Business and the Natural Environment

Over the past four decades, the concept of corporate environmentalism has passed through multiple iterations. Prompted by landmark environmental events such the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962), the Santa Barbara oil spill, the Cuyahoga River fire, Love Canal, Bhopal, the Exxon Valdez spill, the Brent Spar controversy, and many other horrifying disasters, conceptions of corporate environmentalism as mere regulatory compliance gradually gave way to newer management conceptions of ‘pollution prevention’, ‘total quality environmental management’, ‘industrial ecology’, ‘life-cycle analysis’, ‘environmental strategy’, ‘environmental justice’, and, most recently, ‘sustainable development’.

Concurrent with this evolution in corporate practice has been the emergence of academic research focused on business decision-making, firm behaviour, and the protection of the natural environment. Scholars within management schools entered this research domain with gusto in the mid-1980s, and what began as a modest offshoot of traditional management research has grown into a maturing area of study within the management sciences.

This new four-volume Routledge Major Works collection will enable users to make sense of this thriving and fast-developing area of serious scholarly endeavour. The collection is fully indexed and includes a comprehensive introduction that places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. It is destined to be valued by students, teachers, and researchers as an indispensable reference resource.