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New Book: "The Greening of Business in Developing Countries - Rhetoric, Reality and Prospects"
3 Jul 2002
Peter Utting, Ed.
The rhetoric of corporate environmental responsibility is now being extended to developing countries, but very little is known about the actual environmental performance of big businesses in such settings.
This 336-page book scrutinizes the environmental record of big business in developing countries, and the policy issues that arise. It provides rich empirical research data from the manufacturing, oil extraction, logging, and bioprospecting sectors.
Fundamental and critical questions are raised in the book:
- How far is the greening of business a reality in the South?
- Are large corporations contributing significantly to sustainable development by pursuing their business interests in an environmentally responsible manner?
- What combination of measures are likely to work in expanding corporate environmental good practice?
The contributors examine corporate self-regulation, environmental reporting, voluntary codes of conduct, the complementary approaches needed, including governmental regulatory measures and incentives, and the role of citizens' movements and NGOs in holding business to account. The strengths and weaknesses of a wide range of environmental policies and contexts are assessed.
Case studies include Brazil, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa and Pakistan.
The editor, Peter Utting, is a Research Co-ordinator at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD. The contributors are academics, researchers and activists based in Latin America and Western Europe. This book is co-published with Zed Books, London, UK.
Contents:
Introduction:
Towards Corporate Environmental Responsibility? -
Peter Utting
PART I: The environmental record of the private sector:
Large corporations and domestic firms
1. The Greening of Business in Mexico - David Barkin
2. Environmental Management as an Indicator of Business
Responsibility in Central America - Lawrence Pratt and Emily D.
Fintel
3. Bioprospecting in Costa Rica: Facing New Dimensions of Social
and Environmental Responsibility - Silvia RodrÃguez and Maria
Antonieta Camacho
4. The Environmental and Social Effects of Corporate
Environmentalism in the Brazilian Pulp Industry - Ricardo Carrere
5 Corporate Environmental Responsibility in Singapore and
Malaysia: The Potential and Limits of Voluntary Initiatives -
Martin Perry and Sanjeev Singh
PART II: Promoting corporate environmental responsibility:
Mechanisms and strategies
6. Disturbing Development: Conflicts between Corporate
Environmentalism, the International Economic Order and
Sustainability - Richard Welford
7. Environmental Regulation of Transnational Corporations: Needs
and Prospects - Michael Hansen
8. Promoting Corporate Environmental Responsibility: What Role
for "Self-regulatory" and "Co-regulatory" Policy Instruments in
South Africa? - Jonathan Hanks
9. New Partnerships for Sustainable Development: The Changing
Nature of Business-NGO Relations - David F. Murphy and Jem
Bendell
10. Towards Civil Regulation: NGOs and the Politics of Corporate
Environmentalism - Jem Bendell and David F. Murphy
11. Corporate Environmentalism in the South: Assessing the Limits
and Prospects- Peter Utting
Index
To order a copy of this
title by post, contact:
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ISBN/PRICE:
1 84277 088 8 hbk GBP49.95/US$69.95
1 84277 089 6 pbk GBP16.95/US$27.50