Riding the Tide of Global and European Environmental Regulations : Best Practices of Global Companies Responding to Global and European Environmental Regulations

This paper presents best practices of global companies on how they monitor, measure, respond and manage risks arising from global and European environmental regulations. This paper will begin with a review of the development and trends of international and European environmental regulations that have had an impact on production and international trade between 2000 and 2005. It will then provide an analytical overview of global companies having sound environment, health and safety (EHS) institutional setting, tools and programs, EHS information management systems, and industry or company initiatives to manage regulatory risks globally as well as on the European wide. The contribution of this paper is to discuss the concrete and practical implications of growing international environmental regulations having impacts on global industrial operations and demonstrate best EHS management practices of global companies. The analysis will provide a clear overview and forecast of how Korean companies can formulate their risk management plans and management systems against existing and fast evolving international and European environmental regulations. This paper concludes by highlighting the regulatory risks arising from diversified existing and expected international and European environmental regulations and suggests tools and best practices in order to minimize incumbent risks and costs that can be caused from international environmental regulations