Incentives for Businesses to Go Green

Understanding the Tax Consequences of Environmental Capital Expenditures

Thomas D. Schultz, and Dan L. Heitger

Long before the term “green” because popular to describe an environmentally conscious company, managers realized the importance of pursuing business practices that would help to ensure the long-term success of their companies—and in many cases, it just made good economic sense. Over the decades, the concept of sustainable development was formalized; the United Nations defines it as “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (United Nations, “Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: our Common Future,” part I, chapter 2: Towards Sustainable Development, 1987, www.un-documents.net/ocf-02.htm).