The environmental business case and unenlightened shareholder value

Carrie Julia Bradshaw

doi:10.1111/j.1748-121X.2012.00253.x

The environmental business case and unenlightened shareholder value

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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 s 172 of the Companies Act 2006 in light of such business case limitations. It suggests that s 172, by procedurally mandating the business case for corporate environmental responsibility, is a retrograde step which envisions not enlightened, but rather environmentally unenlightened, shareholders.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	141-161
Number of pages	21
Journal	Legal Studies
Volume	33
Issue number	1
Early online date	10 Oct 2012
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-121X.2012.00253.x
Publication status	Published - Mar 2013

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10.1111/j.1748-121X.2012.00253.x

The Environmental Business Case and Unenlightened Shareholder Value
© 2012 The Author. Legal Studies © 2012 The Society of Legal Scholars. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Legal Studies. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy.
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http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1748-121X.2012.00253.x/abstract;jsessionid=071DD2F89093641FE4A530D436DEC713.d04t01

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The environmental business case and unenlightened shareholder value

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Society of Legal Scholars (SLS) Annual Conference 2011

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The environmental business case and unenlightened shareholder value

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Society of Legal Scholars (SLS) Annual Conference 2011

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