Achieving Sustainable Development

The hope of workers and communities everywhere

The broad consensus to protect jobs, wealth creation and the environment has created the concept of "sustainable development" - industry which provides employment for working people while using the earth's resources responsibly. It represents the mainstream hope of workers and communities in every country.

Over the last 30 years, social action has made better environmental protection a priority for industry, government agencies and the public. Today, we have enacted laws to protect air, water and soil. We have created the Superfund to help restore hazardous waste sites. U.S. industries now spend an estimated $77 billion annually to improve environmental protections and comply with regulations.

Many people think that we have made the necessary start and are moving in the right direction. This progress has been neither smooth nor painless, but it has been steady, laying the foundation for further advances.

Environmental progress has not come as quickly as some eco-advocates would like, but factors beyond environment must influence the pace of change. While environment matters, so does livelihood. Reasonable people tend to conclude that major industries should be cleaned up - not shut down. We will build the road to sustainable development by answering questions about the safety of specific processes and products on the basis of sound scientific research, making changes where necessary.

Wayne Glenn, President Emeritus of the United Paperworkers International Union and Co-Chairman of ARCC, said "Union workers have been leaders in getting better health and safety measures in manufacturing. We know that the rational approach to pollution control includes maintaining good jobs and recognizing that our country needs a healthy industrial base."

"Using staged implementation of environmental improvements driven by sound science, industries can keep their plants competitive, maintain good jobs and succeed in the world market," said J. Roger Hirl, President and Chief Executive Officer of Occidental Chemical Corporation. Mr. Hirl is Co-chairman of ARCC. "Chlorine chemistry industries have committed huge resources and made significant environmental progress over the last decade. We are pledged to continue this work."

"Industry is approaching the next phase of pollution control - implementation of new technologies to further reduce, recover and reuse emissions," said Doug-las J. McCarron, General President of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. "The pulp and paper industry provides a leading example. By switching from elemental chlorine to chlorine dioxide and other refinements in the bleaching process, the industry can virtually eliminate dioxin emissions while staying competitive and providing good jobs."

Achieving sustainable development practices is critical to all manufacturing workers and companies, as well as the service industries relying on their products. The industries that build cars, appliances, electronics, computers, aircraft - that build homes and buildings and raise crops and animals - all create waste materials. But they also put food on the table for hundreds of millions of people here and abroad, and have helped to raise living standards and increase human longevity. They help provide the wealth needed to fund scientific and technological advances and make the future a cleaner place for the world's billions.

Chlorine chemistry industries should play a key role in developing sustainable practices in factories, on farms and in communities. Everyone knows that chlorine chemistry provides our safe drinking water. But chlorine chemistry also provides the building-blocks for most chemicals, plastics, pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, computers, electronics, advanced materials, medical devices, crop protection and other essential products. Worldwide, as many as five million people work in chlorine chemistry industries. These workers provide the products which make possible additional millions of jobs in the manufacturing and service sectors.

In the U.S. alone, the chemical industry provides high-wage employment for a million people. According to EPA, the chemical industry has cut its emissions more than 60 percent in the last decade - while providing a major positive trade balance and assuming the role of U.S. leader in investment for research and development and pollution control technology. While more work must be done, it seems obvious that this industry (and others) should be encouraged to continue making environmental progress while still providing good jobs.

Right now, EPA is poised to finish writing the final rules for MACT I, MACT III, and the water regulations for bleached mills. The next step is a review by the federal Office of Management and Budget, after which these portions of the rule will be put into effect.

Other segments of the Cluster Rule will probably be finalized piece-by-piece by EPA during 1997. Comments and action by all concerned parties will be needed because, in each case, the new comment period will be the last opportunity to influence each segment of the rule before it is published as final regulation.