The Oxford Handbook of Business and the Natural Environment

Environmental issues now loom large on the social, political, and business agenda. Over the past four decades, "corporate environmentalism" has emerged and been constantly redefined, from regulatory compliance to more recent management conceptions such as pollution prevention, total quality environmental management, industrial ecology, life cycle analysis, environmental strategy, environmental justice, and, most recently, sustainable development.

As a result, understanding the intersection of business activity and environmental protection has become increasingly complex, and there has emerged a focus in academic research on business decision-making, firm behavior, and the protection of the natural environment. This handbook reviews the state of the field as it grows into a mature area of study within management science, its achievements, and its future avenues of research. It brings together original contributions in the field along several lines of enquiry. The first six focus on disciplines as delineated in contemporary business schools: business strategy; policy and non-market strategies; organizational theory and behavior; operations and technology; marketing; and accounting and finance. The seventh section reviews emergent and associated perspectives, whilst a concluding section, written by long-standing leaders in the field, discusses the future outlook for research.

Pratima Bansal is Director of the Centre for Building Sustainable Value and the Executive Director for the Network for Business Sustainability. In 2008, she was awarded the Aspen's Institute title of Faculty Pioneer for Academic Leadership. She also held the title of Faculty Scholar from 2008-2010, awarded by the University of Western Ontario. Her first co-edited book with Elizabeth Howard, Business and the Natural Environment, took a disciplinary perspective. She has sat on six different editorial boards and is presently an Associate Editor for the Academy of Management Journal. Her research has also been cited in the popular press including The Independent, The Wall Street Journal, The National Post, and the Globe and Mail. She has also been awarded 13 research grants. Tima has been researching social and environmental issues since she completed her doctorate in 1996 at the University of Oxford.


Andrew J. Hoffman is the Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan, where he holds joint appointments at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the School of Natural Resources & Environment. He also serves as Director of the Frederick A. and Barbara M. Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford. He has written, edited, or contributed to ten books and over ninety articles and book chapters on these issues. He was awarded the 2011 Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship, the 2009 Aspen Environmental Fellowship, the 2009 Manos Page Prize, and the 2003 Faculty Pioneer/Rising Star Award. His book, From Heresy to Dogma, was awarded the 2001 Rachel Carson Prize from the Society for Social Studies of Science. Andy serves on advisory boards of the SustainAbility Council, Next Era Renewable Energy Trust, and the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, as well as the editorial board of Organization & Environment.