Voluntary Environmental Compliance: Using Influential Tactics and Motivation to Gain Compliance

Compliance promotion programs are a critical part of a complete environmental strategy. Influencing people through persuasion to comply with environmental regulations is a relatively old method of compliance gaining when compared with the newer methods of enforcement and litigation. Using influential tactics can help to reduce the often-adversarial relationship between regulatory agencies and industrial dischargers. Incorporating influential tactics to manipulate others into complying is an important aspect of environmental compliance. The primary goal of this research is to gain insight into how voluntary environmental compliance works and what it takes to influence others to obtain compliance without using regulatory litigation. A second goal of this research is to investigate if regulators in upper East Tennessee are using non-enforcement measures to seek compliance. Interviews were conducted with forty (40) regulatory employees at the Johnson City Regional Environmental Field Office. This research will help determine what strong points and what shortcomings exist in the voluntary compliance program. This information can be used to make regulated entities more aware of the benefits of voluntary compliance and to help regulators develop incentives to make voluntary environmental compliance more attractive