Voluntary corporate environmental initiatives are any nonstatutory initiatives that aim at improving corporate environmental performance. These types of initiatives have emerged as an important new policy tool for environmental management in North America. The focus of this paper is on the merits and shortcomings of three major categories of voluntary initiative: self-regulation, the voluntary agreement, and the voluntary challenge. Using data collected from eighteen new and two previously documented case studies of voluntary initiatives, the authors present some of the key characteristics of these types of initiatives and speculate on their role in North America's environmental policy regime. Industry respondents in the case studies identified the threat of regulation, public image, financial considerations, and peer pressure as key motivating factors in their decision to participate in a voluntary initiative. From a policy perspective, issues of concern are the effectiveness of nonstatutory initiatives relative to regulations, the degree of flexibility that they offer, and the role of public involvement. It is concluded that considerable research is still needed to confirm the contentions of proponents or opponents of voluntary initiatives.

/ This article reviews the existing models of corporate social responsiveness and develops a theoretical framework with which to examine corporations' discretionary performance with respect to one social issue, that of the environment. Discretionary indicators of corporate response to environmental issues are developed and tested within this framework. Twelve companies from five different sectors were selected for the survey, based on prior knowledge of their commitment to environmental concerns. Primary data was collected from personal interviews, and secondary data was obtained from company documents, annual reports, and other forms of publically disclosed information. Empirical results varied, but certain voluntary indicators, such as composition of the board of directors, the environmental affairs function, community support, and the annual report are considered to provide strong indications of discretionary corporate performance. Philanthropy and company products proved to be less satisfactory indicators of corporate commitment to the environment. The aggregated results revealed a correlation between the final rankings of firms' discretionary environmental performance and whether those companies are process or product oriented. Linkages between discretionary elements and those of economic and legal requirements were not explored.

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The amount of packaging sent to landfill sites for disposal has gained increased prominence as an environmental issue in Canada as a result of the 1990 National Protocol on Packaging. Recognizing that a number of factors affect a corporation's decisions to modify its packaging, this study seeks to understand forces external to the firm that motivate companies to reduce their packaging waste. Firms in two sectors-soap and cleansing compounds and cosmetics and toiletries-were surveyed by mail questionnaires and personal interviews. Government policies, consumer preferences, and retailer demands were among the external pressures found to affect packaging decision making. Access to external sources of information from suppliers, subcontractors, producer services, and industrial associations was also found to play a role in a firm's decision to modify packaging. In some instances, the impact of external factors was related to differences in the internal characteristics of firms. The paper concludes with policy recommendations arrived at from the data analysis.

Among the environmental issues that have come to dominate social concerns, the amount of packaging sent for disposal in landfills has gained increased prominence in Canada, with the issuance in 1990 of the National Protocol on Packaging (NAPP). Recognizing the increased demands for improved environmental performance on the part of corporations, this study seeks to understand why some companies respond more quickly than others to concerns about packaging-waste reduction. The paper links concepts found in the Corporate Social Responsibility and Innovation Theory literatures, in order to explore corporate response patterns to pressures for change and to develop a measure of corporate performance with regards to packaging-waste reduction efforts. Bivariate and linear logit analyses of data were undertaken, and confirm that variations in a company's response pattern can be explained in terms of factors such as company size, product orientation, and existence of an environmental affairs function, as well as external policies, such as NAPP.Sonia Labatt is an associate at the Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Toronto.