Bay Area Organizations Study
California Corporations' Overseas Operations, Find Abuses

Toxic Waste Spill at Taiwan High-Tech Industry Park

"Of the 60,000 tons of toxic wastewater produced each day at an industrial park in Taiwan, only 20,000 tons are treated."

Recent investigations by the California Global Corporate Accountability Project (CAP) have exposed some pressing environmental and human rights problems caused by California-based corporations doing business overseas.

CAP, a collaboration among three Bay Area-based organizations (Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainable Development, Natural Heritage Institute and Human Rights Advocates), is conducting studies on the oil sector in Nigeria and the Caspian region, and the high-tech sector in Taiwan, Thailand, and India.

Dispelling the myth that high tech is a 'clean industry', one of the studies found that out of 60,000 tons of toxic wastewater produced each day at the Hsinchu Science-based Industry Park in Taiwan, only 20,000 tons are treated. The rest are dumped directly into local bodies of water.

"The lessons of Taiwan are a harbinger for the rest of East Asia, especially China, where the high-tech industry is a leading source of economic growth," said Sandy Buffet, CAP Project Coordinator. She cited the Asia Development Bank's Environmental Outlook 2001, which reports that the region's degraded and polluted environment will trigger a human health crisis unless governments adopt new approaches to governance.

The oil industry is also under CAP's microscope. In many regions, including Nigeria and the Caspian Sea, oil has produced billions of dollars in wealth with little or none finding its way to the pockets of local people. The CAP oil sector studies look at these two troubled areas and offer insights into how California-based companies -- such as Chevron -- can work to improve the lives of local people instead of collaborating with corrupt national governments.

CAP is addressing the dramatic rise of foreign direct investment by multinational corporations in the last decade. In many developing countries where U.S. firms manufacture goods or extract resources, governments lack the resources to assure corporate adherence to international standards. Many corporations have no clear performance guidelines, and often have virtual carte blanche to maximize their bottom lines. Environmental and human rights abuses frequently result.

In response to criticism of this situation, many corporations have developed voluntary "codes of conduct" to demonstrate their civic responsibility. However, because they lack independent monitoring, public disclosure, and enforcement mechanisms, these codes have little credibility in the eyes of activists and community advocacy groups.

CAP is working to enhance corporations' environmental and human rights performance by moving the debate away from corporate voluntarism and toward innovations in corporate governance. By expanding information disclosure of corporate environmental and social performance, CAP aims to improve environmental standards around the world.