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GENERAL
A/CONF.151/26 (Vol. III)
14 August 1992
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH
REPORT OF THE UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON
ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
(Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992)
Chapter 30
STRENGTHENING THE ROLE OF BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY
INTRODUCTION
30.1. Business and industry, including transnational corporations,
play a crucial role in the social and economic development of a
country. A stable policy regime enables and encourages business and
industry to operate responsibly and efficiently and to implement
longer-term policies. Increasing prosperity, a major goal of the
development process, is contributed primarily by the activities of
business and industry. Business enterprises, large and small, formal
and informal, provide major trading, employment and livelihood
opportunities. Business opportunities available to women are
contributing towards their professional development, strengthening
their economic role and transforming social systems. Business and
industry, including transnational corporations, and their
representative organizations should be full participants in the
implementation and evaluation of activities related to Agenda 21.
30.2. Through more efficient production processes, preventive
strategies, cleaner production technologies and procedures throughout
the product life cycle, hence minimizing or avoiding wastes, the
policies and operations of business and industry, including
transnational corporations, can play a major role in reducing impacts
on resource use and the environment. Technological innovations,
development, applications, transfer and the more comprehensive aspects
of partnership and cooperation are to a very large extent within the
province of business and industry.
30.3. Business and industry, including transnational corporations,
should recognize environmental management as among the highest
corporate priorities and as a key determinant to sustainable
development. Some enlightened leaders of enterprises are already
implementing "responsible care" and product stewardship policies and
programmes, fostering openness and dialogue with employees and the
public and carrying out environmental audits and assessments of
compliance. These leaders in business and industry, including
transnational corporations, are increasingly taking voluntary
initiatives, promoting and implementing self-regulations and greater
responsibilities in ensuring their activities have minimal impacts on
human health and the environment. The regulatory regimes introduced in
many countries and the growing consciousness of consumers and the
general public and enlightened leaders of business and industry,
including transnational corporations, have all contributed to this. A
positive contribution of business and industry, including transnational
corporations, to sustainable development can increasingly be achieved
by using economic instruments such as free market mechanisms in which
the prices of goods and services should increasingly reflect the
environmental costs of their input, production, use, recycling and
disposal subject to country-specific conditions.
30.4. The improvement of production systems through technologies and
processes that utilize resources more efficiently and at the same time
produce less wastes - achieving more with less - is an important
pathway towards sustainability for business and industry. Similarly,
facilitating and encouraging inventiveness, competitiveness and
voluntary initiatives are necessary for stimulating more varied,
efficient and effective options. To address these major requirements
and strengthen further the role of business and industry, including
transnational corporations, the following two programmes are proposed.
PROGRAMME AREAS
A. Promoting cleaner production
Basis for action
30.5. There is increasing recognition that production, technology and
management that use resources inefficiently form residues that are not
reused, discharge wastes that have adverse impacts on human health and
the environment and manufacture products that when used have further
impacts and are difficult to recycle, need to be replaced with
technologies, good engineering and management practices and know-how
that would minimize waste throughout the product life cycle. The
concept of cleaner production implies striving for optimal efficiencies
at every stage of the product life cycle. A result would be the
improvement of the overall competitiveness of the enterprise. The need
for a transition towards cleaner production policies was recognized at
the UNIDO-organized ministerial-level Conference on Ecologically
Sustainable Industrial Development, held at Copenhagen in October 1991.
1/
Objectives
30.6. Governments, business and industry, including transnational
corporations, should aim to increase the efficiency of resource
utilization, including increasing the reuse and recycling of residues,
and to reduce the quantity of waste discharge per unit of economic
output.
Activities
30.7. Governments, business and industry, including transnational
corporations, should strengthen partnerships to implement the
principles and criteria for sustainable development.
30.8. Governments should identify and implement an appropriate mix of
economic instruments and normative measures such as laws, legislations
and standards, in consultation with business and industry, including
transnational corporations, that will promote the use of cleaner
production, with special consideration for small and medium-sized
enterprises. Voluntary private initiatives should also be encouraged.
30.9. Governments, business and industry, including transnational
corporations, academia and international organizations, should work
towards the development and implementation of concepts and
methodologies for the internalization of environmental costs into
accounting and pricing mechanisms.
30.10. Business and industry, including transnational corporations,
should be encouraged:
(a) To report annually on their environmental records, as well as
on their use of energy and natural resources;
(b) To adopt and report on the implementation of codes of conduct
promoting the best environmental practice, such as the Business Charter
on Sustainable Development of the International Chamber of
Commerce (ICC) and the chemical industry's responsible care initiative.
30.11. Governments should promote technological and know-how
cooperation between enterprises, encompassing identification,
assessment, research and development, management marketing and
application of cleaner production.
30.12. Industry should incorporate cleaner production policies in its
operations and investments, taking also into account its influence on
suppliers and consumers.
30.13. Industry and business associations should cooperate with
workers and trade unions to continuously improve the knowledge and
skills for implementing sustainable development operations.
30.14. Industry and business associations should encourage individual
companies to undertake programmes for improved environmental awareness
and responsibility at all levels to make these enterprises dedicated to
the task of improving environmental performance based on
internationally accepted management practices.
30.15. International organizations should increase education, training
and awareness activities relating to cleaner production, in
collaboration with industry, academia and relevant national and local
authorities.
30.16. International and non-governmental organizations, including
trade and scientific associations, should strengthen cleaner production
information dissemination by expanding existing databases, such as the
UNEP International Cleaner Production Clearing House (ICPIC), the UNIDO
Industrial and Technological Information Bank (INTIB) and the ICC
International Environment Bureau (IEB), and should forge networking of
national and international information systems.
B. Promoting responsible entrepreneurship
Basis for action
30.17. Entrepreneurship is one of the most important driving forces
for innovations, increasing market efficiencies and responding to
challenges and opportunities. Small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, in
particular, play a very important role in the social and economic
development of a country. Often, they are the major means for rural
development, increasing off-farm employment and providing the
transitional means for improving the livelihoods of women. Responsible
entrepreneurship can play a major role in improving the efficiency of
resource use, reducing risks and hazards, minimizing wastes and
safeguarding environmental qualities.
Objectives
30.18. The following objectives are proposed:
(a) To encourage the concept of stewardship in the management and
utilization of natural resources by entrepreneurs;
(b) To increase the number of entrepreneurs engaged in
enterprises that subscribe to and implement sustainable development
policies.
Activities
30.19. Governments should encourage the establishment and operations
of sustainably managed enterprises. The mix would include regulatory
measures, economic incentives and streamlining of administrative
procedures to assure maximum efficiency in dealing with applications
for approval in order to facilitate investment decisions, advice and
assistance with information, infrastructural support and stewardship
responsibilities.
30.20. Governments should encourage, in cooperation with the private
sector, the establishment of venture capital funds for sustainable
development projects and programmes.
30.21. In collaboration with business, industry, academia and
international organizations, Governments should support training in the
environmental aspects of enterprise management. Attention should also
be directed towards apprenticeship schemes for youth.
30.22. Business and industry, including transnational corporations,
should be encouraged to establish world-wide corporate policies on
sustainable development, arrange for environmentally sound technologies
to be available to affiliates owned substantially by their parent
company in developing countries without extra external charges,
encourage overseas affiliates to modify procedures in order to reflect
local ecological conditions and share experiences with local
authorities, national Governments and international organizations.
30.23. Large business and industry, including transnational
corporations, should consider establishing partnership schemes with
small and medium-sized enterprises to help facilitate the exchange of
experience in managerial skills, market development and technological
know-how, where appropriate, with the assistance of international
organizations.
30.24. Business and industry should establish national councils for
sustainable development and help promote entrepreneurship in the formal
and informal sectors. The inclusion of women entrepreneurs should be
facilitated.
30.25. Business and industry, including transnational corporations,
should increase research and development of environmentally sound
technologies and environmental management systems, in collaboration
with academia and the scientific/engineering establishments, drawing
upon indigenous knowledge, where appropriate.
30.26. Business and industry, including transnational corporations,
should ensure responsible and ethical management of products and
processes from the point of view of health, safety and environmental
aspects. Towards this end, business and industry should increase
self-regulation, guided by appropriate codes, charters and initiatives
integrated into all elements of business planning and decision-making,
and fostering openness and dialogue with employees and the public.
30.27. Multilateral and bilateral financial aid institutions should
continue to encourage and support small- and medium-scale entrepreneurs
engaged in sustainable development activities.
30.28. United Nations organizations and agencies should improve
mechanisms for business and industry inputs, policy and strategy
formulation processes, to ensure that environmental aspects are
strengthened in foreign investment.
30.29. International organizations should increase support for
research and development on improving the technological and managerial
requirements for sustainable development, in particular for small and
medium-sized enterprises in developing countries.
Means of implementation
Financing and cost evaluation
30.30. The activities included under this programme area are mostly
changes in the orientation of existing activities and additional costs
are not expected to be significant. The cost of activities by
Governments and international organizations are already included in
other programme areas.
Notes
1/ See A/CONF.151/PC/125.
END OF CHAPTER 30
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