Environmental management systems are based on the management PDCA cycle or the Deming cycle. Systematic procedures such as Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA), EcoAction 21 of Japan and Energy Conservation Law are introduced as powerful tools for environmental and energy management, especially considering greenhouse gas emissions and energy/materials balance. Environmental education aims to help the company personnel and citizens contribute to environmental conservation, and it is essential not only to solve global environmental problems and build a sustainable society, but also to perform environmental management effectively.

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EcoAction 21 has been widely implemented as an environmental management system by small and medium enterprises. Characteristics of EcoAction 21 and practical use to certification and registration are introduced.

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To achieve sufficient energy conservation,management skills needs to be ell-established in a company. In terms of energy management, The Energy Conservation Law of Japan (hereafter noted as the EC Law of Japan) is the most useful tool. The law is a comprehensive system for energy efficiency and conservation in energy use, which has strongly promoted the energy conservation in Japan. The law covers four fields currently, factories & workplaces, buildings, transportation, and machinery & equipment. In each area, it has devised effective measures for the energy conservation and played important roles to promote energy efficiency and conservation. Also the law has a system for qualification for energy managers, and has a linkage to a report system on GHG emission. The outline, method, effect and related activities of The Energy Conservation Law of Japan was introduced from the point of energy management.

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Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA), one of the major environmental management accounting tools, increases transparency of material and energy use practices via understanding of physical input materials. Any costs that are generated by and/or associated with the material flows are subsequently quantified and attributed to them. In particular, MFCA highlights the comparison of costs associated with products and costs associated with material losses, e.g. waste, air emissions, wastewater. In this regard, MFCA achieves simultaneous contribution to economy and environment. The concept of MFCA was originally developed in Germany and introduced in Japan around 2000. In particular, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry has strongly supported the MFCA dissemination. As a result, approximately 300 Japanese companies have introduced MFCA. MFCA has also attracted the attention of other countries, including those in Asia and the Middle East. Parallel to the rapid dissemination of MFCA, the Japanese Industrial Standards Committee submitted NWIP to ISO/TC207 on MFCA in 2008. Finally, MFCA (ISO 14051) was internationally standardized in September 2011. In addition, MFCA (ISO 14051) is harmonized with ISO 14001 and other ISO 14000 and 9000 standards. In other words, MFCA brings concepts of "cost" and "profit" into environmental management system such as ISO 14001. In this paper, overview of MFCA approach, background for the MFCA standardization are discussed.

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ISO14001 was established for the purpose of global environmental conservation by the request of industry. Top management establishes the objectives and plans to deliver the results for achieving the expected output. Then, the plan is implemented and the actual results are to be studied. Corrective actions might be requested if there are significant differences between actual and planned results. The implementation guidelines and requirements of ISO14001 are introduced. Since ISO14001 was established in 1996, the number of certified organizations has a peak in 2008, and then has decreased gradually.

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Environmental and safety issues of the chemical industry are introduced together with global trend of chemicals management and chemicals management policies. The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) is a policy framework to foster the sound management of chemicals. Chemicals are produced and used in ways that minimize significant adverse impacts on the environment and human health.

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RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) is in force for the restriction of the use of certain substances in electrical and electronic equipment. Management corresponding to RoHS is discussed in home electrical appliances, by introducing the case implemented at Panasonic Group.

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Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is incorporated administrative agency which is responsible for executing Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) in such programs as Technical Cooperation, Yen Loan and Grant Aid for developing countries. Environmental Management is one of the most significant issues in many of the countries for their sustainable development, especially for rapid-growing East Asian nations such as Mongolia, China and Vietnam. JICA, in cooperation with counterpart governments in East Asia, is implementing various ODA projects in the field of air quality, water quality and waste management for capacity development of human resources and institutions.

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Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism will introduce Green Logistics Policies to reduce the effects on the environment. Although some progress has been made in the logistics sector towards the goals of the Kyoto Protocol, more efforts are necessary to be made in the future.

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The Asahi Kasei Group performs joint research with universities, etc., to provide materials and system technologies which are in harmony with the environment. Contribution to the development of a sustainable society is made by conserving energy in production processes, providing energy-saving products and system technologies, minimizing wastes, and providing drinking-water purification. Notable examples of successful industry-academia collaboration include a residential fuel-cell cogeneration system in collaboration with an engineering company and an energy enterprise, and a highly efficient ground-source heat pump system in collaboration with a university and a construction company. As an example of joint research with an NPO, JST/JICA and a university are developing new water reuse technology which is suitable for utilization in tropical regions. Collaboration between industry, academia, and government is vital for dealing with environmental problems.

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Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a technique for quantifying environmental impacts throughout a product life cycle. We analyzed LCA applications in industries from the viewpoint of supply chain. Downstream industries such as assembly company can carry out LCA with reliable data including use and disposal stages of products. In some large enterprises, LCA is incorporated in their business systematically constructing a LCA system. In contrast, midstream and upstream industries, such as parts and materials companies do not have detailed information of downstream stages of their products and they often evaluate environmental impact from resource acquisition to their own products manufacturing. However, there are many good practices performing LCA for ecodesign even in small and medium sized enterprises. Furthermore, collaborative LCA applications among companies along a supply chain can reduce not only environmental impacts from product life cycle but also production costs. Although LCA applications and levels may vary from company to company, LCA is extending into industries.

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With the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, our daily life notices that supply chains are so important and fragile and that there are still challenges how to harmonize and visualize the environmental issues and the supply chains. One of the reasons is that products with manufacturing by the supply chains inevitably consume natural resources for materials and energy and put out CO_2 throughout their whole product lifecycle. Therefore, closed-loop and low carbon supply chains should be designed environmentally and economically. This paper overviews the environmental issues and supply chains with the product lifecycle, and discusses the designs and challenges in the closed-loop and the low carbon supply chains for sustainability.

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Many chemical substances have caused more environmental problems in terms of handling, which have become a major international issue. The idea of management of chemical substances has transformed from hazard management to risk management, putting emphasis on voluntary management. In this context, in the field of industrial cleaning, as the voluntary management tool to support VOC emission control, we look forward to emission control diagnosis system that could be operated computers. JICC (Japan Industrial Conference on Cleaning) has recently completed a trial operation and begun field examination for its on-site inspection.

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Max Weber predicted in his "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" that this cosmos [of the Protestant work ethic] today determines, with overwhelming coercion, the style of life of all individuals born into it, not only of those directly engaged in earning a living but of every individual who is born into this mechanism, and may well continue to do so until the very last ton of fossil fuel has been consumed (Weber, 1989). As according to Weber's prediction, the world is about to face a serious food and natural resources crisis which may make the global economic system unbalanced. Under the circumstances of such natural resources and global economic related limitation and the necessity for global warming countermeasures, there has been a wider tendency in discussing about the necessity of the newly so-called economic concept "Low-carbon economy". There is a tendency that this concept is achieving a global consensus, as represented by Lester R. Brown's "Plan B4.0". It is therefore necessary to create a methodology to implement a low-carbon economy in concrete terms. This paper focuses on how to set up this methodology. We shall discuss about business realities related to our own experiences and Japan's energy-savings as an application of our business model in a narrow sense, i.e., the concept of profitgenerating structure. As a result, due to the difficulty in implementing a low-carbon economy under the mechanism of a freely competitive market, we shall suggest that the internalization of the external regulations and incentives help to design and complete a business model which then enables the implementation of a low-carbon economy.

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Actively responding to global environmental problems and the construction of recycling-based society is one of essentials for sustainable development of modern age's enterprise. In order to enhance the operator's attention to environmental protection and to improve environmental outcomes of enterprise, the win-win situation of environmental and economic is inevitable. From this point of view, this paper used the questionnaire form, through data analysis to summarize the status of Chinese enterprises. Find that Chinese enterprises lack of knowledge on environmental protection, and point out that the government should make relevant laws on environmental protection. At the same time, the survey will push forward the environmental management in Chinese enterprises.

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Korea faces with international environmental change such as the reduction of carbon emission. Importing 97% of energy, Korea is ranked at 9^<th> in CO2 emission. Korea is 1^<st> country among OECD countries in growth rate of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission with 2.8%. Korea is expected to participate in the international effort to cut GHSs emission. Conventional industry-centered growth is reaching its limits. To reduce GHGs emission, Korea has the policy for the spread of NRE (New & Renewable Energy). Korea has promoted the Development and Use of New and Renewable Energy Act in 2004.

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Existing literature on environmental management concentrates on the management of manufacturing environment. The environmental management of the upstream natural rubber production stage has been ignoring. To strengthen the environmental management of natural rubber production, this paper investigates the possibility of the sustainable management of agrobiodiversity of natural rubber planting environment by examining three low-carbon development models, namely intercropping plants under rubber forest, mushroom cultivation, and kinds of aquaculture development.

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Economic growth and environmental problem are always paradoxical. As the environmental problem is becoming more and more serious in China, the government establishes more environmental regulations in order to reduce environment pollution. Therefore, figuring out the impact of environmental regulations on manufacturing industries is vital to the governments' policy making. However, former researches on the relationship between environment regulations and industrial performance are inconsistent. This paper introduces technology innovation and barriers to entry as mediators to explain the impact of environment regulations on industrial performance. Based on a panel database of Chinese manufacturing industries during 2001 to 2010, a few interesting findings are concluded. In China, on one hand, more environmental regulations reduce industrial performance because they increase the barriers to entry the industries. On the other hand, environmental regulations raise industrial performance by stimulating technology innovations. These also help us to explain the unconformity in the past literatures.

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Based on sophisticated evaluation methods home and aboard, the analysis system of the quality of information about corporate environmental governance which is suitable for listed companies in China, has been constructed and applied. The result shows that the quality of information about corporate environmental governance in main markets in Shanghai and Shenzhen is better than that in growth enterprise markets and small and middle enterprise markets. The quality of the information related to polluting listed companies is better than their non-polluting counterparts. Then, the higher the market capitalization of listed companies is, the better their quality of information about respective environmental governance. At last, the quality of listed companies which are central state-owned or local state-owned is better than that of companies which are person-owned or other types.

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Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) has been identified as a priority waste stream in China due to its potentially hazardous nature, the consumption of resources used during the manufacture of electrical and electronic equipment and the expected WEEE growth rates. This paper explores issues relating to planning a more efficient WEEE management system in China. It begins by reviewing the present status of WEEE recycling in China. To establish the context of existing experience, the deposit-refund system (DRS) in practice is then explored. Given this context, a DRS for WEEE recycling in China is proposed by elaborating its main information, monetary and material flows. With the solution, it is hopeful to increase consumers' incentives to recycle and accordingly ensure the formal and efficient recycling of WEEE.

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Value chain of the livestock production rooted in locations has been facing challenges due to diverse livestock impacts on environment and new ways of thinking about local and regional economic development. On one hand, rapid increase of herdsis one of the major causes of nature degradation and loss of biodiversity. On the other hand, transactions can impose costs on livestock production. In that case, cluster plays a crucial role in both favorable environment and competitive positioning. Indeed, cluster group of actors must compete to deliver value. This paper tackles the question of how we resolve a stable livestock production and environmental services in order to activate meat cluster based on different vegetation zones. Since the natural resource base is different region to region, local as well as regional meat cluster will concentrate on "who provides the best value" instead of "who supplies the meat to the market".

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Mongolia is becoming one of the fastest growing economies in the world with real GDP growth of 6.1 percent in 2010 and an estimation of 9.8 percent in 2011. In the first 10 months of 2011, according to the National Statistical Office of Mongolia, the total industrial output increased by 10.1 percent, compared to the same period of the previous year. The increase was mainly due to mining and quarrying products such as crude oil, coal and iron ore.The mining sector is significantly contributing to the country's economic growth and has a major potential to improve the living standards of the population. However, on the other hand, environmental and ecological issues are becoming one of the biggest challenges in the country. The study attempted to address mining direct impacts on soil, water and air and indirect impacts on ecological balance and human development concluding with suggested actions that needs to be taken by the policy makers.

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Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) has been widely applied in many industrial fields, especially in Japanese industrial companies. TPM is not just another "program for maintaining machines". It is a program that can help a company to remain viable and to develop. From a management point of view, this is an activity that involves all members of the company - from company president down to the most junior company employee. From an economically effectiveness point of view, a company can benefit from implementing company-wide TPM activities, such as, increasing the availability of existing equipment hence reducing manufacturing costs and reducing equipment investment cost. From the environmental management point of view, TPM will contribute to the environmental conservation by reducing energy consumption, waste water, emission gas... etc. The main purpose of this research is to present the practical application of TPM in Japanese manufacturing plants, specifically referring to items contributing to the environmental conservation.

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The theme of environmental management and sustainable economic development has attracted increasing attention of public organizations, businesses and citizens in Vietnam. However, the picture of sustainable development in Vietnam is unclear when we look into the current situation of illegal industrial waste emissions by manufacturers both inside and outside of industrial zones. More and more enterprises have been detected discharging solids, water and gas waste into surrounding streams, fields and the air and among them foreign companies account for a significant share. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the current issue of environmental management, specifically industrial waste emission management in Vietnam. The case study of VEDAN Vietnam also was introduced. Suggestion for improve those current environmental management issues have been also made.

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In order to study how the industrial transfer from eastern China to the central and western regions impact on the regional energy intensity, this paper selects the top 10 high energy consumption industries (HECIs), and uses the industry dynamic cluster index (IDCI) to measure their status of transfer-in or out in each provinces. Panel data models are applied then to analyze their influence on energy intensity in eastern, central and western regions respectively. Empirical findings show that in recent years, the domestic industrial transfer of HECIs in China has indeed occurred, while its impact on energy intensity varied among industries and regions. Therefore, the central and western regions need to cautiously undertake the transferred HECIs from the eastern region.

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