1998
DOI: 10.1068/c160191
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Voluntary Corporate Environmental Initiatives: A Typology and Preliminary Investigation

Abstract: 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 stud… Show more

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Cited by 42 publications
(34 citation statements)
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“…Public participation is widely and sometimes rather uncritically identified as a`good thing', but we need to know more about how it should be governed, its opportunity costs, and, ultimately, what it actually delivers in terms of human development`on the ground' ( instruments of governing, not only in an abstract theoretical manner (although of course such work has its value), but drawing on empirical evidence which explores the interrelationships with other modes including systems of regulation and centralised planning. In the past, Environment and Planning C has published many papers on these themes, including those by Hanju« rgens (1998), Hansen et al (2002), Labatt andMaclaren (1998), andSunnevÔg (2000). Some have been relatively empirical (Cherp et al, 2004;O'Doherty et al, 2003), whereas others have had a more normative flavour (Toke, 2005;Zhang, 2000).…”
Section: Empirical Descriptions and Assessmentsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Public participation is widely and sometimes rather uncritically identified as a`good thing', but we need to know more about how it should be governed, its opportunity costs, and, ultimately, what it actually delivers in terms of human development`on the ground' ( instruments of governing, not only in an abstract theoretical manner (although of course such work has its value), but drawing on empirical evidence which explores the interrelationships with other modes including systems of regulation and centralised planning. In the past, Environment and Planning C has published many papers on these themes, including those by Hanju« rgens (1998), Hansen et al (2002), Labatt andMaclaren (1998), andSunnevÔg (2000). Some have been relatively empirical (Cherp et al, 2004;O'Doherty et al, 2003), whereas others have had a more normative flavour (Toke, 2005;Zhang, 2000).…”
Section: Empirical Descriptions and Assessmentsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The need to attain sustainability in turn has led to a proliferation of sustainability initiatives in many industries in recent years (Allen, Van Dusen, Lundy & Gliessman, 2009). Voluntary environmental initiatives can be defined as non-statutory environmental initiative efforts made by private or public enterprises/organisations to improve environmental performance beyond the existing legal requirements (Labatt & Maclaren, 1998;Paton, 2000). Some of these standards/environmental initiatives have been developed and incorporated as part of the overall management system of an organisation which includes the organisational structure, responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes and resources for determining and implementing the firm's overall aims and principles of action with respect to the environment, and hence are often referred to as Environmental Management Systems (EMSs) (Kolk, 2000).…”
Section: Environmental Management Systemsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…They develop a hypothetical economic model which suggests that the overall impact of voluntary instruments on environmental quality could be positive or negative, depending on a number of factors, including the allocation of bargaining power, the magnitude of the background threat, and the social cost of funds. Labatt and Maclaren (1998) are also uncertain about the impact of voluntary initiatives, although they go beyond Brophy, Netherwood and Starkey (1995) by undertaking empirical research which indicates that issues other than cost minimisation drive company interest in environmental performance. Labatt and Maclaren (1998) state that the key motivating factors for industry respondents contemplating voluntary initiatives are: the threat of regulation; public image; financial considerations; and peer pressure.…”
Section: Performancementioning
confidence: 99%
“…Labatt and Maclaren (1998) consider voluntary initiatives to be further categorised according to the degree of partnership between government and industry. At one end of their continuum lies self-regulation, where there is little involvement from government in collective initiatives developed primarily by industry associations.…”
Section: [Insert Table 1]mentioning
confidence: 99%