Description
Available to pre-order
Failing to manage ESG issues and adopt sustainable strategies creates major legal and financial risks. It also means missing valuable opportunities for competitive advantage through responsible business practice.
Directors’ Duties, ESG and Sustainable Strategies examines how directors’ legal duties intersect with the growing influence of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors. The book offers a fresh perspective on ESG, arguing that an assessment of ESG impact is essential for sound decision‑making, where allied with good governance and culture, sustainable strategies which arise are key to long‑term corporate success.
This book uniquely explains the connection between directors’ duties and the legal role of ESG in shaping modern corporate decisions.
Why you need this book:
- Explores how directors’ fiduciary and statutory duties under Companies Act 2006 s.172 intersect with ESG — helping directors to understand their responsibilities to make informed decisions that support long‑term corporate success.
- Offers practical guidance on implementing sustainable strategies — helping businesses to confidently mitigate risk, strengthen performance, and enhance competitiveness.
- Details the risks of ESG non‑compliance including civil and criminal liabilities and personal liability.
- Reviews the evolving environmental legal landscape, and how a directors navigate differing views on climate change and risk in the implementation of net zero obligations/Scope 3 emissions and comply with reporting regimes including TCFD, to avoid accusations of greenwashing.
- Provides commentary on corporate social responsibility and how failure in supply chain due diligence, Bribery Act breaches and employee wellbeing and corporate culture, require board‑level oversight and accountability.
Who should buy this book:
This book is essential reading for company directors, in‑house counsel, those advising firms on ESG, litigation and competition practitioners, HR and wellness teams and anyone involved in corporate governance or sustainability.
It offers a clear guide to the complex legal and regulatory landscape, showing the risks of not having a sustainable strategy and the opportunities for gaining a competitive edge through responsible business practice.
A message from the author, Vernon Dennis:
"I have written this book to reclaim ESG from misunderstanding and misuse, placing ESG impact assessment at rightful heart of corporate strategic decision-making and as a key element in the discharge of the directors' duties. This book explains how the development of a sustainable strategy, allied to good governance and culture will ultimately determine long term business success."
Contents:
- A New Perspective on ESG
- Directors Duties
- ESG Impact and civil and criminal liabilities
- Promoting the Success of the Company – in practice
- Governance
- Risk Management
- The Future of ESG
About the Author
Vernon Dennis is a partner at Howard Kennedy where he is Head of Business Advisory and leads the firms Restructuring and Insolvency group. With over 30 years’ experience in insolvency, creditor recovery and debtor reconstruction, he now specialises in strategic and advisory support for company boards when planning programmes of business turnaround, restructuring, or transformation. He is a fellow of R3 (the Association of Business Recovery Professionals), is an accredited member of the Institute for Turnaround network, a member of the TRI 300 and is author of Insolvency Law Handbook (now in its 4th Edition) and has also written a series of works for the Law Society’s insolvency law series.
Book Information
ISBN 9781784462802
Format Paperback
Extent 320
Publisher The Law Society
