ABSTRACT
Voluntary business regulation is becoming an increasingly prominent feature of global environmental governance (Falkner 2003; Levy and Newell 2005; Pattberg 2006). Underpinning this trend is a deepening institutional relationship between international organizations, transnational corporations and civil society groups, which has placed the private sector at the centre of global responses to environmental problems (Ruggie 2004). In this policy space, international organizations are playing a leading role in directly facilitating the creation and administration of voluntary codes of conduct that aim to integrate environmental and social norms into business practices, particularly in developing countries (Utting 2005). Through such institutional arrangements, they seek to contribute to defining and diffusing international best practices for private companies.
