Corporate Responses to Environmental Challenges: Initiatives by Multinational Management

Environmental concerns are on the corporate agenda, and companies are searching for effective managerial strategies. Multinational corporations command huge financial resources and technical skills, and their actions toward the environment can have a profound impact. Drawing detailed examples from major multinational companies, this book provides a wealth of practical insight on how companies approach the difficult task of responding to an increasing variety of environmental challenges. The authors identify several specific programs being developed and implemented by corporations to establish accountability for environment, health and safety and to integrate environmental concerns throughout the corporate decision making process.

The material in this work is drawn from extensive interviews conducted in U.S.-based companies, and examinations of production facilities in developed and developing countries. In addition, results of a survey on corporate environment, health and safety practices are woven into the analysis. Although they note that there are inadequacies in some corporate responses to environmental challenges, the authors contend that improved practice will result from actions on the part of government and universities, as well as companies themselves. This book will help decision makers review their environmental programs and develop sound strategies to overcome the corporate environmental anxiety that, We know we're out of compliance somewhere in the world all of the time.

ANN RAPPAPORT is Senior Environmental Research Analyst at the Center for Environmental Management, Tufts University. She is a former government official who helped develop and implement the hazardous waste regulatory program in Massachusetts. Rappaport has published articles in Technology Review, Chemical Engineering Progress, and International Environment Reporter.

MARGARET FRESHER FLAHERTY is an Environmental Research Analyst at the Center for Environmental Management, Tufts University. She has been involved in research in the area of corporate environmental programs and is currently examining the environmental issues of state-owned enterprises in Brazil and Hungary. Flaherty has recently published Multinational Corporations and the Environment: A Survey of Global Practices, as well as an article in the International Environmental Reporter.