Green productivity: moving the agenda

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence of the emerging consensus about the need to tackle environmental issues alongside economic and business issues, in an integrated way that can achieve breakthrough improvements in both productivity and environmental impact. It also seeks to present a framework model for addressing such issues coherently and systematically. Design/methodology/approach - The paper's approach is to describe the development of thinking around “green productivity” and to extrapolate to a generic analysis and improvement framework. Findings - The former lone voices urging a concern for the environment while improving business performance are now coalescing into a “movement”. New thinking and new ways of approaching old problems show that it is perfectly possible to address these issues together – but this is most effective when planned as part of a total review of the life‐cycle of products and their manufacturing and delivery processes. Practical implications - This should have implications at the organisational level where firms that are trying to take seriously their corporate social responsibility should be able to find new ways of improving business performance while conforming with increasingly tough environmental legislation and codes of practice. It should also have implications at the policy level where governments are trying to impose tougher environmental impact regulation but wish to do this without unduly harming business activity and performance. Originality/value - The paper gives a “potted history” of the green productivity movement but also takes it on a stage with a generic improvement framework informed by current thinking.