Elisa M. Zarbafi analyzes the role of financial stakeholders as a potential driver of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and focuses her theoretical analysis on socio-psychological drivers to understand the complex nature of responsible investment.

This book is about fiduciary law’s influence on the financial economy’s environmental performance, focusing on how the law affects responsible investing and considering possible legal reforms to shift financial markets closer towards sustainability. Fiduciary law governs how trustees, fund managers or other custodians administer the investment portfolios owned by beneficiaries. Written for a diverse audience, not just legal scholars, the book examines in a multi-jurisdictional context an array of philosophical, institutional and economic issues that have shaped the movement for responsible investing and its legal framework. Fiduciary law has acquired greater influence in the financial economy in tandem with the extraordinary recent growth of institutional funds such as pension plans and insurance company portfolios. While the fiduciary prejudice against responsible investing has somewhat waned in recent years, owing mainly to reinterpretations of fiduciary and trust law, significant barriers remain. This book advances the notion of ‘nature’s trust’ to metaphorically signal how fiduciary responsibility should accommodate society’s dependence on long-term environmental well-being. Financial institutions, managing vast investment portfolios on behalf of millions of beneficiaries, should manage those investments with regard to the broader social interest in sustaining ecological health. Even for their own financial self-interest, investors over the long-term should benefit from maintaining nature’s capital. We should expect everyone to act in nature’s trust, from individual funds to market regulators. The ancient public trust doctrine could be refashioned for stimulating this change, and sovereign wealth funds should take the lead in pioneering best practices for environmentally responsible investing.

This book is a concise and authoritative reference work and dictionary in the field of corporate social responsibility, sustainability, business ethics and corporate governance. It provides reliable definitions to more than 600 terms and concepts for researchers and professionals alike. By its definitions the dictionary helps users to understand the meanings of commonly used terms in CSR, and the roles and functions of CSR-related international organizations. Furthermore, it helps to identify keynotes on international guidelines, codes and principles relevant to CSR. The role of CSR in the business world has developed from a fig leaf marketing front into an important and indispensable aspect of corporate behavior over the past years. Sustainable strategies are valued, desired and deployed more and more by relevant players in business, politics, and societies all over the world. Both research and corporate practice therefore see CSR as a guiding principle for business success.

A thoroughly updated new edition of this successful and influential text, it helps students gain a critical understanding of the key debates shaping the field of company law. The new edition has been updated to include many substantial developments in company law, specifically the area of board diversity, corporate social responsibility, shareholder control, director remuneration and human rights.

Environmental harm is commonly associated with companies that extract, consume, and pollute our shared natural resources. Rarely are the 'unseen polluters,' the financiers that sponsor and profit from eco-damaging corporations, placed at the forefront of the environmental debate. By focusing on these unseen polluters, Benjamin Richardson provides a comprehensive examination of socially responsible investment (SRI), and offers a guide to possible reform. Richardson proposes that greater regulatory supervision of SRI will help ensure that the financial sector prioritizes ethically-based investments. In Socially Responsible Investment Law, he suggests that new governmental reforms should encourage companies to participate in socially responsible investments by providing a better mix of standards and incentives for SRI through measures that include redefining the fiduciary responsibilities of institutional investors to incorporate environmental concerns. By doing so, Richardson posits that corporate financiers, including banks, hedge funds, and pension plans, will become more accountable to the goals of ensuring sustainable development.

This book explores the current state of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) from an international perspective, the goal being to share ideas and visions for a sustainable future and to provide useful guidelines for academics, practitioners and policymakers in the context of the 2030 “Agenda for Sustainable Development” released by the United Nations. Research on CSR has evolved considerably over the last three decades. However, there are still many unanswered questions concerning the sustainability of business in an increasingly changing world, for example: If most companies consider CSR to be valuable to their organizations, why do only 15% of them systematically implement Social Responsibility initiatives? If CSR has been found to be profitable for companies, why are they so reluctant to develop an active, internal CSR policy? Why are there such significant differences in CSR adoption from country to country? Why does it take a huge crisis to make politicians react and regulate certain core CSR issues? This contributed volume answers these questions, presenting a wealth of case studies and new approaches in the process.

Does Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) affect society in the 21st century? This book explores various facets of SRI to address its potential and limits to create societal change. Little research has been undertaken on the societal impacts of SRI. With this book we contribute to this debate, pushing the boundaries of SRI even further.

This volume breaks new ground by approaching Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) as an explicitly ethical practice in financial markets. The work explains the philosophical and practical shortcomings of ’long term shareholder value’ and the origins and conceptual structure of SRI, and links its pursuit to both its deeper philosophical foundations and the broader, multi-dimensional global movement towards greater social responsibility in global markets. Interviews with fund managers in the Australian SRI sector generate recommendations for better integrating ethics into SRI practice via ethically informed engagement with invested companies, and an in-depth discussion of the central practical SRI issue of fiduciary responsibility strengthens the case in favour of SRI. The practical and ethical theoretical perspectives are then brought together to sketch out an achievable ideal for SRI worldwide, in which those who are involved in investment and business decisions become part of an ’ethical chain’ of decision makers linking the ultimate owners of capital with the business executives who frame, advocate and implement business strategies. In between there are investment advisors, fund managers, business analysts and boards. The problem lies in the fact that the ultimate owners are discouraged from considering their own values, or even their own long term interests, whilst the others often look only to short term interests. The solution lies in the latter recognising themselves as links in the ethical chain.

The United Nations action plan for sustainable development, named “Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” represents an international governance arrangement in response to the recent environmental challenges and social inequalities. Importantly, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework sets a purpose to protect human rights, end poverty, reduce inequality, protect the planet and its natural resources, and enhance sustainable economic growth. Recently, due to the deterioration in global environmental conditions, increasing stakeholder demands, and stricter regulations and law all over the world, firms have realized the importance of integrating Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into their strategic orientations in order to enhance their environmental, social performances and keep sustainable development.

Most investment today is conducted by a relatively small number of institutional investors – pension funds and investment managers – who manage the pensions and saving funds of millions of ordinary people. The manner in which these institutional investors invest and discharge their responsibilities as the owners of companies is, therefore, of critical importance to society as a whole. In recent years, some of the biggest institutional investors have actively encouraged companies to improve their management of social, ethical and environmental issues. A number have also sought to explicitly analyse companies' performance on these issues and to incorporate this analysis into investment decision-making. These activities have contributed to important changes: a number of companies have committed to stabilising or reducing greenhouse gas emissions from their activities and operations, labour conditions in many retail supply chains have improved significantly, and many companies have significantly improved their governance of corporate responsibility issues. However, to date, there has been little systematic analysis of fundamental questions such as: Do responsible investment strategies systematically result in improvements in the social, ethical and environmental performance of companies? To what extent is it in investors' interest to encourage higher standards of corporate responsibility? Do responsible investment strategies enhance financial performance for investors? In this ground-breaking collection, Rory Sullivan and Craig Mackenzie have brought together some of the leading practitioners and commentators in the field of responsible investment to explore these questions. The contributors to this book present their views on the practicalities of implementing responsible investment strategies, the outcomes that have been achieved, the practical issues and barriers faced in implementing such strategies, and the challenges to be faced if responsible investment is to become a mainstream investment approach. The results are both unique and surprising. This book will be mandatory reading for all those involved in the field of social and environmentally responsible investment, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility whether they be academics, researchers or practitioners.