Managers are coming under increasing pressure from a wide array of stakeholders to improve the environmental performance of their firms while still achieving financial performance objectives. One of the most researched questions in the business and the natural environment (B&NE) literature is whether it pays to be green. Despite more than three decades of research, scholars have been unable to clearly answer this question. The purpose of this dissertation was to attempt to identify the antecedents that lead to increased, firm-level environmental performance and the conditions in which firms are then able to profit from enhanced environmental performance. First, I assessed three intra-organizational factors of top management teams (i.e. female representation, concern for non-financial stakeholders, and risk-seeking propensity) that theory indicated are associated with increased corporate environmental performance (CEP). Theory also leads us to believe that top management teams with these attributes should perform better in dynamic settings, so I tested to see if industry dynamism moderates these relationships. Second, I then examined industry-level forces that theory indicates would moderate the relationship between CEP and corporate financial performance (CFP). These moderating forces include industry profitability, industry dynamism, and the degree of industry environmental regulation. Hypotheses were tested using panel data obtained from the KLD, Compustat, and Environmental Protection Agency databases for the years 2000 to 2011. The sample consists of firms comprising the Standard and Poor’s 500 and was analyzed using fixed-effect regression and moderating variables were analyzed using the Johnson-Neyman technique.

Miljöpåverkan blir ett allt större problem i dagens samhälle och mycket av den miljöpåverkan kommer från global transport av gods. För att minimera denna miljöpåverkan implementeras olika miljölagar för att tvinga fram en förändring men det har visat sig att regelverken inte räcker till. Därför krävs ekonomiska incitament som genom finansiella drivkrafter ska motivera företag till gröna investeringar som leder till mindre påverkan på miljön. Denna uppsats har studerat miljöpolicy inom väg-, tåg och sjötransport för att undersöka vilka ekonomiska incitament som står till buds inom transportsektorn. Därefter genomfördes en enkätstudie inom sjötransport där rederier fick gradera de identifierade ekonomiska incitamenten i hur viktiga de var och hur stor påverkan de hade på beslut inom företagen kring gröna investeringar. Detta gjordes i avsikt att identifiera vilka ekonomiska incitament inom rederisektorn som är effektiva och som kan främja gröna investeringar. Enkäten undersökte 6 olika typer av ekonomiska incitament inom rederisektorn: miljöcertifiering, miljölagar, offentliga investeringar i grön infrastruktur, investeringsbidrag från myndigheter, miljörabatter och miljöindex. Det visade sig att alla de undersökta ekonomiska incitamenten främjade gröna investeringar men i olika grad. Studien visade att rederierna verkade ha en mer positiv inställning till incitament med direkt finansiell påverkan och en mindre positiv inställning till incitament med en indirekt finansiell påverkan. I enkäten graderades miljölagar till att vara mest viktig och ha störst påverkan medan miljöindexen var minst viktiga och hade minst påverkan. / Environmental impact from transport of goods is a growing problem in today’s society. Environmental laws are implemented to minimize this impact and to force change in the industry but it has become clear that these laws are not enough to reach environmental goals set by different governments. Fiscal incentives are therefore implemented to, through economical forces, motivate companies to make green investments that minimize their environmental impact. This paper has studied environmental policies in the road transport sector, railway sector and the shipping sector to examine what kinds of fiscal incentives are being used in the transport sector. A survey study in the shipping sector was conducted where shipping companies was asked to grade the identified fiscal incentives in importance and influence on decisions concerning green investments. This was done with the purpose to identify which fiscal incentives in the shipping sector that can promote green investments. The survey examined 6 different types of fiscal incentives in the shipping sector: environmental certification, environmental laws, public investments in green infrastructure, governmental subsidies, environmental discounts and environmental indices. The study shows that all the examined fiscal incentives can promote green investments but to different degree. The study also shows that the shipping companies had a more positive attitude towards incentives with a direct financial impact and a less positive attitude to those with an indirect financial impact. The shipping companies graded environmental laws and environmental discounts as being the most important and having the greatest influence on decisions concerning green investments and environmental indices as being the least important and having the least influence.

Chapter one offers an introduction and a general outline of argument. Chapter two lays out the current scholarship on human rights and the environment and presents rejoinders to three prominent lines of objection to linking human rights and environmental interests: conceptual, those arising from issues of recognition, vagueness and conflicts between human rights, ecological, especially from those seeking protections for the environment regardless of its utility to humans, and those wishing to expand human rights beyond human interests, and adjudication concerns, namely from those sceptical that the polycentric nature of environmental issues create an insurmountable barrier to any significant improvements through judicially enforced human rights. Chapter three introduces and defends the environmental minimum as a normative framework for systematically conceptualizing the relationship between human rights and the environment. As such, it is chiefly concerned with ensuring a good faith regulatory engagement with environmental pollution: specific risks to recognised human rights trigger the environmental minimum, which then provides minimum standards (legal, established and emerging) that set the standard of review for determining whether a violation of human rights has occurred. Chapter four deals with the crucial empirical argument, outlining how the framework can systematically account for and consistently guide the further development of the case law under the European Convention on Human Rights. This conclusion rests on a comprehensive analysis of the environmental case law since 1950 using quantitative methods to expose doctrinal patterns previously not recognized in legal scholarship. Finally, chapter five explores and evaluates the potential benefits of the environmental minimum framework beyond human rights adjudication. Specifically, it investigates benefits to the varied fields of public law, regulatory policy, International Environmental Law, constitutionalism, and other international human rights treaties.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:34:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2016-01-26 / Universidade de São Paulo / The pursuit of economic practices compatible with environmental protection is a constitutional guideline. Because of production and consumption habits of capitalist society, the environment has been treated as dissociated factor in the economic system, when in fact; the environment is the material basis of life. The legal assumptions represent the aspirations and values of society and demonstrate the need for economic practices is subjected to the ecological conditions of the environment. From an economic point of view, environmental problems correspond to a market failure, which is not able to consider the environmental costs in the development of economic activities. Negative environmental externalities are generated by economic activities and often are not absorbed by the polluter economic agent, so the market does not account for damage as the shortage of natural resources, air pollution, contamination of groundwater, putting out fauna and flora, among others. To correct this dysfunction market the State can intervene in economy, directing the behavior of agents, through the use of traditional instruments, command and control, and instruments of economic nature. The objective of this study is to analyze the state's role in the economy with regard to the environmental regulation mechanisms and discuss the goals of the Brazilian environmental policy. An environmental policy is major a public policy, with effects on the economy. Thus, the success of the mechanisms depends on a strong performance and directed the State in achieving the objectives of environmental policy and the pursuit of sustainable development. / A busca por uma prática econômica compatível com a defesa e preservação do meio ambiente ecologicamente equilibrado é uma diretriz constitucional. Em razão dos hábitos de produção e consumo da sociedade capitalista, o meio ambiente tem sido encarado como fator dissociado do sistema econômico, quando, na verdade, é base material da vida. Os pressupostos jurídicos representam as aspirações e valores da sociedade e demonstram que é necessário que a prática econômica seja submetida às condições ecológicas do meio ambiente. Do ponto de vista econômico, os problemas ambientais correspondem a uma falha de mercado, que não é capaz de considerar os custos ambientais no desenvolvimento das atividades econômicas. As chamadas externalidades ambientais negativas são geradas pelas atividades econômicas e, frequentemente, não são absorvidas pelo agente econômico poluidor. Assim, o mercado não contabiliza danos como a escassez dos recursos naturais, a poluição do ar, a contaminação de lençóis freáticos, a extinção de espécies da fauna e da flora, entre outros. Para corrigir essa disfunção do mercado, o Estado pode intervir no domínio econômico, direcionando o comportamento dos agentes, por meio da utilização de instrumentos tradicionais, de comando e controle, e instrumentos de índole econômica. O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar a atuação do Estado na economia no que diz respeito à aplicação de mecanismos corretores de custos ambientais e discutir os objetivos da política ambiental brasileira. Uma política ambiental é, antes de tudo, uma política pública com reflexos na economia do país. Em suma, o sucesso dos mecanismos depende de uma atuação forte e direcionada do Estado na consecução dos objetivos da política ambiental e na busca pelo desenvolvimento sustentável.

Urban areas experience the loss of natural stream channels through conversion to artificial conveyances. This process tends to target headwater and other low order streams. The purpose of this study is to determine the patterns of stream loss in Denton, Texas, and explore the regulatory structure that manages these streams. Historic and current maps and stream data are used to map Denton's streams and categorize them according to their vertical connectivity as: 1) "intact", streams that are open to the atmosphere and connect to groundwater; 2) "concrete", channelized streams open to the atmosphere but cut off from groundwater; and 3) "buried", streams disconnected from the atmosphere and groundwater. A review of federal, state, and local regulatory codes and interviews with local government officials and other stakeholders elucidates stream management in Denton. Results from these analyses reveal high rates of stream loss in the urban center with low rates overall. The federal Clean Water Act and the local Environmentally Sensitive Areas code serve as the primary protective measures for natural streams. These regulations discourage stream impacts through expensive and complex permitting requirements. However the policies allow minor impacts which may cause cumulative effects. This study aims to inform future policy-making decisions and contribute to the knowledge of the environmental regulation of streams.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of environmental regulations for water-borne emissions in the Swedish pulp and paper industry. Furthermore, the study intends to analyze if there are differences in the effectiveness before and after the restructuring of the Swedish regulatory procedures in 1999. It also addresses the impact of compliance periods in the regulatory process. The method is econometric and based on the use of a fixed-effect panel data regression model. The data comprise 1 698 unique observation from 21 Swedish pulp and paper mills during the time period 1980-2013 regarding emissions, emission standards and production levels. The results display that the environmental regulation in the industry has been effective in the sense that emissions have decreased with the implementation of performance standards. Furthermore, the period before 1999 shows a greater reduction of emissions than the period after 1999. Finally, the results indicate that the use of compliance periods appears to have contributedto a greater reduction in emissions compared to cases where no such periods are granted. / Syftet med denna studie är att analysera effektiviteten av miljöregleringen av vattenbaserade utsläpp inom den svenska massa- och pappersindustrin. Dessutom avser denna studie att analysera om det finns några effektivitetsskillnader före och efter omstruktureringen av den svenska regleringsprocessen år 1999. Studien behandlar även effekten av anpassningsperioder i regleringsprocessen. Metoden är ekonometrisk och baseras på en "fixed-effect" panel datamodell. Datamaterialet består av 1 689 unika observationer från 21 svenska massa- och pappersbruk under åren 1980 - 2013 avseende utsläpp, gränsvärden och produktionsnivåer. Resultatet visar att miljöregleringen har varit effektiv i den meningen att utsläppen har minskat med införandet av gränsvärden. Dessutom, perioden innan 1999 visar en större utsläppsreduktion än perioden efter 1999. Till sist, resultaten indikerar att användandet av anpassningsperioder verkar ha bidragit till större utsläppsreduceringar i jämförelse till de fall där dessa perioder inte beviljades.

Este trabalho, organizado sob a forma de dois artigos, faz uma investigação a fim de esclarecer os vínculos entre comércio internacional e meio ambiente em geral, e no caso do setor do Agronegócio, em particular, focando, sobretudo, no aspecto da competitividade. No primeiro artigo, inicialmente procedeu-se uma revisão das questões teóricas atinentes às interfaces econômicas entre agricultura, meio ambiente e comércio, assim como a análise comparativa dos principais métodos empregados para estudar estes vínculos. Em seguida, especial atenção foi dedicada à identificação dos mecanismos pelos quais as políticas destinadas à promoção da sustentabilidade ambiental no setor do agronegócio podem afetar os preços, o comércio e o bem-estar social. Por fim, foram exploradas as implicações políticas que são derivadas do estudo de caso brasileiro, concluindo-se pela necessidade de construção de uma agenda de pesquisas local para o tema. O segundo artigo pode ser visto como um teste empírico para o Agronegócio das antagônicas posições defendidas por economistas seguidores da abordagem tradicional em relação aos seguidores da hipótese de Porter no que tange aos impactos do maior rigor das regulações ambientais sobre os padrões internacionais de comércio. Tal análise foi conduzida mediante a adequação do modelo H-O-V para permitir a inclusão de variáveis representativas da performance ambiental dos países analisados. Os resultados revelam que as exportações líquidas dos produtos agrícolas classificados como ambientalmente sensíveis podem ser afetadas positiva ou adversamente segundo setor e indicador ambiental em questão. / Organized in two articles, this dissertation makes an investigation to clarify the links between international trade and environment in general and in the case of the agribusiness sector, in particular, focusing mainly on the issue of competitiveness. In the first article, initially there was a review of theoretical issues pertaining to economic interfaces between agriculture, environment and trade, and comparative analysis of the main methods used to study these links. Then, special attention was devoted to identifying the mechanisms by which policies to promote environmental sustainability in the agribusiness sector can affect prices, trade and social welfare. Finally, were explored the policy implications that are derived from the study of the Brazilian case, concluding by the need to construct an agenda for research site for the theme. The second article can be seen as an empirical test for the Agribusiness of antagonistic positions advocated by economists followers of the traditional approach for followers of the possibility of Porter with regard to the impacts of the tightening of environmental regulations on international standards of commerce. This analysis was conducted by the adequacy of the H-O-V model to allow for the inclusion of variables representing the environmental performance of the countries examined. The results show that net exports of agricultural products classified as environmentally sensitive can be positively or adversely affected the second sector and environmental indicator in question.

Este trabalho, organizado sob a forma de dois artigos, faz uma investigação a fim de esclarecer os vínculos entre comércio internacional e meio ambiente em geral, e no caso do setor do Agronegócio, em particular, focando, sobretudo, no aspecto da competitividade. No primeiro artigo, inicialmente procedeu-se uma revisão das questões teóricas atinentes às interfaces econômicas entre agricultura, meio ambiente e comércio, assim como a análise comparativa dos principais métodos empregados para estudar estes vínculos. Em seguida, especial atenção foi dedicada à identificação dos mecanismos pelos quais as políticas destinadas à promoção da sustentabilidade ambiental no setor do agronegócio podem afetar os preços, o comércio e o bem-estar social. Por fim, foram exploradas as implicações políticas que são derivadas do estudo de caso brasileiro, concluindo-se pela necessidade de construção de uma agenda de pesquisas local para o tema. O segundo artigo pode ser visto como um teste empírico para o Agronegócio das antagônicas posições defendidas por economistas seguidores da abordagem tradicional em relação aos seguidores da hipótese de Porter no que tange aos impactos do maior rigor das regulações ambientais sobre os padrões internacionais de comércio. Tal análise foi conduzida mediante a adequação do modelo H-O-V para permitir a inclusão de variáveis representativas da performance ambiental dos países analisados. Os resultados revelam que as exportações líquidas dos produtos agrícolas classificados como ambientalmente sensíveis podem ser afetadas positiva ou adversamente segundo setor e indicador ambiental em questão. / Organized in two articles, this dissertation makes an investigation to clarify the links between international trade and environment in general and in the case of the agribusiness sector, in particular, focusing mainly on the issue of competitiveness. In the first article, initially there was a review of theoretical issues pertaining to economic interfaces between agriculture, environment and trade, and comparative analysis of the main methods used to study these links. Then, special attention was devoted to identifying the mechanisms by which policies to promote environmental sustainability in the agribusiness sector can affect prices, trade and social welfare. Finally, were explored the policy implications that are derived from the study of the Brazilian case, concluding by the need to construct an agenda for research site for the theme. The second article can be seen as an empirical test for the Agribusiness of antagonistic positions advocated by economists followers of the traditional approach for followers of the possibility of Porter with regard to the impacts of the tightening of environmental regulations on international standards of commerce. This analysis was conducted by the adequacy of the H-O-V model to allow for the inclusion of variables representing the environmental performance of the countries examined. The results show that net exports of agricultural products classified as environmentally sensitive can be positively or adversely affected the second sector and environmental indicator in question.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:34:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernando Rodrigues da Motta Bertoncello.pdf: 889518 bytes, checksum: d02dcf0a830f6d3fd9fe00a8bb2e714d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-04 / The financial market has developed several programs along the recent years in order to offer financing and sustainable investments. However, the lack of a clear definition of what actually means sustainability and also the lack of adaptation regarding the dynamics of financial markets prevent such programs thrive. This study has aimed to investigate the development of environmental regulation through the market regulators, Central Bank of Brazil and the Brazilian Securities Commission, making use of bibliographic and legislative research. It has come to the analysis of the State's duty to set limits to economic power which deals with the political and environmental responsibility of banks and financial institutions, from which it was concluded that only market regulators are able to interpret sustainability and adapt it to the financial sector, which creates a legal framework with a strong dialogue with Economy and Ecology. / As lutas pela preservação do meio ambiente e dos grupos sociais reprimidos ganham ao longo do tempo uma nova roupagem e avançam até o conceito de sustentabilidade. Este conceito posteriormente é abraçado pelas empresas e pelo mercado financeiro em busca de capital reputacional. Todavia, tem-se questionado a efetividade de algumas políticas de sustentabilidade adotadas pelo mercado, as quais parecem buscar para si somente valor agregado. Sendo assim, percebe-se a necessidade da migração de um ambiente de autorregulação para uma regulação financeira especifica que trate da aplicação da sustentabilidade no mercado financeiro, visando mais claramente atender ao interesse público. Pressupõe-se que a regulação financeira seria o melhor mecanismo dialogar com o mercado e, ao mesmo tempo, garantir o interesse público.

This thesis analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of various types of eco-labels, focusing primarily on differences between mandatory and voluntary eco-labeling programs. I argue that many of the problems with eco-labeling could be addressed by improving regulations. The current regulation of eco-labeling in the United States is discussed, especially the shortcomings of the FTC’s Green Guides. I recommend creating enforceable national legislation to regulate environmental claims that includes involvement of key stakeholders, a list of acceptable environmental claims, enforceable national definitions of environmental terms, an avenue for manufacturers and consumers to challenge environmental claims, consumer education, and periodic review and revision.