How Environmental Law Can Create Conflicts of Interest in the Business World

There are several different legal aspects that a business needs to stick to, in order to ensure their operations are on the right side of the law. Not only is this to protect the integrity of a company, there are also important safety aspects for staff, stock, surroundings and customers that need to be in place as well.

One such example of these regulations is environmental law; which is something that affects many different industries and sectors. This essentially covers the rulings addressing the potential effects of a business’ activity on our environment, with the intention of reducing or stopping any damage or destruction being caused over air, sea or land.

With this though can come several issues and disagreements – particularly when a business is looking to develop or expand. Here, we take a look at some examples of these conflicts of interest and consider what strategies can be taken to help differing parties come to a resolution.

Potential Conflicts of Interest

As aforementioned, environmental law covers a wide range of different areas, so in more general terms there’s the potential to face challenges in an equally wide number of circumstances. For example:

Business Expansion – if a company wants to grow by either extending its premises, or opening more sites or locations in new places or countries, they may be challenged by local authorities or other companies about:

• The damage to animal habitats
• The additional pollution and emissions caused by the new sites
• The further work needed to provided added utilities in the surrounding areas

Development of Land – property developers or those looking to utilise green space can face backlash from other parties because of:

• Any ownership challenges and land boundary issues
• The effect on the plants and animals in this area
• The possible knock-on damage to surrounding land, air or water areas

Patents – Even looking to develop new technologies or advancements that could potentially help the environment could be challenged because of:

• Similarities shared between the designs of the respective products
• The proposed effectiveness and capabilities of the new technologies
• Other businesses then using this idea before it is fully patented and protected

Helpful Advice

These are just three examples that could turn into expensive legal battles, fines, or negative and damaging press that sees a business losing its reputation and its clients. The simple solution is for a business to conduct thorough planning research in the development stage and address any issues well-before production. For any later challenges, where an advanced understanding of the legal situation is needed, a business should look to hire experts to handle the case and work to efficiently resolve any issues.
To return to a key point, the knock-on effects of a conflict of interests based around environmental law rulings can be incredibly damaging for a business and could lead to major issues financial issues further down the line. With this, taking the above steps or approaches can help avoid such situations from occurring and ensure that a business stays on the right side of these important laws and regulations.