Dealing with the regulator

Did you hear the one about the company that was fined £225,000 for failing to register under the Packaging Waste Directive? Or the one about the company charged £80,000 for running a waste business without the appropriate permit? This is no laughing matter. Ten years ago the European Commission positioned itself as an enforcer of environmental laws rather than simply as a legislator. Since then regulatory authorities in the UK have been given increasing powers to prosecute wrongdoers. The power to investigate and penalize has seeped into local authorities and government agencies. It is no longer the sole preserve of the police to interview and charge someone whom they suspect has committed a criminal offence. Nowadays, powers once administered by the police may equally be utilized by your local health and safety officer.

Planning for and managing climate change

Many people’s perception of climate change is that it will lead to warmer conditions and that in the UK, where weather is a perennial topic of conversation, this must be a good thing. Something that many people fail to grasp is that climate change equals global warming equals disruption of the weather patterns that we have grown up with. There have been many instances of freak weather in the last hundred years or so, but generally weather patterns across the globe have been fairly stable. However, as we all know, this is starting to change. The Gulf Stream brings warm ocean currents across the Atlantic from the Gulf of Mexico. This has a positive impact on the weather of the UK, particularly on the west side. Toronto in Canada, for example, is further south than the UK but has much more severe winters. Disruption to the Gulf Stream could mean a dramatic change in the UK’s climate. The debate about whether climate change is being caused by natural cycles or human intervention rumbles on. The knowledge of past events on our planet proves conclusively that weather patterns go through cycles – for example ice ages – and we may be entering one of these new cycles. However, it is also certain that we have been polluting the planet to unprecedented levels since the industrial revolution, and the likelihood is that this is contributing to climate change. Some governments and organizations have looked only at the short-term view in relation to climate change issues, but things are improving and there now seems to be a much stronger will to ‘save the planet’ before it is too late. Whether we have yet reached the tipping point or whether we can, or will, have any impact on reversing or slowing down climate change remains to be seen, but everyone has a moral obligation to participate in the process.

Environmental risk

Does the term ‘environmental risk’ conjure up images of risk to business by environmental activities or risk to the environment by business activities? It’s an interesting – and interlinked – question. When businesses talk about environmental risk, more often than not the risk is taken to mean risk from the environment rather than risk to the environment. More companies are concerned by the risk that environmental factors can have upon operations and profitability than the impact that running a business has upon the environment. The effect the environment can have upon a business is particular to that operation; in other words, no two businesses will be affected in the same way, and the results can be devastating. The effect of recent summers’ torrential rain and flooding has shown how business and communities can be left in ruins. Incredibly, according to the Environment Agency, small businesses are now more at risk of flooding than of fire. The need to have emergency plans in place in the event of business disruption emanating from such natural phenomena is obvious.
Conversely, the effect of one business upon the environment cannot be taken in isolation; its effect is cumulative and contributes to change on a global scale. Despite the best efforts of the recent Republican candidate for the US vice-presidency, Sarah Palin, to advise us to the contrary, few remain in doubt that human behaviour is having a fundamental impact on accelerating and worsening climate change.