The present research is based on a survey sent to large, medium and small size companies, located in Portugal and within what are considered the most pollutant industrial sectors. The analyses of the results, processed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 11.0, show that generally companies are concerned with the implementation of clean processes, green products and eco-equipment to have a cleaner environment, i.e. a more sustainable society. Statistically, the results show that the 98 potential polluting companies are moderately contributing for a green society (x(m) = 3.1) regarding the ten environmental strategies under research. It can also be concluded that, globally, environmental strategies are directly linked to the companies' size. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.