As part of the project ‘Organised Business and Environmental Governance in Western Europe [1945-1995]’ (https://data.snf.ch/grants/grant/10002705), this dissertation project explores national and international business coordination in relation to pollution regulations of the Rhine River. Particular attention is given to the aftermath of the 1986 Sandoz chemical spill, which sparked intensified pressure on polluting industries.

Stretching from Switzerland to the North Sea, the Rhine has long been one of Europe’s most important waterways—serving not only as a major navigation route, but also as a vital source of drinking water, irrigation, and industrial use. The river’s banks and tributaries host many of Europe’s largest chemical plants. For much of the twentieth century, the Rhine functioned as a conduit for industrial, agricultural, and domestic waste, turning it into a threat to public health and causing the near-extinction of its aquatic life.

Efforts at transnational regulation began in 1950, when Switzerland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg founded the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine (ICPR). The Commission was institutionalised with the Berne Convention of 1963, yet decisive treaties—the Convention for the Protection of the Rhine against Chemical Pollution and the Rhine Chlorides Convention—were only signed in 1976, decades after severe water quality decline had already become apparent, particularly in the Netherlands.

Parallel to these regulatory developments, businesses started to organise collectively in response to growing societal and political pressure for environmental protection. At both national and international levels, industry associations such as CEFIC, SHIV, BDI, and the CNPF established environmental committees and task forces to coordinate their strategies and responses.

This project examines how businesses and business associations coordinated their actions and reactions to industrial water pollution, its environmental consequences, and the regulatory measures introduced to protect the Rhine.