Many companies have difficulty achieving even this minimum level of performance. Legal compliance avoids fines and other regulatory actions,but usually gives the company no other benefits . Compliance costs are often seen as an overhead, the price of doing business. It is perfectly possible to meet all laws and regulations, but still incur expensive liabilities. For example, the law may not force companies to protect storage facilities, but the company is still liable for the spill clean-up when things go wrong.
Some companies use consultants to audit their sites.
Actions are then taken to control any liabilities found. The benefits of reduced risk exposure are real but often invisible. Level 3 Opportunities Companies which manage compliance issues and have controlled their potential environmental liabilities can begin to look for look for opportunities to improve the environmental performance of their processes and products. Such opportunities can be exploited by active environmental management. The pay-back period for many of these investments can be very short.