My title is a bit of drama. The truth as long as you and your company are doing the basic things of doing what is right no one is going to jail for accidential contamination. Now for the rest of you out there jail time is coming your way sooner than you think. Sure right now a lot of companies are getting away with all sorts of intentional dumping, especially in the un/under developed countries; along with paying off the right people to look the other way.
I know there are strategies that businesses use to keep their owners/board members protected. Such as hiding behind a Environmental (or EHS) manager. Giving these positions the outward impression of having decision making authority. So that if the hammer ever were to fall these folks would be taking the majority of the beat down. Think pawn; expendable.
Or there is the strategy of documentation without documenting anything. Very clever move. The impression that all looks good. And again with the support of local politicans it is easy to look good to the world.
There are environmental laws in alot of countries that do not respect the corporate veil of protection. In fact they use the veil to identify these responsible parties. The worse part is that these laws do not allow the violation fines to be tax deductable; tsk tsk
I am sure the smart business people (including the sales staff) have accountants making the decisions of what to do to prevent spills (training and equipment), as well as how to handle the spills when one occurs (clean up). Unless you have a BP level incident little public involvement allows for a lot of mess to go unaddressed.
But there are companies that see the world through different eyes. The eyes of a responsible corporate citizen. Seeing the good of long term business, and know that having a good name is as valuable a asset as a piece of machinery. These are the companies that will weather the economic tidal troughs and surges.
I know there are strategies that businesses use to keep their owners/board members protected. Such as hiding behind a Environmental (or EHS) manager. Giving these positions the outward impression of having decision making authority. So that if the hammer ever were to fall these folks would be taking the majority of the beat down. Think pawn; expendable.
Or there is the strategy of documentation without documenting anything. Very clever move. The impression that all looks good. And again with the support of local politicans it is easy to look good to the world.
There are environmental laws in alot of countries that do not respect the corporate veil of protection. In fact they use the veil to identify these responsible parties. The worse part is that these laws do not allow the violation fines to be tax deductable; tsk tsk
I am sure the smart business people (including the sales staff) have accountants making the decisions of what to do to prevent spills (training and equipment), as well as how to handle the spills when one occurs (clean up). Unless you have a BP level incident little public involvement allows for a lot of mess to go unaddressed.
But there are companies that see the world through different eyes. The eyes of a responsible corporate citizen. Seeing the good of long term business, and know that having a good name is as valuable a asset as a piece of machinery. These are the companies that will weather the economic tidal troughs and surges.
