15 The Role of Governmental Responsibility

In recent years, environmental policy and strategies have begun to focus upon
preventive measures. Many government officials have started to realize the bene-
fits of avoiding the production of industrial pollution. However, government
implementation of pollution prevention policy has not progressed as expected. In
the United States, for example, the source reduction approach is not becoming
institutionalized as it should be with the state pollution prevention programs.
As noted by USEPA, several hundred billion dollars have been spent to mitigate
environmental problems. As of 1990, the cost of all pollution control activities
was estimated to be $ 115 billion per year, with this amount expected to increase
to $170 billion annually by the year 2000. USEPA funding of many environ-
mental programs seems to reward after-the-fact pollution control strategies rather
than source reduction and less than 1 percent of the USEPA's annual budget for
source reduction activities (GAO, 1994).
In accordance with the Pollution Prevention Act, many state programs now
provide technical assistance to industry in the areas of pollution prevention and
technology transfer. However, the extent of this aid varies significantly. Regula-
tory programs emphasize mandatory facility planning of pollution prevention,
while nonregulatory programs emphasize pollution prevention education and
assistance. As a consequence of their divergent emphases, a majority of the state
programs emphasize waste recycling, treatment, and disposal. The source reduc-
tion emphasis of the Pollution Prevention Act is inconsistently supported on a
nationwide bases (GAO, 1994).
This chapter discusses the role of governments in developing pollution pre-
vention policies and strategies, regulations and standards to achieve the goal of
sustainable development. It also covers the issue of reallocating government
agency resources and approaches of institutional arrangements, pollution preven-
tion implementation plan as well as community actions.

15.1 Policies and Strategies

Sustainable development should be the primary goal of environmental and eco-
nomic policy. The most important and immediate target of environmental policy
is to encourage the development and adoption of technologies compatible with
sustainable development. All governments will face formidable environmental

T. T. Shen, Industrial Pollution Prevention

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1995
250 15 The Role of Governmental Responsibility

challenges in the coming decade. This is because they will require moving well
beyond the "identify and repair" approach of the past, and the "anticipate and
prevent" of the 1990s, into an era of environmental management based on long-
term strategic planning and closer international cooperation for sustainable devel-
opment.
In the 1990s, governmental policies moving toward a new conceptual
framework for managing the world environment, based on "sustainable devel-
opment". Global change processes, such as the enhanced greenhouse effect,
the depletion to the ozone layer, and the threat of climate change have ex-
panded the scope of environmental concerns to global dimensions. These
change processes cannot be considered independently. And, there has been a
worldwide movement toward market-based, democratic societies, with the
political and economic reform process underway today in Asia, Eastern and
Central Europe. This array of issues creates the new environmental manage-
ment changes, but the changes also offer opportunities for environmental
professionals seeking for improvement. Today, decisions on national environ-
mental issues often have direct or indirect effects that impinge on environ-
mental or economic interests beyond national boundaries and on international
investment and trade. Interestingly, environmental issues and problems must be
addressed on a regional basis and global scale that require global solutions
(OECD, 1991).
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) pro-
posed the following principles to guide action by OECD governments:

- There is a fundamental link between economic growth and the environment.

Economic and environmental policies cannot be made and implemented in
isolation;
- Environmental considerations must be brought to bear systematically on eco-
nomic policy making;
- Conversely, sound economic analysis of costs and benefits and the distribution,
coupled with scientific assessment of relative risk, is the optimal basis for
setting priorities among environmental goals and choices;
- Compatibility between environmental and sectoral economic policies should
be a central objective ofpolicymakers; and subjected to continuous monitoring
and evaluation;
- Economic instruments, used in conjunction with regulation, are important tools
for achieving policy integration;
- International consultation and coordination is essential to ensure that national
environmental policies, whether regulatory or market-based, do not give rise to
unwarranted or inappropriate constraints to national competitiveness and inter-
national trade.

Government should playa role in helping "push" pollution prevention as a more

appropriate production philosophy. Governmental pollution prevention programs
can best counteract the pressure to invest in end-of-pipe pollution solutions
15.1 Policies and Strategies 251

by demonstrating the economic and environmental benefits of a source reduc-

tion approach, making technical information available, and providing technical
assistance to those attempting to reduce their generation of pollutions. Michael E.
Porter said that "government's proper role is as a catalyst and challenger, it is
to encourage or even push companies to raise their aspirations and move to
higher levels of competitive performance. Government policies that succeed
are those that create an environment in which companies can gain competitive
advantage ..." (Porter, 1990), Pollution prevention as a production philosophy
also conforms to the ideals of sustainable development.
Budgetary constraints on governments will require skillful use of human,
financial and technical resources to ensure that, from the outset, they are targeted
at the highest priority risks to human health and ecological stability. Costs and
benefits of proposed environmental policies will have to be defined with more
precision, over both the short and long terms, including the consequences of
inaction. Full integration of environmental and economic policies will have to be
pursued vigorously in all major economic sectors.
To pursue environmental goals, governments require public support and
resources and require policies that are sensitive and attuned to the broader eco-
nomic and social aspirations of people of each nation or region. It will also requi-
re demonstrating convincingly that a healthy environment and a healthy economy
are fully compatible objectives, and that they are essential elements in a strategy
for sustainable development (OECD, 1991).
In the United States, the Technology Innovation and Economics (TIE) Com-
mittee, a standing committee of EPA's National Advisory Council for Environ-
mental Policy and Technology made an extensive review and analysis of the
EPA's current programs and new initiatives to improve the environmental quality.
The TIE Committee found seven essential issues that changes are needed in
manufacturing processes, feedstocks and operating procedures to reduce volumes
and toxicity of pollutants prior to treatment and control. Each finding is not
necessarily related exclusively to only one issue area, nor does a single finding
fully express the conclusions drawn form exploration and review of a particular
issue. The Committee recommended major areas for improvement by trans-
forming environmental permitting and compliance policies to promote pollution
prevention.
(1) Finding: The current system of single-medium permitting has achieved
significant environmental gains primarily by stimulating a pollution control re-
sponse, rather than by encouraging pollution prevention.
Recommendation: Redesign permit procedures to foster and reward efforts
by regulated facilities to expand their use of both multi-media management and
pollution prevention approaches for environmental improvement.
(2) Finding: Existing permitting and compliance authorities at all levels of
government lack flexibility necessary to encourage technology innovation for
environmental purposes.
Recommendation: Accelerate the development of innovative pollution pre-
vention technologies and techniques and encourage their use by implementing the
252 15 The Role of Governmental Responsibility

recommendations on fostering technology innovation through permitting and

compliance policy.
(3) Finding: Greater flexibility is required under federal, state, and local
enforcement policies to allow and encourage facilities to use pollution preven-
tion approaches as part of compliance and other environmental improvement
activities.
Recommendation: Work with the states to encourage and develop pollution
prevention enforcement initiatives.
(4) Finding: Facility-wide pollution prevention planning can be a valuable
tool for encouraging regulated parties to comprehensively evaluate the cost and
environmental implications of a range of product design and technical produc-
tion alternatives, rather than simply focusing on mechanisms for environmental
compliance.
Recommendation: Proactively support state initiatives in multi-media pollu-
tion prevention facility planning.
(5) Finding: The positive relationship between industrial productivity and
environmental protection is not yet well understood or accepted by many leaders
in industry and government. Pollution prevention can help achieve both industrial
productivity and environmental improvement.
Recommendation: Create a culture change by working with federal, state, and
local agencies, non-profit organizations, universities, trade associations, and
environmental groups to facilitate the implementation of pollution prevention
technologies and techniques by expanding training, educational, and technology
diffusion efforts.
(6) Finding: Reward systems for EPA personnel place high value on the
development, implementation, and enforcement of single-media, pollution-con-
trol regulations without creating strong incentives for activities that encourage
and support pollution prevention.
Recommendation: Alter personnel reward systems to encourage EPA staff to
champion pollution prevention.
(7) Finding: EPA leadership in rewarding pollution prevention efforts outside
the agency provides significant encouragement for state and local regulatory
personnel and for staff of regulated parties to explore the use of pollution preven-
tion innovations.
Recommendation: Expand and publicize the system of national recognition
and awards honoring outstanding pollution prevention research, training, and
technology implementation.
These recommendations address changes are within the scope of USEPA's
permitting and compliance system. Many can be accomplished with the agency's
current statutory authorities. While there is consensus about many of the changes
needed to reduce barriers and increase incentives, the Committee believes that
much remains to be learned about the impacts of specific combinations of ap-
proaches to these permitting and compliance issues. The integration of pollution
prevention into the environmental management system is a complex undertaking
that will require a sustained commitment lasting several years (USEPA, 1993).
15.2 Regulations and Standards 253

15.2 Regulations and Standards

Pollution prevention means source reduction and other practices that reduce or
eliminate the creation of pollutants through; (a) increased efficiency in the use of
raw materials, energy, water, or other resources, or (b) protection of natural re-
sources by conservation. Source reduction means any practice which: (a) reduces
the amount of any hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant entering any
waste stream or otherwise released into the environment prior to recycling, treat-
ment, or disposal; and (b) reduces the hazards to public health and the environ-
ment associated with the release of such substances, pollutants, or contaminants.
Source reduction includes equipment or technology modifications, process or
procedure modifications, reformulation or redesign of products, substitution of
raw materials, and improvements in housekeeping, maintenance, training, or
inventory control. Pollution prevention approaches can be applied to all pollution-
generating activities, including those found in the energy, agriculture, federal,
consumer, as well as industrial sectors. The USEPA's pollution prevention stra-
tegy is grounded in two additional principles: (1) a multi-media focus, one that
looks at and avoids the potential transfer of risks from one medium to another;
and (2) a comprehensive evaluation of the total environmental impacts of
products over their entire life-cycle, from the development of raw materials
through manufacturing (including energy use) to use and ultimate disposal
(OEeD, 1991).
The attainment of sustainable development requires special regulations and
standards. Regulation of prices such as raw materials, goods and services should
better reflect their full environmental and social costs. The use of price regula-
tions (e.g., taxes, charges and tradable permits) to achieve environmental objec-
tives can provide strong incentives for technological innovation and behavioral
change, and offer good prospects for achieving environmental objectives in a
cost-effective manner.
Regulatory approaches will have to be continually reviewed and modified to
keep pace with evolving approaches to environmental protection. These include
the growing emphasis on comprehensive strategies, embodying such concepts as
integrated pollution prevention, life-cycle management and integrated natural
resource management.
Regulations on international trade need special attention. In an increasingly
interdependent world, environmental policies are likely to impact on levels and
patterns of trade; and there is growing use of trade approaches for achieving
environmental objectives. Other aspects to be considered include: management
of government-owned or operated facilities; procurement policies for goods and
services; product labeling programs; environmental impact assessment; and
government interaction with private sector institutions and the public. The might
lead to a set of common regulatory guidelines for good environmental practices
by governments.
It is important to reduce risks from man-made toxic chemicals and hazardous
wastes in the environment. People must be ensured that chemicals and wastes are
254 15 The Role of Governmental Responsibility

being tested effectively and efficiently and that measurement and monitoring
methodologies for chemical risk assessment and reduction are being developed.
Such work should be accelerated, in cooperation with industries and non-govern-
mental organizations. Governments must stimulate and assist the private sector to
introduce cleaner technologies to meet future environmental challenges (OECD,
1991)

15.3 Institutional Arrangements

Today, too high a percentage of government resources are spent in the admin-
istration of single-medium permitting actions, a high proportion of which are rou-
tine and provide little opportunity to have a significant environmental impact. It
is estimated that nearly 50% of a state's permitting resources are used for the rou-
tine reissuance of permits. The cost and time associated with the current permit
application, negotiation, and renewal process is excessive, not only for permittees
but also for the agencies which must process, draft, negotiate, review, conduct
hearings, and finally approve or deny each new permit, permit modification, or
permit renewal. Modifications to current permitting and compliance systems,
such as increasing the use of permits-by-rule or reducing the time taken admin-
istratively to process and review standard permit renewals, could help free
up resources so that agencies could not only focus on innovative pollution preven-
tion alternatives across the board, but also shift their scarce resources to deal
with those permits and enforcement cases which are the most environmentally
pressing and the could benefit most from pollution prevention approaches.
In exploring the issue of reallocating agency resources, government agencies
should consider and discuss the following three approaches:
(1) Self-reporting: Increased use of self-reporting mechanism. Toxic release
inventory reporting was cited as a model of what can be achieved through in-
creased informational requirements outside of a permitting system.
(2) Facility Siting Contracts: Facility siting contracts with local governments
and environmental public interest organizations. Such contracts could be
negotiated in conjunction with initial permitting of a facility. As long as the
facility keeps faith with the terms of the contract, subsequent permit modifi-
cations or renewals might be automatic or streamlined.
(3) Third Party Auditing: Third party auditing, paid for by the facility, to supple-
ment state or federal agency inspections. It would be utilized as part of
the enforcement scheme and would not replace traditional enforcement
activities. It is considered both the potential benefits of reducing resource
demands on government resources, and potential problems associated with
having a private entity fulfill an essentially governmental enforcement role
(USEPA, 1993).
Despite the encouraging signs of public and even producer support for higher
levels of environmental protection, there is powerful resistance to change built
15.4 Implementation 255

into the existing systems. Many of the pollution prevention programs being
implemented are at the cutting edge of science and information management, and
especially of public program management. Designing and implementing diverse,
flexible programs to produce sustained long-term results in a variety of sectors,
for example, demands highly skilled environmental managers with the ability to
tap much greater quantities of information not only about pollutants but about
production processes and products. Yet, most developing countries have limited
environmental professional to carry the work loads.

15.4 Implementation
All governments need a new implementing program on "Technology and En-
vironment" which examines policies governments might use to stimulate and
assist the private sector to introduce cleaner technology. Other areas where
innovative technology could yield important benefits include: development
and application of safe biotechnology to environmental management; prevention
of accidents involving hazardous substances; waste minimization; energy effi-
ciency; and the acquisition of improved environmental information by space
technologies.
All governments need to encourage companies to apply full-cost accounting
for the environment which is slowly becoming a reality. Full cost account-
ing means a managerial cost accounting method to identify and quantify the
direct (capital, operating, and regulatory), indirect (training and fines), and
intangible (contingent liability, good will) costs of a product, process, or activity.
Governments need also to encourage companies engaging the practice of merging
and comparing environmental information with asset, resource, income, cost,
managerial and financial data. Currently, USEPA, universities, the Global
Environmental Management Initiative (Washington), and the Tellus Institute
(Boston) among others are developing mechanisms and computer software for
environmental cost accounting (Kirschner, 1994).
Governments need to help each other, and urgently. Working together, sharing
information and performing cooperative projects is a way of enhancing the capa-
bility of individual government. Informed people with an ethical commitment to
care for the environment is essential to the future we envision. Success with the
technological, economic, and governmental changes is predicated on the under-
standing and wholehearted support of all people.
Environmental values must be integrated into the lifestyles of individuals and
families as well as into the conduct of businesses, labor, and governments. People
must have the knowledge, practical competence, and moral understanding to
cooperate in building a sustainable civilization. The pursuit of environmental
literacy will require curricular innovations from kindergarten through college,
changes in teacher education programs, expanded graduate programs, and con-
tinuing education, both formal and informal. Enhanced science research will
improve our knowledge of ecosystems, habitats, and public health and will add to
256 15 The Role of Governmental Responsibility

environmental literacy. Well-educated people, consumers and citizens are crucial

to successful environmental management in democratic societies. Governments
should give high priority to expanding and strengthening environmental edu-
cation at all levels, in particular to ensure that young people, and the future gene-
rations they represent, are sensitive to environmental values and risks.
International cooperation is critical to coping successfully with global-scale
environmental problems and risks in the 1990s and beyond. None can be solved
by one nation working alone. The issues should be addressed through the United
Nations Environment Program and in a variety of other international fora, as
well as through their domestic programs, but agreed that these efforts must be
strengthened.
Since pollution prevention is the best possible solution for environmental pro-
tection on both environmental and economic grounds, being potentially the most
effective method for reducing risks to human health and the environment and for
containing costs, we should call on all government to:
- Orient their existing environmental programs to emphasize pollution preven-
tion,
- Develop and use compatible analytical methods to assess the costs and
environmental impacts of the entire life-cycle management of products,
- Support the development and dissemination of better designs for industrial
processes, inter-alia, to reduce the use of energy and scarce raw materials, and
toxic pollutants, and the release of pollutants,
- Lead in the adoption of pollution prevention techniques through government
procurement practices the design and operation of government facilities, and
the development of a mix of economic and regulatory incentives,
- Allow the maximum opportunity for flexibility and innovation in the design
of pollution prevention approaches by industry and all other sectors of the
economy,
- Support cooperative international ventures,
- Involve the public, as citizens and as consumers, in pollution prevention
through education,
- Promote the use of pollution prevention impact statements, and
- Establish through an international forum, an appropriate demonstration of
pollution prevention (IUAPPA, 1991).

15.5 Community Actions

It is important that community must take its role to work with government
and industry solving the community pollution problems. A basic aim is to make
individuals and communities understand the complex nature of the natural and
man-made environments resulting from the interaction of their biological, physi-
cal, social, economic and cultural aspects, and acquire the knowledge, values,
attitudes and practical skills to participate in a responsible and effective way, in
15.5 Community Actions 257

anticipating and solving environmental problems, and management of the

quality of the environment.
If a community is to be effective in protecting itself from damage by pollution,
it needs to have a basic community spirit. The community having such spirit
can formulate its goals, its policy and its organizational structure and develop a
strategy and tactics for determining its own-development and protecting itself
from pollution. Each community needs a body such as an environmental com-
mittee which should be constantly monitoring the local environment, looking out
for threats to it and educating citizens about its importance. As regards tactics, the
community can involve itself in many activities, depending on the nature of the
issue under consideration. The media can be exploited, and contacts with news-
papers, radio and television maintained to keep the community's point of view
well covered and specific environmental issues dealt with.
To raise public awareness and to pinpoint specific environmental issues, the
local community can form alliances with government departments to fight pollu-
tion, particularly departments such as health, education, welfare, agriculture,
fisheries, forestry and environment whose particular responsibility is touched
by a given pollution issue. Clearly, the community needs technical assistance and
it needs to be educated to take a tough technical line in dealing with the techno-
crats of government and industry. In doing so it will be helping government and
industry to formulate better environmental projects.
The community can demand the preparation of an impact assessment of a
given project or an environmental survey of damage caused by a particular activi-
ty. But above all, the purpose of this type of activity should be for spokesperson
for the community to get together with representatives of the government and the
promoters of proposed projects from both the private and the public sectors, to
plan development projects on a fully participatory basis. Throughout the process
of participatory planning the community is working from a position of strength,
based on its knowledge of its own environment (Royston, 1979).
The general public must support and obey the established governmental rules
and regulations and private initiatives for better environment projects. The gene-
ral public must also accept the idea of modifying their lifestyle and consuming
habits to save materials and energy uses and reduce their generation of wastes
at home and workplace which cause immediate community pollution problems.
The consumer behavior must gear to purchase recycled products and eco-labeling
products whenever possible.

References
GAO (1994) Pollution Prevention: EPA Should Reexamine the Objectives and Sustainability
of State Programs. US General Accounting Office Publications, GAOIPEMD-94-8,
Washington DC, 20548
IUAPPA (1991) Declaration on Pollution Prevention of the International Union of Air Pollution
Associations approved on September 4,1991 at Seoul, Korea
OECD (1991) Press Release: Communique - Environment Committee Meeting in Paris on
January 30-31, 1991, SGIPRESS (91) 9
258 15 The Role of Governmental Responsibility

Porter ME (1990) "The Competitive Advantage of Nations", Harvard Business Review,

March - April 1990
Royston MG (1979) Pollution prevention Pays. Pergaman Press, Oxford. Chapter 11,
pp.154-166
USEPA (1993) Transforming Environmental Permitting And Compliance Policies To Promote
Pollution Prevention: Removing Barriers And Providing Incentives To Foster Technology
Innovation, Economic Productivity, And Environmental Protection. Office of the Ad-
minister (A-lOl F6), EPA 100-R-93-004, April 1993