Increasingly, the public are becoming aware of the interactions and conflicts between business and the environment. Controversies, such as BSE, fox hunting and GM crops, highlight the growing importance these issues are assuming in everyday life. Further examples are government transport policy and the growing tourism and leisure industries. At the same time, the public are now consumers of the environment, for which they are willing to pay. Business has seen the need to take on a ‘green mantle’, while at the same time the environmental movement has refined its opinions of business. Environment and Business examines in depth the ways in which business, industry, the physical environment, environmentalism and social change have evolved alongside each other. Business responses to environmental influences fall within a spectrum, between attempts to ignore external pressures, to viewing the changes as an opportunity. Business is not seen as a uniform activity. Many books restrict their coverage to manufacturing industries relationship with the environment, this innovative text widens the debate. Special attention is paid to both the primary industries which are in close contact with the environment and to the tertiary industries which now make up the bulk of the economy and which are shown to be subjected to environmental influences in numerous ways. Business and the Environment assumes no previous knowledge of business studies, to discuss how businesses and the environment interact. It introduces students to a range of beliefs, rather than advocating a single approach. The authors use boxed case studies to highlight how business practice and the environment interact at levels from local to global, with examples from multi-national companies, government bodies, national charities and local enterprise. The book also contains a large number of informative diagrams.
