This paper examines the determinants influencing corporate choice to provide managers and employees with incentives for the attainment of green targets. We analyze a cross-industry panel of 838 global listed firms from the 2007-2013 Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) investor survey. According to agency theory and social legitimacy, we find that the probability of adopting green incentives increases with higher investment in monitoring environmental performance and higher peer pressures. Also, non US firms are more likely to respond to environmental concern by means of green-related individual rewards. Consistent with rational and social accounts explaining management practice diffusion, innovation propensity is associated with earlier use of green incentives, while exogenous noise and industry-peer pressure impact later adoption. However, country peers influence earlier provision. Finally, companies investing more in green monitoring are likely to be later adopters, suggesting the need to cumulate knowledge about the informativeness of environmental performance measures before inserting them in compensations contracts.