Key Terms

The terms ‘responsible/Sustainable business, ‘corporate responsibility’ (CR) or ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR), and ‘environmental, social, Governance’ (ESG) are used by business and lawyers in various different contexts. However, for the most part they are all used to convey a business behaving in a responsible manner as part of its day to day activities. Many companies are realising that compliance with national, state and local laws and regulations may no longer provide sufficient protection from legal, regulatory or reputational risk and that falling short of the growing requirements in this area can have financial implications.

In this note we will refer to ‘sustainable business’ as the umbrella term.

For more on terminology, see Precedent: Sustainability glossary terms (The Chancery Lane Project).