国外企业环境责任研究综述

迄今,西方社会早已迈过严重污染阶段(如雾霾),环境责任承担(CER)几乎成为跨国企业的标准范式,全面回顾国外CER研究对深处环境危机中的中国来说具有很强的现实意义。本文回顾了国外学术界从商业伦理、利益相关者管理、战略管理、环境行为及环境绩效视角的CER研究,归纳总结了CER概念主张及维度测量。研究发现,制度环境、市场状况、产业现状、利益相关者等是促成企业CER行动的外部因素,而企业规模、发展战略、治理结构以及技术条件等是制约CER行动的内部因素,内外多种因素的整合作用决定企业CER行为。此外,研究还发现,CER可以提升资源利用效率、降低成本费用与提升技术能力等,还能够帮助企业获得良好声誉和改善品牌形象,在一定条件下也可帮助企业建构可持续竞争优势,甚至对企业的财务绩效产生积极影响。最后,本文展望了CER研究的全球本土化、创新性、实务性以及中小企业化等发展方向,并分析探讨了国外CER研究对中国本土研究和CER实务的启示。     

Mobilisation and protest: environmental justice in Durban,South Africa

This paper examines the ability of civil society actors to champion environmental justice in an industrial risk society in South Africa by way of mobilisation and protest action. This paper presents viewpoints from key stakeholders at the Durban city level and three local case study sites to examine social capital relations to achieve environmental justice. It explores how civil society engages in social capital for mobilisation with itself and subsequent protest actions to engage with government and industry. The paper highlights that social actor response to engage in social capital for mobilisation and protests is best understood in relation to the socio-economic and political positioning of individuals or organisations.     

Collaborative environmental governance and transaction costs in partnerships: evidence from a social network approach to water management in France

Several studies attempt to explain how collaborative environmental governance processes operate, but the question of why collaboration relationships form has received much less attention. Motivated by this need, this paper provides insights to the broad question: why does collaborative river basin management in France depend so heavily on partnerships made up around a few actors? Accordingly, our analytical framework develops a transaction cost explanation for the extent to which participatory procedures help stakeholders to identify partners and initiate collaboration, and for the causal link between the attributes of these stakeholders and their partnerships. The p2 model is implemented to investigate partnership networks of the key actors that govern the management of the Gironde estuary, the study case. The results provide evidence that environmental institutions bring together heterogeneous actors who might not be ready for collaboration, thereby actors’ perceived power similarity; their geographical proximity and co-presence in formal fora limit transaction costs.     

Public Hearing or ‘Hearing Public’? An Evaluation of the Participation of Local Stakeholders in Environmental Impact Assessment of Ghana’s Jubilee Oil Fields

This article investigates the involvement of local stakeholders in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) processes of Ghana’s first off-shore oil fields (the Jubilee fields). Adopting key informants interviews and documentary reviews, the article argues that the public hearings and the other stakeholder engagement processes were cosmetic and rhetoric with the view to meeting legal requirements rather than a purposeful interest in eliciting inputs from local stakeholders. It further argues that the operators appear to lack the social legitimacy and social license that will make them acceptable in the project communities. A rigorous community engagement along with a commitment to actively involving local stakeholders in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes of the partners may enhance the image of the partners and improve their social legitimacy. Local government agencies should be capacitated to actively engage project organisers; and government must mitigate the impact of the oil projects through well-structured social support programmes.     

Community-company relations in gold mining in Ghana

As a result of Structural Adjustment Programme from the 1980s, many developing countries have experienced an increase in resource extraction activities by international and transnational corporations. The work reported here examines the perceived impacts of gold mining at the community level in the Wassa West District of Ghana, Africa and discusses those perceived impacts in the context of globalization processes and growing multinational corporate interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Interview data compared community members' perceptions with those of company representatives in three communities. The results indicate that communities held companies responsible for a series of economic, social, and environmental changes. While recognizing some of the benefits brought by the mines, communities felt that the companies did not live up to their responsibility to support local development. Companies responded by denying, dismissing concerns, or shifting blame. Findings from this work show that lack of engagement and action by government agencies at all levels resulted in companies acting in a surrogate governmental capacity. In such situations, managing expectations is key to community-company relations.     

跨国公司环境治理机制研究——以“供应链法”域外适用为依归

欧美诸国近年来相继推行的“供应链法”是完善跨国公司环境治理机制的新路径，但存在侵犯主权独立等诸多隐忧。本文以加强跨国公司环境治理为出发点，探讨了跨国公司母国“供应链法”域外适用机制的理论依据及实践经验。并从我国立场出发提出，鉴于“环境权”与“其他人权”存在法理差异及避免政治争议考量，我国学者和相关企业应当在国际层面积极呼吁将环境问题与其他人权问题分开处理。同时，我国相关部门应当吸取“供应链法”域外适用机制的有利经验，实现从行业协会引导到政府部门主导，从软法到硬法，逐步建立和完善我国跨国公司治理的国内法域外适用机制。最后，我国主管部门应当尽早颁行《阻断外国法律与措施不当域外适用办法》的配套实施机制，以期将他国法律政治化域外适用对我国主权的不利影响降至最低。     

企业生态经营策略的影响因素分析——以滑雪度假企业经营为例

气候与环境变化不仅引起了各国政府制定对策,也逐渐推进企业实行生态经营策略。生态经营是实现持续发展的有效办法。通过对中韩两国8家滑雪度假企业的深入分析得知,影响企业生态经营策略的因素有企业规模、废弃物排放成本、资源化成本、产品特性、技术创新、政府政策等,企业经营所需资源的所属情况、企业的所有权构造、社会团体的活动也可能产生一定的影响。建议中国企业在政府与社会的推动下,结合企业文化建设,积极参与生态经营,实现低碳经济时代的可持续发展。     

Public Perception of Flood Hazard in the Niger Delta,Nigeria

Summary Our study had the aim of understanding how floodplain dwellers regard the risk of flooding. About 500 questionnaires were administered to landowners in the selected settlements in the study area using systematic random sampling. The results of analysis show, among other things, that the population regards most important the causes of floods as heavy, prolonged rainfall and river overflow. Nevertheless, they have little knowledge of the frequency of severe floods, and flood alleviation schemes. Most flood victims do not get compensation or relief during flood disaster, and the reason why they remain in the study area is influenced by their occupations, especially fishing, subsistence agriculture, and the presence of crude oil in the region which has attracted many migrants who cannot afford the high cost of accommodation and are therefore forced to live in vulnerable areas of the floodplain. Finally, the study concludes that flood control in the region needs the cooperation of government, community efforts and an enlightenment programmes through environmental education and mass media.     

Using triple bottom line metrics and multi-criteria methodology in corporate settings

With the growing importance of environmental sustainability in the corporate sector, businesses are compelled to progress from assessing and benchmarking their environmental impact to making decisions on how to prioritize impact reduction alternatives. Most often, business decisions are driven by financial metrics, but with sustainability improvements becoming a business goal, it is also important to assess metrics from environmental and social spheres; nevertheless, practically and systematically performing such an assessment is challenging. We present an application of a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) method that addresses the aforementioned challenges in a corporate setting. Our case study company – one of the largest inland marine freight carriers in the United States – promotes a business culture focused on financially viable, yet socially and environmentally responsible solutions. Thus, we combine life cycle analysis (LCA), financial calculation methods, and corporate surveys to quantify environmental, economic, and social performance measures, respectively. Multiattribute utility theory is integrated with analytic hierarchy processes (AHPs) and fuzzy analysis to create a carefully designed framework for corporations with diverse groups of stakeholders. With company leadership, implementation is feasible and successful at prioritizing alternatives among diverse stakeholders. The process provides a platform for negotiation and promotes discussions on decision drivers. The use of MCDA methodologies promoted the inclusion of a suite of metrics that aligned with the company's sense of social and environmental responsibility, generating an in-depth analysis of the alternatives that factored in other things besides economics. Return-on-investments (ROI) calculations, the typical approach used in the corporate setting, would have required significantly less time and effort from the company, but the results of our MCDA application indicated that inclusion of triple bottom line metrics delve deeper into stakeholder preferences. Thus, our case study company gained a holistic view of the candidate alternatives, in addition to creating a platform for structured discussions about company goals and priorities.     

The case of artisanal mining in Bolivia: Local participatory development and mining investment opportunities

Despite the buoyant expansion of Latin America's mining sector, the small-scale mining sub-sector remains marginalized. For many countries with small-scale mining resources, the way forward to sustainable mining development is not clear. Activities, in far too many cases, have led to environmental damage, social inequity and political violence among mining communities. This article, through a case study of the Bolivian Altiplano, seeks to advance the understanding of the conditions that drive mining communities into the chain of events of impoverishment associated with environmental damage. It also examines the opportunities for sustainable human development among these communities. In Bolivia's mining sector, social inequity is pervasive and holds the mineral resources captive. This situation is further aggravated by the fact that solutions, in the short term, are uncertain. Unresolved social inequity compromises foreign direct investments since social considerations are becoming increasingly important to mining corporations when deciding whether to invest. This article outlines a preliminary strategy to move forward on social inequity. The strategy revolves mainly around implementing alternative sustainable livelihoods with the participation of the government (central and local), the private sector, NGOs and donors as facilitators and partners. Its aim is to reduce the number of families eking out a living from artisanal mining in order to enhance the viability of small-scale mining. It is hoped that, as social inequity decreases throughout the sector, the increased stability will enable stakeholders to consider foreign direct investments within the framework of the country's sustainable human development goals.     

INVOLVING WATERSHED STAKEHOLDERS: AN ISSUE ATTRIBUTE APPROACH TO DETERMINE WILLINGNESS AND NEED1

ABSTRACT: The development of effective solutions for addressing nonpoint source pollution on a watershed basis often involves watershed stakeholders. However, success in engaging stakeholders in collaborative decision making processes varies, as watershed managers are faced with the challenges inherent to finding the right process for the decisions needed and in successfully engaging stakeholders in that process. Two characteristics that may provide guidance for determining the appropriateness of applying a collaborative process to a watershed problem are the need to collaborate and the willingness of stakeholders to engage in a collaborative decision making process. By examining seven attributes of the issues confronted by stakeholders in a collaborative process, the consequences of these attributes on the need for collaboration and stakeholders' willingness to engage can be estimated. The issue attributes include: level of uncertainty, balance of information, risk, time horizon of effects, urgency of decision, distribution of effects, and clarity of problem. The issue attribute model was applied to two collaborative decision making processes conducted by the same watershed stakeholder group in a North Carolina coastal watershed. Need and willingness to engage did not coincide for either issue; that is, stakeholders were more willing to engage on the issue that required less need for their involvement.     

Deafness and Disability—Forgotten Components of Environmental Justice: Illustrated by the Case of Local Agenda 21 in South Wales

This paper contributes to discussions of procedural aspects of environmental justice, understood as having procedural and substantive dimensions. It argues that the struggle for environmental justice must recognize the oppression of disabled people as part of the essential broadening of the notion of citizenship, which continues to be the focus for struggle for the international disability movement. Its case study of an area of South Wales suggests that at present disabled people, and the struggles of the disability movement, do not really feature in the way environmental activists (inside and outside government) see the world. This huge omission must be addressed, but in a way that avoids interpreting disability as an administrative category, and must engage with disablement as a political and contested notion. The paper develops the significance of this contention by considering the case of Deafness, which is entirely different from hearing impairment. The paper's case study, presented as an illustration of its arguments, shows that to regard Deaf people in South Wales as part of some generic category of 'disabled people' would be to ignore their self-identification as a distinctive linguistic community. Moreover, there is some evidence that Deaf people have a distinctive view of, and set of concerns about, quality of life, reflecting their distinctive experience of social injustice and marginalization. This underlines the necessity for a serious engagement with disablement as a political category, and the disability movement as a struggle for social justice, within the promotion of environmental justice.     

Beyond accountability: alternative rationales for transparency in global trade politics

ABSTRACT

The conventional view of transparency is that it is a critical tool to combat corruption and ensure the democratic accountability of government. This article argues that the negotiation of mega-regional trade agreements (RTAs) and their content indicates the need distinguish different types of transparency. Trade activists that call for drafts of the text of a mega-RTA to be released while negotiations are ongoing are seeking deliberative transparency, which provides opportunities for meaningful public participation and consultation. The trade advisory systems that could provide opportunities for deliberation instead deliver technocratic transparency; the rationale is to increase the effectiveness of mega-RTAs rather than their democratic legitimacy. Frequent leaks of draft chapters of mega-RTAs provide opportunities for deliberation, but some actors involved in leaking are engaged in disruptive transparency where the aim is to complicate trade negotiations, making a final deal less likely. While these varieties of transparency emerge in the context of the negotiating process, disciplinary transparency – which often becomes a regulatory tool for multinational corporations to influence policy-making – is found in the text of mega-RTAs. Certain forms of transparency increase the likelihood that mega-RTAs will be compatible with strong environmental policy, while others may have a detrimental impact.     

Environmental Protection Bureau Leadership at the Provincial Level in China: Examining Diverging Career Backgrounds and Appointment Patterns

This paper analyses the career backgrounds of local government officials in provincial Environmental Protection Bureaus (EPBs) in China and explains the appointment patterns of Chinese EPB bureaucrats. Using biographical information of provincial EPB heads and drawing on fieldwork conducted in Shanxi Province and Inner Mongolia, this paper finds that only one-fourth of the provincial EPB heads were promoted through the bureau ranks within the EPBs, while the remaining three-fourths were appointed from positions outside the environment field. Further, nearly all EPB heads' professional backgrounds and associated networks can be clearly categorized as environmental, business, provincial government, or local government oriented. This paper delineates these four types of Chinese EPB leaders and explains why an awareness of the different professional orientations is critical to understanding environmental regulation and protection in China. These findings have implications for inferring the unique characteristics of a province's EPB leadership, the implementation capacities of provincial EPBs, and the appointment preferences of provincial leaders.     

Industrial development zone and South African environmental legal initiatives post-1994: a quest for sustainable industrial development

Many developing countries are currently undergoing increased industrialization, which has accelerated environmental degradation. This study aims to examine South Africa's industrial development path as a socio-economic strategy pursued along the rill-lines of sustainable industrial development (SID) in view of the post-1994 environmental legislative initiatives. An exploratory review guided the study analysis. As industrial development zones (IDZs), environmental sustainability research is virtually non-existent, leading to the poor understanding of this programme's role in SID. This study reveals that the government political commitment, 1996 South Africa's Constitution and National Environmental Act (No. 107 of 1998) are key pillars reconciling the environment and industrial development in diffusing apartheid legacies. Non-compliances re-occur in industries outside the IDZs due to shortage of environmental monitoring inspectors and government priorities changes. Therefore, there is need to ‘green’ IDZ stakeholders for proper environmental legislation implementation. Finally, the study highlights new potential directions for research into SID zoning.     

Comparing EQM practices of small and large companies

There is some concern in the environmental quality management (EQM) community that small and mid-sized companies do not have the technical, economic, and personnel resources or expertise to carry out significant programs of pollution prevention or waste reduction in the way that large corporations do. Thus, a very significant proportion of the economy may not be contributing to or benefiting from EQM approaches. This article begins to clarify what small and mid-sized companies that are committed to EQM can actually do and how this compares with the efforts of larger plants or plants operated as part of large multiplant corporations.     

跨国石油公司环境保护机制的比较分析＊

当前我国石油企业环境风险大、环境影响范围广,亟待建立长期有效、切实可行的环保机制。文章通过国内外石油企业环保机制的对比,探讨我国石油企业环保机制存在的主要问题,从发展战略、管理标准和支撑体系等三个层面提出了构建环保长效机制的建议。     

公民环境信访行为影响因素的实证分析——基于规范激活理论

环境信访是中国公民环境利益表达的重要途径,也是其参与环境治理的重要通道,引导公民有序进行环境信访对于加强生态文明建设、深化环境治理、维护社会稳定具有重要意义。本研究从环境信访的参与主体——公民入手,基于社会心理学中规范激活理论的连续模型,构建了公民环境信访影响因素的理论模型,并运用AMOS 20.0对S市9个行政区500位市民的问卷调研结果进行实证分析,探究公民环境信访行为的社会心理影响因素。研究结果表明:规范激活理论的连续模型能够较好地解释中国公民的环境信访行为,其中环境信访结果认知正向影响环境信访责任归属,公民的个体规范需要通过责任归属得以激活,从而影响公民环境信访行为意向。因此,政府可以通过环保知识的宣传教育和完善环境信访相关法律法规来提升公民环保意识和环境信访责任归属感,同时可以通过环保政策法规的宣传、畅通环境信访渠道以及对公民环境信访行为的有效处理来促进公民对环境信访行为积极意义的认知,从而推动公民有序进行环境信访。     

Identifying the potential of governance regimes to aggravate or mitigate local water conflicts in regions threatened by climate change

There is a need for specific knowledge of what people can do to mitigate harmful water conflicts. This need is evident in the rural dry tropics of Central America where people face climate change impacts, inefficient water management, and social tension. To address this need, we investigated why some local water conflicts escalated to violence and why other potential conflicts were avoided in Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica. We used interviews, focus groups, and a stakeholder workshop to analyse five cases. We found that violent actions only occurred when rural groups opposed government agencies in settings without mediating leadership. With one exception in a circumstance aggravated over many years, water users did not take violent action against competing water users. Distrust, which has been formed by legacies of ineffective rural stakeholder engagement, diminished the credibility of water-related information used in decision processes and thus prolonged conflicts. Active community-based groups respected by both rural constituencies and government agencies helped some people avoid difficult conflicts. Self-organised groups in other areas struggled to address disputes in settings with contested property rights, high socio-economic inequality, and low human capital. Using insights from Guanacaste, we outline practical conflict mitigation strategies fitted to a range of local water governance contexts found in rural Central America. Results suggest the need for incorporating certain types of peace-building processes in water management and development. The study provides a foundation for policy-makers, water managers, and other stakeholders to more effectively manage water disputes and avoid harmful conflicts in challenging regions.     

Deafness and Disability—Forgotten Components of Environmental Justice: Illustrated by the Case of Local Agenda 21 in South Wales

Abstract

This paper contributes to discussions of procedural aspects of environmental justice, understood as having procedural and substantive dimensions. It argues that the struggle for environmental justice must recognize the oppression of disabled people as part of the essential broadening of the notion of citizenship, which continues to be the focus for struggle for the international disability movement. Its case study of an area of South Wales suggests that at present disabled people, and the struggles of the disability movement, do not really feature in the way environmental activists (inside and outside government) see the world. This huge omission must be addressed, but in a way that avoids interpreting disability as an administrative category, and must engage with disablement as a political and contested notion. The paper develops the significance of this contention by considering the case of Deafness, which is entirely different from hearing impairment. The paper's case study, presented as an illustration of its arguments, shows that to regard Deaf people in South Wales as part of some generic category of ‘disabled people’ would be to ignore their self-identification as a distinctive linguistic community. Moreover, there is some evidence that Deaf people have a distinctive view of, and set of concerns about, quality of life, reflecting their distinctive experience of social injustice and marginalization. This underlines the necessity for a serious engagement with disablement as a political category, and the disability movement as a struggle for social justice, within the promotion of environmental justice.