ABSTRACT
There has been much debate about the appropriate tools for the improvement of the environmental performance of companies. We have seen the introduction of environmental management systems and their associated standards, environmental auditing and reporting, and tools focusing on the environmental performance of products such as life-cycle assessment. These tools have been most often applied to manufacturing industries and tangible products. However, there is now a need to go further than simply addressing the environmental performance of companies if our aim is to be sustainable development. This chapter therefore seeks to address the issues of corporate responsibility in the context of sustainable development. It questions the appropriateness and efficacy of contemporary corporate environmental management tools alone and investigates the ways in which all businesses can respond better to the demands of the sustainable development agenda. The emphasis of the analysis also moves us away from the traditional manufacturing sector towards the examining services.
