the author identifies from his analysis of the academic andgovernmental literature.

The book more than meets its objectives of providing anunderstanding of the political process by which releasesfrom British industry are regulated as well as illuminatinghow elements of industry dilute and frustrate even thelimited ambitions of regulators wishing to provide someprotection of our environment. Its content is without doubttopical and its analysis perceptive, although at times thetext shows the joins between doctoral thesis and a book fora wider and not necessarily academic audience. This is,however, a minor criticism of what is otherwise a usefulcontribution to the literature, providing as it does both aretrospective review and a prospect of future policy devel-opments. The book deserves a wider audience than I fear itstitle will attract.

David Chambers School of Law,University of Greenwich,

London

BOOK REVIEWS

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS ANDCLEANER PRODUCTION Ruth Hillary (editor), 1997.Wiley, xxvii + 359 pp, £34.95 (hbk). ISBN 0 471 96662 2

Cleaner production (CP) and environmental managementsystems (EMSs) have become central to corporate environ-mental policy, yet the relationship between them is rarelyexplored. CP is widely perceived as offering considerablepotential to reconcile profitability and environmental pro-tection, by converting wastes into useful raw materials orpreventing them at source, while evidence mounts ofminimal business take-up. A new orthodoxy blames top-down regulation, for favouring end-of-pipe controls whichraise costs without being particularly effective in reducingenvironmental damage, but will self-regulation via EMSaccelerate diffusion of CP, or does the bureaucratic formal-ism of many environmental management standards militateagainst the creative leaps which CP innovation oftenrequires?

Readers turning to this book for enlightenment aboutobstacles to CP implementation and how to overcomethem will probably be disappointed. It originated in anexpert seminar, organized in 1994 for the United NationsEnvironment Programme, and contributors from 16 differ-ent countries draw on a range of international experience,but the quality of the chapters is uneven, and there ismuch repetition. UNEP has been an influential advocate of(narrowly defined) CP on the global stage, and thepredominant tone of much of the book reflects this –bullet point complacency rather than critical evaluation.

In section 1, ‘The international dimension’, three separ-ate chapters review the negotiations which constructedthe ISO 14000 series of environmental management stan-dards. The contributors each stress a need, stemming fromthe ISO’s commitment to freer trade, to make the stan-dards as inclusive as possible, resulting in a focus onmanagement system integration rather than environmentaloutcomes. Apart from one paragraph which asserts thatsystems thinking will encourage a shift away from end-of-pipe solutions, these chapters do not mention CP.Another chapter outlines UNEP’s CP programme, concen-

? 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

108 BUSINESS STRATEGY AND

trating narrowly on process improvements, but it makesno reference to EMS. For a book which aims to illustrate‘the links and relationships between system solutionsand technological solutions’ (p. 2), this is hardly anencouraging start!

Section 2, ‘National perspectives’, is more substantial.The Swedish contribution (chapter 8) stresses the need totarget environmental performance, and suggests that EMAS(the European standard which requires consideration of CP)has more to offer than ISO 14001. The US contribution(chapter 7) also identifies performance-based goals as crucialto environmental improvement, and argues that manage-ment needs to break bureaucratic rules in order to achievethem (no comment here, though, on how this fits with EMSinsistence on standardized procedures). Among the rules tobe broken in the USA are short-term investment paybackhurdles; reform of financial incentives is also indicated inChina (chapter 9), where CP adoption is frustrated by statesubsidies for fresh water and coal.

Section 3, ‘Regulation or self-regulation?’, contains moretechnical detail on environmental management standardsand certification requirements. Despite the question mark,there is little exploration of how regulation might berestructured to emphasize CP rather than end-of-pipe solu-tions, and little questioning of the efficacy of self-regulation.

The book closes with business experience, in Europe(section 4), emerging and transitional economies (section 5),and smaller companies (section 6). As with section 2, thereare some interesting observations, but many of the contri-butions seem bland and inconsequential. Perhaps the mostilluminating are from Denmark (chapters 24 and 25). Herethe main stimulus for CP innovation is revealed to bechange in the regulatory regime; EMS may be helpingcompanies anticipate new regulatory demands, but it doesnot in itself guarantee choice of CP. Another highlight ischapter 33, on the Groundwork approach in the UK,which identifies a crucial role for community partnershipsin stimulating interest from smaller companies inenvironmental improvement.

If CP has, on the whole, been a missed opportunity, thesame can be said of this book. It is too disjointed to be aneffective guide for business managers, and too many ofthe chapters are insufficiently rigorous for an academicaudience. CP is reduced to a technical fix within abusiness-as-usual scenario, and there is no hint that genu-ine waste minimization might require a more fundamentalrethink of social relationships of production and consump-tion than would be encouraged under EMS. Many of thecontributions examine either EMS or CP, without attempt-ing to link the two, and, while important insights can begained by interrelating points made by different contribu-tors, the reader has to do most of the work. In my case,reading the book has done little to dispel initial suspicionsthat CP diffusion will depend more on new styles ofregulation, partnership, innovation and financial calculationthan on standardization of environmental management,and that ISO 14001 is more about minimizing tradebarriers than minimizing waste.

Alan NealeEast London Business School,

University of East London,UK

Bus. Strat. Env. 7, 106–108 (1998)

THE ENVIRONMENT