Corporate Environmental Information and Public Policy*

presented in this paper represent a preliminary report of this research programme that is still in progress. 21. New critiques to the traditional approaches Two new critiques have been recently addressed to the traditional solutions in pollution control: firstly, their focus is too narrow, as they do not take into account the power of well-informed pressure groups in influencing regulation and companies environmental performance, secondly regulators do not pay enough attention to policy instruments such as environmental auditing standards, which directly impact the way managers operate within the firm. These critiques can be summarised in the lack of policy makers ’ attention to the role of company information at the external and internal level. The first refers to the external stakeholders ’ need of more detailed information about the environmental and financial impacts of the companies ’ activities, the second refers to the information within the organisation as contribution to the decision making process. Generally, regulators and market solutions do not give enough incentives to the implementation of information systems. Information is crucial for pressure groups action since their sanctioning power depends critically on the quality of the data they possess regarding industrial environmental performance