The evolution of environmental management: from stage models to performance evaluation

In the past two decades, academics and practitioners have attempted to improve understanding of environmental management by classifying companies' environmental behaviour, and evaluating their performance. Driven by both research and societal interest, this has resulted in a wave of stage or phase models, and a range of typologies. This article gives an overview of the development of such environmental management models, analysing their characteristics, strengths and weaknesses. An evolution can be noted in the direction of typologies and non-linear models to deal with organisational and strategic complexities. Models are starting to pay more attention to the management side. To overcome problems of operationalisation and limited company- and sector-specificity, environmental performance evaluation systems have emerged more recently. Although comprehensive performance assessments are still unavailable, the tenets of such a system can already be delineated. The paper presents these components, and draws conclusions on the contribution of environmental management models and performance evaluation systems.

[1]  D. Rondinelli,et al.  International Environmental Standards and Corporate Policies: An Integrative Framework , 1996 .

[2]  David L. Levy Environmental Management as Political Sustainability , 1997 .

[3]  R E Miles,et al.  Organizational strategy, structure, and process. , 1978, Academy of management review. Academy of Management.

[4]  I. Callens,et al.  Factors of unsustainability: Identification, links and hierarchy , 1998 .

[5]  Stuart L. Hart,et al.  Creating sustainable corporations , 1995 .

[6]  N. Harrison,et al.  Constructing Sustainable Development , 2000 .

[7]  William H. Glick,et al.  Typologies As a Unique Form Of Theory Building: Toward Improved Understanding and Modeling , 1994 .

[8]  Nigel Roome,et al.  Developing environmental management strategies , 1992 .

[9]  Foreword: Sustainability and business management , 1992 .

[10]  C. Hutchinson,et al.  Integrating environment policy with business strategy , 1996 .

[11]  P. Shrivastava The Role of Corporations in Achieving Ecological Sustainability , 1995 .

[12]  J. Post,et al.  Managing the Environmental Change Process: Barriers and Opportunities , 1994 .

[13]  Umberto Bertelè,et al.  Exploiting green strategies for competitive advantage , 1994 .

[14]  P. Dobers,et al.  Union-Jacking the research agenda. A study of the frontstage and backstage of Business Strategy and the Environment 1992-1998 , 2000 .

[15]  A. Schaefer,et al.  Stage models of corporate 'greening': a critical evaluation , 1998 .

[16]  D. Rondinelli,et al.  Proactive corporate environmental management: A new industrial revolution , 1998 .

[17]  R. Kaplan,et al.  The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action , 1996 .

[18]  Ans Kolk,et al.  Economics of Environmental Management , 1999 .

[19]  Carolyn P. Egri,et al.  Organizations and the Biosphere: Ecologies and Environments , 1999 .

[20]  Julie L. Hass ENVIRONMENTAL (‘GREEN’) MANAGEMENT TYPOLOGIES: AN EVALUATION, OPERATIONALIZATION AND EMPIRICAL DEVELOPMENT , 1996 .

[21]  Naomi S. Soderstrom,et al.  Measuring corporate environmental performance , 1998 .

[22]  Douglas J. Lober,et al.  Evaluating the Environmental Performance of Corporations , 1996 .

[23]  Peter James,et al.  Sustainable Measures - Evaluation and Reporting of Environmental and Social Performance , 2000 .

[24]  K. Green,et al.  Towards commercial and environmental excellence: A green portfolio matrix , 1994 .

[25]  Julio C. Sanchez,et al.  The Long and Thorny Way to an Organizational Taxonomy , 1993 .

[26]  J. Elkington Towards the Sustainable Corporation: Win-Win-Win Business Strategies for Sustainable Development , 1994 .

[27]  Linda C. Angell,et al.  Towards a Process Model of Corporate Greening , 2000 .

[28]  Abby Ghobadian,et al.  Extending linear approaches to mapping corporate environmental behaviour , 1998 .

[29]  Richard Florida,et al.  Lean and Green: The Move to Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing , 1996 .

[30]  Charles R. Schwenk The Use of Participant Recollection in the Modeling of Organizational Decision Process , 1985 .

[31]  C. Hutchinson,et al.  Corporate strategy and the environment , 1992 .

[32]  Ulrich Steger Umweltmanagement : Erfahrungen und Instrumente einer Umweltorientierten Unternehmensstrategie , 1993 .