Concern for Sustainable Treatment of Commons: An Obligation for Future Corporate Governance in Public and Private Sector

Abstract

Corporate governance and management on one hand and social responsibility (SR) on the other hand became increasingly connected in assuring corporate success. Corporate governance and management holders currently must implement corporate values into corporate codes (codes of ethics, codes of conduct or other statements of corporate values, responsibility and corporate governance). Hence, corporations have responsibility to stakeholders who have or represent important interests, and to others outside their business relationships, to contribute to the environment and the health, safety and well-being of the whole planet. Since corporate social responsibility (CSR) expands a corporation’s accountability to wider stakeholders by reporting on their CSR activities (CSRR), boards of directors are responsible for CSRR. Practical experiences show that a formal implementation (moral commitments) is usually not enough, due to the essential purpose of corporations (creating profit here and now, rather than with consideration of the longer terms and broader condition, too often). Consequently, in the presented chapter, we examine the legal framework of the EU on CSRR, with particular focus on the corporate governance statement, established by Directive 2006/46/EC. We analyse the aim, the content and the legal effects of this statement under the last amendments from 2014 (Directive 2014/95/EU) and evaluate its contribution to fortifying the role of CSR in the corporate governance of EU corporations. Authors argue the importance of institutional development in the context of corporate governance and the influence of institutional measures on corporate ethical behaviour and, consequently, on their success. Furthermore, as a case of the institutional and formal measures of CSR implementation, the chapter deals witackles the case of Slovenia and its effort in a context of managing the drinking water; the concern for responsible governing the commons belongs to the greatest challenges for corporate governance.