For many industrial interests and governments in Canada and elsewhere, voluntary initiatives are the hot new way to win greener corporate behaviour. Such initiatives, the proponents say, are more efficient than the conventional regulatory approach and will bring significant environmental improvements while reducing corporate and government costs. Veteran environmentalist are suspicious. They see more interest in cost cutting than in environmental responsibility and anticipate a de-regulatory retreat back to the bad old days of backroom deals and reliance on corporate good will.

There is also a third possibility. Voluntary initiatives could play a role in a new politics of corporate greening that embraces voluntarism but integrates this with full use of regulatory tools, public scrutiny, and other means of forcing and facilitating environmental improvements in the private sector.

In Voluntary Initiatives, some of Canada's foremost experts and practitioners examine the experience of such initiatives so far, debate the promises and pitfalls, and consider implications for the future politics of corporate greening. In so doing they also begin to shed light on alternative models for political action.

Robert B. Gibson is an associate professor in the Department of Environment and Resource Studies at the University of Waterloo and editor of Alternatives Journal: Environmental Thought, Policy and Action.

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