Environmental Research by the Private Sector

Abstract

This review summarises environmental research by the private sector in the developed western nations, with particular reference to: organisation, institutional structures and funding; users and applications; training; relevance to national policy, effectiveness of information; and deficiencies and strategies to overcome them. The principal conclusions are as follows. Most private-sector environmental research is in four main categories:

• 1. Design of new processes and equipment with reduced emissions or energy consumption; carried out by equipment manufacturers or engineering arms of major corporations; and not generally available to the public.

• 2. Research required for preparation of documents to comply with planning, development approval and EIA legislation; chiefly carried out by environmental consulting firms; available at least in summary form to government and public, in EIA documents; but relatively difficult to locate and examine once the development has received approval.

• 3. Environmental monitoring to comply with pollution control standards, and commitments made in EIA documents or imposed as conditions of development consents; chiefly carried out by operation corporations or their consultants; generally available to government regulatory agencies but not to the public.

• 4. Research on rehabilitation and revegetation; carried out by operating corporations and rehabilitation consultants; sometimes available through publication in conference proceedings and journal articles, but not on a routine basis.

This research is driven principally by requirements to meet environmental legislation of various types.