| The Business Case for Sustainability – A Review | Suggests that environmental & social responsibility improve business success.
Includes multiple mechanisms:
Stakeholder engagement.
Risk management.
Innovation.
Eco-efficiency.
Customer loyalty & employee engagement.
Creating Shared Value (CSV):
Enhances company competitiveness while improving community conditions.
Key critique:
It’s not a moral argument, but an economic argument. |
| Macro-Level Tensions – Capitalism & Climate Change | The Anthropocene:
A new geological epoch where human activity affects Earth’s system.
Three key features:
Population surge → More land inhabited.
Technological advancements → Increased damage.
Capitalism's limitless expansion → No ecological boundaries. |
| Contradiction Between Capitalism & Sustainability | Core argument:
Capitalism must always expand to sustain itself ("grow or die" structure).
More labor, energy, raw materials = More environmental destruction.
Why can’t businesses just stop growing?
Coercive law of competition:
If a company stops investing in growth, competitors will outcompete them.
Slowing economic growth = Economic crisis. |
| The Growth Dilemma | The dilemma:
Economic growth is essential for business & stability.
But growth damages ecological systems.
Paradox:
Growth sustains business but undermines long-term environmental resilience.
Example: Patagonia’s “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign.
Encouraged less consumption, but still needed profit & expansion. |
| Firm-Level Tensions (Crane et al.) pt 1 | Ignoring social vs. economic trade-offs:
Win-win solutions are rare.
Conflicting interests (e.g., fair wages vs. profit).
Examples:
Slave labor in supply chains.
Affordable housing vs. maximizing property value.
Short-sighted focus on new products & markets:
What if industries themselves are unethical?
Examples:
Fair-trade tobacco?
Recyclable guns?
Issue: CSV focuses on low-hanging fruit instead of real systemic change. |
| Firm-Level Tensions (Crane et al.) pt 2 | Naïve about corporate compliance:
Assumes companies follow laws & moral norms.
Reality: Many outsource to countries with weak regulations.
Even when audits exist, widespread cheating continues.
Shallow view of corporations’ role in society:
Business-centric solutions don’t address macro-level problems.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) = Extending corporate power rather than fixing capitalism. |
| Business Case, Corporate Power & Democracy | Corporate responsibility changed post-2000s:
Pre-1980s: Social responsibility was about limiting corporate power.
Post-2000s: Maintaining corporate power.
Example: After the 2008 financial crisis, companies adopted CSR to regain trust.
Big Question:
Does corporate responsibility temper or expand corporate influence? |
| Woke Capitalism (Carl Rhodes) | Definition: Corporations using social justice issues to maintain power.
Two dominant perspectives:
Conservative: A threat to capitalism, diverts from profit-making.
Liberal: A positive force but often hypocritical.
Rhodes’ View:
Woke capitalism is a corporate strategy.
Designed to prevent free-market capitalism from breaking down.
Corporations control the conversation to avoid economic reform |
| How Woke Capitalism Works | Focuses on some issues but ignores others:
Supports racial & gender diversity.
Ignores CEO pay, labor rights, and taxation.
Why?
Talking about race & gender is safe.
Talking about corporate taxes & worker pay threatens corporate power.
Key question: Should businesses influence social issues, or should they stay out of politics? |
| Summary & Key Takeaways | Critiques of the business case fall into macro or firm-level arguments.
Macro-Level Argument:
Capitalism requires infinite growth.
Earth’s resources are finite → fundamental contradiction.
Growth dilemma: We need growth for stability but it destroys the planet.
Firm-Level Argument:
The business case ignores real social vs. economic trade-offs.
Focuses on superficial solutions rather than systemic change.
Assumes business compliance, despite evidence of widespread cheating.
Woke Capitalism Argument:
Corporations use social justice to maintain power.
Selectively support causes that don’t threaten economic systems |
