ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a set of driving forces and barriers and provides recommendations to companies doing business in the Andean Region of Latin America. The driving forces affect the design and implementation of the environmental management system. Governments in the nations are introducing market-based incentives to achieve sound environmental behaviour through market mechanisms and those economic instruments are used in a complementary manner to command-and-control measures in some cases. Global environmental problems have led to international agreements on global warming, depletion of the ozone layer, hazardous wastes, biodiversity. National priorities divert environmental expenditures to the payment for items that take precedence. Governments in the Andean Region, for instance, struggle to strike a balance between conflicting needs. The driving forces are largely voluntary. Any country can choose not to act and there are no enforceable sanctions. The driving forces are also largely positive.
