ABSTRACT
According to the 1991 report of the Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) Working Group on Manufacturing, manufacturing then accounted for one-sixth of Australian production, employed over 1 million people and contributed $12 billion or one-fifth of total export revenue. The report of the ESD Working Group on Manufacturing confirmed this, stating: the significance of manufacturing is enhanced by the need for all sectors to contribute to both the stabilisation of foreign debt and an improved current account, through increased exports and import replacement. The socio-environmental literature on ‘green’ industry indicates that both internal and external factors influence company decision making. Internal factors include both ‘structural’ factors, such as corporate decision making processes, access to capital and to appropriate technology, and ‘cultural’ factors, such as organisational culture, and the motivations, meanings and beliefs of management and staff. The general terms used include ‘environmentally preferred’, ‘green’, ‘ecologically sustainable’.
