Salvaging Corporate Sustainability

Michael L. Barnett, Professor of Management, Department of Management and Global Business, Rutgers Business School, Rutgers University, US, Irene Henriques, Professor of Sustainability and Economics, Schulich School of Business, York University, Canada and Bryan W.Husted, Professor of Management, EGADE Business School, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico

‘For over 30 years a plethora of scholars and practitioners of sustainability – including myself – turned to the firm, and their collaborative initiatives with stakeholders, in the hopes of offering efficient and effective ways to address the myriad of environmental challenges facing the planet. As this important tome by three leading corporate sustainability scholars point out – the hopes that building the “business case” for sustainability would lead to “win win” outcomes did not come to pass: from an array of measures from the climate crisis to mass species extinctions – the world is now much worse off than it was when we collectively turned to corporate sustainability governance for solutions.

• Contents: Preface PART I CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY: PREMISES AND PROMISES 1. Surveying sustainability 2. Profiting from sustainability 3. Sustaining society PART II THE REALITIES OF CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY 4. Satisfying stakeholders shan’t sustain society 5. Baked-in biases of the business case 6. Digital detours are dubious PART III GETTING GOOD WITH GOVERNMENT 7. Sussing out the scope of social control 8. Gripes against government 9. Learning to lean on Leviathan Index