1.1. Assignments
Shareholder primacy
This is the way corporation thought before 1970.
The shareholders' intrests are given priority. The aim of the company is to maximize the
share price. Not even its profit, certainly not its value ; just the price of its shares as quickly
as humanly possible. Shareholders are the only ones making an investment that means they
should have all the rights to the value created by the Corporation.
Worker representation
There needs to be stakeholder representation on corporate boards of directors.
Worker representation on boards works quite well in many European countries and they
need that kind of representation on corporate courts in the US too.
Stakeholder capitalism
The company serves not only its shareholders, but all its stakeholders : employees,
customers, suppliers, local communities and society at large. It is committed to policies and
decisions that strengthen a company's long-term prosperity.
Impact assessment scores
Every 3 years companies are assessed on several domains (f.e. people, health, environment,
energy, supply chain)
The advantages are: the score is transparent to the public and the company makes efforts to
improve over time
Capitalism 1.0: Companies must ensure that shareholders are rewarded for what they have
invested. Shareholders first
Capitalism 2.0: We are going to use the power of business to improve or even solve the
inequalities in the world, the climate. We move away from the shareholders and need to
define a new purpose. We are going to try to make the stakeholders happy
Multi-stakeholder model: This is model for the involvement of businesses, civil society and
other stakeholders, such as governments. They aim to address issues of human rights and
sustainability. The model can facilitate dialogue between stakeholder groups, promote cross-
sectoral learning or develop standards for business behaviour.
Carbon footprint: The ecological footprint is the estimated surface area of earth a person or
group of persons needs to produce what is consumed and absorb what is thrown away.
Greenwashing: The company makes people believe that they care a lot about the
environment and trying to protect it, but in reality they do very little.
The moral imperative of climate action: Ethical obligation to take action now
, Climate nihilism; Some people deny climate change, that there is a real threat. They say that nothing
is wrong, and that they are not going to change anything.
Adaptation: Instead of find the cause of climate change, you just accept living with climate change.
You adapt your way of living to protect you from the bad consequences that can be caused
f.e. build strong houses that are resilient
Carbon neutrality: Carbon emissions are zero
Rights of nature laws: It’s about giving nature the same rights as human beings. We do it to protect
the environment
Fossil fuel economy: Fossil fuel f.e petroleum, coal, gas
We need it for energy. That’s why we burn fossil fuels
Circular economy: This is an economy where they are going to use fewer raw materials and reuse
waste instead. The whole target is zero waste
- Using the same materials again and again until infinity (perpetual loop of use and reuse) to
get waste out of the system (a 100% circular economy would have zero waste)
- In the process using renewable energy rather than energy derived from finite natural
resources like oil and coal
Current stage in the transition from a linear towards a circular economy = recycling economy: some
used products are (partly) being recycled to be used for the production of new products, but huge
amounts of waste still end up in landfill
Consumer vs user:
User is a person who uses something like a place, facility, product, machine,
… but we will not buy it. We will not be the owner, the manufacturer stays
the owner.
Consumer is a person who buys things, uses it for a specific period of time
and then throw it away
The sharing economy: Economic model where goods are shared between people (uber, Airbnb,
steps,…) sometimes for free sometimes for money.
a gig economy; 2 sorts of gig in town
- f.e. Uber, TaskRabbit; apps and online platforms through which workers find
physical work like driving or household tasks
- it involves work like data entry, copywriting coding, essentially service jobs, which
can be done remotely anywhere in the world. And with just an Internet
connection, tens of millions of people globally are now estimated to earn their
living this way.
The global gig economy is mediated by a handful of online platforms
the human cloud
Shareholder primacy
This is the way corporation thought before 1970.
The shareholders' intrests are given priority. The aim of the company is to maximize the
share price. Not even its profit, certainly not its value ; just the price of its shares as quickly
as humanly possible. Shareholders are the only ones making an investment that means they
should have all the rights to the value created by the Corporation.
Worker representation
There needs to be stakeholder representation on corporate boards of directors.
Worker representation on boards works quite well in many European countries and they
need that kind of representation on corporate courts in the US too.
Stakeholder capitalism
The company serves not only its shareholders, but all its stakeholders : employees,
customers, suppliers, local communities and society at large. It is committed to policies and
decisions that strengthen a company's long-term prosperity.
Impact assessment scores
Every 3 years companies are assessed on several domains (f.e. people, health, environment,
energy, supply chain)
The advantages are: the score is transparent to the public and the company makes efforts to
improve over time
Capitalism 1.0: Companies must ensure that shareholders are rewarded for what they have
invested. Shareholders first
Capitalism 2.0: We are going to use the power of business to improve or even solve the
inequalities in the world, the climate. We move away from the shareholders and need to
define a new purpose. We are going to try to make the stakeholders happy
Multi-stakeholder model: This is model for the involvement of businesses, civil society and
other stakeholders, such as governments. They aim to address issues of human rights and
sustainability. The model can facilitate dialogue between stakeholder groups, promote cross-
sectoral learning or develop standards for business behaviour.
Carbon footprint: The ecological footprint is the estimated surface area of earth a person or
group of persons needs to produce what is consumed and absorb what is thrown away.
Greenwashing: The company makes people believe that they care a lot about the
environment and trying to protect it, but in reality they do very little.
The moral imperative of climate action: Ethical obligation to take action now
, Climate nihilism; Some people deny climate change, that there is a real threat. They say that nothing
is wrong, and that they are not going to change anything.
Adaptation: Instead of find the cause of climate change, you just accept living with climate change.
You adapt your way of living to protect you from the bad consequences that can be caused
f.e. build strong houses that are resilient
Carbon neutrality: Carbon emissions are zero
Rights of nature laws: It’s about giving nature the same rights as human beings. We do it to protect
the environment
Fossil fuel economy: Fossil fuel f.e petroleum, coal, gas
We need it for energy. That’s why we burn fossil fuels
Circular economy: This is an economy where they are going to use fewer raw materials and reuse
waste instead. The whole target is zero waste
- Using the same materials again and again until infinity (perpetual loop of use and reuse) to
get waste out of the system (a 100% circular economy would have zero waste)
- In the process using renewable energy rather than energy derived from finite natural
resources like oil and coal
Current stage in the transition from a linear towards a circular economy = recycling economy: some
used products are (partly) being recycled to be used for the production of new products, but huge
amounts of waste still end up in landfill
Consumer vs user:
User is a person who uses something like a place, facility, product, machine,
… but we will not buy it. We will not be the owner, the manufacturer stays
the owner.
Consumer is a person who buys things, uses it for a specific period of time
and then throw it away
The sharing economy: Economic model where goods are shared between people (uber, Airbnb,
steps,…) sometimes for free sometimes for money.
a gig economy; 2 sorts of gig in town
- f.e. Uber, TaskRabbit; apps and online platforms through which workers find
physical work like driving or household tasks
- it involves work like data entry, copywriting coding, essentially service jobs, which
can be done remotely anywhere in the world. And with just an Internet
connection, tens of millions of people globally are now estimated to earn their
living this way.
The global gig economy is mediated by a handful of online platforms
the human cloud
