Corporations aren’t evil — they just might be our best allies

Sustainable development needs partners that have proven themselves capable of innovating and changing with the world.

Let’s be honest: multinational corporations are not the first actors we think of when we think of powerful positive sustainability action. More often than not, the most sweeping improvements to curb environmental harm or improve social welfare are achieved through the actions of government regulation, grassroots movements, and citizen-led action.

Corporations, on the other hand, are mostly about money… right? Revenue, profit, bottom line, dividends — corporate sustainability is often seen as an add-on to make companies look good through fluffy corporate social responsibility (CSR) agendas that might not actually do anything.

The idea that corporations can do nothing but harm runs deep, and the existence of global corporations masking unsustainable business models behind extensive CSR reporting and greenwashed marketing makes it all too easy to perpetuate that thinking. At the extreme, this ideology skirts the edge of stereotypical “corporations are evil”-thinking, where all actions of corporations are seen to have vindictive hidden agendas. But this shuts down the conversation about the role and ability of corporations to advance society’s progress towards collective sustainability goals.

By the dictionary definition of sustainability — to have the ability to be sustained — corporations are actually doing pretty well.

ExxonMobil has a history of 135 years, and this isn’t even impressive: companies with operations dating back hundreds of years still exist in the world today, adapting and changing to their environment as needed to ensure longevity.

These are the kinds of partners we need with us in the quest for a more sustainable world. Partners that have proven themselves capable of innovating and changing with the world rather than living as a blip to only serve the needs of the present moment. Corporations, due to their fiduciary duty to shareholders, need to ensure the company’s longevity, and the key to doing this is to innovate how the corporation does business, as long-standing companies historically have. Sustainable development, on the other hand, needs not only innovation but also revenue generation to fund the next round of development. Otherwise, sustainable solutions have little hope of being, well… sustainable. What better ally to engage than ones with a track record hundreds of years long?

We need corporate watchdogs. We need to call companies out when they act irresponsibly or when they don’t do enough to protect their stakeholders’ (not just their shareholders’) interests. But to look at a company’s sustainability agenda, at the real strides they make towards acting in a more sustainable way, and to merely scoff and conclude that this is corporate marketing that won’t really advance sustainability, cuts out one of the most powerful allies the fight for sustainability can have on its side.

Instead of discounting these potential partners, let’s ask how we can work together. Rather than doubt and hostility, it’s time to respond with “that’s excellent, now let’s see how we can make this positive impact even bigger”.