Large corporate buyers can impose government-like environmental standards without legislation.

Evidence

As large purchasers, their market leverage can also serve as the functional equivalent of a governmental requirement for stricter environmental standards in products but absent the political controversies implicated by direct governmental intervention. Very large gains in resource productivity are already technologically possible and even greater gains can be made available, given the correct market incentives. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 1013

Categorization

• SEED: A provocative angle: private supply-chain leverage as regulatory substitution, and its accountability gap.
• XREF: connects to: Government can reduce ecological cause-effect ignorance to steer consumer choices. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 1010; Consumers pay premiums for certified environmentally friendly goods. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 1011; Clinton agencies made major environmental policy without new statutes. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 700