Adam Greene is the manager of environmental affairs at the U.S. Council for International Business. The following article reflects his views and those of the U.S.C.I.B.

Adam B. Greene

A new cooperative initiative between the CEC and business organizations bore its first fruit recently when close to 200 participants from nacec.Canada, Mexico and the United States gathered in Mexico City for a two-day seminar on environmental management systems.

"good environmental management is good management"

Raúl Tornel V.P. of Concamin, Gabriel Quadri, President of the Insituto Nacional de Ecología (INE) and CEC's Victor Lichtinger

The event was made possible by a newly-signed agreement between the Mexican Confederación de Cámaras Industriales (Concamín) [Confederation of Chambers of Industry], the United States Council for International Business, the Canadian International Business Council and the CEC to promote better environmental management. (see next article)

The Mexico City seminar focused on a new series of international standards on environmental management. These standards are being developed under the auspices of the International Standards Organization (ISO) and have been named ISO 14000. They include management, auditing, and labeling systems, as well as the criteria applicable to duration cycles and system-performance evaluation. The notion that this standard will become an internationally accepted guideline has motivated a growing interest in its content and in the impact it will have on companies.

Held on the 29th and 30th of January, the seminar brought together the most renowned authorities in the field of environmental management systems from nacec.Canada, Mexico, and the United States, and attracted more than 175 company owners and administrators.

The results of the seminar were very stimulating. Information provided to the participants, who were mainly representatives from nacec.small- and medium-size industries, allowed for an evaluation of the expert’s findings regarding the principal tendencies in environmental management. This brought with it a considerable increase in the exchange of information between the NAFTA member countries. A summary of the results will be distributed presently to increase the available information.

ISO 14000 experts were able to be present for the first time at a forum of this nature and identify a series of activities to improve the coordination between NAFTA members. These activities include standards implementation, pilot projects, criteria for certification, and guidelines for audits. The objective of these activities is to reduce the operative barriers between the three countries, which would in turn increase awareness and use of environmental management systems.

This seminar and the trilateral cooperation agreement from nacec.which it sprang are examples of a commonly-held principle that "good environmental management is good management". As international standards on environmental management are adopted and respected more and more widely, so the demand for products and services that meet the requirements of such strict environmental criteria will increase proportionally.