Keeping it clean

Environment and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises: Corporate Tools and Approaches

How do multinational corporations put into practice the rather higher level concepts of sustainable development and still respect the bottom line? Environment and the OECD Guidelines for MNEs relates how a pharmaceutical company, Baxter International, saved energy but also saved $50 million in operations costs by switching to the most energy-efficient lightbulb.

And when Fuji-Xerox Australia designed an energy-efficient series of copiers with 45% recyclable parts and 95% reusable parts, it had one of the fastest monochrome printing speeds in the industry for its category. In addition, Fuji developed a 100% recycled office paper, which became the paper of choice at the 2000 Olympics Games in Sydney, with 86 million sheets sold.

The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, which were revised in 2000, addresses an entire chapter of its text to good environmental practices and policies. This book spells them out. Good practice, it says, includes taking steps to assess environmental impacts through the whole life-cycle of a product, act in a proactive way to avoid serious or irreversible environmental damage resulting from a company’s activities, and provide for environmental emergencies.

ISBN 9264009388. See the New Publications pages or www.oecdbookshop.org for ordering details.

©OECD Observer No. 251, September 2005