The Link between Company Environmental & Financial Performance, first published in 1998, is a detailed investigation into the effects of environmental performance – resource efficiency, regulatory compliance, new product and service opportunities – on corporate financial performance. This report makes essential reading for company management, investors and other stakeholders. It demonstrates the quantitative links between environmental and financial performance for the UK’s best and worst environmental performers across a range of business sectors. It shows that there is no financial penalty for being environmentally proactive, and confirms US findings that good environmental performance improves a company’s financial performance.

The severe consequences of the global financial crisis 2008-2009 and numerous accounting frauds and financial scandals over the last fifteen years have let to calls for more ethical and responsible actions in all economic activities including consumption, investing, governance and regulation. Despite the fact that ethics in business and corporate social responsibility rules have been adopted in various countries, more efforts have to be devoted to motivate and empower more actors to integrate ethical behavior and rules in making business and managerial decisions. The Research Handbook of Finance and Sustainability will provide the readers but particularly investors, managers, and policymakers with comprehensive coverage of the issues at the crossroads of finance, ethics and sustainable development as well as proposed solutions, while focusing on three different levels: corporations, investment funds, and financial markets.

Organizations of all types are consistently working on new initiatives, product lines, and workflows as a way to remain competitive in the modern business environment. No matter the type of project at hand, employing the best methods for effective execution and timely completion of the task is essential to business success. Operations and Service Management: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications is a comprehensive reference source for the latest research on business operations and production processes. It examines the need for a customer focus and highlights a range of pertinent topics such as financial performance measures, human resource development, and business analytics, this multi-volume book is ideally designed for managers, professionals, students, researchers, and academics interested in operations and service management.

This comprehensive addition to the debate on sustainable development has been produced in order to take a global pulse on how the financial services sector is responding to the growing challenge of shareholder and stakeholder expectations on social and environmental performance. In the opinion of many commentators in this new book, given the intermediary role banks play within economies, their potential contribution toward sustainable development is enormous. Indeed, for banks, the conclusion that corporate sustainability has become an investable concept that increases long-term shareholder value is becoming difficult to deny.To date, banks have been relatively slow to examine their exposure to risk (the environmental and social performance of their clients) and the business opportunities of sustainable development (the products and services they offer). Not before time, Sustainable Banking concludes that this is beginning to change, with both risk and opportunity becoming established elements in banking policies towards environmental sustainability. In addition, banks have now begun to take notice of and address their own environmental performance. Through the use of case studies and detailed analysis, the book examines the environmental policies of banks, the importance of transparency and communication with their stakeholders, environmental and ethical investment funds, current practice by the providers of financial services with regard to environmental risk management and, finally, the key role of government, NGOs and multilateral banks in delivering sustainability.Sustainable banking has not, however, been achieved and nor will it be in the immediate future. As globalisation proceeds apace, Sustainable Banking argues that improvements are necessary in banks' attitudes toward transparency and accountability with regard to their lending policies. In addition, in order to promote best practice, the leading banks need to start measuring their customers' environmental performance in order to persuade polluting clients that minimum compliance to regulations will no longer suffice. The book finds many shining examples in the co-operative, mutual and social sectors for the big players to emulate. Environmental and ethical considerations in such loan portfolios have proven to be profitable and "best-in-class" larger banks are now also reaping benefits.The unprecedented scope of the book has attracted contributors from four continents including Deloitte & Touche, Rabobank, The World Bank, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, The United Nations Environment Programme, The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, UBS, Henderson Investors, KPMG, The World Resources Institute and SAM Sustainability.

The problems recyclers face with wastepaper are connected to the issues addressed by forest advocates, as well as to the difficulties confronted by those involved with industrial pollution from the paper industry. In this richly detailed study, Maureen Smith shows how industrial and environmental analysis can be synthesized to clarify these complex problems and produce solutions. Smith outlines the basic structural characteristics of the U.S. pulp and paper industry and its relationship to the larger forest products sector, as well as its patterns of domestic and global fiber resource use. She then reviews the core technologies employed in virgin pulp production, with an emphasis on their environmental impacts, the role of technological innovation, and the relationships between fiber choices and pollution prevention. Building on this base she reveals structural barriers within the industry that have impeded positive change and shows how these barriers are reinforced by the traditional isolation of environmental policy domains.The study includes a comparative analysis of how organochlorine pollution from pulp mills has been addressed in the United States, Europe, and Canada (and why the United States has seen the slowest rate of progress); an assessment of commodity trade patterns in the industry and how they are linked to resource demand; an examination of the momentum building around annual plant fiber use and the diverse interests it reflects; and a review of recent developments in paper recycling within the context of historical trends in fiber utilization. A case study of the controversial environmental review process of the largest recycled pulp and paper mill ever proposed ties together earlier elements of the book and forms the basis for the conclusions. In closing, Smith argues convincingly against narrowly focused attempts to "fix" the problems associated with the industry, and offers practical guidance on new frameworks and approaches for industrial restructuring. She highlights the need for regional perspectives that integrate environmental, social, and economic objectives. Urban and Industrial Environment series

This study demonstrates a methodology that translates the implications of a company's environmental performance into financial terms. The methodology is forward-looking, deals explicitly with uncertainties regarding future environmental developments, and is consistent with established financial valuation techniques. The approach should also be easily adapted for use by company managers as an internal strategic planning tool. An application of this methodology to 13 leading companies in the US pulp and paper sector shows that pending environmental issues will have material financial impacts on companies in the pulp and paper sector and that these financial exposures vary considerably between companies. Knowing which companies are best positioned with regard to environmental issues could improve investors' decision-making.

This is a pathbreaking account of how the environmental movement has led to profound changes in the perceptions and practices of large-scale corporations, as shown here in the chemical and petroleum industries. The book traces how market, social, and political pressures drive corporations to respond to environmental issues, analyzes the cultural frames that organizations use to come to terms with these external influences, and describes the resulting changes in organizational culture and structure. For this expanded edition, the author has written a new chapter that brings his original assessment up to date, expands and modifies the model and data used in the original edition, and offers a broad picture of the current state of corporate environmentalism and where it is going.