Government, Public Policy, and Sustainable Business

Read this chapter to find out more about the interplay between individuals, organizations, and governments in shaping public policy.

How are policies influenced? What factors affect the policy-making process? How does public policy affect innovation and sustainability practices?

Efforts to establish new policies that address environmental concerns must take into account the resistance that will occur.
There are benefits with environmental policies that adapt to changing conditions and that take action to prevent activities that have significant risk of harming the environment in ways that cannot be reversed.
There are a range of policies that can address concerns about the environment, from outright bans of chemicals to market pricing (e.g., with the imposition of taxes) of activities that cause social harms.