By any standards, 2020 has been a year of attention-consuming news stories. 即使有大流行, unprecedented wildfires across huge swathes of the northern and southern hemispheres, 以及最近的美国大选, the debate about the future of capitalism has been playing out in the mainstream media, alongside questions about the conduct and responsibilities of companies in response to global issues such as inequality, 气候变化和公共卫生.
Capitalism, and its consequences for society and the environment, are very much in the spotlight. Even committed capitalists are beginning to argue that capitalism, 以目前的形式, 是不可持续的, 环境, 和经济上. Yet capitalism’s core features of private enterprise and competitive markets are essential to addressing our greatest societal challenges and unleashing the transformations required to meet the Sustainable 发展 Goals (SDGs).
As part of its work to update its 2050年正规博彩十大网站, the World Business Council for Sustainable 发展 (WBCSD) is releasing an issue brief advocating that now is the time for companies and investors to enter – 和铅 ——辩论, not just about why capitalism needs to change, 而是我们如何去改变它.
问题简述, Reinventing Capitalism: a transformation agenda, synthesizes the best available thinking on why capitalism needs to be reinvented if it is to create the conditions for 长期 business success, 以及商业行为, 投资者和政策制定者 can take today to drive transformation.
WBCSD makes the case that the capitalism we need is one that rewards true value creation – not value extraction as today’s model does. 具体地说, this means that all social and environmental costs and benefits should be internalized and reflected in the relative price of goods and services, 在公司的利润中 & loss statements, costs of capital and market valuations.
WBCSD has long been committed to making more sustainable companies more successful. A reinvented capitalism focused on true value would lead to a world in which more companies innovate in ways that contribute to a flourishing society, capital markets properly value and reward inclusive, 可持续的商业惯例和, 结果是, more capital is mobilized to deliver the SDGs and the transition to a 1.5°C的世界.
问题简述 argues that if we are to get to such a version of capitalism, we need to realign the 激励 that drive businesses’ and investors’ behavior, adopting new and better ways of measuring performance, and tackle failures at the market and institutional level that favor financial value extraction over true value creation. A reinvented model of capitalism that address these failures will be characterized by five features: stakeholder-oriented, impact-internalizing, 长期, 可再生和负责任.
Reinventing capitalism along the lines suggested in this issue brief will, 毫无疑问, 非常具有挑战性. It will require complementary action from businesses, 投资者和政策制定者, with voluntary action from the private sector and changes to law and regulation going hand in hand. Business therefore has a critical role to play in shifting capitalism:
- “Walking the talk” – adapting and aligning business models, 决策过程, govern-ance模型, 激励, 征税方法, 报酬, reporting and accounting with a vision of capitalism that pursues true value
- Leveraging its relationships with other stakeholders – from suppliers and customers to policymakers and civil society – to influence the norms and rules that shape capitalism as a whole.
问题简述, developed in partnership with Volans and EY, is part of a series of interim outputs linked to 本署最新修订的《2050年正规博彩十大网站》, a landmark 2010 report that laid out a pathway to a world in which nine billion people are able to live well, 在地球范围内, 到本世纪中叶. WBCSD is working together with 40 of its member companies to update this work and again provide business with a common agenda for action over the decade to come.