This text explores how business and industry have already adopted environmental auditing and management tools; examines the deficiencies of government-imposed environmental regulations; and shows how organizations can become more proactive.

In an ongoing paradigm shift that will continue well into the next century, more and more of the responsibility for ensuring that companies are in compliance with the nation's environmental and safety & health laws will fall into the hands of the private sector and away from the traditional regulatory agencies of federal and state governments. This book will be a leading new publication on this compelling environmental issue, showing how a system of voluntary environmental auditing and management tools can be - and are - used in today's business world. The book begins by reviewing the history of environmental management and the pitfalls that have been encountered in the present penalty/compliance driven system of top-down government regulation, and then goes on to show that businesses can be convinced to adopt a more pro-active approach to monitoring and managing their environmentally affective activities. The book will also explain how the forces of the global marketplace can drive a company to voluntarily adopt effective environmental management systems, especially so now as the new ISO 14000 standards become more commonplace around the world entailing their own set of voluntary auditing and management guidelines.