Join the UCLA Anderson Center for Global Management and UCLA School of Law’s Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy in hosting Christopher S. Tang, Edward W. Chair in Business Administration and Faculty Director, Center for Global Management and Thilo Kuntz, Chair in Private and Corporate Law, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, who will present and discuss on the broad landscape of ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance) and the challenges and opportunities for corporate leadership.

Over the past few years, the advocates of ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance) have encountered strong headwinds in the U.S. Some politicians have created an anti-ESG movement as part of their election campaigns. According to a January 10, 2024, Wall Street Journal article entitled “The Latest Dirty Word in Corporate America: ESG”, ESG has become the three letters that corporate officials dare not utter. Nonetheless, many business leaders remain focused on environmental, social, and corporate governance issues in making business decisions.

Putting aside the politics and social media campaigns to end ESG, what are the operational issues that responsible corporate leadership face in dealing with challenges to corporate well-being from, for example, a changing environment, a diverse work force, and greater demands for corporate transparency? Globally, there is an expanding body of ESG regulations and norms. For example, both California and the E.U. have enacted disclosure requirements that will require many companies to discuss climate impacts on a company’s operations and financial performance. Do these external regulations and norms on the corporation change the nature of the fiduciary obligations that directors owe the company and its shareholders?