© Jakob Utgård 2025
Should not companies be sustainable because this is the morally right thing to do? For many issues in business sustainability, it seems that it normally is a question about prioritizing profits for the company and owners over what is right.
The main ethical normative theories are consequentialism (an act is right if it has the best consequences) and duty/deontological ethics (our acts must follow some duties, like telling the truth). Many unsustainable practices (think about greenwashing, serious pollution, slave labour…) are pretty wrong from both ethical perspectives. In a Rawlsian perspective (imagine you would design social institutions from a “veil of ignorance”, not knowing your position), business contributes to unjust inequality, often taking from the poor and giving to the rich.
While many companies are unsustainable, there are differences across industries and companies, and many companies work towards sustainability, at least partly because they are more concerned with what is right. In small companies in particular the owner’s personal values may influence how they operate. In large companies the values of the CEO may influence decisions and actions. There is also room for individual action, many sustainability managers work as internal champions for sustainability.
Are corporations psychopaths?
Joel Bakan’s The Corporation (2004) argues that if the modern corporation were treated as a person, it would meet the diagnostic criteria of a psychopath. Corporations are legally designed to pursue profit and shareholder value, with limited responsibility for social or environmental issues. This often leads to exploiting workers, polluting the environment, manipulating consumers, and lobbying against regulation.
In the book, corporations are compared to psychiatric checklists for psychopathy, such as callousness, deceitfulness, lack of empathy, and irresponsibility. Bakan suggests that corporations systematically hold these traits. He does not claim that every manager or employee is a psychopath, but that the design of the corporation makes it act that way. At the same time, the book acknowledges that corporations can also be constrained by laws, regulations, and public accountability.
Bakan, Joel. The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power (Toronto: Penguin Group, 2004)