ABSTRACT
The business community represents a formidable force in policymaking. It has vastly greater financial resources than the environmental community, resources that have routinely been employed not only to support the campaigns of business-friendly candidates, but also to maintain a nationwide cadre of lobbyists pacing the halls of state and federal capitols, armed with voluminous information and detailed position papers on all issues that affect them. Several corporate interests began to adopt voluntary codes of environmental management practice. In sum, from their nature and timing, there seems little doubt that codes of conduct were undertaken in recognition of the need to regain public confidence. The environmentalists have a name for the kind of image polishing that so-called green products, green advertising, and even some green projects trade in. They call it "green-washing," new industry posturing to pursue the same old profit motive, a transparent attempt to pose as a friend of the environment without changing practices that would actually improve it.
