In industrialized countries purchasing by manufacturing companies dwarfs consumer spending by far. The supply chain is therefore an important avenue for environmental protection. Supply chain management, a generally rather overlooked area of management, is steadily evolving into a corporate function of ever-growing economic importance. Can this strategic potential also be used for improving our environment? Could the supply chain manager become the most effective change agent of the entire organisation? This book offers a novel theoretical model on how purchasing and supply chain management could become an environmental change agent, and assesses the empirical evidence for supply chain involvement in corporate greening. What limits are there to greener supply and how could the potential of a supply chain manager be utilised? What changes to organisational design and the supply process might encourage attention to the environment? And what influences outside the manufacturing company would enable the purchasing and supply chain function to make a difference to the world's natural environment?