Business Strategy and the EnvironmentBus. Strat. Env. 12, 130 (2003)

BOOK REVIEW

CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES byJohn W. Graham and Wendy C. Havlick, 1999. Scare-crow, xxxix + 433 pp, £41.25 (hbk). ISBN 0-8108-3574-6

At first glance this book seems unnecessary, but afterfurther reading a purpose is evident. It contains 237environmental policies from companies around theworld, but mainly based in the US, UK and Japan.These environmental policies are not assessed, rankedor even commented on by the authors, they are justpresented as the companies have published them. Thecompanies featured range in size from multinationals tolarge nationals and from 47 different types of industries,ranging from chemicals to food services. Each companyhas its environmental policy presented, date drafted orapproved, if ISO14001/EMAS certified, industry sectorcode, notes on mergers or takeovers, as well as contactdetails.

A foreword by John R. Ehrenfeld discusses regulatorycompliance targets versus public accountability of corpo-rate environmental performance. Interestingly Ehrenfeldstates that ‘‘. . . corporations are familiar and often morecomfortable with their accountability to the public theyserve than to government’’ (p. x). This does not neces-sarily mean that relaxing environmental regulations withpromises of ‘‘self-regulation’’ by industry will result ina reduction in companies’ environmental impacts – thereverse is more realistic. The point is that stakehold-ers want companies to move beyond compliance withregulations being the minimum safety net. Corporateenvironmental policies are a good first step.

The preface sets out the target audience, method-ology, scope and organisation of the book. The intro-duction discusses the increase in corporate environ-mental policies, provides some discussion on someof the presented environmental policies (but in lessthan 3 pages), a weak section on producing a policyand finally discussion on the future of the envi-ronmental policy. The authors argue that company-specific environmental policies are better than companies

Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

adopting a generic policy from industry initiatives suchas the new World Business Council for SustainableDevelopment.

Hence, what is the point of a collection of corporateenvironmental policies? The authors state ‘‘our mis-sion was to prepare the largest collection of corporateenvironmental policies and present them to readers fortheir own further, unique analysis’’ (p. xi). It seems thatthe most likely readers are PhD researchers analysingcompanies and their environmental policies and, con-sultants/companies wanting to develop environmentalpolicies.

Unfortunately, readers can now just log onto theweb and get not only these companies’ environmentalpolicies but also their environmental reports etc. Thistype of information is what you would expect to findon a website with direct links to those companies (thebook does provide web addresses as well as postaladdresses and telephone numbers for each company). Inaddition, there is an issue of (as the authors admit)companies updating their policies especially in theclimate of mergers and takeovers, making the bookredundant after a few years (the book is already threeyears old). For example, just taking the random exampleof Kodak, which according to its website has changedits environmental policy.

The real use for this book, from the point of viewof someone who teaches and researches corporateenvironmental and sustainable management, is as adirectory of companies addressing environmental issues.It can be used as a simple starting point for developingteaching material and research projects on corporateenvironmental management. Though it would be niceon a website rather than in a hardback book.

William YoungSchool of the Environment, University of Leeds, UK

Published online in Wiley InterScience(www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/bse.352