A citizen-driven alternative to corporate social responsability

Abstract

Despite the existence of a small number of companies genuinely committed to investing in sustainable products, the shallowness of the green claims of many others, which has often been revealed in recent years, is a considerable flaw of a classic CSR model that emphasizes the development of a corporate responsibility towards environment and society. This is the main reason why I argue for a shift in business ethics from a corporate- to a citizen-driven moral responsibility to build a sustainable future. Likewise, although governments are major players in any global shift towards a cleaner production, they cannot be taken as primary moral agents, due to electoral considerations that may discourage them from promoting a climate legislation which promises mostly long-term benefits, and makes “sacrifices” in the short- and middle-run. As an alternative, I advance a triadic model, which considers the environmentally minded citizens as the driving force of a green shift. According to this model, citizens would pressure governments to enforce climate regulations and to monitor the green claims of companies and business groups, by sanctioning them electorally if they fail to do so. Governments, in turn, would be mandated to promote new enforceable climate regulations and to provide mandatory guidelines to companies as to how to implement new cleaner technologies. Yet, the technological innovations themselves, and the investment in renewable energy should belong to the private sector, which has both the expertise and the capability to create and implement new designs and technologies for their own products.