News - Page 3

How companies create value, for whom and at what cost. A summary the SMART-event in from Brussels: “Non-Financial Reporting for a Sustainable Circular Economy”.

With the results from Norway’s general elections last Monday, the impression of a land of paradox is reinforced. The conservative coalition has received a slim mandate to stay in office.

This year’s workshop delivered insightful and thought-provoking discussions on the challenges and opportunities with engaging in interdisciplinary research, spanning the use of multiple disciplines and methodologies as well as the strengths with creating partnerships with colleagues.

There is much unused potential in law to empower consumers as a force to promote greater sustainability, but also significant barriers in legal regulation and in consumer behaviour.

Much done – much more to do as we work to align business interests and public policies for greater policy coherence for development with planetary boundaries.

Beate Sjåfjell has written an op-ed in the University of Oslo’s online paper Uniforum about Daughters of Themis and how it started with a recognition of the lack of gender balance in company law scholarship in egalitarian Norway.

The sovereign state is perhaps the single most important structural phenomenon in human organisation today, and tax sovereignty is one of the fundamental components of the sovereign state.  But what is tax sovereignty for?

Lack of will, knowledge and priorities leaves room for improvement when it comes to social and ethical considerations in public procurement. Even the Fairtrade-label might be problematic. 

This Call for Papers invites contributions to the Cambridge Handbook of Corporate Law, Corporate Governance and Sustainability. Those tentatively selected to contribute will be invited to a Cambridge Handbook Symposium in Oslo on 12-14 March 2018, with draft chapters to be submitted to the editors beforehand. Participation at the Symposium is not a condition to contribute to the Handbook, but it is strongly encouraged. The Symposium is expected to enhance the quality of the contributions, reinforce the cohesive nature of the volume, and contribute to the timeliness of the manuscript.

On the 30 of March, SMART hosted its first stakeholder meeting for the garment sector. Representatives of global fashion brands, fashion educators, textile producers, sourcing consultants, government, NGOs and academic experts met to discuss how to make the garments sector more sustainable.

Our mobile phones are produced by a seemingly unstoppable cycle of innovation, consumption, and obsolescence. Producing them is plagued by an unsustainable cycle of low wages, human rights abuse, use of hazardous materials, and ineffective recycling practices.

A position as Postdoctoral Research Fellow in is available at the University of Oslo, Faculty of Law, Department of Private Law. Extended deadline: 24 May 2017.

Norwegian bank DNB has, after massive pressure from civil society and media, decided to withdraw its investments from the Dakota Access pipeline project. – With proper due diligence, DNB probably would have not been there to start with, Professor Beate Sjåfjell says. 

By Beate Sjåfjell and Jukka Mähönen

PhD candidate Linn Cecilie Anker-Sørensen will present her doctoral thesis "Control decoupling – implications for understanding modern corporate groups"

I have to admit that for the first time in my academic career, at around 4 am on Wednesday 9 November 2016, the thought came to my mind that there is no hope.

Policy-makers are slow to regulate sustainability, but courts are turning into environmental champions in assigning responsibility to companies and shareholders.

Good news for the planet: Recent summit suggests growing consensus on the need for integrating sustainability considerations into finance and corporate governance.

The new EU non-financial reporting requirements, while a step in the right direction, lack the scope and the necessary verification requirements to be a real game-changer writes Beate Sjåfjell.

A recent proposal from the Norwegian government looks to remove red tape for small and medium businesses in an effort to encourage entrepreneurship.

Twenty-four degrees Celsius and Greek hospitality laid the groundwork for a very fruitful workshop on corporate sustainability and gender.

The SMART project congratulates Beate Sjåfjell on her appointment as Adjunct Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Reflecting on recent developments and reimagining corporate governance is at the forefront of the Corporate Roundtable Series, organised by Frank Bold. This series of roundtables at major business centres around the world, including London, New York, Zurich, Breukelen, Paris, and soon Oslo, will conclude in a high-level Conference in Brussels on September 28, where Beate Sjåfjell is an invited speaker. 

The SMART team is currently launching the Horizon 2020 project "Sustainable Market Actors for Responsible Trade" in the heart of the EU.