Description
Book SynopsisEntrepreneurs and managers are increasingly aware that the environment can be both a threat and an opportunity to their current economic activities. This timely book discusses the question of environmental performance versus corporate practices and finds that environmental considerations can have a positive effect on business.
The perception of the environment as a means to achieve competitive advantage for companies is a relatively recent phenomenon. The contributors address how to create institutional environments that stimulate businesses to integrate the environment in strategic decision making and thereby promote eco-efficiency. Together they build a convincing argument that the economy-environment trade-off is a false stalemate: societal and market forces may impact on the environment and on business in positive, neutral or negative ways. The authors use evidence from the United States and Europe to demonstrate that environmental considerations can have a positive effect on the competitive advantage of firms.
This book draws together three fields - environmental economics, environmental regulation and strategic management - and will be of great interest to scholars and practitioners working in these areas.
Trade Review'This book can be recommended for managers, policymakers and researchers at the same time as it gives a holistic view taking different aspects of environmental economics, environmental regulations and competitiveness from different authors into account. It provides the reader with a combination of high quality information on theoretical aspects as well as case studies. This book is an important contribution helping to resolve the apparent contradiction of being economically competitive and environmentally conscious at the same time.' -- Steffen Beerbaum, Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture
Table of ContentsContents: 1. The Eco-efficient Economy: Threat or Opportunity for Companies? 2. Green and Competitive: Ending the Stalemate 3. Environmental Policies in Europe 4. Combining Economic Growth with Reducing Pressure on the Environment 5. Corporate Environmental Information and Public Policy 6. Strategic Environmental Management as an Economic and Ecological Challenge 7. Comment: Integrating the Environment in Business Practices Index
