ABSTRACT
One of the most significant challenges that has emerged in the 1990s for environmental managers and for those seeking employment as environmental managers is the anti-regulatory climate characterizing the attitudes of the US Congress and state legislatures. Assisting in this corporate "reformation" have been the activities of other, non-governmental entities that have come to be known as "surrogate regulators:" banks, insurance companies, accounting firms, the stockholders and investors of these entities, and international standard-setting organizations. The interest of an accounting firm in the issue of a corporation's environmental liabilities stems from the extent to which the corporation is responsible for remediation of an environmental liability. Insurance companies have become surrogate regulators because corporations have become legally liable not only for current, individual pollution events, but also for the effects of pollution over long periods of time. The International Organization for Standardization, ISO, quartered in Geneva, Switzerland, has been at the forefront in developing standards for environmental performance.
