The feasibility of an environmental auditing system for Chinese manufacturing industry: a systemic approach

The economic success experienced since the 1978 reform in China has been encouraging. Further development and progress of Chinese manufacturing industry is essential to the provision of opportunities for the future stability and prosperity of the Chinese nation. However, this process of industrialisation and modernisation may involve a cost to future generations in terms of the impact upon the natural environment. Hence, there is an urgent need to effectively manage the modernisation of manufacturing industry with particular regard to environmental protection, such that the consequential damage to the natural environment is minimised. This paper advocates the idea of utilising a western systems approach to enquire into the feasibility of a systems-based environmental auditing system, the aim of which is to monitor the practices of the management of environmental issues in manufacturing industry. The suggested modern Western systems approach is that of total systems intervention for its complementary and informed use of various systems methodologies.