L'impact de la législation wallonne en matière d'environnement sur l'activité professionnelle d'une grande entreprise

Abstract

In our society, there are more and more environmental legislations because of the challenge of the global warming we are facing. These laws impact every stakeholders, whether citizens, governments or companies. The pollution of these latter is huge. Regulations are written in response to force them to act in favour of the environment. But how will they impact the enterprises in Wallonia in practice? Is there a risk on the competitiveness? That is what this work intends to answer by confronting literature with the real case of Materne Confilux, a Walloon enterprise in the Food industry, on the water and waste domains. Several dimensions are influenced by these regulations. First of all, the company will face compliance costs increasing the production costs. In addition, the laws will impact employment by increasing or decreasing the number of workers notably. Moreover, formations of managers and the organization of executive management bodies might not stay untouched and some modifications might be necessary. These new regulations might also have an impact on the import-export ratio of a company and the investments abroad it proceeds. If national regulations become too restrictive and costly, it might lead enterprise to relocate in another country. However, these laws bring companies to innovate, which will permit them to reduce the compliance costs they face. They might also be able to collect direct profit by selling waste for example. All these changes, whether it is the costs or the innovation, might have an influence on the productivity and the competitiveness of a company. In the case of Materne, the answer is yes, these two were impacted negatively but the effects were moderated because of the innovation it implemented. And in the end, even if Materne is not really pleased with these costs, the purpose of these legislations is understood and accepted and forces Materne to improve endlessly. However, the Company is wondering why every company in the world does not play with the same rules in this competitive context.