IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/corsem/v18y2011i2p61-79.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring corporate environmental justice performance

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Ash
  • James K. Boyce

Abstract

Measures of corporate environmental justice performance can be a valuable tool in efforts to promote corporate social responsibility and to document systematic patterns of environmental injustice. This paper develops such a measure based on the extent to which toxic air emissions from industrial facilities disproportionately impact racial and ethnic minorities and those on low incomes. Applying the measure to 100 major corporate air polluters in the United States, we find wide variation in the extent of disproportional exposures. In 54 cases, minorities, who represent 31.8% of the US population, bear excess burden; in 15 of these cases, the minority share exceeds half of the total human health impacts from the firm's industrial air pollution. In 66 cases, poor people, who represent 12.8% of the US population, bear excess burden. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Ash & James K. Boyce, 2011. "Measuring corporate environmental justice performance," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(2), pages 61-79, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:corsem:v:18:y:2011:i:2:p:61-79
    DOI: 10.1002/csr.238
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.238
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/csr.238?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James K. Boyce, 2002. "The Political Economy of the Environment," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2080.
    2. Douglas Anderton & Andy Anderson & John Oakes & Michael Fraser, 1994. "Environmental Equity: The Demographics of Dumping," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 31(2), pages 229-248, May.
    3. Rory Sullivan & Andy Gouldson, 2007. "Pollutant release and transfer registers: examining the value of government‐led reporting on corporate environmental performance," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(5), pages 263-273, December.
    4. Iulie Aslaksen & Terje Synnestvedt, 2003. "Ethical investment and the incentives for corporate environmental protection and social responsibility," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(4), pages 212-223, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jayajit Chakraborty & Timothy W. Collins & Sara E. Grineski & Alejandra Maldonado, 2017. "Racial Differences in Perceptions of Air Pollution Health Risk: Does Environmental Exposure Matter?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-16, January.
    2. Teun Wolters, 2022. "Why is ecological sustainability so difficult to achieve? An in‐context discussion of conceptual barriers," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 2025-2039, December.
    3. Ash, Michael & Boyce, James K., 2016. "Assessing the jobs-environment relationship with matched data from US EEOC and US EPA," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2016-03, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    4. Davide, Di Fonzo & Alessandra, Fabri & Roberto, Pasetto, 2022. "Distributive justice in environmental health hazards from industrial contamination: A systematic review of national and near-national assessments of social inequalities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 297(C).
    5. Roberto Pasetto & Benedetta Mattioli & Daniela Marsili, 2019. "Environmental Justice in Industrially Contaminated Sites. A Review of Scientific Evidence in the WHO European Region," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-20, March.
    6. Ren, Xiaohang & Zeng, Gudian & Sun, Xianming, 2023. "The peer effect of digital transformation and corporate environmental performance: Empirical evidence from listed companies in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    7. James Boyce & Manuel Pastor, 2013. "Clearing the air: incorporating air quality and environmental justice into climate policy," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 120(4), pages 801-814, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eloi Laurent & Jean Jouzel, 2018. "The Well-being Transition: Measuring what counts to protect what matters," Sciences Po publications 35, Sciences Po.
    2. Alvarez, Camila H. & Evans, Clare Rosenfeld, 2021. "Intersectional environmental justice and population health inequalities: A novel approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    3. Zdenka Gyurák Babeľová & Augustín Stareček & Dagmar Cagáňová & Martin Fero & Miloš Čambál, 2019. "Perceived Serviceability of Outplacement Programs as a Part of Sustainable Human Resource Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-21, August.
    4. Eloi Laurent, 2015. "Social-Ecology : exploring the missing link in sustainable development," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-01136326, HAL.
    5. William Bowen & Mark Atlas & Sugie Lee, 2009. "Industrial agglomeration and the regional scientific explanation of perceived environmental injustice," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 43(4), pages 1013-1031, December.
    6. Irene Bengo & Leonardo Boni & Alessandro Sancino, 2022. "EU financial regulations and social impact measurement practices: A comprehensive framework on finance for sustainable development," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(4), pages 809-819, July.
    7. Zahran, Sammy & Iverson, Terrence & McElmurry, Shawn P. & Weiler, Stephan & Levitt, Ryan, 2019. "Hidden Costs of Blight and Arson in Detroit: Evidence From a Natural Experiment in Devil's Night," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 266-277.
    8. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/7cu18nukj78u8bq89s295bup4f is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Anthony P. Matejczyk, 2001. "Why Not NIMBY? Reputation, Neighbourhood Organisations and Zoning Boards in a US Midwestern City," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 38(3), pages 507-518, March.
    10. Andrea L. Moore, 2017. "An examination of the influence of environmental justice policy, Executive Order 12898, on the spatial concentration of manufacturing facilities in EPA Region 6 1988-2009," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 7(3), pages 377-385, September.
    11. Baryshnikova, Nadezhda V., 2010. "Pollution abatement and environmental equity: A dynamic study," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 183-190, September.
    12. Costas Panayotakis, 2012. "Scarcity, capitalism and the promise of economic democracy," International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 3(1), pages 104-111.
    13. Moser, Mathias & Zwickl, Klara, 2014. "Informal environmental regulation of industrial air pollution: Does neighborhood inequality matter?," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 192, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    14. Eloi Laurent, 2014. "Inequality as pollution, pollution as inequality : The social-ecological nexus," Sciences Po publications info:hdl:2441/f6h8764enu2, Sciences Po.
    15. Tukufu Zuberi, 2000. "Deracializing Social Statistics: Problems in the Quantification of Race," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 568(1), pages 172-185, March.
    16. Cory, Dennis C. & Rahman, Tauhidur, 2009. "Environmental justice and enforcement of the safe drinking water act: The Arizona arsenic experience," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1825-1837, April.
    17. Parry, Ian W.H. & Sigman, Hilary & Walls, Margaret & Williams, Roberton C., III, 2005. "The Incidence of Pollution Control Policies," Discussion Papers 10651, Resources for the Future.
    18. Margaret Carrel & Sean G. Young & Eric Tate, 2016. "Pigs in Space: Determining the Environmental Justice Landscape of Swine Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in Iowa," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-19, August.
    19. Stephen Matthews & Daniel M. Parker, 2013. "Progress in Spatial Demography," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 28(10), pages 271-312.
    20. Baran Doda & Caterina Gennaioli & Andy Gouldson & David Grover & Rory Sullivan, 2016. "Are Corporate Carbon Management Practices Reducing Corporate Carbon Emissions?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(5), pages 257-270, September.
    21. Tsalis, Thomas A. & Nikolaou, Ioannis E. & Konstantakopoulou, Fotini & Zhang, Ying & Evangelinos, Konstantinos I., 2020. "Evaluating the corporate environmental profile by analyzing corporate social responsibility reports," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 63-75.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:corsem:v:18:y:2011:i:2:p:61-79. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1535-3966 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.