Environmental regulation found to boost business performance

Well-designed environmental regulation can enhance business competitiveness and job creation, according to a report by the Aldersgate Group.

It also shows that businesses can also benefit from increased investment in innovation and skills, along with better quality products and infrastructure, as a result of smart regulation.

This has been demonstrated in the UK’s landfill tax triggering significant investment by the waste industry in new infrastructure and services, while cutting the amount of rubbish sent to landfill by 72% in 20 years.

Other examples include low-carbon policy for building planning applications in 2015 resulting in approximately 4,000 jobs, while CO2 regulation has seen the automotive industry climb to third in the world for research and development.

“Environmental regulations can act as a help rather than a hindrance to innovation and growth, while also delivering positive environmental outcomes,” Aldersgate Group executive director, Nick Molho, said.

“The challenge ahead will be to ensure that regulations to deliver the UK’s environmental and industrial objectives are sufficiently ambitious, stable, practical and compatible with other policy objectives.”

However, the report also highlights several flaws to these regulations, from poor enforcement to a lack of focus on supply chain skills.

In order to maximise the environmental and economic benefits, while also avoiding unintended impacts, it argues that well-designed regulations need to:

• Be pitched at the right geographic scale• Provide a clear, stable sense of direction• Be coherent with existing policies• Be implemented in a way that works with business timescales• Be accompanied by complementary policies (such as on skills and regulatory enforcement).

“There is no inherent conflict between well-crafted policy and economic gains,” BuroHappold director of sustainability, Duncan Price, said.

“When well-designed and complemented by effective economic and industrial policies, smart regulations can deliver positive environmental and economic outcomes.”