Corporate greening of foreign transnationals in Singapore

The environmental performance of transnational corporations (TNCs) may need to be updated to include evidence of increased corporate environmental res ponsibility. This is a challenge to geographical perspectives that have bee n critical of the environmental performance of TNCs. The paper reports the findings of a survey of TNCs with branches in Singapore. Using the survey e vidence, TNCs are classified according to their degree of participation in a range of voluntary environmental initiatives. According to the classifica tion, there is a similar proportion of low and high performers but a domina nce of medium level activity that can involve little organisational change. A significant association between organisational size and environmental ac tivity is found. Respondents most frequently report that corporate environm ental standards motivate environmental action in Singapore. Overall the sur vey evidence indicates that few TNCs are significantly changing their envir onmental behaviour. The absence of citizen, NGO and government pressure on TNCs is reducing the extent of voluntary environmental action in Singapore and expectations of widespread corporate greening overlook organisational d ifferences in their opportunity to benefit from investment in environmental management. It is concluded that voluntary corporate environmentalism does not reduce the need for government regulation.