Many companies, including some major corporations, have joined the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) and adopted their CERES Principles. Originally known as the Valdez Principles, the CERES Principles were developed in 1989 after the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The coalition promotes the CERES Principles, a model corporate code of environmental conduct. Environmental groups and institution investors controlling $150 billion in assets designed the principles.

Companies endorsing the CERES Principles pledge to monitor and improve their behavior to regarding:
* the biosphere
* the sustainable use of natural resources
* the reduction and disposal of wastes
* energy conservation
* risk reduction
* safe products and services
* environmental restoration
* informing the public
* management commitment
* audits and reports.

Endorsers agree to decrease their waste, use resources efficiently, market safe products, and take responsibility for their past harms. They also call for an environmental expert on each corporate board and an annual, public audit of a company’s environmental progress.

These groups asked companies to subscribe to the principles, implicitly suggesting that eventually investments could be contingent on compliance. Several companies have signed the CERES Principles.