Implications for the inter-organizational design of environmental care when changing environmental control points

In this paper we try to bridge the gap between two lines of thought within the environmental care literature. We differentiate between two major clusters in this literature; (1) environmental management and (2) strategic approach to environmental care. Although both approaches focus on the same object i.e. management of environmental care, the two bodies of knowledge apply different starting points. The first one focuses on the physical material flow and effects, the second approach starts with the weighing between the opportunities in the environment and the internal organizational possibilities. Our assumption is that the two approaches are complementary. In constructing the bridge we conclude that the approaches are indeed complementary. In combining the two approaches, the starting points can be intertwined. This combination of approaches opens the possibility to relate the physical environment, by means of control points, to the strategic weightings. In this sense, the control points, and in line with that the physical environment together with strategic considerations, form for managers the conditions for their design of inter-organizational environmental care. By altering physical control points and or strategic focus, the inter-organizational design of environmental care will change as well. The integrative framework ends with a table in which ideal typically control points, strategic focus and the inter-organizational design are combined.