An analytical tool for managing environmental risks strategically

Corporate Environmental Strategy

Volumn 7, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 72-84

  Repetto, Robert ^a,b   Austin, Duncan ^c  

^a WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE   (United States)

^b ABT ASSOCIATES   (United States)

^c NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0039850931     PISSN: 10667938     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/S1066-7938(00)80116-5     Document Type: Article

References (13)

1. UNEP, UNEP Financial Institutions Initiative 1998 Survey, Geneva, Switzerland: Financial Institutions Initiative Secretariat, Economics, Trade and Environment Unit, United Nations Environment Program, 1999.
2. Frances Cairncross, Green, Inc.: A Guide to Business and the Environment, Earthscan, London, 1995.
3. Bruce Smart, Beyond Compliance, World Resources Institute, Washington, DC, 1992.
4. The companies included in this analysis are Boise Cascade, Bowater, Caraustar, Champion, Fort James, Georgia Pacific, International Paper, Mead, Potlach, Smurfit Stone, Westvaco, Weyerhaeuser and Willamette. At the time of writing, figures for Weyerhaeuser do not reflect takeover of Macmillan-Bloedel. Companies are not identified by name, nor are they ordered alphabetically in the figures that follow.
5. We gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of the American Forest & Paper Association and member companies in engaging in a scenario-building session with us. They bear no responsibility for the material presented here however.
6. Climate issues are also potentially significant but were not analyzed because of data limitations.
7. For a full list of references, see forthcoming WRI research report.
8. The most recent information in this report dates from December 1998, when we began to write up the findings. Some data used in the analysis are considerably less recent. Consequently, readers are cautioned against relaying on the results reported here as up-to-date forecasts of likely future developments. What we wish readers to take away is an understanding of the approach.
9. The probability of the industry being able to pass these costs along to consumers over the coming years depends in large part on the recovery of world demand for commodities and the absorption of excess capacity created by the Asian and Latin American economic crises. Should that happen, given the absence of excess or even normal profits in much of the U.S. industry, price adjustments to industry-wide cost pressures become likely. High and low price elasticity sub-scenarios were analyzed.
10. The EPA data underlying Exhibit 2 and this statement refers to 1994, the latest year available, and may be out of date.
11. Paul Faeth, Trading as an Option: Market-Based Incentive and Water Quality, World Resources Institute, Washington, D.C. (forthcoming).
12. In this exercise, the probabilities associated with one issue were assumed to be independent of the probabilities associated with all other issues. Alternatively, it would be feasible to develop estimates of conditional probabilities for specific issues, contingent on the outcome of other issues.
13. Bradford S. Gentry and Lisa O. Fernandez, Valuing the Environment: How Fortune 500 CFO's and Analysts Measure Corporate Performance, United Nations Development Program, Office of Development Studies, Working Paper, New York, NY, 1997.