The Magazine of Corporate Responsibility

Tag Archive for ‘Environmental Protection Agency’

Time to Reform the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a leading environmental research and advocacy organization, upwards of 80,000 chemicals commonly used in the United States have never been fully assessed for toxic impacts on human health and the environment. “Under the current law, it is almost impossible for the EPA [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] to take regulatory action against dangerous chemicals, even those that are known to cause cancer or other serious health effects,” reports the group.

Controversial Chemical Poses Challenge for Colgate-Palmolive

A feisty debate over the safety of the widely used chemical triclosan has put Colgate-Palmolive at the center of a case study in product disclosure and corporate responsibility – one that may ultimately help outline how companies wading through a murky regulatory review and unsettled science should attend to their stakeholders and customers.

Why No National Recycling Law in the U.S.?

The U.S. government has historically relied on state and local governments to handle waste management in all of its forms, including recycling. Although there have been a few attempts to push legislation through Congress to mandate minimum national recycling rates, none have made it out of committee hearings.

Plastic Grocery Bags: How Long Until They Decompose?

Researchers fear that such ubiquitous bags may never fully decompose; instead they gradually just turn into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic.

Are Federal Agencies Open? Audit Gives Mixed Grades

An audit of agency open government plans released by a consortium of transparency groups found that while some agencies outlined concrete steps for improvement, others lack specifics about how or when the agency will be more open.

Assessing the Impact of “Smart Growth” on the Environment

Originating in the early 1970s when city planners began renovating crumbling inner cities in the face of widespread suburbanization and sprawl, smart growth is now a top buzzword in both municipal policy and environmental circles. Some form of smart growth has likely been implemented where you live or somewhere nearby.

Will More Electric Cars Increase Reliance on Coal?

The advent of electric cars is not necessarily a boon for the environment if it means simply trading our reliance on one fossil fuel—oil, from which gasoline is distilled—for an even dirtier one: coal, which is burned to create electricity.

What Can You Do With Electronic Waste?

Electronic waste, or “e-waste” as it’s called, is a growing problem in the United States and abroad, as obsolete or broken computers and other electronic equipment are taking up increasingly precious amounts of landfill space and potentially leaking hazardous substances into surrounding ecosystems.

Climate Change: Will Carbon Tax Unite ExxonMobil and Its Critics?

The only hope for a new carbon-cutting law from the U.S. Congress in 2010 could involve what has long been thought of as the least politically viable approach: a tax on carbon. But achieving that might very well require an alliance of strange bedfellows – including environmental advocates and ExxonMobil, long a chief climate change skeptic.