April 2009
abstract
Responsabilité & Environnement
The societal and environmental responsibility of corporations
Issue 54
Editorial
By Pierre Couveinhes
Rédacteur en chef des Annales des Mines
A fast changing legal and regulatory framework
Environmental and societal responsibility: Prevention is better than… being responsible?
By Philippe LEDENVIC
Directeur régional de l'industrie, de la recherche et de l'environnement de Rhône-Alpes
Appraisals by experts
How much are snails worth if they don’t come from Burgundy? Biodiversity: Which values? For which decisions?
By Claire TUTENUIT
Déléguée Générale d'"Entreprises pour l''Environnement"
and Camille STEHLIN
Chargée de mission chez "Entreprises pour l'Environnement"
How to calculate biodiversity’s economic value? Three methods exist based on, respectively, the damages set by law, the value of the services rendered by ecosystems and the value of eventually comparable transactions.
Are the polluters of our waterways paying?
By André WULF
Expert juridique à l'Agence de l'eau Seine-Normandie
and Patrick DALION
Professeur de Droit des Affaires au Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers
Are the polluters of our waterways paying? Offhand, the answer is simply “yes”; many of them are. But are all of them? The answer is just as simple: obviously not…
The environmental and societal responsibility of international waste-management firms
By Daniel BLAIN
Président de la Commission "Déchets" de la Fédération nationale des Activités de la Dépollution de l'Environnement (FNADE)
and Gérard FRIES
Directeur technique de VEOLIA-PROPRETE, Nanterre
International waste-management firms assume societal responsibility by controlling the processes for treating and recycling wastes, by implementing best practices and by adopting codes of professional ethics that set minimum standards.
Corporate policies and environmental strategies
The Safran Group addresses environmental issues
By Régis BRIQUET
Directeur adjoint du Développement durable, Groupe Safran
and Bertrand FIOL
Chargé de mission environnement à la Direction industrielle du Goupe Safran
Climatic change, the growing scarcity of natural resources, the nuisances generated by airports, chemicals… to cope with these major environmental issues and foster sustainable development in aeronautics as well as the space and defense industries, the Safran Group, through its subsidiaries, is trying to formulate concrete responses and prepare the future.
The French Atomic Energy Commission’s environmental approach
By Didier KIMMEL
Directeur-adjoint central de la sécurité
Involved in many fields of research with a strong potential for innovation — ranging from nanotechnology to nuclear power — the French Atomic Energy Commission has to analyze and control several risks. In addition, it pursues a policy based on saving resources and rationally using them as well as on conservation of the environment.
The metal industry’s current contribution and objectives in relation to corporate environmental responsibility
By Claire de LANGERON
Déléguée générale de la FEDEM
Depending on the state of technology during various periods, the metal industry has long been involved in conserving the environment and preventing risks for its personnel. Big and small companies in this sector want to pursue these efforts by placing them in a long-term perspective.
Miscellany
The problems raised in environmental health by defining specifications for soil referents
By Côme DANIAU
Institut de veille sanitaire (InVS)
Frédéric DOR
Institut de veille sanitaire (InVS)
Sébastien DENYS
Institut national de l'environnement industriel et des risques (Ineris)
Adeline FLOCH-BARNEAUD
Institut national de l'environnement industriel et des risques (Ineris)
and William DAB
Conservatoire national des arts et métiers
In environmental health, soil samples are compared to determine pollution trends in a locality or to calculate to what degree pollution should be attributed to a specific source. But it is hard to make such appraisals, qualitatively as well as quantitatively.