Environmental Policies and International Standards

This essay discusses how environmental policies are affecting global organizations and evaluates the progress of international agencies and NGOs in establishing international standards. It also highlights the role of environmental management practices such as voluntary environmental management practices (VEMP) and green supply chain management (GSCM) in creating an environmentally sustainable business. The essay also mentions the guidelines and requirements set by the International organization for Standards (ISO) for establishing international standards.

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Environmental Policies and International Standards
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1ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES AND INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS
Environmental crises are emerging issues in the contemporary world. Every country is
taking legal actions to maintain the environmental balance. Enterprises that operate on the
global market are also facing challenges to keep an environmentally sustain business. On this
context, Canada had been trying to improve their environmental policies in order to meet the
international standards. This essay will discuss how environmental policies are effecting
global organizations and will evaluate the progress of international agencies and NGOs in
establishing international standards.
In this age of globalization, environmental policies play the role of pressuring the
multinational companies to adopt several environmental management technics to keep the
environment less polluted. As a result, the multinational enterprises (MNE) that operate
globally are embracing features like voluntary environmental management practices (VEMP)
and green supply chain management (GSCM) in response to the policies. Although MNEs
prefer to position their activities, which are more polluting in nature, in the emerging
countries to exploit their loose environmental regulations; the increasing concern about the
environmental issues in the governments make them use practices like VEMP. As, the
enterprises grow their business in the foreign countries, they feel obligated to avoid legal
issues that could have a negative impact on their companies, and thus commit to the VEMP
(Tatoglu et al., 2014). Another way to have environmentally sustained business is to employ
GSCM. It is a developing issue for several years in the corporate environmental practices.
Organizations from developing countries that are manufacturing in foreign countries, such as
China, practise GSCM as they aim to avoid financial risks regarding environmental issues
(Zhu, Sarkis and Lai, 2013). In the context of rising preferences for eco-friendly business,
well-established companies, on the other hand, find GSCM practices useful to attract foreign
organizations that look for environmentally credible companies for collaboration.

2ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES AND INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS
The International organization for Standards (ISO) determines the guidelines and
requirements that an organization needs to follow in order to establish international standards.
Every agency must employ environmental management system (EMS) to create an
environmentally sustainable business, and for this process, the ISO created guidelines that
help the organizations to apply their ideas correctly (Iso.org, n.d.). The Canadian government
have been focussing on environmental sustainability for more than a decade. International
agencies and NGOs in Canada studied successful implementation of different EMSs in
various countries and analysed them to understand which practice would be most effective
for them. In past few years, few Canadian provinces were introduced with new legislations,
such as Climate Change and Emissions Management Act, Green Energy Act, 2009 and
Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act (Canada, n.d.) that spread awareness against greenhouse
gases and encourage using bio energy. These Acts helped Canadian international agencies
and NGOs to build businesses that promote saving energy, preserving and recycling natural
resources to keep the environment healthy; and helped to meet the ISO standards. Aiming to
reduce energy consumption, Canadian government had authorised investigators to conduct a
proper and uninformed inspection in order to create audit reports. Due to the recent
worldwide strictness in environmental laws, agencies that operate globally are taking up
various methods of environmental management to maintain their competitiveness in the
global market.
It is crucial for every organization to operate in a way that helps preserving the
environment. Thus, in conclusion, it can be said that each country is developing ways to
reduce pollution for maintaining a more sustainable environment.

3ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES AND INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS
Reference List
Canada, E. (n.d.). Acts and regulations: Environment and Climate Change Canada -
Canada.ca. [online] Canada.ca. Available at: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-
change/corporate/acts-regulations.html [Accessed 20 Jul. 2018].
Iso.org. (n.d.). Search. [online] Available at: https://www.iso.org/search.html?q=environment
[Accessed 20 Jul. 2018].
Tatoglu, E., Bayraktar, E., Sahadev, S., Demirbag, M. and Glaister, K.W., 2014.
Determinants of voluntary environmental management practices by MNE
subsidiaries. Journal of World Business, 49(4), pp.536-548.
Zhu, Q., Sarkis, J. and Lai, K.H., 2013. Institutional-based antecedents and performance
outcomes of internal and external green supply chain management practices. Journal of
Purchasing and Supply Management, 19(2), pp.106-117.