Changing Corporations: An Assessment of the Indicators of Environmental Behavior in the Chemical Manufacturing Industry

Abstract

This paper presents a statistical model that quantifies the influence of various stakeholders on chemical manufacturing companies’ environmental performance. We based the model on a framework outlined by Andrew Hoffman in Competitive Environmental Strategy: A Guide to the Changing Business Landscape. The model uses actors from the following four categories: Social Drivers, Resource Drivers, Market Drivers and Coercive (Regulatory) Drivers as independent variables to explain the variation in Toxic Release Inventory Emissions (TRI) across the 50 states in the years 1995 through 2004. Our final model indicates that the number of ISO 14001 certified chemical companies contributes to lower TRI emissions and that higher NGO membership contributes to higher TRI emissions: NormalizedTRIdata = 213,051.5 – 1,125.7*ISOcertifiedcompanies + 4.05* NGOMembers. This model highlights the action channels that most influence companies’ level of TRI emissions. Our hope is that it may help corporate executives and activists understand how to use their time and resources to effectively influence the environmental performance of chemical manufacturing companies.