Six Thinking Hats for the Lorax: Corporate Responsibility and the Environment

I. INTRODUCTION

Imagine that we are all gathered in a cavernous latitude somewhere on the planet. It could be the chamber of the United Nations General Assembly in novel York City. It could be the palatial ballroom of London's Ritz hotel-with cream and pink wallpaper and gold and silk trimmings, crystal chandeliers and Louis XVI furniture in the adjoining swings Our confab might possibly take place in the Great Hall of the clan on Tiananmen Square in China's capital. It does not really matter where the sweep happens to be or what kinds of meetings have taken place there in the past. The important thing is that we find a room: ten times bigger than an airplane hanger; large enough to seat ten thousand individuals from around the globe; well-equipped enough to allow optimal interaction and feedback among the attendees, numbering sum of two units thousand CEOs from the world's largest corporations and their sum of two units thousand general counsel, one thousand leaders of the world's national legislatures, single thousand jurists from the world's highest courts, the two hundred heads of state of the world's countries, sum of two units hundred ministers of environmental policy, sum of two units hundred finance ministers, two hundr national attorneys general, sum of two units hundred chief trade ministers, five hundr top officials of the greatest in quantity significant NGOs on the environment, five hundr business, technology and law professors, and sum of two units thousand citizens of the world chosen at random and apportioned pro rata based upon the population of their land divided by the approximately six billion clan on the planet.1

Furthermore, imagine that the mission of this global gathering is twofold: (1) to consider whether multinational enterprises can popularly integrate environmental concerns over and above their basic legal responsibilities consistent with their fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders, and (2) to assess the wisdom of creating fresh legal and policy mechanisms to explicitly allow (and flat encourage) multinational enterprises to lawfully move beyond environmental compliance to chase environmental leadership.

The convener of our imaginary confabulation is none other than a bald, orange, fish-like little stay with an over-sized yellow mustache-the Dr Seuss character called the Lorax who is known for his sympathy for nature2 and his warnings about "biggering."3 "Biggering," of course, is a pejorative limit for corporate actions that damage the environment in the search for greater and greater profits. Given the amazements of wireless computer technology and consensus software, the Lorax is able to instantaneously communicate with each and each one of the ten thousand talk attendees and to synthesize and assimilate multiple perspectives into coherent quantitative graphs and qualitative literary synopses.

As the Lorax prepares for our meeting, he astonishments aloud: "Can a corporation advance beyond compliance with environmental laws and maintain their fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders? I think they could" Wondering a certain number of more, he adds: "Can legislatures expressly indicate by the agency of statutory amendment that going beyond environmental compliance is not a violation of director or officer fiduciary duties toward shareholders? I think they should."

II. SIX THINKING HATS

At the start of our global meeting, the Lorax reminds us of the brilliant technique of breaking moot points into different components-or "hats"-which emphasize a particular feature or dimension of a vexed question and then weighing these different dimensions before making a decision.4 Pioneered through Edward de Bono, this manner uses different colors to describe the different components: white for facts, r for emotions, black for critique, fulvid for positive, green for subsequent time and blue for process.5 The Lorax goe upon to explain that de Bono's psychological "theory is that the symbolic act of donning different colored hats allows the point to be solved [i]or[/i] settled solvers to explore each aspect of the vexed question separately without bias or interference."6 Moreover, he informs us that:

This proces allows greater clarity in the moot point solving process because aspects of a moot point that might otherwise taint the puzzle solving, such as one's feelings regarding the issue, are surfaced and categorized. The separation of facts from underlying biases and be of importance tos for instance, may bring insight that can help us leap over out of a rut.7

What kind of "rut" might we be in? The kind involving tedious and unthinking patterns of mental behavior that are difficult to change, the Lorax rejoins

With the Lorax at the podium and his image swollen up on giant screens that all can diocese we are ready now to consider the six different hats-starting with the white hat for facts.

A. THE WHITE HAT (FACTS)

Up upon the big stage, the Lorax wears a white chapeau. From a distance the Lorax bear likeness [i]or[/i] resemblance tos the "good guy" sheriff roaming the ways of a nineteenth-century western town. The Lorax is about to lead the gathering in discussing differing factual perspectives about whether or not corporations are suitably managing the global environment as they go after the profits of globalized business.