Voluntary initiatives have been used increasingly by industry and governments since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio as a policy to improve environmental performance and help achieve sustainability. They have ranged from commitments by individual companies to achieve environmental targets that go beyond existing regulations, to codes of conduct adopted unilaterally at the national or international level by sectoral industry associations, to agreements on environmental performance targets between a government and a company, group of companies or industry sector. In the midst of the CSR and partnerships debate today, their impact remains under scrutiny.

There are a number of advantages for industry in the use of voluntary approaches. These include greater flexibility concerning ways and means of reaching targets, and the opportunity to present a better public image.

For governments, the benefits of voluntary approaches include their usefulness in promoting dialogue with the private sector and in raising industry managers' awareness of environmental issues. They can serve as tools to push industry's environmental performance and resource productivity beyond previously agreed regulatory targets. Such voluntary activities can promote innovation and limit enforcement costs.

Non-governmental organisations also recognize that appropriate use of voluntary initiatives can be desirable. However, they generally insist on the importance of establishing measurable targets, of involving employees and NGOs in setting and implementing these targets, of reporting on progress, and of third party verification.

UNEP's experience with the use of voluntary initiatives to improve companies' environmental performance dates back to long before the 1992 Earth Summit. Sharing of experience and information concerning voluntary initiatives takes place through regular consultations with a wide range of industry associations, multi-stakeholder discussions, publications and guidelines and the integration of voluntary initiatives in UNEP's sustainable consumption and production, ozone and energy activities.