Regulating from the Inside: Can Environmental Management Systems Achieve Policy Goals

by Cary Coglianese

Overview

Environmental Management Systems (EMSs) offer an approach to regulatory policy that lies somewhere between free-market and traditional command-and-control methods. Worldwide, hundreds of thousands of private firms have adopted or are considering adopting these internally managed systems for improving environmental performance. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency has established a special recognition for firms that adopt EMSs. Already, numerous state agencies have proposed or adopted 'green-tier systems' that allow firms with EMSs to be exempted from otherwise applicable requirements. Yet while private- and public-sector interest in EMSs is booming, limited empirical evidence is available about the efficacy of EMSs. To close the gap between advocacy and analysis, Regulating from the Inside brings together cutting-edge work of leading scholars, providing the most comprehensive analysis to date of environmental management systems. Intended to frame the future policy and the research agenda about EMSs, the discussions are organized around two critical questions: How have EMSs worked in firms that have already adopted them? What potential and limitations do they have as policy tools in the future? Addressing the arguments of both advocates and skeptics, the chapters examine why firms adopt EMSs; how firms implement EMSs; how EMSs answer concerns about fairness, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability; and what kind of impact EMSs may have on the global economy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781891853418
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/03/2001
Series:	RFF Press Ser.
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	274
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Cary Coglianese is an associate professor of public policy at Harvard University. He is chair of the Regulatory Policy Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government's Center for Business and Government.

Jennifer Nash is director of the Regulatory Policy Program at the Kennedy School's Center for Business and Government. She specializes in emerging trends in environmental policy and industry self-regulation.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Donald F. Kettl

1. Environmental Management Systems and the New Policy Agenda

Cary Coglianese and Jennifer Nash

Part 1: Motivations and Impacts

2. Environmental Management Systems: History, Theory, and Implementation Research

Richard N.L. Andrews, Nicole Darnall, Deborah Rigling Gallagher, Suellen Terrill Keiner, Eric Feldman, Matthew L. Mitchell, Deborah Amaral, and Jessica Jacoby

3. Factors that Shape EMS Outcomes in Firms

Jennifer Nash and John R. Ehrenfeld

4. Whay Do Firms Adopt Advanced Environmental Practices (And Do They Make a Difference?)

Richard Florida and Derek Davison

5. Environmental Management Systems and the Global Economy

Theodore Panayotou

Part 2: Implications for Public Policy

6. Expanding the Concept of Environmental Management Systems to Meet Multiple Social Goals

William R. Moomaw

7. Information, Environmental Performance, and Environmental Management Systems

Shelley H. Metzenbaum

8. Policies to Promote Systematic Environmental Management

Cary Coglianese

9. EMSs and Tiered Regulation: Getting the Deal Right

Jerry Speir

Conclusion

10. Toward a Management-Based Environmental Policy

Cary Coglianese and Jennifer Nash

Index

Editorial Reviews

Two professors of public policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard U. have edited and written the introduction and conclusion to eight papers first presented at a November 1999 meeting in Washington DC organized by the Multi-State Working Group on Environmental Management Systems. The papers consider different approaches and applications of the environmental management systems adopted by private businesses, their feasibility on a large scale, their usefulness or cost in a global economy, the regulations of different states in the US, and why letting businesses monitor their environmental practice would save the government money. The contributors are academics and two graduate students in public policy analysis and two former researchers at the Environmental Law Institute. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

'This highly readable book offers the most thoughtful analysis to date of the role of environmental management systems in environmental protection. It is a valuable resource for professionals in business, government, and the non-profit sector.'

Robert Stephens, Chair, Multi-State Working Group on Environmental Management Systems

'The finest collection of thought on environmental management systems ever assembled. It brings together significant research and reflection, and should be

widely read and discussed.'

Matthew Arnold, Chief Operating Officer, World Resources Institute

From the Publisher