Capitalism, the sustainability crisis and the limitations of current business governance

This book investigates the limitations of corporate governance and some related business laws, and their potential reform in furthering environmentally sustainable development, or ‘sustainability’, as this term is more conveniently known. The central idea is that promoting sustainability cannot be left solely to corporate volunteerism, but also requires enabling legal frameworks that go beyond conventional environmental regulation to ensconce within company law the necessary standards and procedures. While the book is strongly motivated by the threat of global climate change, which challenges the traditional assumptions and purpose of business enterprise over the long term, along withmany other domains of human endeavour, a range of other environmental problems such as the loss of biodiversity also suggests that a different approach to business activity is needed. Arising from the work of the Sustainable Companies Project, led by Professor Beate Sj°afjell at the University of Oslo,1 this volume offersmulti-jurisdictional perspectives fromscholars of business and environmental law. Over eight chapters, a mosaic of analyses, spanning company law, accounting standards, and financial markets regulation, identify both the barriers to and the opportunities to promote sustainability in the context of corporations and their financial investors. The book concludes with some ideas to further ‘sustainable companies’, a phrase intended to capture the ideal of corporations and other business entities acting within environmentally sustainable parameters. The focus of the book is to deepen our understanding of the barriers to creating sustainable companies, rather than outlining a blueprint for reform.