Past Research

The Production of Corporate Environmental Norms Project: Corporate Environmental Norms and Legal Instrument Choice

This SSHRC and UTM funded project focuses on how environmental norms can influence corporate action.  The emphasis is understanding how corporate environmental norms can be created and strengthened, and linking this to legal instrument design.  The main research hypotheses are that corporate environmental norms lead to more environmental actions by corporations and that legal and policy tools can encourage the production of corporate environmental norms. This has the possibility to greatly improve the ability of public policy to achieve environmental targets at a potentially reduced cost (time and money) to governments.

Related Publications

Kirk, Elizabeth & Besco, Laurel. (2021). Improving Energy Efficiency: The Significance of Normativity. Journal of Environmental Law. https://doi.org/10.1093/jel/eqab018  

Besco, Laurel & Kirk, Elizabeth. (2020) Industry perceptions of government interventions: generating an energy efficiency norm. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 23(1), 130-142.

Green Productivity, Sustainability & the Law

This research focused on incorporating measures of green productivity into legal instrument choice decision making to meet legal commitments and obligations to sustainability. Research included investigation of theoretical and empirical factors related to law, policy and environmental/ecological economics, and a case study of natural resource productivity and water.

Related Publications
  • Besco, Laurel. (2014). Green productivity: clarifying terminology and concepts. International Journal of Sustainable Economy, 6(4), 406-425