ISO 14001 a standard that helps managers develop systems to effectively and efficiently achieve pollution prevention, improved performance, and compliance with environmental laws and save money. In these markets, being green allows a company to increase its market share. In short, globalization and the WTO creates opportunities for the environmental improvements and business success that did not exist twenty years ago. We encourage businesses and environmentalists to seize them. Despite much press coverage of anti-WTO activities by some environmentalists, we feel it is important to point out that these groups do not represent all segments of the environmental community.
Some environmental organizations believe that trade can actually be good for the environment.
The reason is that an increasing body of evidence shows that improved economic performance can often be linked to improvements in environmental quality. For example, although the world as a whole is suffering deforestation, especially in tropical areas, the two most mature capitalist and multinational areas of the globe, Europe and North America, are actually increasing both the area of forests and their maturity. In contrast, true environmental devastation is often worst where there is a low level of industrialization and consequent poverty. An example of this can be found in India, where the air quality is so bad that it is estimated that 10,000 people per year die in New Delhi alone from the results of uncontrolled combustion sources. And the stories about environmental disasters in the former Soviet Union are legion.