Recently in Regulations and Laws for Green, Environmental and Socially Responsible Marketing Category

Compliance regulations are tightening for highly polluting industries such as utilities, energy, chemicals and pharmacy manufacturing and distribution niches.  Gathering and managing data on compliance and prevention of environmental impact is challenging and requires tested "best practices" that can be updated to keep pace with innovations, changes in regulations and changes in operations.  Online software applications can provide this 24/7 reporting platform and help companies gather and refine and manage their internal best operational practices.

The online compliance reporting system developed by Enviance System allows consulting and engineering (C&E) firms to expand service areas with consistent solutions for areas ranging from corporate compliance to health and safety.

Instead of starting from scratch on every project, Enviance System users begin work with designated best practice models already in the Enviance System and configure them according to a client's processes and needs.

Below is a snapshot view of a few applications that the Enviance System helps companies manage — for  clients as well as for internal company needs:

 

The Enviance System is a comprehensive compliance management software platform that provides:

• Environmental managers new confidence in their compliance assurance and information management efforts
• Dramatically reduces the time, costs, and risks associated with environmental compliance and management information systems
• Establishes consistent institutional knowledge management standards that protect your company or business and eliminate environmental compliance guesswork down the road
• Improves EHS regulatory management performance
• Delivers these benefits faster and more efficiently than site-based software technology solutions.

Enviance Sytems
2386 Faraday Avenue, Suite 220
Carlsbad, CA 92008
PH: 760.496.0200
www.enviance.com

Law school professors from across the country are lambasting the plan presented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for re-opening its closed libraries, according to a joint letter released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The law professors fault EPA for failing to fully restore services, guarantee full public access or ensure professional librarian control over valuable collections.

The April 26, 2008 letter, signed by 94 law professors from schools stretching from the Carolinas to California, is addressed to key congressional leaders and conveys the authors’ “profound disappointment” in the six-page EPA report on library restoration submitted to Congress on March 26, 2008, including –

• Political Control. “We view with alarm the absence of any EPA commitment to have all aspects of its library plans subject to review by qualified, non-governmental library professionals”;
• Only Partial Restoration. “We are troubled by the Report’s…failure to explain why and how EPA’s libraries will vary in size, target audience, subject focus and depth of collection….We also decry the Agency’s failure to explain its plan to allow some EPA libraries to be open to the public on an ‘appointment only’ basis.”; and
• Vague Commitments. “EPA’s Report is woefully lacking in detail, unresponsive to many of the criticisms that were appropriately included in GAO’s February, 2008 reports on the Agency’s library mismanagement, and entirely devoid of a needed commitment to restore EPA’s shuttered libraries to the levels of service provided to the public and EPA’s staff prior to their closure.

The law professors’ concerns echo those raised by PEER, the agency’s librarians, employee unions (which are pursuing unfair labor practice charges), and agency specialists, including its enforcement attorneys.

“EPA simply needs to put back everything they dismantled; why is that so hard?” asked PEER Associate Director Carol Goldberg. “The political appointees at EPA should not be deciding, as they are now, who gets access to what material.”

EPA had eliminated access to agency libraries in 23 states, shut technical collections and reduced hours and access in other libraries. This December, Congress ordered EPA to re-open closed libraries. In its March report, the agency indicated that it would complete a partial restoration by this October.

Meanwhile, EPA has launched a series of meetings with media, industry, environmental organizations and “other stakeholder groups” as part of “a National Dialogue…to help EPA document the information needs of various sectors …under the leadership of the Chief Information Officer Molly O’Neill”, in the words of an invitation sent to PEER. This National Dialogue will continue until the end of June.

SOURCE: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility

April 28, 2008
Contact: Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337

The FTC is researching updates to their "environmental marketing guidelines" and the first workshop in January 2008 will focus on how companies market carbon offsets and renewable energy certificates.

The announcement comes a week after the release of a report from TerraChoice Environmental Marketing showing that the vast majority of green marketing claims are inaccurate or inappropriate.

The firm researched more than 1,000 consumer products with environmental claims and found that all but one violated at least one of the report's "Six Sins of Greenwashing."

The Federal Trade Commission is requesting comments on the Green Guides in regard to their costs, benefits, and effectiveness.

Current FTC Regulations for Environmental Claims

Issued in 1992, the FTC Guidelines for Environmental Marketing Claims or "Green Guides" do not constitute a labeling system as such, but they are designed to have an effect on labeling. The guidelines are intended to prevent false or misleading use of advertising claims such as "environmentally friendly," "degradable," and "recyclable." Confusion over the meaning of such terms affected not only consumers but also companies, who were concerned about lawsuits over their environmental claims.

The Guides outlined four general principles for environmental claims:

• qualifications and disclosures should be sufficiently clear and conspicuous to prevent deception;
• claims should make clear whether they apply to the product, packaging, or just a component of either;
• claims should not overstate environmental benefits; and
• comparative claims should be presented in such a way that the basis for comparison is clear.

The guides also addressed claims concerning

• environmental friendliness
• degradability
• compostability
• recyclability
• recycled content
• source reduction
• refillability, and
• ozone friendliness

More information about the FTC Guidelines