As in much of Latin America, corporate environmental efforts here rarely transcend waste treatment and other “end-of-the-pipe” strategies. Small wonder, then, that many Peruvian companies regard environmental protection as an unwelcome cost—and a threat to their competitiveness. To change this equation, Peru 2021, a nonprofit business association, has launched a program called Cadena, or Chain. The goal is to help companies routinely factor the environment into their business decisions, and to demonstrate that doing so makes economic, as well as ecological, sense. Specifically, the program is helping businesses develop and implement environmental management systems. In doing so, the companies position themselves to obtain certification under ISO 14001, the environmental-management standard developed by the International Organization for Standardization in Geneva. Underlying... [Log in to read more]