Book Description

Sustainable Corporations offers synthesized readings from law, management, philosophy, psychology, sociology, even biology – written by academics, journalists, business people, poets, bloggers, scientists, even religious leaders. The book focuses on the elusive “sustainable corporation” and is designed for an upper-level course sequenced after the basic Corporations course. Features of this Edition: Unlike many law texts, the book is meant to be absorbed in a sequential swoop as the concepts build on each other. The book, developed over the course of 10 years, has been used by law students, MBA students, graduate sustainability students, even undergraduate students – in both the US and Europe. The book can be used in a concentrated four-week course, an eight-week course, or a typical 14-week course. The book is meant to take professors and students on a journey from point A to point Z. It begins with a fresh look at U.S. corporate law, then moves to consider the US corporation’s unsustainable design, next describes the movement toward a focus on the Triple Bottom Line, then turns to proposals to redesign the corporation’s legal DNA, and finally offers a fundamental rethinking of the corporation. Professors and students will benefit from: The book’s main feature is its sequential design: (1) basics of US corporate law; (2) the corporation’s unsustainable design; (3) the Triple Bottom Line (ESG) movement; (4) proposals to redesign the corporation; (5) a deep rethinking of the corporation. Each chapter begins with a chapter overview, includes heavily edited readings from a variety of sources, features regular explanatory “break-out boxes, and offers end-of-chapter concluding thoughts (essays, poems, stories, fables, riddles). The book has its own website that includes the following materials for use by students (also available in Casebook Connect): online lectures, recommended videos (TED talks, interviews, documentaries, etc.), suggested YouTube music videos (from Hendrix Star-Spangled Banner to Dolly Parton Working Nine to Five), student research papers.