What’s in it for me?
For Business

The benefits of Green Plans to Business and Industry are numerous in terms of direct cost-efficiencies such as reduced resource use, clean-up costs and more cost-effective processes, and by less tangible indirect means such as enhanced corporate image, increased employee morale and streamlined government interactions minimizing bureaucracy and its associated costs. The success of a business often hinges on its ability to adapt quickly to changing issues and consumer demand. The need for clean air and water and the minimization of resource depletion is more important today than ever, and businesses working in accordance with this will see more gains than losses.

Green planning countries employ policy frameworks that provide certainty in terms of long-term goals with incremental targets, and promote best practices by leaving it up to the company to determine how best to achieve those goals. This allows companies flexibility and alleviates cumbersome and inefficient government regulation designed to suit all businesses rather than specific industries with specific needs. Many tools have been developed to aid in the pursuit of ecological and environmental balance. Long-term industry covenants, environmental management systems, triple bottom line reporting, and initiatives such as the Responsible Care program are emerging in green planning nations and being replicated in other countries and states.

Covenants are policy management tools used by industry to meet national environmental goals established in the Netherlands’ 1989 National Environmental Policy Plan (NEPP). Read more about this innovative tool ...