Competing with ‘soft’ issues – from managing the environment to sustainable business strategies

In the last 15 years, important elements to achieve sustainability have been governmental regulation, increasing consumer awareness, implementation of end-of-pipe technologies in industry and the development of ‘green’ products. Although many improvements have followed since, some would say that current dominating demands regarding shareholder value (SHV) and claims regarding sustainability are two global discourses in conflict. We argue that the financial sector can influence eco-efficiency and other environmental improvements. The role of the financial sector, although strategically important, is generally neglected in discourses on sustainability. In this article, we illustrate that financial institutions are crucial facilitators for sustainability. Financial actors' demands regarding business' transparency about management systems and objectives for sustainability will play an important role in the near future. One current example for this emerging trend is the recently introduced Dow Jones Sustainable Group Index. Narrowing in on this special issue on ‘Contemporary Nordic research on corporate environmental management’ we have gone through the 25 articles by Nordic authors previously published in Business Strategy and the Environment (BSE). We have identified three theme clusters, which support the observation that Nordic research in corporate environmental management, as published and illustrated in BSE has developed issues from ‘hard’ such as pollution, environmental technology and compliance, to ‘soft’ issues, such as research on the development and implementation of corporate environmental management and alternative projects for environmental improvements. This special issue presents a selection of papers discussed at the Fifth Workshop of the Nordic Business Environmental Management Network in Gothenburg, Sweden, in January 1999. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment