Figure 73 shows the company‘s (organisation) external and internal relational elements. This complex relationship demonstrates that the company's effective operation and development are complex problems for top management.
A systematic approach can help solve problems related to analyses involving a company‘s external environment, while taking into account the social effects of the company‘s activities. Management has several available tools and techniques for collecting and using environmental information through decision preparation and environmental performance improvement.
1.
Basic tasks of environmental regulation include having environmental and economic interests meeting the requirement of society to maintain long-term harmony with nature.
The aim of environmental regulation:
• The efficient use of natural resources and the reduction of pollution to acceptable levels, and pollution prevention;
• To optimise environmental costs.
There are many solutions. Some cases may involve legislative and executive control of environmental processes, but more recently, market regulation through economic means has been more common, and other cases have involved private and voluntary arrangements as well.
Environmental regulation tools, methods and techniques:
• Direct (legal regulation) methods
For example, directives and bans. Sanctions are a way to transmit environmental pollution problems to polluters based on environmental policy expectations (for example, laws, regulation, emission and emission standards, specification, production process control, product regulation).
• Indirect (economic, market regulation) methods
Environmental authorities make an effort to motivate producers, institutions, and consumers to behave as more environmentally friendly participants (through environmental taxes, fees, subsidies, environmental contributions, product charges or duties).
• Mixed regulatory methods
Systems which operate as emission trade (airspace politics, emissions equalization systems, emission banking, combined emission pollution).
• Management techniques and methods
Management operates from the viewpoint of environmental protection (environmental impact assessment, eco- audit, green marketing).
• Other regulations
Subsidies, warranties, obligations, tax, environmental liability insurance, education-training.
• Ethical (voluntary) methods
Environmentally-friendly producer and consumer behaviour are not enforced by law, and in addition, do not provide economic benefits in the short-term (For example: voluntary professional contracts, the sustainable development approach, corporate environmental impact assessment).
The main environmental management tools are the following:
• environmental policies
• environmental management systems
Businesses/organisations in industry groups that use, generate, or store hazardous materials, or that conduct activities related to those materials must pay environmental fees.
• a) payments for the discharge of pollutants into the environment (air and water);
• b) payments for the placement of production and consumption waste in the environment; and
• c) payments for environmentally-harmful products.
Fees (Figure 16) work best if they account for the natural variation in environmental impact and cost of control.
For example, if non-point sources are a larger contributor to nutrient load than point sources, the environmental fee system should focus on the non-point sources. Similarly, if nutrients discharged from certain geographic areas have a greater environmental impact than those discharged in other areas, environmental fees could be structured to reflect this fact. For example, a non-point source fee that varied by agricultural district could capture this geographical variation in the contribution of sources to environmental damage. The costs of control also may vary by the type of source. One basic question that must be considered in designing an environmental tax system is what is going to be taxed. A basic principle is that it is best to tax something as closely tied to the environmental damage as is administratively feasible. Fees can be based on environmental damage, on pollution discharge, on fixed or variable inputs to production, or on consumer products or household activities. Ideally, the fee would be based on the amount of damage caused to the environment. As discussed above, this generally is not possible because the damage caused by any individual or firm is usually not observable or is only observable at a very high administrative cost. Two basic alternatives have been suggested. The first basic approach is to base a tax (or subsidy) on something closely correlated to the actual damage caused by the individual polluter. One way this can be done is to tax the amount of effluent an individual polluter discharges into the waterway. With point sources, the cost of monitoring and observing effluent discharge may be low enough to make it feasible. The second basic approach is to base the tax on ambient quality rather than individual pollution. In this tax structure, each discharger in a water basin would be taxed for the amount by which damage to the water resource exceeds a socially-desirable level of damage.
In practice, pollution charges, fees, and taxes often do not fit neatly into theoretical categories. They often are used in conjunction with other instruments and are designed primarily for revenue generation rather than for their capacity to improve the effectiveness of pollution control measures. Often it is difficult to tease out the contribution of the fee or tax from other factors affecting polluters‘ behaviour. In many cases, this has not been done.
3. Emission taxes
Emission taxes provide a solution to the failure of the free market caused by problems involving negative externalities. Using an emission tax, the government simply fixes an amount of tax that companies pay for every