In the last 15 years there has been a growing world wide movement among government and industry to
change the way industry interacts with the environment. The focus of this movement has been to reduce
environmental impacts from industry through changes in industrial behavior and technology. There are a
number of terms that are used to describe both the movement and the approaches being used. All of them
are based on what is commonly known as the “Precautionary Principle,” also known by the old saying, “an
ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It is better, and usually much less expensive, to prevent
environmental problems from happening than to fix them once they are created. And if we don’t know
what effects our actions will have on the environment, we should proceed with caution and try to minimize
any potential effects that might occur.