Benefits Organizations Pursue when Seeking Competitive Advantage by Improving Environmental Performance

Summary Organizations cognitive of the strategic risk and opportunities associated with environmental challenges may employ industrial ecology (IE) concepts, methods, and tools to develop capabilities that both enhance environmental performance and provide competitive benefits. We introduce a typology of strategic benefits related to competitive advantage that are enabled by improved environmental performance. Industry examples illustrate how organizations embed IE concepts and methods into systems to generate capabilities that deliver these benefits and configure them for competitive advantage. The examples demonstrate the idiosyncratic, path‐dependent nature of capability development that helps sustain advantage, especially when competitors lack cognition of the global scope of the challenge, and the risks and benefits involved.