Driving much of the research on organizations and environment is the normative objective of helping
to improve the sustainability of human society. To help answer this, I have advocated recognition of
the ways in which organizational relationships with the natural environment are mediated through
the complex social institutions of our economic system. To demystify and clarify these relationships
between organizations and natural environment more empirical assessments of changes in business
practices and their material impacts are needed. Beyond corporations, we must assess the efforts of
environmental movement organizations, particularly joint efforts with businesses, regarding their
political and material effectiveness. These can provide us with some indication of whether we are
making progress at the organizational level. But if we are concerned with the true sustainability of
society, we must also turn our attention to the aggregate outcomes of organizational changes.