How to Make It Work
STUDENT PAPER
By Julien Poivet
SKEMA Business School
Paris, France
ABSTRACT
This paper focuses on environmental laws in the European Union and particularly deals with the issue faced by lawmakers and governments which demonstrates that quite many companies decide not to comply to those environmental laws. We then tried to understand whether the companies which do not comply with European Union and European States laws are reprehensible.
In order to do so we used a non-dimensional data technique which has been developed through a several steps procedures to make it as relevant as we possibly could. We eventually got interesting conclusions which states that companies have a part of responsibility in complying to environmental laws and that European companies, by complying to those laws, should be examples of CSRs. On the other hand, we also reached the conclusion that companies face a global competition and should be helped in that regard by fighting to make necessary environmental laws more widespread all around the world.
Key words: Dispute, Environmental Laws, European Union, European States, Compliance, Project Management
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, the global awareness towards climate change raises all over the world. The last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change work showed once again “that the world is rapidly changing, that the average temperatures raise and will be at the very least 1.5°C higher compared to before the industrial revolution, which will lead to higher sea level, desertification or stronger natural disasters”[1]. Thus, things have to change and countries “concluded the Paris agreement in 2015, complying to take corrective actions to limit global warming to 2°C”[2]. Most of the time those corrective actions are laws which intend to reduce contamination, curve gas emissions or restraint plastic waste. The European Union claims to be a leader in that new model, implementing laws, giving advice and recommendations. Although, every year in the European Union, big scandals emerge regarding companies that do not or did not respect environmental laws, either at the Union level or at a state level. The 2015 Volkswagen scandal can pop directly to your mind, but the 2015 “red mud” affair in the South of France is striking as well. Lately, a cruise ship called the Azura has been caught on her way to Marseille, France, using fuel that pollutes over the European Union limit. Every time major environmental issues, such as the conservation of an ecological area, or the life of populations, are at stake, disputes emerge. But before going further, a few terms have to be defined for the well-understanding of the following paper. First we decided to work more using the word “dispute” over “conflict”, since the latter is “largely value based and group centered in nature, and thus less susceptible to resolution”[3] while “dispute” “refers to a class or kind of conflict which manifests itself in distinct, justiciable issue”[4].
Furthermore, we will need to focus on environmental disputes that “relates in some way to the incidence, or suspected incidence of environmental pollution or damage of some kind”[5]. Girard defines “five kinds of disputes which are listed here: party to party, issuance of licenses or permits, preliminary or “in principle” approvals, content of law and policy and compliance and enforcement” [6]. Another important aspect of this kind of dispute is that we can define public and private interest environmental disputes. We will mostly work on public interest environmental disputes which is “the impact of environmentally damaging or polluting activities on the public interest in environmental preservation”[7]. Finally, we can define several ways of dealing with environmental disputes: “negotiation, mitigation and arbitration being the more successful”[8] while litigation should be avoided as a solution in that case. Although, we will see later that it is also often the solutions used to solve environmental disputes.
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Editor’s note: Student papers are authored by graduate or undergraduate students based on coursework at accredited universities or training programs. This paper was prepared as a deliverable for the course “International Contract Management” facilitated by Dr Paul D. Giammalvo of PT Mitratata Citragraha, Jakarta, Indonesia as an Adjunct Professor under contract to SKEMA Business School for the program Master of Science in Project and Programme Management and Business Development. http://www.skema.edu/programmes/masters-of-science. For more information on this global program (Lille and Paris in France; Belo Horizonte in Brazil), contact Dr Paul Gardiner, Global Programme Director paul.gardiner@skema.edu.
How to cite this paper: Poivet, J. (2019). Companies and Environmental Laws in the European Union: How to Make It Work, PM World Journal, Vol. VIII, Issue X, November. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pmwj87-Nov2019-Poivet-companies-and-environmental-laws-in-the-eu.pdf
About the Author
Julien POIVET
Paris, France
Julien Poivet is a French Student in Project Management at the French Business School SKEMA Business School. After being brought up in Reunion Island, a French Island in the Indian Ocean, Julien had the opportunity to join SKEMA Business School which enabled him to go and study in France (Lille, Paris), the United States (North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC), Canada (University of Victoria, BC) and Brazil (Fundacao Dom Cabral, Belo Horizonte).
Project Management has been an easy choice for him since Julien has always been interested in the global overview Project Management offers on project. That is why he decided to join SKEMA Business School’s MSc in Project and Programme Management and Business Development that he followed in 2018. This choice resulted in an interesting education which matched with Julien’s appeal and expectation and will lead him to become an efficient Project Manager.
After a first six-month internship in Project Management at Décathlon, the French sports goods retailer, Julien joined Veolia Environnement in January 2018 for a six months internship as assistant to project manager. He has always presented a real interest in environmental issues and this paper has a logical link with both Julien’s internship a Veolia Environnement and his desire for future jobs.
Throughout his education, Julien enhanced several qualities as team spirit, autonomy and leadership and also acquired the skills necessary to start a proficient career in project management. Julien is now CAPM, Prince 2 and AgilePM certified.
Julien lives in Paris and can be contacted at julien.poivet@skema.edu. You can also access his LinkedIn profile by clicking on https://www.linkedin.com/in/julienpoivet/
[1] Gregory Rozières (2015). The Huffington Post. L’accord de la COP 21 veut limiter le réchauffement climatique à 1,5°C, mais est-ce seulement possible? Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2015/12/12/accord-cop21-rechauffement-15-possible_n_8793184.html
[2] Gregory Rozières (2015). The Huffington Post. L’accord de la COP 21 veut limiter le réchauffement climatique à 1,5°C, mais est-ce seulement possible ? Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2015/12/12/accord-cop21-rechauffement-15-possible_n_8793184.html
[3] Nicholson (2009). Environmental Dispute resolution in Indonesia. Retrieved from https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/580/01%2B2.PDF;sequence=5
[4] Brown and Marriott. (1999). Adr Principles and Practice, 2nd ed., p2.
[5] Nicholson (2009). Environmental Dispute resolution in Indonesia. Retrieved from https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/580/01%2B2.PDF;sequence=5
[6] Jennifer Girard (1999). Dispute Resolution in Environmental Conflicts: Panacea or Placebo? Retrieved from http://cfcj-fcjc.org/sites/default/files/docs/hosted/17465-dr_environmental.pdf
[7] Nicholson (2009). Environmental Dispute resolution in Indonesia. Retrieved from https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/580/01%2B2.PDF;sequence=5
[8] Jennifer Girard (1999). Dispute Resolution in Environmental Conflicts: Panacea or Placebo? Retrieved from http://cfcj-fcjc.org/sites/default/files/docs/hosted/17465-dr_environmental.pdf
