ABSTRACT
Debate on industry’s role in addressing global environmental issues has shifted over the last decade from a focus on ‘greening’ to a new vision for more sustainable industrial
systems (see e.g. Roome 1998). This dialogue has raised the expectations for corporate environmental performance, while generating a range of prescriptions for action (Hart 1997). One line of reasoning points out that some arguments in favour of extensive voluntary action imply a fundamental, and inappropriate, shift in the theory of the firm from profit-seeking to social welfare-maximising behaviour (Allenby 1997). This view suggests that a more appropriate challenge is to incorporate the goals of sustainability without abandoning the profit motive in the theory of the firm.
