Creating guardrails to protect our common interest
the shareholder commons is tackling capital system failures that are endangering our future
Free market capitalism has made us healthier and wealthier for more than two centuries. But there is growing recognition of the costs we are paying for short-sighted business decisions that prioritize profits over our natural environment and human needs.
CAPITALISM IN CRISIS
MARKETS CONTINUE TO SEE EXTREME PROFITS EVEN AS ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL SYSTEMS WEAKEN
Trust in market systems deteriorates while current business approaches to sustainability fail to address the systemic issues. In an increasingly stressed and stratified society, business as usual is not tenable.
WE CAN DO BETTER
Preserving Human Dignity and the Earth’s Abundance
The Shareholder Commons seeks to redesign the creative engine of market capitalism to respect the dignity of all human beings and preserve the earth’s bounty. We believe capital markets should distinguish between profits earned through authentic value creation and profits that come from unsustainable and inhumane practices.
AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH
COLLECTIVE ACTION
COLLECTIVE ACTION
the power of universal owners
By harnessing the power of universal owners—large institutional investors with diversified portfolios that have a financial interest in the well-being of the economy as a whole—we are working to ensure our capital markets give priority to long term systemic health over individual company profits.
the power of universal owners
By harnessing the power of universal owners — large institutional investors with diversified portfolios that have a financial interest in the wellbeing of the economy as a whole — we are working to ensure our capital markets give priority to long term systemic health before individual company profits.
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD
To allow profit-seeking to serve its vital role in pricing goods and services, universal owners should use collective action to establish minimum standards of sustainable business practices that will establish a level playing field for sustainable competition.
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD
To allow profit-seeking to serve its vital role in pricing goods and services, universal owners should use collective action to establish minimum standards of sustainable business practices that will establish a level playing field for sustainable competition.
OUR PLAN FOR CHANGE
Modify the discussion of business responsibility in the public arena to include the need for a systemic approach and collective action by investors.
Modify and clarify the laws and regulations that govern investing, in order to ensure that investors focus on systemic value as well as individual company value.
Watch our latest webinar to learn more about
our theory of change and core objectives
From the blog…
September’s Ramble: Did the Business Roundtable Just Solve Everything?
Just one business day after the launch of The Shareholder Commons, the Business Roundtable announced that it had created a new Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation, which declares that stakeholders, including workers, customers and communities, are as essential...
ONE LAST CHANCE TO PROTECT COMMON RESOURCES AND COMMON DECENCY
WHERE ARE THE REGULATORS? In an economy based on competition, we simply cannot rely on individual businesses to self-impose sustainability rules that take priority over profit. Sustainability boundaries must be implemented collectively in order to be effective. While...
What AI Can Teach Us About Corporate Law and the Dangers of Shareholder Capitalism
Computers are not the only type of machine that presents this problem. Organizations, including corporations, are also data-processing machines. Data comes in — the availability and price of supply, customer demand, rules, economic outlook — and the company uses the...
Accountability Now: An Investor Call to Action
5 Investment Principles to Measure and Manage Systemic Impact Worldwide equity markets are valued at $70 trillion, and venture capital and other private equity at $10 trillion. The owners of these securities control the private economy, which allocates most of our...
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