The emerging UK law on the environment and the environmental auditing response

Abstract

Environmental law has developed rapidly in the twentieth century, but Britain lacks an environmental code. Cost of compliance is likely to rise rapidly as the number of statuary offences increases. Environmental legislation gives regulators the power to rectify damage caused by polluters. As a result companies need to develop effective responses. Environmental auditing (EA) is a sub‐set of corporate responsibility reporting of which there are a number of theoretical perspectives. However, ISO 14000 has recently emerged, which will determine organizations’ approaches to environmental reporting. EA imposes costs on organizations and many have found difficulty in implementing such systems. Some organizations see environmentalism as an opportunity to pursue a managerial agenda. If this is the case then EA may degenerate into a marketing tool.

Citation

Watson, M. and Emery, A.R.T. (2003), "The emerging UK law on the environment and the environmental auditing response", Managerial Auditing Journal, Vol. 18 No. 8, pp. 666-672. https://doi.org/10.1108/02686900310495160