The United States Environmental Protection Agency has defined five tiers of environmental costs. The tier-1 'conventional costs' are direct costs associated with capital expenditures, raw materials, and other operating and maintenance costs less tangible costs relating to consumer perceptions, and employee and community relations costs that organisations impose on the environment and society for which they may not be held legally responsible contingent costs arising from failure to clean up contaminated sites O hidden regulatory costs of monitoring and reporting environmental activities and emissions