The authors received support for this research from the Kellogg Environmental Research Center of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. The first author can be contacted at mbazerman@hbs.edu, (617) 495-6429. The paper benefited from insightful feedback from Bob Sutton and Barry Staw.

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INTRODUCTION
The past century has witnessed unprecedented economic growth and human prosperity. Global per capita income has nearly tripled (World Business Council on Sustainable Development, 1997), average life expectancy has increased by almost two-thirds (World Resources Institute, 1994), and people are significantly more literate and educated than their predecessors. Yet, juxtaposed against these encouraging statistics are concerns that the past century has also witnessed unprecedented damage to the natural environment -- that in pursuing an improved quality of life, we are engaging in environmentally destructive behavior that is unsustainable and, therefore, contrary to our long-term interests. The human population is geometrically expanding while crop land is eroding, forests are declining, species are facing extinction, fresh water supplies are dwindling, fisheries are collapsing and pollution threatens human health (Brown, 1998). Overall, society is pursuing economic growth while depreciating the capital in natural resources upon which that growth depends.

   This apparent contradiction has led many researchers to analyze the causes and solutions to environmental degradation. This paper offers similar focus, yet applies a lens of organizational behavior to yield insights not otherwise visible. In our view, environmental problems are not primarily technological or economic, but behavioral and cultural. While technological and economic activity may be the direct cause of environmentally destructive behavior, it is our argument that individual beliefs, cultural norms and societal institutions guide the development of that activity (David, 1985; Barley, 1986; Arthur, 1988). The question for us, then, is to consider how individual and social behavior shape how the natural environment is perceived and how individual, organizational, and institutional values perpetuate behavior that damages it.