Towards Environmentally-Conscious Management from the Corporate Law Approach

Abstract

This paper examines the US corporate law approach to persuading companies to adopt environmentally-conscious management practices, and considers the corresponding Japanese situation. The US Securities Laws have an environmental disclosure system for investors, which helps investors to exert market forces on companies to address ecological management actively. Shareholders have used shareholder proposal systems actively to request that companies better address such issues, including higher-level environmental disclosure. These measures are worth considering, so that both the managers and owners of companies recognize that environmentally-conscious management is a significant part of good corporate governance.