Environmental Legislation

Businesses of all sizes and kinds are now subject to increasingly stringent environmental laws and regulations.

Whilst students don't need to know the details of these laws and regulations, it is important to have an awareness of the main areas.

These are:

• Emissions into the air
• Storage, disposal & recovery of business waste
• Storing and handling hazardous substances
• Packaging
• Discharges of wastewater

Failure to comply with environmental laws can lead to significant fines and loss of business reputation.

A good example is VW. Since 2015, VW has paid between 25-30 billion euros to settle investor and consumer lawsuits as well as regulatory fines and remedies tied to resolving excessive emissions levels in its diesel cars.

Business compliance with environmental legislation therefore has several benefits:

• It avoids damaging costs
• it avoids potential loss of business reputation and goodwill
• It can be seen as a positive to customers if a business actively embraces protection of the environment