Social License and Environmental Protection: Why Businesses Go Beyond Compliance

The climate responsibilities of industrial carbon producers

“…Changing notions of corporate responsibility have played an important role in social change (Gunningham et al 2004). The most well-documented example involves tobacco.…”

“…Changing notions of corporate responsibility within civil society gain traction through shareholder resolutions, consumer boycotts, protests, lawsuits, and media (including social media) and divestment campaigns; these, in turn, can drive changes in regulation (Gunningham et al 2004). Corporations engaged in mining, pulp and paper manufacturing and the marketing of soy, beef and palm oil have responded to such pressures to go beyond compliance with legal standards for environmental and social sustainability (Gunningham et al 2004;Prno and Slocombe 2012;Nepstad et al 2014).…”

“…Corporations engaged in mining, pulp and paper manufacturing and the marketing of soy, beef and palm oil have responded to such pressures to go beyond compliance with legal standards for environmental and social sustainability (Gunningham et al 2004;Prno and Slocombe 2012;Nepstad et al 2014). In effect, these companies have recognized that they must have a social license to operate.…”

Shale gas policy in the United Kingdom: An argumentative discourse analysis

“…SLO extends beyond what is considered to be normal business practice or courtesy to ensure a feeling of security, and is based on a notion of a diffuse, generalised obligation of reciprocity and exchange (Kleinrichert, 2008). SLO is significant because acting contrary to community expectations may have unintended consequences for the industry (Howard-Grenville et al, 2008), which can include project opposition as well as tightening of regulatory conditions (Gunningham et al, 2004) as regulatory authorities are pressured by elected representatives to bridge the social licence gap with legislative instruments of environmental control. Community engagement in decision-making over site licensing is a key aspect of gaining SLO and thus establishing procedural fairness (see for example Gross, 2007); and failure to establish this intangible agreement can result in place-based communities around development sites becoming sites of political contestation (Calvano, 2008).…”

Internal Controls After Sarbanes-Oxley: Revisiting Corporate Law's Duty of Care as Responsibility for Systems

“…This idea of "social license" has interesting behavioral effects, both inside and outside the organization. 64 In the aftermath of Enron and Worldcom, I suspect, there was a palpable public demand to respond to overreaching by economic elites by building more public accountability into large corporations. In this sense, Sarbanes-Oxley was not simply investor protection but a backlash against the exercise of power in a way that violated emerging social expectations about the governance of institutions that strongly affect peoples' lives and wealth.…”