This book offers a concise critique of key economic approaches to environmental issues and promotes a synthesis with institutionalism and regulation theory as an alternative. The book is divided into two main parts: the first reviews a range of theoretical perspectives, while the second analyses business and sustainable development. The introduction offers a brief history of selected environmental issues and incidents, along with some headline international responses since 1970. The underlying argument is that the social dimensions of ecological modernisation have not been adequately addressed by economic analyses, and that the social construction of both environmental issues and economic institutions are at the centre of the conflicts and compromises that shape development. While very brief, this chapter clearly sets the tone and maps out the rest of the volume.