Why do few corporations succeed at sustainability transformations, and why do others leave value on the table? Exploring best practices of successful corporate sustainability transformations provides a blueprint for others to follow. Greg Pilz explores the challenges, opportunities, and actions corporate leaders can take to capture value through sustainability.

As consumers, we often assume products are ethically sourced, but human rights violations persist in transnational corporations' supply chains. Caroline Rees, alongside Professor John Ruggie, championed the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, laying the foundation for global legal frameworks to hold corporations accountable for human rights violations throughout their supply chains.

Traditional corporate ownership structures exacerbate societal inequities. Jenny Everett, Mark Hand and Natalie Reitman-White explore a new ownership model empowering businesses to align with their missions, benefit communities, and ensure long-term sustainability.

OPINION COMMENTARY:

The merits of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are being fiercely debated on university campuses and elsewhere in society. Dr. Judi Brown Clarke, a chief diversity officer at a public research university and Olympic medalist, advocates for incorporating Olympic values and game theory into DEI initiatives thereby creating inclusive campus environments.

Finding emerging climate market opportunities can be challenging. As generative AI moves into the mainstream, Harvard Business School Professor George Serafeim shares how it can transform the way stakeholders and investors unlock new insights to better evaluate a company’s climate solutions, next generation innovation investments, and potential downstream risks and opportunities impacting business performance, human capital, and industry disruption.

Global demand for high-integrity carbon credits is significant. However, current voluntary carbon markets lack transparency, consistency, and high-quality standards, hindering their potential contribution and impact on climate change. Annette Nazareth is spearheading the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market focused on more efficiently mobilizing finance toward mitigation and climate resilient development with greater speed and scale.

Hurricane Ian wreaked historic devastation in Southwest Florida one year ago, highlighting the threat of violent storms amplified by climate change, but the solar-powered community Babcock Ranch was unscathed due to comprehensive sustainability and resilience planning. David Cifrino and Luis Perez tell the story of Babcock Ranch, including in the words of its visionary founder, Sydney Kitson.

The Big Myth, by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, makes a compelling and well documented case that under the guise of protecting individual freedom, corporations and influential individuals organized to resist efforts to regulate industry. Oreskes and Conway peel away the cloak to expose concerted efforts across broad spectrums of society to propagandize against government efforts to protect the common good, to a point where any government intervention into the marketplace is labeled anti-capitalist. The book is not an assault on capitalism, but an assault on the myth that equates capitalism with freedom.

There is currently an intense political divide in the United States regarding the integration of environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) factors into the investment decisions of public and private pension funds. The key issues are whether ESG factors are appropriate considerations in furthering optimal financial performance and whether it is appropriate for plan fiduciaries to consider potential collateral social or environmental benefits in making their investment decisions. David Cifrino discusses the history, fiduciary law, financial performance and regulation associated with ESG investing.

Impact performance reporting has been too influenced by mainstream financial reporting, trying to boil everything down to numbers, metrics and scores. Sarah Gelfand and Laura Budzyna, impact specialists, highlight the critical importance of also integrating qualitative information so the field does not lose the nuance that would ultimately make it better impact investors.

Aligning the economic interests of shareholders and senior management with equity incentives is a foundational principle of American capitalism. Can the same principle also be harnessed to address wealth inequality in America by extending “ownership culture” to a broader cross-section of America’s workforce?

Professor George Serafeim discusses the latest news of the Harvard Business School Impact-Weighted Accounts Project, an initiative that will mark a critical turning point for capitalism as we know it. The goal is to enhance Milton Friedman’s ‘fair rules of the game’ by fixing one of the most significant deficiencies of modern-day capitalism: social and environmental externalities.

In Rebecca Henderson’s new book, Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire, there opens a new path for the future of capitalism, a ‘journey’ that offers rewards, but is demanding.

As climate-induced wildfires and hurricanes ravage America, our lives, our livelihoods, and the stability and security of our financial markets are in danger. Steven Rothstein and Veena Ramani, from Ceres, discuss how climate change is a systemic risk and we need our elected representatives to use their power to hold regulators to account for immediate climate change action.

Sustainable, regenerative, and circular business models are not simply an ethical choice, it is the next frontier of innovation and growth. Tze Ni Yeoh discusses what is the circular economy and how can businesses benefit from it.