Governance, Risk, and Compliance Handbook: Technology, Finance, Environmental, and International Guidance and Best Practices

CHAPTER 28

THE TRAJECTORY OF ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION: A STRATEGIC APPROACH FOR INDUSTRY

Michael Kirschner

28.1 DRIVERS

28.2 CHARACTERISTICS OF RESULTING REGULATIONS

(a) Thematic Strategies

(b) Integrated Product Policy

(c) RoHS and WEEE

(d) Energy-using Products

(e) REACH

(f) Other Important Recent Regulatory Activities

28.3 THE IMPACT

28.4 A HOLISTIC APPROACH

NOTES

The electronics, automotive, cosmetics, toy, textile, chemical, and other industries are being subjected to a new strain of environmental regulations worldwide that is creating enormous challenges for them as well as substantial opportunities. This chapter covers four areas:

1. A short overview of the drivers for this new type of regulation
2. The characteristics of the resulting regulations (both current and future)
3. The impact of these regulations on the product life cycle process
4. A holistic approach to product design that enables a strategic approach to environmental regulation

28.1 DRIVERS

In late 2004 the WWF (formerly the World Wildlife Fund) published its biannual Living Planet Report.1 According to the report, human impact on the natural environment includes a 40 percent decline in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine species populations; an increase in "energy footprint"2 of 700 percent; an increase of human population of 65 percent; and a transition from using about half the earth's biological capacity to exceeding it by 20 percent—all over the past four decades. Simply looking around nearly any industrialized ...