Voluntary environmental governance arrangements

Abstract

Voluntary environmental governance arrangements have focal attention in studies on environmental policy, regulation and governance. The four major debates in the contemporary literature on voluntary environmental governance arrangements are studied. The literature falls short of sufficiently specifying whether or not voluntary environmental governance arrangements are successful in addressing environmental risks. This is due to the narrow focus of many contemporary studies and a tendency to study the form and content of voluntary environmental governance arrangements in isolation from their contextual settings. In order to gain a better understanding of voluntary environmental governance arrangements, scholars are challenged to study differently structured voluntary environmental governance arrangements in different contextual settings, to move beyond single country or single voluntary environmental governance arrangements studies, and to combine quantitative and qualitative data in studying these arrangements.

Keywords:

• governance
• environment
• regulation
• voluntarism
• beyond compliance

Notes

1. Another way of addressing such developments is to look at the function of a VEGA in relation to existing legislation (Ten Brink 2002): VEGAs may have a ‘bridging function’ towards existing legislation; a ‘support function’ to help the implementation of legal requirements; or, an ‘independent function’ when there is no direct relation between the VEGA and existing legislation.

2. Other classifications exist. Darnall and Carmin (2005), for instance, use a slightly different terminology by discussing mission requirements, administrative requirements, and conformance requirements. Mission requirements relate to the expression of value and goal statements, the development of plans and targets to reach these goals, and a management plan to steer the process of reaching these goals. Administrative requirements relate to the requirements on documentation that are needed for communication on and transparency of participants’ behaviour. Conformance requirements relate to monitoring, rewarding and disciplining.