ABSTRACT
The chemical industry’s Responsible Care Program has encouraged chemical firms to form partnerships with communities to invite third-party audits to show what the firms are doing and how they are controlling pollution, as well as to illustrate how more can be accomplished. To reduce the fear that results of third party audits will be used against environmentally responsible organizations, the state of South Carolina is considering legislation that would prevent the use of such findings to incriminate firms and individuals for violations voluntarily discovered and corrected. The statute would not replace other federal environmental statutes, but would change how the regulation would be applied and carried out. Pennsylvania Governor, Thomas Ridge, is ready to explore alternative regulatory tracks and is calling for vision and action. The most prominent among a number of voluntary private-sector environmental initiatives is the new International Organization for Standardization’s ISO 14001 Environmental Management System Standard.
