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The article focuses on the concept of a "greenfield site" within human resource management (HRM) and shows that ways in which distance is conceptualised or measured in describing greenfield sites need to be made explicit. Within HRM, a greenfield site is a new establishment set up by an existing firm. The argument is that the newer the site, the newer the workforce and the greater the distance from the firm's existing establishments, from existing sector clusters and from existing concentrations of traditional management-employee relations, the darker, ceteris paribus, will be the shade of green. One would expect that establishments of the darkest shade would find it easiest to introduce new HRM practices. It is in establishments like this that management does not have to accommodate existing attitudes and ways of doing things. It is vital to ask questions about the local labour market characteristics of the area in which the new establishment is to be set up and to establish whether or not the attributes of the local labour market will constrain the extent to which new HRM practices can be put into operation.