntary approaches to supplement or replace formal environmental, or occupational health and safety regulation has taken on new importance in both Europe and the United States. These approaches fall into two sharp divisions: (1) industry-initiated codes of good practice focusing on environmental management systems or performance goals, and (2) negotiated agreements between government and individual firms or industry sector trade associations focusing on regulation or compliance. This paper addresses the latter.In the United States, the motivations behind negotiated agreements are manifold and sometimes contradictory including desires (1) to facilitate the achievement of legislated or mandatory environmental goals by introducing flexibility and cost-effective compliance measures, (2) to negotiate levels of compliance (standards) fulfilling legislative mandates, (3) to negotiate legal definitions of Best Available Technology and other technology-based requirements, and (4) to weaken environmental initiatives. Efforts in furtherance of negotiated agreements have thus been greeted with mixed results by the various stakeholders. In the context of an anti-regulatory climate in the United States, the Administrative Procedures Act has been amended to allow “negotiated rulemaking” in achieving regulatory agency mandates. However, even before this legal innovation, regulatory agencies have been negotiating regulations. Independent of this legal avenue, negotiated compliance with industry associations is being fostered through the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) “Commonsense Initiative” and with individual firms through “EPA's Project XL”, again with mixed reception.The proposed paper describes and analyses negotiated agreements in the United States in the context of (1) EPA efforts to ensure environmental protection and (2) the Occupational Safety and Health Administration efforts to ensure worker health and safety. These agreements can be described according to the following taxonomy: (a) Negotiated regulation (either preceding formal regulation or as a substitute for formal regulation); (b) Negotiated compliance (implementing regulation or informal agreements) (i) the means and timetable for coming into compliance with emission, effluent, or concentration requirements (ii) negotiation in the context of an enforcement action in which the firm is out of legal compliance (for example, encouraging cleaner production through the leveraging of penalty reductions).The criteria for evaluation include: environmental or health and safety outcomes, effects on stimulating technological change, time for development (time to completion)/implementation (likelihood of court challenge), stakeholder influence (ability of large firms to dominate outcome, environmentalists–industry, or labour–management balance of power),and administrative features.     

Exploring new ways of assessing the effect of regulation on environmental management

Studies indicate that while a variety of factors positively influence voluntary environmental management, regulatory pressures are among the most important. However, most research examines samples representing large manufacturers or single industries, essentially assuming a level of regulatory constraint. Using a sample of heterogeneous facilities, this study finds that facilities can be classified according to the level of regulatory constraint, and that group membership impacts the choice of environmental management strategy when assessed within a utility maximization framework. More extensively regulated facilities implement more individual environmental management practices, but participate in fewer formal voluntary environmental programs (VEPs), compared to other facilities.     

污染控制信息手段──镇江市工业企业环境行为信息公开化

信息手段的引入改变了传统的环境管理模式目前不少发展中国家采用了企业环境行为信息公开化这一有效的措施．该措施通过对企业的环境行为进行分析、评价、分级和公众曝光的方式,促进企业改善其环境行为本文介绍了什么是企业环境行为信息公开化,其理论依据、设计原则和实施步骤并以镇江市企业环境行为信息公开化为例,具体说明如何设计和实施这一措施,包括如何设计企业环境行为分类标准、体系来评价、分级,表征企业环境行为.     

Innovative policy practices to advance building energy efficiency and retrofitting: Approaches,impacts and challenges in ten C40 cities

This study examines ten programmes to advance energy efficiency and retrofitting of existing, private sector buildings in C40 cities in Asia-Pacific and USA. We set out to identify differing policy approaches, together with potential impacts and implementation challenges for each. Findings unearthed six policy models – both mandatory and voluntary – with unique impacts and challenges. We demonstrate that innovation occurs without new policy inventions and largely by necessity, as new features are added and generic models are adapted to local circumstances. Our sample demonstrated experimentation with benchmarking in the USA, comprehensive regulation in Asia, and voluntary approaches in Australia. Overall, environmental impacts are particularly slow to emerge and plagued with attribution challenges. We found limited evidence of benchmarking programme effectiveness in reducing energy consumption in the short-term, but some indication of mid-term outcomes. Driven by unique local circumstances, the cap-and-trade model stood out by fostering large, sustained and attributable GHG emission reductions and retrofitting. Market and social impacts are highly significant across all programmes, highlighting needs to consider non-environmental impacts in policy evaluation. We emphasise the complementary potential of voluntary and regulatory approaches to advancing energy efficiency and climate resilience. We also underscore the potential for reporting or benchmarking programmes to later transition to models mandating performance improvements, such as cap-and-trade.     

Technology-based industrial environmental management: a case study of electroplating in Shenzhen,China

Severe industrial pollution has largely hindered the sustainable development of China. Taking Shenzhen’s electroplating industry as a case, this article investigates the current status of the industry and proposes a specialized policy framework to push its environmental innovation. There is a relatively complete environmental management system in Shenzhen’s government, but it does not work well when dealing with the electroplating industry, mainly because it lacks regulation aiming at production technology, which is the underlying decisive factor of the environmental performance of the industry. So, we first develop an evaluation criterion, which incorporates a technological index about whether enterprises engage identified obsolete technologies. With this evaluation criterion, enterprises are classified into “advanced” and “obsolete”. Then, we propose specific policy suggestions for different types of enterprises, including command and control mixed with economic tools, voluntary agreements, establishing electroplating parks, and improving current management system. Finally, we assess the impact of the policy proposal and prove it to be conducive to the sustainable development of the industry and conclude it from a more general perspective.     

Fighting sustainability challenges on two fronts: Material efficiency and the emerging carbon capture and storage technologies

Technological and regulatory responses to large-scale environmental threats, such as depletion of the natural resources and climate change, tend to focus on one issue at time. Emerging carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies that are in different stages of development offer a case that demonstrates this dilemma. This article approximates the implications of two emerging CCS applications on existing steel mill’s CO₂ emissions and its use of material resources. The evaluated applications are based on the mineralization method and the comparative case represents two versions of a geological CCS method. The results of the evaluation indicate that if technical bottleneck issues related to CO₂ sequestration with mineralization can be solved, it can be possible to achieve a similar CO₂ reduction performance with mineralization-based CCS applications as with more conventional CCS applications. If the CO₂ capturing potential of mineralization-based applications could be taken into use, it could also enable the significant improvement of material efficiency of industrial operations. Urgent problem hampering the development of mineralization-based CCS applications is that the policy regimes related to CCS especially in the European Union (EU) do not recognize mineralization as a CCS method. Article suggests that the focus in the future evaluations and in policy should not be directed only on CO₂ sequestration capacity of CCS applications. Similarly important is to consider their implications on material efficiency. Article also outlines modifications to the EU’s CCS policy in terms of the formal terminology.     

环境规制和产业集聚对能源效率的影响与作用机制：基于空间效应的视角

在中国向高质量发展转型下,探究环境规制、产业集聚对能源效率的作用,对实现“双碳目标”具有重要的现实意义。系统梳理了三者间的作用机制,并基于中国2006—2018年的数据,运用多种“近邻”权重下的空间杜宾模型,检验环境规制、产业集聚以及二者的融合发展对能源效率的溢出效应及其区域差异。研究发现：（1）环境规制和能源效率二者间存在“波特假说”,但这种效应却具有“度”的限制;产业集聚（专业化、多样化）能够有效地助推自身以及与之“相邻”（地理邻近、经济互动）地区能源效率的提升。（2）环境规制对能源效率的作用表现出明显的区域差异,且在中国东、中以及西部三区域间也具有显著的经济地理关联性;产业集聚对能源效率的影响也表现出明显的区域差异,东部来源于多样化集聚,而中西部来源于专业化与多样化集聚。（3）在效应分解方面,无论是全样本还是分区域样本中,环境规制、产业集聚对能源效率的空间溢出效应并不单单是由于地理“相邻”造成的,更多是地区间地理邻近与经济互动协同的结果。（4）环境规制与专业化集聚的融合发展,抑制了专业化带来的正效应,而其与多样化集聚的融合发展对推动能源效率提升具有更强效果。     

Environmental audits as a policy of state: 10 years of experience in Mexico

The Procuraduría Federal de Protección al Ambiente or PROFEPA was created to assist in the enforcement of Mexico's environmental legislation. The agency uses two strategies to enforce legislation: command–control, which includes inspections and penalties, and voluntary environmental audits. This paper analyses data generated during the first decade of administration of the voluntary program, the National Program of Environmental Audits (PNAA). In 2764 audits, Mexican companies invested US$2.155 billon, generating important investments to control pollution, independent of macroeconomic parameters and a market related to the economic transition of Mexico. At the same time, it produced positive consequences for the environment. The PNAA lost popularity among large companies until it was restructured in 2001, providing less industrial risk, but a stronger environmental orientation. With these changes, the PNAA attracted new industries, permitted better administration, and provided opportunities for companies and the government to measure the consequences of their activities on the environment. Risks and opportunities for the PNAA are discussed. Preliminary improvements concerning environment and workers safety are given.     

Implementing stricter environmental regulation to enhance eco-efficiency and sustainability: a case study of Shandong Province’s pulp and paper industry, China

There has been much debate on the topic of whether stricter environmental regulations can promote environmental performance and economic performance at the same time. Different researchers have used different indicators to measure environmental performance and economic performance in their empirical studies. However, it is a surprise that few studies have checked the relationship between environmental regulation and eco-efficiency, as the latter is widely regarded as a quite powerful tool of considering ecology and economy together.In this study the background is the implementation in 2003 of the Stricter Discharge Standard (SDS) in Shandong Province’s Pulp and Paper Industry (SPPI), compared to the national standards of China. The stricter regulations were intended to promote corporate change from passive management to active control and from end-of-pipe treatment to cleaner production. This study investigated the eco-efficiency trends of SPPI from 2001 to 2008 in three fields: water efficiency, energy efficiency and environment efficiency. A “de-linking” and “re-linking” tool was used to attain a further evaluation. The study showed that with the implementation of stricter regulation most of the efficiency indicators (except CO₂ emission and energy consumption) had achieved significant improvements, and the overall environmental performance trends of SPPI showed it to be more sustainable. However, the study also found that it was not enough to address a single indicator in the environmental regulation of the pulp and paper industry. More holistic eco-efficiency indicators need to be further considered and introduced to the industry as the next step to create true sustainable development.     

The challenge of waste minimisation in the food and drink industry: a demonstration project in East Anglia,UK

Waste minimisation in the food and drink industry leads to many of the improvements demonstrated in other sectors—energy efficiency, reduction of raw material use, reduction in water consumption and increasing reuse and recycling on site. Such improvements in environmental performance produce a directly beneficial effect on the profitability of business.The East Anglian Waste Minimisation in the Food and Drink Industry Project has demonstrated that significant amounts of food-grade material are rejected from the production line for their unsatisfactory quality, whether visual, physical, microbiological or compositional (chemical or biochemical). The Project has demonstrated that waste reduction of 12% of raw materials can be achieved and that this makes significant contributions to company profitability by improving yields per unit output and by reducing costs associated with waste disposal. Evidence also shows that there is potential for further improvements through improving dialogue between producers, retailers and consumers.The East Anglian Waste Minimisation Project has demonstrated that the packaging of food products presents considerable challenges to the food and drink industry. Significant opportunities exist for modifying both primary and secondary food packaging. However, whilst packaging requirements principally consider health and safety, the demands of the major supermarket chains and consumers have taken little or no account of criteria designed to meet the wide-ranging demands of waste minimisation.Optimising the opportunities for waste minimisation in the key areas of putrescible wastage and packaging, and improving consensus and dialogue are essential catalysts between purchasers, including both consumers and the major supermarkets, and between food producers and manufacturers. These food and drink sectors must identify the process options that result in a lower waste burden, pursuing contractual agreements that reinforce and support the selection of such options.     

The effect of ISO 14001 certification on toxic emissions: an analysis of industrial facilities in the north of Spain

During recent decades, the impact of industrial organisations on the environment has become clearly evident. It has also become more difficult to hide and more expensive. Globally, this has caused many enterprises to put all their efforts into seeking management instruments that allow them to reduce their negative impact on the environment as well as improving their economic efficiency. This environmental interest is either voluntary or forced by customers or by legal pressure. Environmental Management Systems (EMSs) are among the many tools that have appeared to fulfil that goal and that have drawn international researchers’ attention. The most popular system and the one most often used is the ISO 14001 standard.This paper examines empirically the influence that this certification exerts on the company’s pollutant emission policy. The analysis was carried out in four regions of Spain: Asturias, Cantabria, Galicia and Castilla-León and includes 126 industrial organisations. The goal of this paper is to investigate the behaviour of the companies according to their emissions policies once they have achieved the ISO 14001 certification. In the paper the Toxics Release Index of 56 certified companies is compared with the Index of 70 non-certified companies. Through a statistical analysis based on the Student’s t-test and the Mann–Whitney U test, it was concluded that ISO 14001 does not represent an environmental proactivity signal clearly enough to result in a reduction of the company’s environmental polluting index.     

WTO and Integrated Product Policy (IPP): trade law implications for the use of product policy instruments to reduce the risk of exposure and harm from hazardous substances in the life cycle of personal computers

This paper analyses the implications of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) trade rules for the use of product policy instruments in a potential Integrated Product Policy (IPP) approach to reducing the life cycle impacts of products. To demonstrate these implications, an example of the policy instruments for reducing the risk of exposure and harm from hazardous substances in the life cycle of personal computers (PCs) is used. The product policy instruments examined include regulatory instruments, economic instruments, compulsory information instruments, voluntary information instruments and voluntary agreements. It is found that the WTO rules do limit the ability of governments to use trade-restrictive, mandatory measures to address both the risks associated with uncertainty and limited knowledge and the upstream life cycle phases of raw material extraction and production processes of imported products. Governments have more leeway in the use of economic and voluntary instruments.     

Efficiency gains within firms under voluntary environmental initiatives

This paper focuses on efficiency gains that voluntary environmental initiatives may achieve within the firm. Current debate concerning the extent and significance of inefficiencies within firms is critically important to the progress of energy and environmental policies.Several recent lines of inquiry in microeconomics help explain the persistence of inefficiencies within firms. In addition, two of the most prominent new approaches in the field of business strategy — resource-based strategy and the “capabilities perspective” — focus on the heterogeneity among firms and the resulting pockets of inefficiency within firms. They suggest at least three generic strategies for voluntary environmental initiatives — challenging outdated organizational routines, creating opportunities for differentiation, or complementing firms' resource investment trajectories. These generic approaches suggest that there is considerable scope for further experimentation with voluntary environmental initiatives.     

Environmental impacts of disposable cups with special focus on the effect of material choices and end of life

Life cycle thinking is emphasised in EU policies and legislation. All products have environmental impacts during their production, use and disposal. It is important to ensure that environmental impacts are considered throughout the life-cycle and it will be more and more important for the industry to understand the meaning of the life cycle thinking and to adopt it.The environmental impacts of an industrial disposable cup concept were studied with help of life-cycle assessment method. The objective of the study was to create new knowledge about the life cycle effects of the carton based cup concept. The scope of the study was to compare the effects of material choices and different end-of-life scenarios. The paper focuses on the global warming potential of the cup concept. The carton based products were covered either with polyethene or polylactide. In addition, the environmental impacts of the carton-based cups were compared to the estimated environmental impacts of polymer-based cups. The polymer based cups were made of polyethylene terephthalate. The paper shows that significant improvements can be achieved with help of the choice of materials and optimal end of life.     

Twenty five years of industrial development: a study of resource use rates and macro-efficiency indicators for five Asian countries

Economic and population growth in Asia over the last three decades has been unprecedented. While conventional economic indicators have been increasing consistently, indicators of resource and environmental quality have been deteriorating, raising questions about the implications of future growth. Economic growth in the future is considered to be contingent on ensuring a more efficient use of natural resources, while simultaneously striving to reduce environmental impacts. We examine time trends of three efficiency indicators; agricultural efficiency, energy efficiency of economic production and carbon efficiency of energy use, for the five most populous countries in Asia in order to assess whether industrial development has lead to increased resource use efficiency and an associated reduction in total resource use and environmental impacts. Our results indicate that agricultural efficiency has decreased in all five countries. Results are mixed for energy and carbon efficiencies. Where increases in energy and carbon efficiency have occurred, they have been completely overwhelmed by absolute increases in energy use and carbon emissions caused by increases in the scale of economic activity. Based on this analysis, we study the potential for further improvements and policy implications for future food supply, energy consumption and carbon emissions in the region.     

The measurement of corporate environmental performance and its application to the analysis of efficiency in oil industry

This paper addresses a measurement of corporate environmental performance, and its application to the analysis of efficiency in the petroleum firms. In order to measure firms' environmental performance, we suggest a framework called “Gscore” that consists of five categories, namely general environmental management (GEM), input, process, output, and outcome. Gscore is a proxy measure of corporate environmental performance based on voluntary environment, health, and safety (EHS) report and is calculated by aggregating the points of the above five-categories. We apply our measurement framework to the data of 39 firms' voluntary EHS reports which are available on the internet. Ten of them, on which efficiency analysis was conducted with Gscore, assets, employee, and profits, are in petroleum and refining industry. According to our results: (1) a gap is found between rhetoric and practical environmental management stemming from calculating the relation between GEM and data part in 39 EHS reports. (2) On the whole, EHS reports of petroleum firms have something in common, but there are significant differences in the type and amounts of disclosed data among the EHS reports. (3) From the results of efficiency analysis, it is found that the number of employee exerts a considerable influence on determining the relative efficiency of petroleum firms, then Gscore, profits, and assets in sequence. Furthermore, Exxon, Ashland, Phillips Petroleum, and ARCO are shown to be efficient among 10 petroleum firms.     

工业经济发展的资源环境效率评价方法与实证——以广东和广西为例

工业生产是人类主要的经济活动,资源投入与效益产出、污染排放的相互关系决定了工业生产的资源环境效率。论文设计了工业经济发展的资源环境效率评价方法,即TOPSIS模型和DEA的SBM模型,通过TOPSIS模型对资源投入、经济效益和污染排放分别进行指标集成和综合考察,SBM模型将环境污染作为非期望产出纳入评价模型而考察各空间决策单元的工业生产效率。SBM模型的实证分析表明:两广地区形成工业发展有效率和无效率两大集群,广东的珠江三角洲、粤北、粤东与粤西南沿海地市和广西的桂西、桂西南地市多为有效率,而桂东、桂北及粤西北地市多为无效率并连续分布成面;工业无效率主要源于资源过度消耗和非期望产出,两广在减排工业废水、废气和降低资源和能源消耗方面有很大的改善潜力。