Shareholder primacy: the main barrier to sustainable companies

While we may well agree that the company is an ingenious invention,
we also know that ‘business as usual’ is not viable if we wish to preserve
the very basis of our existence. Our own well-being and that of future
generations depend on companies, the dominant form of business, contributing
to the transformation towards sustainability. As explained in the
Introduction to this book, the hypothesis informing the work of the Sustainable
Companies Project is that regulation or governance of business
decision-making should be included in the toolbox for sustainability. A
comparative analysis of core company law – the rules regulating the identity
of corporate decision-makers, and the aims of, and any limitations
on, those decisions – is essential to evaluate whether there is a realistic
prospect of integrating sustainable development, and especially its environmental
dimensions, into corporate decision-making.