The objective of this paper is to briefly define the most common concepts used for industrial environmental
management and to show their relationships. These relationships are the real point of this paper. There are
many actions industry can take, from the small to the very large, along a path or staircase that leads to increasingly
broad impacts on and interactions with the environment and society. Many industries are working
their way up this staircase using the operational concepts that located on the lower levels. No industry,
and no society, is really at the top of the staircase; the top, which is sustainable development, is, like quality,
a goal which is always elusive and for which we should never stop striving.