Industrial firms around the world are focusing on environmental sustainability seeking competitive advantages. Environmental proactivity stands as a fundamental part of these actions. The objective of this work is to understand who and why, companies include the environmental proactivity as an element of the company's strategy. This research has been divided into two separate but interconnected, methodological phases. The first step applied qualitative methods to describe a generic model environmental performance at the automotive industry, while the second step applied quantitative methods to reinforce previous hypothesis. The empirical application focuses on the Spanish automotive industry. The barriers and facilitators of the integration of environmental proactivity in business strategy as well as the benefits it provides to companies are identified.