Higher resource efficiency, lower waste management costs, more environmentally-friendly products and services would all bring financial benefits. Consumers would demand 'greener' goods. Business sustainability would be driven by better information, social expectations of a clean environment, market forces, and pressure from environmental organisations. Environmental pressures on businesses from regulation, competitors, consumers and environmental organisations have indeed grown during the 1990s, and many companies have developed new 'environmental capabilities'. The high hopes, however, have not been realised.
Few companies regard sustainability as a core strategic issue.
The role of policy is thus crucial. In the past, environmental policy relied heavily on 'command and control' regulation intended to set minimum standards or impose bans. Direct regulation, it is now accepted, tends to be inefficient as it is uniformly applied, 'freezes' standards, and is usually based on an imperfect understanding of the potential for improvement. Yet the practical politics of implementing these measures is often tricky. Research suggests it is better to use a mix of policies, including economic instruments as well as traditional regulation.