The Environmental Business Case and Unenlightened Shareholder Value
22 Pages Posted: 26 Jun 2024
Date Written: October 10, 2012
Abstract
The business case for corporate environmental responsibility is the claim that behaving responsibly makes financial sense. It is impossible to exaggerate the contemporary significance of this claim, not least in legitimising environmental concerns in the corporate sphere. However, the business case is not without significant empirical and normative limitations, as is illustrated by the corporate environmental problem of supermarket waste. This paper evaluates Enlightened Shareholder Value under section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 in light of such business case limitations. It suggests that section 172, by procedurally mandating the business case for corporate environmental responsibility, is a retrograde step which envisions not enlightened, but rather environmentally unenlightened, shareholders.
Keywords: Corporate environmental responsibility, CSR, s 172, Enlightened Shareholder Value
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