Exploring the linkage between investment in manufacturing and environmental technologies

The popular business press, government regulators, environmentalists and th e public ave calling on operations managers to shift away from their tradit ional emphasis on pollution control toward pollution prevention when improv ing environmental performance. Yet, any managerial decision about the level and form of investment in these environmental technologies cannot be made in isolation, but instead must be implemented within the context of other m anufacturing investments in process technologies and organizational systems . A survey of two Canadian industries - small machine tools and non-fashion textiles - revealed evidence that environmental technologies have been reg arded as ancillary investments; as investment in manufacturing increased so did the proportion of that investment directed toward environmental techno logies. Further, increased investment in advanced process technologies actu ally shifted investment away from pollution prevention. in contrast, increa sed investment in quality-related organizational systems favored concurrent investment in recycling programs, along with pollution prevention and mana gement systems. Thus, increased investment in quality management offered an important route to expand the implementation of pollution prevention.