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Appel, Peter A.; Irvin, T. Rick --- "Public Regulatory Encouragement to the Adoption of Private Ordering Systems to Achieve Environmental Protection through Sustainable Commerce" [2012] ELECD 393; in Vasudev, M. P.; Watson, Susan (eds), "Corporate Governance after the Financial Crisis" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Corporate Governance after the Financial Crisis

Editor(s): Vasudev, M. P.; Watson, Susan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857931528

Section: Chapter 11

Section Title: Public Regulatory Encouragement to the Adoption of Private Ordering Systems to Achieve Environmental Protection through Sustainable Commerce

Author(s): Appel, Peter A.; Irvin, T. Rick

Number of pages: 20

Extract:

11. Public regulatory encouragement
to the adoption of private ordering
systems to achieve environmental
protection through sustainable
commerce
Peter A. Appel and T. Rick Irvin

INTRODUCTION

Sustainable commerce provides an underappreciated source of environ-
mental improvements. By sustainable commerce, we mean products and
practices that minimize environmental impacts and optimize commercial
value while realizing both public and private environmental benchmarks
(Irvin et al. 2008, p. 562). The term includes means of improving the envir-
onment described under names such as sustainable development, green-
tech, cleantech, and the like. Current corporate governance structures
allow for the adoption of programs to achieve sustainable commerce, but
firms often underperform from an environmental standpoint. Sustainable
commerce solutions employing private/public partnerships that encourage
the application and enforcement of private ordering systems can result in
faster and more economical environmental improvements than reliance on
traditional command and control regulatory systems alone.
Environmental challenges pose difficult problems for human commu-
nities at every level from the local to the global. Basic understanding of
economic incentives in the context of group action and the unique risks
presented from environmental exposure provide some insights into under-
standing why the conundrums that environmental threats create resist
easy solutions. Environmental threats often operate at a subclinical level
of impact in humans, so that exposure to a toxic chemical may not cause a
recognizable reaction or present a diagnosable condition until years after
the exposure. Even then, scientists may not fully understand the mechan-
ism of how the substance produces a ...