Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to discuss the general feeling in German industry and business sectors that the concept of sustainability is gradually moving from voluntary to mandatory. The German government is increasingly becoming directly involved in the day-to-day business operations, particularly in the fields of sustainability. As a result, the burden of compliance for companies is growing rapidly. The chapter asks the question “is sustainability becoming mandatory in Germany?” and answers this by drawing together the author’s experience-based evidence from working with a broad range of industrial and business entities in the fields of large industrial facility licensing, technical due-diligence and corporate social responsibility; as well as the development of workplace safety, quality, environmental and energy management systems.
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- 1.
In the period from 1999 to 2015 the number of students beginning their 1st semester grew by 74% while in the same period the number of people starting vocational training dropped by 19%.
- 2.
Carbon leakage is the process by which businesses, due to the significant financial costs related to climate legislation, move their production facilities to countries with less stringent legal requirements.
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Atkinson, R. (2019). Towards Mandatory Sustainability: Recent Lessons from Germany. In: Schmidt, M., Giovannucci, D., Palekhov, D., Hansmann, B. (eds) Sustainable Global Value Chains. Natural Resource Management in Transition, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14877-9_8
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