A casual reader of the popular press cannot help but notice that Business Week is beginning to look more like Sierra magazine. Conferences once reserved for environmental engineers and scientists are now populated by business executives proudly expounding on such themes as environmental stewardship and sustainable development. It would be easy-and incorrect-to dismiss many of these public pronouncements as corporate rhetoric chasing "green" consumers. In fact, industry has developed, and is applying, a set of managerial approaches and technical tools to create the next generation of environmental improvements.

Unfortunately, policymakers will probably either miss or misunderstand these changes. Having spent the last 25 years focused on the cheaters and laggards, we are ill-prepared to understand the motivations and the methods of the industry leaders. But policymakers who are willing to leave some cherished beliefs behind and journey into the strategic core of innovative corporations will discover the most radical restructuring of production since Henry Ford-one with far-reaching implications for the environment.