Beyond Compliance: Firms' Environmental Behaviour. A Survey

The relationship between firms and environment is complex. The impact that firms have on the environment include the use of primary resources to make products and the production of wastes and emissions. The impact of firms’ products on the environment, moreover, is not negligible. Environmental laws cannot, and should not, prescribe every decision taken by every business. Rather, consideration of environmental issues should be part of good business practice. Firms have, in fact, more than one reason for adopting environmentally responsible behaviour. This paper surveys the literature that analyze the circumstances under which firms can reconcile the apparently competing goals of increasing the expected value of their activity and internalizing external costs doing more than they are required to do under laws and regulations.