ABSTRACT
Pollution has been a by-product of manufacturing from the earliest days of the industrial revolution, and there are therefore certain continuities in the global impact of pollution from business from the earliest days of industrialization to the present. But significant changes over time have also occurred in the scale, perception, and global impact of pollution by business, accompanied (and partly caused) by changes in how society and institutions have placed pressure on firms to alter practices. Growing awareness of climate change has made this more urgent and critical. All of these trends have also involved changes in the reactive and proactive/strategic responses of business to such pressure. This article considers these developments from the beginning of the industrial revolution to the present, focusing in particular on globalized business’s impact on the environment and on climate change, and the strategies firms have developed to deal with this impact.
