Abstract
Sustainable commerce initiatives are creating new goods and services that will position the US economy to aggressively compete in global markets. “Sustainable commerce” refers to products and practices which minimize environmental impacts, optimize commercial value, and realize public as well as private environmental benchmarks. How law can create incentives for sustainable commerce to flourish remains a question. In this article, Professor Appel and Dr. Irvin show how industry and state and local governments have not fully utilized the existing public health and environmental legal infrastructure as tools to craft sustainable commerce initiatives. They then outline a private/public governance paradigm in which industry and government create sustainable commerce initiatives that can enhance state and local economies and employment, foster competitiveness in the global marketplace, and, at the same time, substantially improve local and state public health and environmental performance. This article finally analyzes some of the nuts-and-bolts legal issues based in existing public health and environmental law to accommodate sustainable commerce initiatives. In addition, it examines the role that third-party assurance systems will play in this new public-private partnership to ensure sustainable commerce timelines and goals are met over the immediate future.
Recommended Citation
T. R. Irvin & Peter A. Appel,
Sustainable Commerce: Public Health Law and Environmental Law Provide Tools for Industry and Government to Construct Globally-Competitive Green Economies,
33
S. Ill. U. L.J.
367
(2009).
Available at:
https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/siulj/vol33/iss3/2