ChemRisk, LLC, Boulder, CO, United States.
Regul Toxicol Pharmacol. 2010 Dec;58(3):524-38. doi: 10.1016/j.yrtph.2010.09.004. Epub 2010 Sep 17.
The concept of sustainability evolved throughout the 1970s and 1980s, but was formally described by the 27 principles of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development in 1992. Despite the passage of nearly 20years, to date there are no uniform set of federal rules, regulations, or guidelines specifically governing the environmental aspects of sustainability practices or related requirements in the United States. In this benchmark analysis, we have collected information on the sustainability programs of the five largest US companies in each of the 26 industrial sectors [based on the Forbes Global 2000 through 2009 (n=130)]. For each company, we reviewed the most recent corporate sustainability, citizenship, or responsibility report, limiting our scope to environmental components, if available. Ten criteria were identified and analyzed, including leadership, reporting, external review, certification, and individual components of environmental sustainability programs. With respect to the prevalence of sustainability components between various business sectors, we found that the Drugs and Biotechnology (87%), Household and Personal Products (87%) and Oil and Gas Operations (87%) industries had the most comprehensive environmental sustainability programs. Using the nine components of environmental sustainability as a benchmark, we identified four key components as the characteristics of the most comprehensive environmental sustainability programs. These were (1) empowering leadership with a commitment to sustainability (80%), (2) standardized reporting (87%), (3) third-party evaluation of the sustainability programs (73%), and (4) obtaining ISO 14001 certification (73%). We found that many firms shaped their own definition of sustainability and developed their associated sustainability programs based on their sector, stakeholder interests, products or services, and business model. We noted an emerging area that we have called product sustainability - one in which toxicologists and environmental scientists can play a vital role helping to ensure that a manufactured item will indeed be considered acceptable for distribution now, as well as in the coming years. Numerous examples or case studies are presented.
可持续性的概念在 20 世纪 70 年代和 80 年代发展起来，但直到 1992 年《关于环境与发展的里约宣言》中的 27 条原则才正式提出。尽管已经过去了近 20 年，但截至目前，美国还没有一套统一的联邦规则、法规或准则来专门管理可持续性实践的环境方面或相关要求。在这项基准分析中，我们收集了美国 26 个工业部门中最大的 5 家公司的可持续性计划信息[基于福布斯全球 2000 年至 2009 年（n=130）]。对于每家公司，我们都查阅了最新的公司可持续性、公民责任或责任报告，如果有的话，我们将范围限制在环境部分。确定并分析了 10 个标准，包括领导力、报告、外部审查、认证和环境可持续性计划的各个组成部分。就不同商业部门之间可持续性组成部分的普遍性而言，我们发现药品和生物技术（87%）、家居和个人产品（87%）以及石油和天然气业务（87%）等行业拥有最全面的环境可持续性计划。我们将环境可持续性的九个组成部分作为基准，确定了四个关键组成部分，它们是最全面的环境可持续性计划的特征。这四个特征是：（1）赋予对可持续性的承诺的领导力（80%）；（2）标准化报告（87%）；（3）对可持续性计划的第三方评估（73%）；（4）获得 ISO 14001 认证（73%）。我们发现，许多公司根据自身所在行业、利益相关者的利益、产品或服务以及商业模式来塑造自己的可持续性定义，并制定相关的可持续性计划。我们注意到一个新兴领域，我们称之为产品可持续性——毒理学家和环境科学家可以在其中发挥重要作用，帮助确保制造的产品现在以及未来几年都将被认为是可接受的。文中提供了许多实例或案例研究。
