This report examines the lessons from and makes recommendations on the activities by business and labour in addressing environmental pressures at the workplace and sector levels. The report is a synthesis of case studies done by the CLMPC (now the Canadian Labour and Business Centre) in three sectors: forestry and forest products; mining; and chemicals. These sectors were identified as facing significant environmental responsibilities. The detailed description of the case studies is available in a background document Case Studies in Adjustment to Environmental Change.
The report has been prepared by the CLMPC for Human Resources Development Canada. The work has been supervised and guided by a joint business-labour Steering Committee and represents their joint perspective on a range of issues that are likely to assume increasing importance in the future, particularly in how human resource policies are affected. There is very little research that has been done on responses by business and labour at the workplace and sector levels to environmental pressures. The methodology developed in this project has been to use case studies as the principal data source (a list of the cases is contained in Table 1 of the report). This is supplemented by sector profiles, the environmental pressures they face, as well as examples of international practice and models of adjustment to environmental concerns.
The environment has become a permanent and underlying concern with greater international focus. Increasingly customers are making environmental demands, and sources of capital pay close attention to companies' environmental risks. Government approaches to the environment are emphasizing framework legislation and pollution prevention together with a growing number of non-legislated agreements between industries and governments. All these discernible shifts will affect the future activity of both business and labour.
These shifts have made environmental issues increasingly important for both business and labour, particularly in terms of the long term survival and growth of the company and the security of employment.
Increasingly companies have come to realize that, while environmental regulatory compliance is still a significant concern, the environment is an important part of their competitive armoury; and that failure to address these issues can result in lost customers. Furthermore, better environmental performance can also reduce costs, for example, through reduced energy use. Liability of directors and officers of a company for environmental situations has also served to underline the importance of environmental performance.
For labour, ensuring the long term security of employment will depend on the survival of the company and improved environmental performance. In the immediate term the adjustments designed to achieve sustainable production and employment can both displace workers and create job opportunities in related areas. The challenge is to facilitate the transition of displaced workers into new job opportunities. Improving the working environment and protecting the health of workers is also a key concern of unions. Finally, workers have special knowledge of work operations which is useful in developing better environmental practices in the workplace. For these reasons both business and labour are attempting to integrate environmental values into business planning and collective agreements. Such activities include environmental auditing, public annual environmental reports, product stewardship initiatives, development of environmental management standards, the use of environmental committees, education of workers, linking environmental performance and productivity, and identification of potential "green" jobs. It is likely that pressure for further integration of environmental concerns into the long term activities of labour and business will continue.
A central message of the case studies is that joint business-labour approaches and full information can be successful in developing innovative ways of greening productivity of workers and companies.
The sector cases focus on three multi-stakeholder approaches as well as examples from others. The cases show how such approaches can provide the necessary long term focus on planning and environmental issues. This includes the development of a sustainable resource base in both the mining and forestry examples. A multi-stakeholder process for a sector permits a full discussion between the affected parties so that economic, social and environmental values can be integrated. Government tended to be a facilitator and supporter of the multi-stakeholder process rather than directing it, which meant innovative adjustment responses and plans can be developed that are tailored to suit the specific needs of a sector. For human resources adjustment, training was recognized as a critical component of any responses to environmental pressures. But probably the most startling aspect of these processes is that they have occurred at all, particularly in resource sectors, since consensus approaches are a break from more traditional and adversarial approaches. The results from the workplace cases show a rich variety of responses. They share a common element, however, in that they all involved activity by both business and labour, which was a critical element for selection of case studies. While some cases highlight the importance of new technologies, several point to changing work practices in order to improve environmental performance. Joint processes between business and labour were able to devise cost effective ways that were simple to implement and beneficial to the environment.
Like the multi-stakeholder processes, the workplace cases also indicated very clearly the importance of training, particularly awareness training, in adjusting to better environmental practices and technologies. In workplaces where job displacement occurred, different innovative solutions to reduce the burden on displaced workers were jointly formulated. In essence what these innovative adjustment solutions achieved was a means of sharing with affected workers some of the productivity gains from change, even in cases where firms faced intense cost pressures. Another strategy adopted in some cases was a reinvention of product lines and production processes in order to improve environmental performance and reduce the risk of heavy costs from environmental factors. Finally, many cases demonstrated the importance of good community relations in an environmental strategy. Provision of full information and discussion with the surrounding community built trust and allowed for proper public input on actions by companies that could impact on the local environment.
