Voluntary Greenhouse Gas Reduction Programs Have Limited Potential

Voluntary Greenhouse Gas Reduction Programs Have Limited Potential
Author: Jill Ferguson
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
Total Pages: 35
Release: 2009-02
Genre:
ISBN: 1437908063

This review evaluates the extent to which the EPA¿s Greenhouse Gas (GHG) voluntary programs can significantly reduce future GHG emissions, and whether their data is complete and reliable. The set of voluntary GHG programs reviewed use outreach efforts to recruit program partners and reduce GHG emissions. The greatest barriers to participation were the perceived emission reduction costs and reporting requirements. It is unlikely that these voluntary programs can reduce more than 19% of the projected 2010 GHG emissions for their industry sectors. If EPA wishes to reduce GHG emissions beyond this point, it needs to consider additional policy options. Includes recommendations. Charts and tables.

Tourism Enterprises and Sustainable Development

Tourism Enterprises and Sustainable Development
Author: David Leslie
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2010-03-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1135217645

The tourism industry has increasingly recognized and responded to growing environmental concerns. In recent years, there has been an emergence of a variety of categories of tourism considered more environmentally friendly: green, eco-tourism, and sustainable tourism. Much of the literature that has addressed these developments has been orientated to the destination locale or specific to a development. These texts have not sought to investigate and examine the response of government/national tourist organizations to the international sustainability agenda and the responses/actions of tourism enterprises to this "greening" agenda. This text aims to address this remarkable gap. This indispensable contribution to the field provides a comprehensive, state of the art perspective on progress towards the objectives of sustainable development within the tourism sector across the globe by focusing on the environmental performance and adoption of environmental management systems by tourism enterprises.

Environmental Law, Policy, and Economics

Environmental Law, Policy, and Economics
Author: Nicholas Askounes Ashford
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 1125
Release: 2008
Genre: Environmental law
ISBN: 0262012383

The past twenty-five years have seen a significant evolution in environmental policy, with new environmental legislation and substantive amendments to earlier laws, significant advances in environmental science, and changes in the treatment of science (and scientific uncertainty) by the courts. This book offers a detailed discussion of the important issues in environmental law, policy, and economics, tracing their development over the past few decades through an examination of environmental law cases and commentaries by leading scholars. The authors focus on pollution, addressing both pollution control and prevention, but also emphasize the evaluation, design, and use of the law to stimulate technical change and industrial transformation, arguing that there is a need to address broader issues of sustainable development. Environmental Law, Policy, and Economics,which grew out of courses taught by the authors at MIT, treats the traditional topics covered in most classes in environmental law and policy, including common law and administrative law concepts and the primary federal legislation. But it goes beyond these to address topics not often found in a single volume: the information-based obligations of industry, enforcement of environmental law, market-based and voluntary alternatives to traditional regulation, risk assessment, environmental economics, and technological innovation and diffusion. Countering arguments found in other texts that government should play a reduced role in environmental protection, this book argues that clear, stringent legal requirements--coupled with flexible means for meeting them--and meaningful stakeholder participation are necessary for bringing about environmental improvements and technologicial transformations.

Sustainability and the U.S. EPA

Sustainability and the U.S. EPA
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2011-09-08
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0309212553

Sustainability is based on a simple and long-recognized factual premise: Everything that humans require for their survival and well-being depends, directly or indirectly, on the natural environment. The environment provides the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. Recognizing the importance of sustainability to its work, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working to create programs and applications in a variety of areas to better incorporate sustainability into decision-making at the agency. To further strengthen the scientific basis for sustainability as it applies to human health and environmental protection, the EPA asked the National Research Council (NRC) to provide a framework for incorporating sustainability into the EPA's principles and decision-making. This framework, Sustainability and the U.S. EPA, provides recommendations for a sustainability approach that both incorporates and goes beyond an approach based on assessing and managing the risks posed by pollutants that has largely shaped environmental policy since the 1980s. Although risk-based methods have led to many successes and remain important tools, the report concludes that they are not adequate to address many of the complex problems that put current and future generations at risk, such as depletion of natural resources, climate change, and loss of biodiversity. Moreover, sophisticated tools are increasingly available to address cross-cutting, complex, and challenging issues that go beyond risk management. The report recommends that EPA formally adopt as its sustainability paradigm the widely used "three pillars" approach, which means considering the environmental, social, and economic impacts of an action or decision. Health should be expressly included in the "social" pillar. EPA should also articulate its vision for sustainability and develop a set of sustainability principles that would underlie all agency policies and programs.

Voluntary Programs

Voluntary Programs
Author: Matthew Potoski
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 355
Release: 2009-09-18
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0262258404

A conceptual framework and empirical case studies of the policy effect of voluntary programs sponsored by industry, government, and nongovernmental organizations. The recent growth of voluntary programs has attracted the attention of policymakers, nongovernmental organizations, and scholars. Thousands of firms around the world participate in these programs, in which members agree to undertake socially beneficial actions that go beyond the requirements of government regulations, such as following labor codes in the apparel industry, adhering to international accounting standards, and adopting internal environmental management systems. This book analyzes the efficacy of a variety of voluntary programs using a club theory, political-economy framework. It examines how programs' design influences their effectiveness as policy tools. It finds that voluntary programs have achieved uneven success because of their varying standards and enforcement procedures. The club theory framework views voluntary programs as institutions that create incentives for firms to incur the costs of taking progressive action beyond what is required by law in exchange for benefits that nonmembers do not enjoy (such as enhanced standing with stakeholders). Voluntary Programs develops this theoretical framework and applies it to voluntary programs sponsored by industry associations, governments, and nongovernmental organizations, organized around policy issues such as “blood diamonds,” shipping, sweatshops, and the environment. The wide diversity of cases—across sectors, sponsoring organizations, and objectives—provides valuable applications of the club framework, generates new insights for future research, and offers practical guidance for designing effective programs. Contributors David P. Baron, Tim Bartley, Tim Büthe, Cary Coglianese, Elizabeth R. DeSombre, Daniel W. Drezner, Daniel Fiorino, Mary Kay Gugerty, Virginia Haufler, Matthew J. Kotchen, Mimi Lu, Jennifer Nash, Matthew Potoski, Aseem Prakash, Klaas van 't Veld

Voluntary Environmental Programs

Voluntary Environmental Programs
Author: Peter DeLeon
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2010
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780739133224

Protecting the environment is often not the primary objective of businesses. As the world has become more environmentally aware, the necessity of environmental regulations becomes apparent. Voluntary Environmental Programs: A Policy Perspective examines different approaches to environmental protection in business. Typically, environmental improvements on the part of industry result from government regulations that command certain action from industry and then control how well it performs. An alternative approach is voluntary environmental agreements, where firms voluntarily commit to make certain environmental improvements individually, as part of an industry association, or under the guidance of a government entity. For example, many new initiatives targeting climate change originate from companies that voluntarily commit to reduce their carbon output or footprint.

OMB Circular A-136

OMB Circular A-136
Author: Omb
Publisher: Independently Published
Total Pages: 122
Release: 2019-07
Genre:
ISBN: 9781077439269

This Circular provides guidance for Executive Branch entities required to submit audited financial statements, interim financial statements, and Performance and Accountability Reports (PARs) or Agency Financial Reports (AFRs) under the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, as amended (CFO Act), the Government Management Reform Act of 1994 (GMRA), and the Accountability of Tax Dollars Act of 2002 (ATDA). This Circular also provides general guidance to Government corporations required to submit Annual Management Reports (AMRs) under the Government Corporations Control Act. Why buy a book you can download for free? We print the paperback book so you don't have to. First you gotta find a good clean (legible) copy and make sure it's the latest version (not always easy). Some documents found on the web are missing some pages or the image quality is so poor, they are difficult to read. If you find a good copy, you could print it using a network printer you share with 100 other people (typically its either out of paper or toner). If it's just a 10-page document, no problem, but if it's 250-pages, you will need to punch 3 holes in all those pages and put it in a 3-ring binder. Takes at least an hour. It's much more cost-effective to just order the bound paperback from Amazon.com This book includes original commentary which is copyright material. Note that government documents are in the public domain. We print these paperbacks as a service so you don't have to. The books are compact, tightly-bound paperback, full-size (8 1/2 by 11 inches), with large text and glossy covers. 4th Watch Publishing Co. is a HUBZONE SDVOSB. https: //usgovpub.com