| Tijuana, Mexico, 11/06/2000 – Business leaders, public interest groups, government officials from Canada, Mexico and the United States, as well as representatives from the Mexico-U.S. border region will meet this week in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico to discuss public-private collaboration in reducing industrial pollution. The meeting will focus on the use and implementation of new trends and approaches such as Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs), public access to information and Environmental Management Systems (EMS).
The two-day workshop entitled Forging Alliances to Prevent Industrial Pollution: New Approaches and Tools for Environmental Management will be held on 6-7 November 2000 and is hosted by the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (NACEC), the Dirección General de Ecología of the State of Baja California and the federal Instituto Nacional de Ecología (INE).
The objective of the event is to open up the dialogue between industry and the general public on ways to improve environmental protection. The workshop will highlight how PRTRs and EMSs are becoming part of a broader trend in environmental approaches and how they can be useful tools in building trust, strengthening industry-community relations and spurring improvements in environmental performance.
Canada and the United States have active PRTR systems that provide the public with information on the amounts and sources of toxic chemicals being released and transferred into and through their communities. Mexico recently established its own national PRTR program under which companies may voluntarily report their pollutant releases and transfers.
Governments in all three countries encourage the use of EMSs that promote not only compliance with environmental laws, but the improvement of environmental performance, as well. To learn more about NACEC's work on EMSs please consult NACEC's electronic newsletter, Trio.
The workshop will also include presentations on the role of community-industry partnerships, publicly-available environmental information that encourages environmental improvements, industry initiatives that promote corporate responsibility and pollution prevention techniques that boost the bottom line for industry.
NACEC was established by the environmental side accord to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to build cooperation among the NAFTA partners in addressing the opportunities and challenges that continent-wide free trade presents in the protection of the North American environment.
You may find additional information about PRTRs in Trio, or by contacting Christine Larson at (514) 350-4331, or at clarson@ccemtl.org. | 
