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This article addresses the conditions that are liable to lead to local environmental quality enhancement in areas having suffered from industrial pollution in the past. In emphasizing the central role of institutions, understood as common meanings, “proximity” can help researchers understand the mechanisms inherent in the development of collective action, beginning with converging individual interests coupled with co-ordination among various actors. In the field of environmental and territorial dynamics, these conditions are crucial in achieving certain objectives shared by various stakeholders motivated by different interests that may converge on a specific point. The specificities inherent in the management of environmental resources and the importance of land-use or resource-use conflicts are an invitation to investigate the central role of institutions in this field. In this paper we focus on institutional proximity in order to express the conditions that may lead to a collective and territorial dynamic made possible by exploitation of natural resource and seeking to achieve both industrial development and environmental quality goals. We show that these goals are not necessarily achieved through the use of market tools. The actions described here were launched a few years ago to deal with the “industrial environment” in Dunkirk and are widely based on the implementation of locally-established rules.