Green at source: an empirical examination of the effectiveness and sustainability of operational-level environmental management practices in U.S. industry

Abstract

In this study, we examine the effectiveness of operational-level environmental management (EM) practices and their long-term impacts. Using data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Toxic Release Inventory, we assess how different source reduction practices utilised at the operational processes of U.S. industrial facilities affect their environmental performance. We find that those operational-level EM practices have varying impacts on immediate and long-term environmental improvements. Practices such as good operating practices, inventory control, process modification, spill/leak prevention, and cleaning/degreasing procedures are found to be able to help facilities improve their efficiency in pollution and waste reduction in the year of implementation. Additionally, good operating practices and spill/leak prevention can generate continuous improvement in pollution and waste reduction even after the implementation year. But at the facilities that adopt process modifications and cleaning/degreasing procedures, the improvements achieved from initial adoption can only be maintained at the same level afterwards. Moreover, the EM practice of inventory control only possesses temporary effectiveness limited to the implementation year while the efficiency of pollution and waste reduction at the facilities that applied this practice fell back to the level before the implementation. The implications of the results are discussed.