Standardization. This organization’s work largely is driven by companies in
advanced industrialized countries.
Second, two world scale events in China – the 2008 Olympic Games and
the 2010 Expo Shanghai – already have stimulated the diffusion of environ-
mental technology. The central government promises that the events will be
‘green’, and has emphasized environmental protection projects and
renovation. Examples of environmental technology already scheduled for
purchase from abroad are catalytic agents for garbage treatment, natural gas
engines, auto emission purification equipment, medical waste incinerators,
and water recycling equipment.^31
International standards promoted by multinational corporations have had an
even more direct impact recently in Taiwan. Representative agencies of
multinationals in Taiwan, particularly the American Chamber of Commerce
and the European Council of Commerce and Trade, have pressured the
government to improve environmental protection, while emphasizing the use
of market-based incentives instead of traditional command-and-control
means. For example, the 1999–2000 ‘Taiwan White Paper’ of the American
chamber asked government agencies to ‘add environmental value in their daily
work’, and to focus efforts to ‘improve quality of life in Taiwan while
preserving the ecosystems that shelter diversity of species or guarantee the
continued provision of natural services’.^32
Both China and Taiwan, however, have suffered from the behavior of those
multinationals able to afford investments which do not degrade the environ-
ment, but which are unwilling to do so. These corporations threaten to retreat
from China or Taiwan, and may stage ‘investment strikes’ to bargain for a
better investment environment.^33 In the case of Taiwan, such an ‘opportunist
strategy of bargaining’ has had a significant impact in slowing implementation
of environmental protection measures, because the state and major elite groups
believe in the necessity of keeping large corporations, particularly in
petrochemicals, nuclear power and other highly polluting industries, as a sign
of national economic strength and maturity. Diffusion itself is a neutral
concept, and this type of behavior indicates that it may have adverse conse-
quences as well as positive ones.
For multinational firms, the image their activities in host countries project
may affect the bottom line, and thus, whether they are ‘green’ and evoke a
sense of ‘corporate social responsibility (CSR)’ in their operations is a matter
to be taken seriously. Behaviors of multinationals may indeed be directed at
the improvement of environmental outcomes. According to Flaherty and
Rappaport (2002), exemplar multinationals ‘seek greater uniformity in
process, production and product standards’, and see significant competitive
advantages in environmentally benign policies.^34 On the other hand, critics of
corporate environmentalism term the ‘greening’ of business ‘greenwash’.
Business organizations and biodiversity conservation 143