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In our rapidly globalised world corporate environments are changing. Businesses are realising that it is essential to achieve a developmental framework that places people and the planet before profits. Managing the environmental programme in an industrial or commercial facility has become an increasingly complex and challenging assignment owing to the expanding maze of environmental laws and regulations and the growing public expectations regarding environmental protection. To be effective, programmes and policies promoting greener products, the use of fewer natural resources, and lower impacts and risks to the environment, must be based on an overall framework of biopolicy, which will help to focus every activity on the consequential task of saving the environment and life on our planet. Businesses recognise that a good profile within the community can be strengthened by displaying a strong environmental ethic, with responsible policies playing a major part in this.

B.I.O. has been on the forefront of developments in environmental management and has published extensively on the subject. Thirty-eight chapters in the volumes of B.I.O. conference proceedings as well as 4 feature artilces in BioNews deal with issues of environmental management. Furthermore, within the framework of the European Union's Phare and Leonardo da Vinci Training Programmes, B.I.O. developed and implemented a plethora of educational material and several training manuals on environmental management systems and management and audit schemes, such as EMAS. This material was used to train students and professionals in EU accession countries. Moreover, environmental management is part of the B.I.O. e-learning course in environmental economics, soon to be available online as part of our comprehensive e-learning programme. This year, B.I.O. is cooperating with the European Council on Managing the Environment in the organisation of a major conference in Athens to address the subject of environmental management and corporate social responsibility.