I. The Importance of Standardizing Enterprises to Protect the Environment

(1) The need to maintain environmental safety and protect the environmental rights and interests of citizens and the whole society

As an enterprise, we should recognize the importance of undertaking environmental protection obligations. Whether the pollution problem is solved well or not is not only related to the economic and social benefits of corporate behavior, but also to the property and life safety of the people. Too much blood has been learned in this regard: the 1932 "Maas Valley Smog", which poisoned thousands and killed more than 60 in a week, was the earliest recorded public nuisance of the 20th century; 1948 From October 26th to 31st, 2009, the "Donora Smoke Incident", S02 and soot from the smelter in Donora Township, Pennsylvania, USA, made 5911 people sick and 17 people died; it occurred from December 5th to 8th, 1952 In the London smog incident, more than 4,000 people died of poisoning within 4 days; in the 1955 Yokkaichi asthma incident in Japan, the exhaust gas from petroleum refining and industrial fuel in Yokkaichi, Japan seriously polluted the urban air in Yokkaichi, causing 817 asthma patients and 36 deaths. People; the cadmium poisoning incident in Japan from 1955 to 1972, because the cadmium-containing wastewater discharged from zinc and lead smelters in Toyama Prefecture, Japan, polluted the water body of Shentong River, and the residents on both sides of the river used the river water to irrigate their farmland. Cadmium, residents were poisoned by eating cadmium-containing rice and drinking cadmium-containing water, more than 280 patients and dozens of people died; in the rice bran oil incident in Japan in 1968, the use of polychlorinated biphenyls in the production of rice bran oil in Aichi Prefecture, Kitakyushu City As a heat carrier, due to poor production management, this poison was mixed into rice bran oil, causing 13,000 poisoning and 16 deaths; July 10, 1976 The chemical pollution incident in Seveso, Italy, due to an explosion in a pesticide factory, caused Pollution of highly toxic chemical dioxins. Many people were poisoned, the nearby residents were forced to move out, and the birth rate of local deformed children increased greatly within a few years; the Mexican liquefied gas explosion accident on November 19, 1984, due to the explosion of the liquefied gas supply center owned by the Mexican state oil company. , more than 1,000 people died, more than 400 people were injured, and more than 30,000 people were homeless. The most important reason for the sharp deterioration of contemporary environmental problems is the pollution of enterprises, especially the pollution of large-scale industries. It can also be seen from the previous cases in my country that enterprises polluting the environment have caused serious harm to the victims, and the damages judgments made by the court after these damages are determined will inevitably cause the enterprises to suffer serious legal consequences. The development of enterprises has brought about the growth of material wealth and improved people's living standards, but if environmental pollution is not strictly controlled, people's life safety will be seriously threatened, and sustainable development will be impossible. Therefore, environmental protection enterprises are duty-bound.

(2) The need for coordination of interests and social harmony

As an enterprise, it should be recognized that undertaking environmental protection obligations in contemporary society is not contradictory to the motive of the enterprise to pursue interests. According to the traditional concept, an enterprise is a social organization whose purpose is to make profits and pursue the interests of shareholders to the maximum extent. Therefore, enterprises in modern society, based on the calculation of the internal income of the enterprise, regard maximizing the income as their own activity goal. Consider, and need not consider, the social impact of business activities, that is, the issue of social costs. Under this kind of values, companies will of course not consider paying compensation for environmental consumption such as air pollution and water pollution, so they naturally don’t need to worry about pollution prevention and clean production. However, in contemporary society, the social environment in which enterprises operate has changed, and the corresponding rules of the game for enterprises to pursue interests have also changed. When the legislative design causes the cost of environmental violations to be far higher than the cost of law-abiding, only by fulfilling environmental legal obligations can the In line with the rational behavior characteristics of enterprises as "economic people". From the above cases, it is easy to see another problem, that is, the company's performance of environmental obligations is conducive to coordinating the relationship between the company and the local government and community. The so-called "harmony can make money", a successful company will never be a small pollution control cost. pay, and sacrifice the social foundation on which the enterprise's survival depends.

(3) The need for enterprise development and participation in international competition

Compared with the legal responsibility of enterprises for pollution prevention and control, the legislative policy of enterprises to undertake the production of green products represents a higher environmental protection requirement for enterprises that is increasingly achieved in contemporary society. The so-called green product responsibility of enterprises is concerned with not only minimizing pollution during product processing, but also minimizing the impact of products on the environment during their entire life cycle. Legislative requirements for pollution prevention and control aim to achieve low and zero emissions of harmful substances in the production process of enterprises, while green product responsibility requires further reduction of the consumption of raw materials, and requires enterprises to make complete changes in product production and process design. In today's increasingly globalized economy, green product liability is more likely to be associated with trade barriers, and thus has attracted worldwide attention.

Adopting clean technology and producing green products represents the future direction and historical trend of enterprise development under the guidance of the concept of sustainable development. This is no longer the private initiative and poetic proposition of green environmentalists. It is the consensus of the current international community and the clear stipulation of international treaties and norms; therefore, it is no longer just the scope of corporate ethics discussions, but corporate ethics. Based on economic rationality, we must also face up to and solve practical problems. After all, there are real business motives and economic interests at stake here, especially in the field of international trade, which is a realistic rule of the game. For Chinese enterprises, many painful lessons have been learned in this regard. For example, in 2002, the Japanese Import and Export Inspection and Quarantine Department detected excessive residues of sulfonamides in white barbecue eels exported from Shunde, Foshan City, and 18 tons of grilled eels were returned, which caused a serious blow to my country's eel farming industry. From 63,000 yuan to 45,000 yuan, the eel farmers in Foshan City alone reduced their income by more than 100 million yuan. The green onions produced in Shandong were rejected by Japan because of unqualified pesticide residues. Another example is in the spring of 2004, the AVA (The Agri-food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore) of Singapore conducted a random test on Chinese shiitake mushrooms. The results showed that the heavy metal cadmium content was 1.57ppm and 1.86ppm. The content of metal cadmium should not exceed 0.2ppm (but my country's domestic regulations are 0.5ppm/kg). For this reason, AVA notifies importers to recall Chinese-made shiitake mushroom products from various retail channels and centrally destroy them. As an exporter of the food, since it wants to export to the international market, it should understand the international regulations in advance and act in accordance with the regulations, which could have avoided this loss. According to incomplete estimates, my country's annual exports of at least more than 7 billion US dollars are affected by "green barriers", and there is a trend of gradual expansion.

(4) Enterprises must effectively protect the environment from damage

The environmental problems of modern society are becoming more and more serious. The origin of environmental problems is that industrial activities and other human activities cause pollutants and energy that exceed the natural purification capacity to enter the environment, and the ecological environment deteriorates due to the excessive use of ecological resources for economic development. Therefore, the solution of environmental problems fundamentally depends on the attitudes and measures that human beings take to carry out our industrial activities, that is, environmental problems are actually economic problems in nature. Enterprises are the main body of modern economic life. Therefore, reflecting on traditional industrial activities and traditional economic life will inevitably involve the role that enterprises should play in solving environmental problems. It is precisely because of this that the issue of corporate environmental legal responsibility arises. From a theoretical point of view, the proposal of corporate environmental legal responsibility is not only a continuation and development of the theoretical trend of corporate social responsibility, but also an important manifestation of modern environmental legislation responding to the concept of sustainable development. The so-called enterprise should assume environmental responsibility, which means that modern social enterprises should consider the promotion of environmental public welfare other than the interests of investors on the basis of seeking to maximize the interests of investors. This view is obviously widely accepted in modern society. In just over 40 years, it has gradually evolved from an environmental activist's proposition to a modern national legislative policy. Corporate social responsibility for environmental protection must be implemented, focusing on the following points:

The first is to raise awareness. my country's environmental protection originated from the labor protection of enterprises. Therefore, some enterprises limit environmental protection to their internal interests, and have insufficient awareness of the social responsibility of environmental protection. Adhering to the legal responsibility of enterprises is actually to implement the scientific concept of development, that is, "adhering to people-oriented", that is, to "promote the overall development of the economy, society and people". From another point of view, once an environmental problem occurs, the damage is huge, and it is very easy to trigger conflicts between enterprises and society, between enterprises and ordinary citizens, and between enterprises and the government. Improper solutions often lead to serious social problems and stimulate deep-seated problems. Therefore, it is advocated that enterprises should bear environmental legal responsibilities, and use the social and environmental benefits of enterprises as an important evaluation system to assess the production and operation of enterprises. Coordination is conducive to building a socialist "harmonious society".

The second is to correct the relationship between protecting the environment and improving economic efficiency. When an enterprise bears environmental legal responsibility, it is to break the one-sided view of economic performance determinism, break the predatory production and operation mode in the past, and make the enterprise develop on the road of sustainable development. Enterprises should not ignore the social responsibility of environmental protection in pursuit of their immediate economic interests. Violating the law and polluting the environment will definitely be punished by the law. In the contemporary society where civilization and the legal system are improving day by day, companies that violate the law and pollute the environment harm others and benefit themselves. They will inevitably be condemned and rejected by the society, and their economic benefits will not last long.

Again, we must consciously protect the environment. Protecting the environment is a legal responsibility and should be a conscious action of enterprises. Environmental protection that relies entirely on legal supervision, management, and sanctions is inefficient, and consciously abiding by the law and consciously protecting the environment is the smooth path for sustainable development. Many legal norms of environmental protection in Europe today originated from corporate agreements and industry norms that consciously protect the environment, such as the well-known ISO14000 environmental management certification, and some European countries' norms on the prevention and control of electronic waste pollution. action. These advanced enterprises in environmental protection not only make positive contributions to social environmental protection, but also improve their own good social image, thereby improving their own market performance and economic benefits, which are worthy of serious study by Chinese enterprises.