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Environmental Progress: What Every Executive Should Know

  • Jane Shaw
  • DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT

    A new paper challenges conventional wisdom about the role of business in environmental issues. Written primarily for business executives, it offers new ideas for addressing environmental challenges while keeping a principled commitment to market competition, consumer choice, and innovation.

    “Environmental Progress: What Every Executive Should Know,” by Lynn Scarlett of the Reason Foundation and Jane S. Shaw of PERC, makes such points as:

    • The search for profits leads to conservation and reduction of pollution.
    • Business is not the central cause of environmental problems.
    • Environmental harm can be traced to two major problems: Open access to unowned resources and the inability of people to defend their common-law rights against harm from pollution.
    • Rhetoric about “polluter pays,” “the precautionary principle,” and “market-based” environmentalism is often shallow.
    • In many cases, decentralization and performance standards would improve regulation.

    Reason Foundation, which also supported the paper, is a nonprofit organization in Los Angeles that is committed to public policies that reflect the rule of law and personal responsibility.

    Download the full report, including endnotes and references.

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