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| Corporate Sustainability* 6 |
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| Business operations that can be continued over the long term without degrading the ecological environment (see Sustainability). |
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| A variety of investment vehicles (e.g., mutual funds, low-interest loans, bonds, and ETFs) that seek to maximize social benefits in addition to providing a financial return to investors (see Social finance). |
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| An entrepreneur who seeks to achieve social and environ¬mental goals by utilizing for-profit business practices (see Ecopreneur). |
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| The managers of a firm, whom the owners (the principals) appoint to operate the business on their behalf and to protect their investment (see Principals). |
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| The owners of a firm, the shareholders, and their representatives, the board of directors (see Agents). |
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| A group of residents who use social media to assemble at a given date and time to spend money in support of a local business. |
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| Trade in goods (often internationally) at prices above what market forces would otherwise generate in order to ensure a living wage for the producer and sustainable supply of a valued raw material. |
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| The ability of a for-profit firm to continue to operate due to society’s approval of its activities. |
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| Operations that employ children or apply working standards with little, if any, respect for human rights. Conditions are deemed to be unsafe and unfair, often in comparison to minimum legal conditions established in more affluent societies. |
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| An insider who alleges organizational misconduct and communicates those allegations of wrongdoing outside the firm to the media, prosecutors, or others. |
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| A “b-corp” is a firm with a governance structure that expands its fiduciary duty to include the needs and concerns of a broad range of stakeholders beyond shareholders alone. “B Corps are certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.” |
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| The application of ethics and ethical theory to business decisions. |
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| A guide to moral behavior based on social norms and culturally-embedded definitions of right and wrong. |
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| The publication of a firm’s triple bottom line (economic, environmental, and social) performance in a unified document (see Triple bottom line). |
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| An investment philosophy that is guided by the principles of Shariah Law. “Shariah-Compliant funds are prohibited from investing in companies which derives income from the sales of alcohol, pork products, pornography, gambling, military equipment or weapons.” |
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| Government decisions aimed at establishing rules and guidelines for action with the intent of providing benefit (or preventing harm) to society. |
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| A source of energy that is not carbon-based (e.g., solar, wind, or tidal energies). Also referred to as “alternative energy.” |
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| Socially Responsible Investing SRI |
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| A portfolio investment strategy that seeks returns by investing in firms or projects that pursue socially responsible goals. |
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| Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. |
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| An evaluation of businesses by comprehensively assessing their financial, environmental, and social performance. |
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| A recycling process that increases the quality of the recycled material over time (see: Downcycling). |
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| Beliefs about appropriate goals, actions, and conditions. |
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| A for-profit firm that is founded on a vision and mission based on social values and the other four principles that define conscious capitalism: Higher purpose, Stakeholder interdependence, Conscious leadership, and Conscious culture (see Conscious capitalism). |
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| A responsibility of one party that is a result of a formal relationship, either legal or ethical, with another party. The responsibility is founded on trust and often involves financial transactions. |
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| A business (or enterprise or for-profit firm) is an organization that marshals scarce or valuable resources to produce a good or service that it then sells to consumers or other businesses at a price that is greater than the cost of production. |
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