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This article focuses on the ecology of global economic power and the role of changing investment practices to promote environmental sustainability. The power of global corporate capital and the power of major cities representing destructive forces was examined and considered as sources of solutions. The seventh goal of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals is to ensure environmental sustainability. Such goal aims to integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources. It was said that markets are important institutional components in developed and developing economies. They are seen as enabling sustainable development in poorer countries, as they can mobilize forces and capital that greatly surpass foreign aid.

In 1994, the Secretary General of the United Nations said that, "without protection of the environment, the basis of human survival will be eroded." Time has shown that the principles of "sustainable development" alone will not be sufficient to protect the environment. Time has shown that the interest that present and future generations have in the environment need to be rooted in positive law. The argument is that the human right to a good environment provides a cost effective, forward thinking and practical method of dealing with environmental problems. The first step in its introduction would be for the right to be recognised formally on an international level. The second step would be the introduction of appropriate legal mechanisms and regulations that govern decision making on a day to day basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact which environmental law and management has had in the hospitality industry is substantial. Hotels have begun conservation and recycling programs as a means of reducing energy cost and solid waste. A significant number of environmentally related regulatory and consumer pressures are being imposed upon the hospitality industry. The purpose of this study is to begin to explore the environmental programs that hotel corporations in Mexico are adopting. Eight managers at eight hotel corporations in Mexico were included in the study. The corporation hotels located inMexico started to implement environmental strategies in 1995, and the most common reason was because of the legal pressures they faced. Efficient use of lighting and eliminating use of diesel in the boiler were the most frequently sited strategies. Seven hotel managers benefitted from the application of these strategies, while one indicated he did not benefit. The hotel managers feel social, legal, and political pressure in Mexico to implement environmental strategies but consider consumer pressure unimportant. They believe these strategies are not very important when facing competitors, and only one manager mentioned that in the future the competitive threat will be important in developing environmental consciousness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]