With empirical evidence from Swedish companies, this paper analyses the phenomenon of corporate sustainability reporting (CSR) in general and the use of CSR guidelines developed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in particular. The main questions at issue are why companies have chosen to use the GRI guidelines and how this has affected corporate social responsibility and environmental management. From interviews with all Swedish companies that use the guidelines, we have found that companies produce CSRs mainly to seek organizational legitimacy, and that the main reason for use of the GRI guidelines is an expectation of increasing credibility of the CSR, but also that it provides a template for how to design a report. Moreover, we have found that the CSR report and the GRI guidelines are of more help for internal than external communication at this stage of development. It could help corporations to learn about themselves and to see what has actually been done in the organization. In all, the GRI guidelines would have the potential for gaining visibility and control of the triple bottom line on a corporate level, but they are in need of further development, not least in relation to the issue of verification. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

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The concept of sustainable development has become widespread amongst government agencies, politicians, corporations and other organizations throughout the world. As a response to the challenge of sustainable development, Swedish corporations have shown a growing interest in integrating their efforts regarding management of environmental, quality related and social issues. Companies in the engineering industry are particularly active in this area. This paper describes the paths three world leading Swedish engineering corporations have taken in their striving towards sustainable development, and analyses why and how they are integrating their different management systems. We finally analyse and discuss, from a theoretical point of view with focus on subjects as well as methods of management, whether these integrated management systems in use can support the companies in their management of sustainability.

Based on a study of public–private collaboration in partnerships for integrated environmental management and business development in two Swedish regions, this paper aims to elucidate the conditions for collaboration on sustainability issues amongst different local and regional actors. From interviews with local and regional public administration officers and with CEOs of several SMEs, it was found that public–private collaboration related to sustainable development does exist and takes place in many different ways. In common, however, local or regional authorities initiate them all, indicating an asymmetric interest in public–private partnerships. In relation to the interest asymmetry, which could also be seen as an expression of asymmetric power–dependence relations between SMEs and public authorities, with SMEs as the stronger part, a limited knowledge among SMEs about their role in larger contexts and different understandings of sustainable development among the regional actors, the major obstacle for public–private collaboration seems to be the limited confidence in local and regional authorities among SMEs. In all, there seems to be a need for further discussion in the regions and local communities on views of and potential ways towards sustainable development, which also includes the articulation of the roles of different actors. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment

This special issue is based on the international symposium Business and Industrial Ecology held alongside the 2003 Business Strategy and the Environment Conference in Leicester, UK. The main message is that the dominant natural science and engineering aspects of industrial ecology (IE) need to be linked to management and policy studies. IE has rapidly evolved into a new field with the concept of an ‘industrial ecosystem’ that uses the metaphor of sustainable ecosystems to provide innovative routes to change present unsustainable industrial systems. The editorial article identifies three themes as organizing categories in linking IE to management and policy studies. First, the systems and network philosophy of IE can be coupled with inter‐organizational management studies to complement the more traditional intra‐organizational environmental management. Second, management and policy studies complement descriptive IE studies of physical flows of matter and energy to produce prescriptive suggestions for how industrial systems can be moved through human action toward the vision of IE. Third, the metaphor is a source of inspiration and creativity in the transformation of management and strategic visions towards a new sustainability culture. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.