Assessing the effectiveness of US voluntary environmental programmes: an empirical study

In the last 10 years, there has been an increased interest in improved environmental management. The interest has been made more noteworthy since it is global in nature. Given the global interest in improved environmental management, it is still important to understand how specific business organizations are influenced by the local environment in which they are located. This study examines how US plants have reacted to various programmes and initiatives encountered in the USA. These initiatives, which include Responsible Care^®, 33/50 and ISO 14001 certification, can be viewed as embodying alternative foci (outcome versus process) and procedures (self-assessment versus external assessment). The study assesses the relative effectiveness of four voluntary environmental programmes using data generated from a large-scale mail survey. The results indicate that while all four environmental programmes generate a positive impact on the various dimensions of corporate performance, one (ISO 14001 certification), tends to have a greater relative impact on several dimensions of corporate performance.