Environmental Management in Korea: an Emerging Role for Industry

Abstract

Two decades ago, environmental management was primarily a concern of public interest groups, public administrators, natural resources managers and lawyers. The corporation's environmental management program, if it existed, was a staff function, focusing on the politics, the legal, economic and technical requirements of regulatory law, and on governmental relations. Environmental management now extends its reach into many functions of the business corporation, from the Executive Office on down. Today. environmental management is intertwined with international trade and marketing issues. Throughout the developed world, corporations are designing corporate environmental management programs to measure up to international standards following promulgation of ISO 14000 in 1996 of final standards by the International Organization for Standardization. This paper briefly reviews some of the major environmental problems in Korea, and the significant. well-publicized initiatives recently taken by four major chaebols (conglomerates) in declaring new priorities and funding for environmental management throughout their companies. Finally. some conclusions are drawn and questions raised about how effective these corporate environmental management programs will be.