About 9½ years ago, I wrote the first editorial for Volume 1, Number 1 of Environmental Practice (March 1999). I reread that editorial in preparation for writing this, my last editorial, for Volume 10, Number 2 (June 2008).

Nuclear power is an opaque, technologically complex, and—let's be forthright—potentially hazardous way to generate electricity. Because of these characteristics, some people will always view the technology with skepticism or suspicion and argue that the benefits are not worth the risks. In addition, in part because nuclear power presents many potential benefits, there will always be others, usually with more thorough technical expertise, who see it as an obviously elegant solution to major energy and climate constraints and whose risks are relatively small and manageable. These well-worn and arguably defensible perspectives have infused and colored the past few decades of public policy discourse—particularly in the US and some European countries—on nuclear power as part of global energy supply. The pressing constraints of anthropogenic climate change, regional air quality in growing cities, and volatile resource prices, however, raise the appropriate question of how much nuclear power might reasonably contribute in a future global energy portfolio.

Water demand management (WDM) practitioners will always need sufficient political will and financial resources to implement their WDM agenda. In addition, however, this research found that those elements, even when supported by a local champion, are insufficient to initiate and sustain municipal WDM. The research results affirmed that social networks have dynamic structure and function. The network's function is critical to WDM because it establishes membership parameters (e.g., deciding who is included and excluded), facilitates and regulates information exchange (e.g., through defining research questions and undertaking a research agenda), and reinforces the community's knowledge (e.g., through meetings and articulation, either implicit or explicit, of priorities and norms). These findings support the premise that adjustments in WDM research and practice is valuable. The research has shown the Ontario network makes a significant contribution to generating additional data, information, and knowledge and is a source of momentum behind the implementation of a municipal water efficiency agenda. The results indicate that a closer focus on the individuals who are responsible for implementing programs is necessary to help make WDM programs more successful. Understanding the social networks of those actively engaged in WDM implementation will be essential.

Environmental Practice 10:42–52 (2008)

Since its release in 1996, ISO 14001 has emerged as the leading voluntary system for certifying a firm's commitment to environmental management. By using India as a case example, this article examines the benefits and limitations of ISO 14001 in improving the environmental performance of firms in developing nations. By overlaying an analysis of the standard with the experiences of knowledgeable stakeholders in India, we examine (a) possible motivations driving Indian firms to pursue ISO 14001 certification, (b) the value of ISO 14001 certification in encouraging firms to improve their environmental performance, and (c) the potential role of ISO 14001 as a regulatory tool. In the end, we conclude that the value of ISO 14001 certification is intimately connected to the quality of the certification process as well as the effectiveness of the local regulatory system. Furthermore, its main value appears to lie in the positive effects associated with a well-implemented environmental management system, which improves a firm's ability to comply with environmental regulations consistently and efficiently over the long term.

Environmental Practice 10:53–65 (2008)

This study is an attempt to find the fundamental key to improving the social status of waste management workers by examining the history of nurses. A strong prejudice and discrimination against waste management workers still exist in Japanese society. The social status of nurses also used to be extremely low, but has improved drastically. Nursing has become a profession that many parents would like their daughters to choose as a career. The drastic improvement resulted from a change in the mindset toward “patients.” Similarly, the status of waste management workers can be improved if people start thinking of waste in terms of resources. Improvement in the social status of waste management workers could be one of the powerful driving forces for making waste management a more interesting profession and respected field.

Environmental Practice 10:66–74 (2008)

Climate change has quickly emerged as one of the hottest topics in NEPA (the National Environmental Policy Act) analysis. Analysis of climate change impacts in NEPA documents is a fairly recent development; many NEPA documents today contain no such analysis. Although a few federal agencies have addressed greenhouse gas emissions and related climate change impacts in documents for some time, such analyses have been historically atypical. The recent widespread media attention on climate change, however, coupled with a substantial increase in litigation focusing on climate change impact analysis in NEPA documents, has driven a rapid rise in interest over how to incorporate such analysis into NEPA analyses. This article is part one of a two-part series, briefly describing the context for considering climate change in NEPA analyses and reviewing the case law and other legal developments centered on NEPA climate change. Part two, to appear in a subsequent issue of Environmental Practice, will discuss methodological approaches, analysis techniques, and mitigation measures for addressing climate change in NEPA analyses.