This article shows how the environmental pressures of the industry structure end up influencing the business performance. The research was conducted with the petrochemical, the textile and the beverage sectors in Brazil and identifies the possible environmental impact of a business, the environmental legal system, and the demands from stakeholders as being the main environmental pressures upon businesses that influence their environmental conduct. Therefore, the understanding of the environmental pressures of the industry structure allows the businesses to evaluate, in a practical manner, their current strategic positioning and define their future positioning. In order to meet the business demand for strategic environmental planning tools, this paper also presents the model Environmental Structure-Conduct-Performance (Environmental - SCP). This model states that a business environmental performance is derived from its environmental conduct, which, in turn, depends on the market structure where the business operates.
Environmental management; environmental performance; environmental indicators; strategies; industry structure
