This book provides a critical understanding of the challenges that exist in protecting the local and global environment through compliance efforts using existing environmental regulations. The best compliance measures with the most useful regulations from over 50 countries are surveyed and are combined with science-based quantitative analysis of geology, hydrogeology, and the chemistry of contaminants from anthropogenic sources. The results are presented as a model that establishes a means by which protection of the environment can be greatly improved. This is accomplished through a deeper understanding of our natural world and how anthropogenic activities and their management affect our planet. Features The first book that examines the successes of environmental regulation worldwide and highlights the areas that need improvement Presents a tested and verified scientific model for enhanced environmental protection with scalability from local parcels to global levels Describes and integrates the importance of understanding the geologic and hydrogeologic environment of urban and developed areas Explains the importance of understanding the different types of pollution and their behavior in the environment Identifies the need for consistency in banning chemicals that are harmful in not just one country but throughout the world

Sustainability is based on a simple and long-recognized factual premise: Everything that humans require for their survival and well-being depends, directly or indirectly, on the natural environment. The environment provides the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. Recognizing the importance of sustainability to its work, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working to create programs and applications in a variety of areas to better incorporate sustainability into decision-making at the agency. To further strengthen the scientific basis for sustainability as it applies to human health and environmental protection, the EPA asked the National Research Council (NRC) to provide a framework for incorporating sustainability into the EPA's principles and decision-making. This framework, Sustainability and the U.S. EPA, provides recommendations for a sustainability approach that both incorporates and goes beyond an approach based on assessing and managing the risks posed by pollutants that has largely shaped environmental policy since the 1980s. Although risk-based methods have led to many successes and remain important tools, the report concludes that they are not adequate to address many of the complex problems that put current and future generations at risk, such as depletion of natural resources, climate change, and loss of biodiversity. Moreover, sophisticated tools are increasingly available to address cross-cutting, complex, and challenging issues that go beyond risk management. The report recommends that EPA formally adopt as its sustainability paradigm the widely used "three pillars" approach, which means considering the environmental, social, and economic impacts of an action or decision. Health should be expressly included in the "social" pillar. EPA should also articulate its vision for sustainability and develop a set of sustainability principles that would underlie all agency policies and programs.

The book provides crucial contributions to the environment and sustainable development literature by presenting theoretical and empirical analyses. The contributions deal with macro dimensions of environmental pollution and micro dimensions such as consumption, marketing, accounting and firm behavior both in theory and empirically.

This book presents inspiring ideas about how law can support the fundamental transition processes to a sustainable future and how it can provide guidance on the pathways to sustainability.

This book explores how compliance with international environmental law has changed over time, offering a critical analysis of its current shifting patterns. Beginning with an overview of compliance with international environmental law, the book goes on to explore in detail: compliance in the different legal regimes instituted by Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), the addition of new subjects of international law, the legal relations between developed and developing countries, and the emergence of new compliance mechanisms in global environmental law. The analysis takes two key developments into consideration: the evolution in forms of compliance and non-state involvement in compliance with international environmental law. In the final section, three case studies are provided to demonstrate how these changes have occurred in selected areas: climate change, biodiversity and water resources. Throughout the book, topics are illustrated with extracts from specific international environmental law jurisprudence and relevant international environmental law instruments. In doing so, the book offers a comprehensive analysis of compliance with international environmental law, providing original insights and following a clear and systematic structure supported by reference to the sources. This book will be of interest to professionals, academics and students working in the field of compliance with international environmental law.

Business sustainability has advanced from greenwashing and branding to being a business imperative. Stakeholders, including shareholders, demand, regulators require, and companies now need to report their sustainability performance. No longer is this a choice for businesses. A decade ago, fewer than 50 companies released sustainability reports, and now more 8,000 global public companies disclose sustainability performance information on some or all five economic, governance, social, ethical, and environmental (EGSEE) dimensions of sustainability performance, and this trend is expected to continue. Indeed, more than 6,000 European public companies would be required to disclose their environmental, social, governance and diversity information for their 2017 reporting year. However, the proper determination of sustainability performance, accurate and reliable reporting and independent assurance of sustainability information remain major challenges for organizations of all types and sizes. Through reading this book, you will: Identify sustainability strategies to create innovation in new products, services, energy-efficiency, environmental facilities and green initiatives. Understand the role and responsibilities of all participants in the corporate reporting process, including directors, officers, internal auditors, external auditors, legal counsel, and investors. See ways to improve public trust, investor confidence, business reputation, employee satisfaction, corporate culture, social responsibility and environmental performance. Learn all five economic, governance, social, ethical and environmental (EGSEE) dimensions of sustainability performance separately and their integrated and interactive effects on achieving the goal of creating sustainable value for all stakeholders, including shareholders. Learn how to adopt best practices in sustainability development and performance, and deliver effective integrated sustainability reporting and assurance.

Compliance has become key to our contemporary markets, societies, and modes of governance across a variety of public and private domains. While this has stimulated a rich body of empirical and practical expertise on compliance, thus far, there has been no comprehensive understanding of what compliance is or how it influences various fields and sectors. The academic knowledge of compliance has remained siloed along different disciplinary domains, regulatory and legal spheres, and mechanisms and interventions. This handbook bridges these divides to provide the first one-stop overview of what compliance is, how we can best study it, and the core mechanisms that shape it. Written by leading experts, chapters offer perspectives from across law, regulatory studies, management science, criminology, economics, sociology, and psychology. This volume is the definitive and comprehensive account of compliance.