Corporate governance and proactive environmental management in Novo Hamburgo and neighbouring cities, Brazil.

This study compiled data on environmental auditing and voluntary certification of environment-friendly businesses of the Commercial and Industrial Association of Novo Hamburgo, Campo Bom and Estância Velha and analysed them according to classical environmental management principles: sustainable development and corporate governance. It assessed the level of application of the concepts of corporate governance to everyday business in companies and organisations and estimated how the interconnection and vertical permeability of these concepts might help to make bureaucratic environmental management systemic, proactive and evaluative, changes that may add great value to the operations evaluated. Results showed that, when analysing only audited items not directly defined in legislation, no significant changes were identified. The inclusion of more advanced indices may promote the transition from bureaucratic management, which meets regulated environmental standards only satisfactorily, into proactive and systemic environmental management, which adds value to companies and helps to perpetuate them. Audited and analysed data did not reveal actions that depend on the internal redistribution of power and the interconnection or verticality of attitudes that may materialize concepts of corporate governance.