Abstract
In this chapter, we first summarize the seven earlier ones of this book. Then we make very important additions to the contents at the institutional/organizational and individual levels in Africa, whilst incorporating global implications too. Further contributions are made to the topic of ESG through discussions of the role of governments, Africa’s ESG priorities, avoidance of copy and paste, decoupling, stakeholder engagement, mutual benefit, greenwashing, corporate governance, carbon capitalism, technology, and the common guilt. It is argued that the responsibility for a better world, particularly through better environmental management, is everyone’s because the guilt is everyone’s.
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Notes
- 1.
Kgalema Motlanthe, “Remarks at the First High-Level Webinar on ESG and Stakeholder Capitalism in Africa,” Virtual Conference organized by Heeno International and partners on 28 January 2022.
- 2.
Referring to the first author’s.
- 3.
OECD, “Indicators to Measure Decoupling of Environmental Pressure from Economic Growth,” 2002, p. 1, https://www.oecd.org/environment/indicators-modelling-outlooks/1933638.pdf, retrieved March 28, 23.
- 4.
- 5.
OECD, ibid.
- 6.
Vaclav Smil, “‘Growth must end. Our economist friends don't seem to realise that’”, The Guardian, 21st September 2019. Retrieved March 28, 2021. The interested reader may also refer to the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), Decoupling Debunked: Evidence and Arguments against Green Growth as a Sole Strategy for Sustainability, 2019 (page visited retrieved 28th March, 2023).
- 7.
OECD, ibid.
- 8.
Check Matt’s email, Perseus Sustainability Report and Chapter 5 (designing) on this point.
- 9.
For more readings: K. Becker-Olsen, and S. Potucek, “Greenwashing,” In: Encyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility, ed. S. O. Idowu, N. Capaldi, L. Zu, and A. D. Gupta. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 2013, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28036-8_104; Miriam A. Cherry, “The Law and Economics of Corporate Social Responsibility and Greenwashing,” UC Davis Business Law Journal, Vol. 14, No. 2: 281–303, https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1498&context=faculty_publications; B. Elmore, “True Green or Pale Intention?” Baylor Business Review, Vol. 2 (2009): 48–49; N. E. Furlow, “Greenwashing in the New Millennium,” The Journal of Applied Business and Economics, Vol. 10, No. 6 (2010): 22–25; E. Orange, and A. M. Cohen, “From Eco-Friendly to Eco-Intelligent,” The Futurist, Vol. 44, No. 5 (2010): 28–32.
- 10.
In the European Union, for instance, numerous actions are being taken to tighten the screws against greenwashing. In March, 2023, alone, some of these include: (1) the European Parliament voted for a tougher law to protect consumers against commercial practices that are unfair, on March 28; (2) on the same day, they also banned all claims of reduced, neutral, positive, or compensated CO2 impacton the basis of carbon offsetting; (3) the European Commission proposed the Green Claims Directive to address unreliable and misleading green marketing and establish standards for this, on March 22; Sources: https://eeb.org/, retrieved March 28, 2023.
- 11.
Prall argues that the current accounting framework must be changed to take both tangible assets (which have relatively high but capped rates of return and are risky) and intangible assets (which are scalable) through ESG), Kevin Prall, “Perspectives Paper: A Framework to Assess ESG Value Creation,” International Valuation Standards Council (IVSC), May 2021. Somewhat related to this are: the call by Becchetti stressing the “S” pillar in ESG (Leonardo Becchetti et al., “Going Deeper into the S of ESG: A Relational Approach to the Definition of Social Responsibility,” Sustainability, Vol. 14 (2022): 9668, https://doi.org/10.3390/su14159668; The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) & The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), “Embedding ESG and Sustainability Considerations into the Three Lines Model,” WBCSD, July 2022.
- 12.
AU Climate Change and Resilient Development Strategy and Action Plan 2022–2032, https://www.tralac.org/documents/resources/african-union/4566-au-climate-change-and-resilient-development-strategy, retrieved April 5, 2023.
- 13.
Indeed, according to the International Resource Panel, set up by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), citizens of developed countries consume an average of 16 tonnes of minerals, ores, fossil fuels and biomass per annum per capita per annum. This is more than 40 tonnes per person in some of the countries. On the other hand, the average Indian today consumes four tonnes per year. UNEP, Decoupling Natural Resource Use and Environmental Impacts from Economic Growth. A Report of the Working Group on Decoupling to the International Resource Panel, 2011.
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Sonko, K.N., Sonko, M. (2023). ESG: The Way Forward for Stakeholders. In: Demystifying Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG). Palgrave Studies in Impact Finance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35867-8_8
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