ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the process of change in a complex, competitive, and heavily regulated sector of society and will serve as a valuable guide to environmental stakeholders who need to, or wish to, collaborate across sector lines for enhanced and more efficient environmental performance. It presents a case for the inevitability that environmental management responsibility will shift from the government to the private-sector. The book focuses on reliable and verifiable information sources from industry, government, and non-governmental environmental organizations in the US to comprehensively identify and describe the deficiencies in the nation’s current strategy for protecting the environment through the regulation of industry. ISO 14000 has the potential to provide environmental management functions that parallel portions of Environmental Protection Agency’s existing regulatory activities in areas where the Agency has been criticized for being ineffective or inefficient.
