“Scientists are continually redefining the standards for what is beneficial or harmful to the environment. Since these standards keep shifting, companies should resist changing their products and processes in response to each new recommendation until those recommendations become government regulations.”

I agree that companies should not change their products and processes in response to new recommendations unless it has been properly studied and regulated by the government.

If companies were to change their products and processes each time scientists define new standards, these companies will incur huge development costs a result of this change. For example, when electronic manufacturers started to buy-in to the lead-free standard suggested by environment, they incurred high cost in redesigning their products and processes to eliminate the use of lead, or chemically known as Plumbum, which is known to have detrimental effects on the environment. If manufacturers keep changing their environmental policies frequently, by revamping their manufacturing lines to keep up with new standards, they may very well soon be out of business.

Another reason why it is disadvantageous when companies jump straight into a newly defined standard before it is being studied and regulated by the government is that it may create more harm than good. For example, with regards to the lead-free recommendation stated earlier, upon adhering to the new lead-free standard, many electronic companies have started to dispose material in their inventories that contain lead. At that time, as the hype for lead free products are just beginning rise but before any government regulation was in place, there were no proper directions for disposing these toxic materials. Some companies have disposed these hazardous materials as normal waste, which has definitely done a lot of harm to the environment.

Therefore, simply following new recommendations of scientist may be bring more adverse effects than good. Companies should wait for regulations to be sanctioned so that the transition to the new standard can be carried out smoothly without producing any unwanted side effects.