ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses whether companies within the US chemical industry establish policies and commitments pertaining to environmental sustainability and whether they violate environmental regulations pertaining to sustainability. It examines whether chemical companies who are members of the industry's voluntary Responsible Care programme embrace the principles of the programme by describing their environmental commitment to sustainability, as well as by implementing actions pertaining to it. Violations pertaining to the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, National Pollutant Elimination Discharge System and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act are included in the facility reports. The ratio used for each category was: violations–number of facilities; significant violations–number of facilities; and enforcement actions–number of facilities. The financial performance of the firms was measured as the ratio of net income–sales for 2000 and 2001, to control for the size of the firm. The empirical support of hypothesis 2 demonstrates that there is a relationship between sustainability and financial performance.
