ABSTRACT
The idea of sustainable development introduced in the ‘Brundtland Report’ was one of the first studies to put forward the compatibility between environmental protection and economic growth goals. The traditional viewpoint on the relationship between environmental protection and private costs is based on the static way of thinking, in which technology and customer needs are all considered as given, information is perfect and profitable opportunities for innovation have already been discovered. Ultimately companies and regulators must learn to frame environmental improvement in terms of resource productivity. At the level of resource productivity environmental improvement and competitiveness come together. While end-of-pipe treatment has been unevenly incorporated in many facilities, there is limited evidence of pollution prevention and waste minimisation activities. The implementation of an environmental accounting system is another development taking place at several firms. Macroeconomic policies also have a key role to play.
