ABSTRACT
In recent years, government at the federal and state levels has begun to explore the potential of nonregulatory policy instruments. This exploration has included granting limited regulatory flexibility to firms or facilities that demonstrate environmental excellence. Environmental excellence is performance that exceeds some normal baseline. One criterion of excellence used by agencies is the adoption by the firm of a satisfactory environmental management system (EMS). The rationale behind this approach is that properly constructed and operated EMSs will in theory lead to superior environmental performance. But theory and practice often part company.
