Corporate responsibility to the environment has become one of the critical issues of the 1990s. Corporate responsibility, also known as "corporate greening", "product stewardship", or "proactive management", often goes beyond adherence to regulatory requirements and results in corporate environmental activism. Transnational corporations possess the technology and research ability to provide solutions to global and regional environmental problems or to alter the environment adversely. In the past, international businesses have been associated with environmental degradation in developing countries. In contrast, the collective corporate agenda for the 21st century includes substantial investment of both financial and personnel resources in meeting the sustainable development challenges of the global environment.
Sustainable development recognizes the need to preserve natural resources for future generations. Environmental pollution resulting from economic development imposes significant losses on the public as natural resources grow increasingly scarce. Corporations which contribute to the scarcity of these resources have a responsibility to the human future. Thus, the critical concern of sustainable development is intergenerational equity. Ignazio Musu (1994) contends that sustainable development also involves intragenerational issues: "[Sustainable development] must also guarantee opportunities for populations in developing countries; and this implies important modifications in development patterns in the more advanced economies" (p. 89). Multinational corporations are faced with the challenge of negotiating environmental tradeoffs between intergenerational and intragenerational efficiency. Added to the corporate dilemma are the significant gaps in scientific knowledge regarding the extent of global and regional pollution problems. According to one environmental analyst, "The precise implications of sustainable developmen...