Corporate Environmental Governance in Pakistan A Case study of Environmental performance in selected manufacturing industries of Rahim Yar Khan, Punjab, Pakistan (T-1269) (MFN 4249)

Abstract

This research was aimed to analyze and bring about an understanding about regulatory frame work and compliances to the corporate environmental governance (CEG) rules and regulation in selected industries of Rahim Yar Khan. The study was carried out through structured and unstructured questionnaire, interviews field visits. Eighteen indicators were designed for the questionnaire which comprised of four sections. The first section elaborated general information about companies, i.e. size, number of workers, type of a firm and location. The second section was specified governmental and legal requirements and compliances of the industries towards environmental protection. Third section was related to issues of environmental management by the firms and the last section deal with firm’s policy issue, preparation of corporate regulation and associated problems. The results revealed that majority of the firms were in self compliance with corporate environmental governance laws. Among the other indicators, a large numbers of sample Corporates complied the code of CEG as is the mandatory compliance requirement of the state. The majority of corporation mentioned a strong compliance of laws as these laws were enforced robustly. In contrast only four companies observed a medium compliance and enforcement of these laws. All industries unanimously committed that they themselves observed the regulations. Therefore there must be a law enforcement agency. Majority of the industries disregard obstacles for the environmental protection in their workplaces, i.e. standard technology requiring huge investment, high capital operational cost, and etc. 66.7% firms were eager to get state of the art machinery for environmental protection. The opinion by the corporate senior management varied from neutral to strongly agree; however majority of the indicators reflected that leadership was conscious about environmental importance and its role to human beings. There is a strong need of regulator, who communicates with them effectively to ensure the business, environment and society obtaining mutual benefits.