Older Factories Improve Pollution with Frequent, Thorough Audits, Younger Ones Worsen It
The study looked at how environmental audits affect facilities' compliance with wastewater rules. They found that older facilities benefit from more frequent and high-quality audits, while newer facilities do not. For older facilities, better audits mean better compliance, but for newer ones, more audits can actually make things worse. This shows that the quality and frequency of audits matter, especially for older facilities in the chemical manufacturing sector.