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Pollution can incur costly clean-up programmes, erode company profits, and undermine governmental policy towards sustainable economic development. Governments and insureds are inquiring about insurance and environmental management systems (EMSs) to help prevent, control, and compensate for the risk of pollution. There is little analysis on using these instruments in defence of the environment. This issue is explored in a workshop and survey questionnaire on EMSs and public liability insurance concerning pollution risks in the UK market. EMSs might provide risk and claims assessment information, reduce pollution risks in the long term, and lead to comparatively lower insurance premiums. Insurers' rating, assessment, investigation, statistical and education work with regard to pollution risks is in its infancy and there is little knowledge, poor recognition and low confidence in EMSs. Political, practical, economic and legal problems impede insurers' capacity to reply positively to pollution risks and EMSs. Failure to overcome these issues reduces the insurers' and insureds' ability to prevent and control the risk of pollution and lessen its aftermath of detrimental consequences.

This paper explores the use of insurance and environmental management systems (EMSs) to prevent and control the risk of pollution. To assess this issue, a series of interviews with insurers was conducted to find out their opinions and attitudes on EMSs about insurance for pollution. The main scope of the research is composite insurance, public liability and EMSs, within the UK market. Insurers' believed that EMSs could theoretically help insureds and insurers, respectively, prevent and control, and assess and settle pollution. However, there is little evidence to support this assertion. Moreover, EMSs assess pollution incompletely from the insurers' point of view. Furthermore, insurers' initial assessment and post loss investigation of pollution are generally not well developed, and there is little knowledge about and poor recognition of EMSs. Economic, practical, legal and political issues hinder insurers' ability to respond positively to EMSs. Therefore, insurance and EMSs are insufficiently developed to play a lead role in lessening the risk of pollution.

Today, there are many environmental management tools available to support integration of environmental perspectives in decision-making processes. However, a single tool is seldom the answer to all queries. This paper shows potential benefits of using a combination of different environmental management tools in a local authority context. Three environmental management tools used in Swedish local authorities are examined — Substance Flow Analyses (SFA), Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), and Environmental Management Systems (EMSs) — from mainly a theoretical point-of-view. The tools are positioned according to their key characteristics, and their individual contribution to environmental management in local authorities is explored. For the local authorities, a combination of tools allows decision-makers to integrate experience from individual projects to overall environmental management, which helps decision-makers to deal with some of the challenges that different environmental management situations require.

Triple bottom line (TBL) reporting is a concept that is sweeping across the business sector, government and NGOs. However, many of the issues faced by consideration of the social in TBL are very similar to issues faced by social impact assessment (SIA) in its connections with biophysical environmental impact assessment (EIA) and the financial considerations associated with projects including economic and fiscal impact assessment, and cost-benefit analysis. It would appear that the advocates of TBL and the institutions that have adopted TBL are ignorant of SIA and other forms of impact assessment. The view presented here is that TBL is a fad that presents little that is new, and that TBL would learn a great deal by considering the experience of SIA.

Effective delivery of mitigation remains a challenge in environmental impact assessment (EIA) practice. Actual environmental protection outcomes depend as much on an appropriate ex-ante assessment as on the capacity of project proponents of implementing preventative, corrective and compensatory programs, using environmental management tools to ensure demonstrable performance. The context question explored here is: How can the EIA follow-up phase take advantage of the features and resources of environmental management systems (EMS)? Evidence was obtained by studying two cases of highway construction affecting valued environments. The projects, intentionally selected, were built in the same area with an eight-year interval between them. Follow-up resulted in the identification of significant unforeseen geo-environmental impacts leading to the adoption of corrective action not required in the terms and conditions of approval. It was found that lessons learned by different actors involved in the first project led to stronger environmental management procedures incorporated in the latter.

The context of sustainable development poses new challenges for traditional environmental decision-making tools, such as environmental impact assessment, environmental management system and life cycle assessment. Today these tools are expected to provide multi-disciplinary information to aid sustainability decisions, not just to inform decisions about environmental effects. This paper brings together the different perspectives of authors from EIA, EMS and clean technology/LCA to examine critically the separate tools in the context of sustainable development, and their inter-relationships, and identifies a "tool-user's dilemma": whether to use a tool as intended, to adapt it or develop something new. The paper examines the similarities of these key tools and recognises both a paradigm shift and a congruence in the way in which they have developed: from being merely tools, through being techniques to approaches. The paper concludes by suggesting an integrated framework within which the tools can continue to operate effectively, and one that helps resolve the tool-user's dilemma. Clean Technology is seen as providing a useful philosophical understanding for the operation of this outline framework.

As Asian countries enter the twenty-first century, they face a litany of environmental problems which are particularly reflected in the poor quality of urban settlements and diminishing natural resources. Many commentators look to the failure of regulation to explain these problems. In response, efforts are currently being made to strengthen existing regulatory structures in a number of countries throughout Asia. In the meantime, there is a growing consensus in the West that traditional "command and control" mechanisms are not necessarily the most effective means of resolving environmental problems. Alternative instruments such as enviromental assessment, environmental audits and management systems may be used more strategically to prevent pollution at source and to ensure that the polluter pays. This article considers the brief history of the use of these instruments in Asia to date and then considers what lessons might be drawn from the experience of other countries in respect to both the "command and control" and the more "strategic" forms of regulation as a basis for more fundamental reform. In conclusion, the paper considers the implications of education and training in Asia.

The proliferation of global trade and commerce provides both challenges and opportunities for addressing transboundary pollution and furthering global sustainability. In addition to international policy instruments and legislation, standardised approaches to environmental management can improve environmental performance and reduce the escalating levels of pollution that are being experienced worldwide, and particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.

In Hong Kong, 35 organisations have been certified to the ISO 14001 international environmental management system (EMS) standard, joining over 5000 more worldwide. While this trend is encouraging, Hong Kong's experience demonstrates that significant barriers exist for EMS to become a mainstream tool for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

As is it unlikely that certification will become mandatory at the international level, additional effort is therefore required to overcome these barriers, such as raising the awareness of all stakeholders to the benefits of the EMS and facilitating access to the necessary financial and technological assistance.

The developer of the Confederation Bridge Project in eastern Canada is successfully implementing a life-of-project environmental management strategy for this privately-funded public project. The cornerstone of this strategy is the Environmental Management Plan (EMP), an umbrella document which describes how the developer is managing all environmental aspects of the project throughout the construction phase and the subsequent 35-year period of private ownership. The EMP is comprised of several dynamic plans and programmes. Owing to unique circumstances, the EMP was developed prior to the completion of the environmental assessment, providing an example of the benefit of such, especially for a finance-build-own-operate-transfer infrastructure project. The experience of this project leads to the conclusion that the use of environmental management systems to encapsulate environmental management strategies early in project planning would be beneficial.

The developer of the Confederation Bridge Project in eastern Canada is successfully implementing a life-of-project environmental management strategy for this privately-funded public project. The cornerstone of this strategy is the Environmental Management Plan (EMP), an umbrella document which describes how the developer is managing all environmental aspects of the project throughout the construction phase and the subsequent 35-year period of private ownership. The EMP is comprised of several dynamic plans and programmes. Owing to unique circumstances, the EMP was developed prior to the completion of the environmental assessment, providing an example of the benefit of such, especially for a finance-build-own-operate-transfer infrastructure project. The experience of this project leads to the conclusion that the use of environmental management systems to encapsulate environmental management strategies early in project planning would be beneficial.

Triple bottom line (TBL) reporting is a concept that is sweeping across the business sector, government and NGOs. However, many of the issues faced by consideration of the social in TBL are very similar to issues faced by social impact assessment (SIA) in its connections with biophysical environmental impact assessment (EIA) and the financial considerations associated with projects including economic and fiscal impact assessment, and cost-benefit analysis. It would appear that the advocates of TBL and the institutions that have adopted TBL are ignorant of SIA and other forms of impact assessment. The view presented here is that TBL is a fad that presents little that is new, and that TBL would learn a great deal by considering the experience of SIA.

The context of sustainable development poses new challenges for traditional environmental decision-making tools, such as environmental impact assessment, environmental management systems and life cycle assessment. Today these tools are expected to provide multidisciplinary information to aid sustainability decisions, not just to inform decisions about environmental effects. This paper brings together the different perspectives of authors from EIA, EMS and clean technology/LCA to examine critically the separate tools in the context of sustainable development, and their inter-relationships, and identifies a “tool-user's dilemma”: whether to use a tool as intended, to adapt it or develop something new. The paper examines the similarities of these key tools and recognises both a paradigm shift and a congruence in the way in which they have developed: from being merely tools, through being techniques to approaches. The paper concludes by suggesting an integrated framework within which the tools can continue to operate effectively, and one that helps resolve the tool-user's dilemma. Clean Technology is seen as providing a useful philosophical understanding for the operation of this outline framework.

Today, there are many environmental management tools available to support integration of environmental perspectives in decision-making processes. However, a single tool is seldom the answer to all queries. This paper shows potential benefits of using a combination of different environmental management tools in a local authority context. Three environmental management tools used in Swedish local authorities are examined — Substance Flow Analyses (SFA), Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), and Environmental Management Systems (EMSs) — from mainly a theoretical point-of-view. The tools are positioned according to their key characteristics, and their individual contribution to environmental management in local authorities is explored. For the local authorities, a combination of tools allows decision-makers to integrate experience from individual projects to overall environmental management, which helps decision-makers to deal with some of the challenges that different environmental management situations require.