Empirical evidence of the link between lean production practices and environmental performance is sparse. Much of the work remains anecdotal, relying on individual success stories to support a relationship between lean production and environmental performance (Graedel and Allenby 1995). A few studies use questionnaires to demonstrate a possible association between leanness and greenness (Maxwell, Rothenberg, and Schenck 1993; Florida 1996; Rothenberg 1999). Unfortunately, they cannot rule out the possibility that both lean production and environmental improvement may be caused by other underlying firm attributes. For example, lean production may be related to pollution reduction only because both are the manifestation of the firm's innovative nature.