An in-depth empirical analysis of an industrial survey spanning 4000 facilities in all manufacturing sectors and of all sizes illustrating the links between government environmental policies and company environmental management, investments innovation and performance.

This volume presents six new papers on environmental and energy economics and policy in the United States. Rebecca Davis, J. Scott Holladay, and Charles Sims analyze recent trends in and forecasts of coal-fired power plant retirements with and without new climate policy. Severin Borenstein and James Bushnell examine the efficiency of pricing for electricity, natural gas, and gasoline. James Archsmith, Erich Muehlegger, and David Rapson provide a prospective analysis of future pathways for electric vehicle adoption. Kenneth Gillingham considers the consequences of such pathways for the design of fuel vehicle economy standards. Frank Wolak investigates the long-term resource adequacy in wholesale electricity markets with significant intermittent renewables. Finally, Barbara Annicchiarico, Stefano Carattini, Carolyn Fischer, and Garth Heutel review the state of research on the interactions between business cycles and environmental policy.

This is the first book to provide a hard-headed economic view of the voluntary approaches to environmental issues, especially toxic chemicals, waste disposal and global warming, that have become prominent in recent years. Corporate environmental initiatives are seen as a tool for influencing the behaviour of environmental activists, legislators, and regulators, though they may have ancillary benefits such as attracting 'green' consumers or reducing costs. Equally, government voluntary programs are seen as a way to achieve modest environmental results when political resistance to mandatory policies is high. Rigorous analysis is illustrated with numerous case studies drawn from the US, Europe, and Japan, while technical details are relegated to appendices, and each chapter highlights implications for corporate strategy and public policy. Although rooted in economic theory, this book will appeal to business strategists and policy practitioners, as well as scholars and researchers.

This book adds to the environmental politics and policy literature by conducting a comprehensive investigation of business influence in agenda building and environmental policymaking in the United States over time. As part of this investigation, the author presents an analysis of six cases in which private firms were involved in disputes concerning pollution control and natural resource management. In addition to determining how much business interests influence environmental and natural resource policy, the book tests possible explanations for their level of success in shaping the government's agenda and policy. The study offers a general conceptual framework for analyzing the influence of corporate America over environmental policymaking. The research then explores how much firms have influenced Congress, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and certain natural resource agencies, and the courts on environmental and natural issues since the beginning of the environmental movement in 1970. No other study has examined the ability of business to influence environmental policy in all three branches of government and in such detail.

With the growing number, complexity, and importance of environmental problems come demands to include a full range of intellectual disciplines and scholarly traditions to help define and eventually manage such problems more effectively. Decision Making for the Environment: Social and Behavioral Science Research Priorities is the result of a 2-year effort by 12 social and behavioral scientists, scholars, and practitioners. The report sets research priorities for the social and behavioral sciences as they relate to several different kinds of environmental problems.

This book brings together emerging perspectives from organization theory and management, environmental sociology, international regime studies, and the social studies of science and technology to provide a starting point for discipline-based studies of environmental policy and corporate environmental behavior. Reflecting the book’s theoretical and empirical focus, the audience is two-fold: organizational scholars working within the institutional tradition, and environmental scholars interested in management and policy. Together this mix forms a creative synthesis for both sets of readers, analyzing how environmental policy and organizational practices are shaped, spread and contested.

Microeconomic policies, dealing with individual industries and economic sectors, have traditionally addressed environmental concerns, but increasingly the environment is being viewed in terms of the macro economy. To improve its understanding of the interrelationship between macroeconomics and the environment, the IMF held a seminar in May 1995 at which recognized experts from academic and research institutions, nongovernmental organizations, and staff from the World Bank and the IMF shared their views on how macroeconomic policies affect the environment and how environmental policies affect the macro economy. The present volume, edited by Ved P. Gandhi, contains the papers and proceedings of this seminar.

Surrendering to the notion that governments lack the political independence to set and enforce environmental standards, Corral (Institute for Strategy, Technology, and Policy at the TNO, Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research) asks if it is possible to influence the technological and organizational innovative behavior of firms by means other than regulation. Addressing environmental and technology policy analysts, practitioners, and lobbyists, he presents a behavioral simulation model that he hopes can be used to harmonize long-term societal interests with short-term firm interests. The model attempts to link firms' ultimate behavior to their perceptions of environmental risk, economic risk, community pressure, market pressure, regulatory pressure, technological capabilities, and organizational capabilities. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Ecological Management of Mining: Achieving Environmental Compliance is a study and comparison - global in scope - of current practices used by mining firms striving for ecological management. The author takes an integrated and interdisciplinary approach in addressing, analyzing and working towards solutions regarding the complex challenges posed by managing the environmental impacts of mining. The issues addressed range from the ecotoxicological effects of metal residues to the land use effects of mining and from socioeconomic impacts to environmental regulation. The goal of this book is to assist mining companies throughout the world to achieve environmental compliance and improve competitiveness in the context of growing environmental regulation and technological innovation. It is an essential book for the wide variety of professionals working on issues in mining. Like the book and the research itself, the audience is integrated and interdisciplinary including engineers, planners, ecologists, policy makers and economists. Features

Our behaviour in our own homes - our recycling habits, consumer choices and transport preferences - all have a huge impact on the environment locally and globally. Governments across the world are trying to formulate and implement policies to encourage and enforce more sustainable household actions. Yet so often these policies fail to have the desired effects because of a lack of understanding of the complex interplay of policy and individual behaviour. This book examines this interplay, looking at the role of values, attitudes and constraints in the links between policy and changing behaviour at the household level. The first part of the book explores the theoretical background looking at the politics of lifestyles and lifestyle change, policy legitimacy and barriers and facilitators for pro-environmental behaviour. The second part is made up of in-depth case studies from Sweden - one of the fore-running countries in this area - examining three main types of household behaviour: waste and recycling; consumption and labelling; and transportation choices. Within these case studies, the contributors examine what policy initiatives have and haven't worked and the role of values and constraints in those processes. This is the first inter-disciplinary, in-depth look at how environmental policy enters the private, domestic sphere. The theoretical insights and policy guidance the book offers will be vital in the drive to generate behaviour change at the household level and the move towards sustainable societies.