How can sustainability be effectively regulated?

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the fundamental conditions which are necessary for the construction of a regulation which will affect a genuine advancement in the context of environmental protection.

Design/methodology/approach

The component parts of an adequately built regulation are broken down to concretise the notion of efficacy – and its proposed universality – in a regulatory context. This paper takes a comparative approach of regulations and extends to include a consideration of the monitoring and enforcement of regulation as a necessary tenant of an effective regulation.

Findings

Sustainability regulations have seen a significant development in the 20th century. Notable remain the national discrepancies to so universal problem, as well as an inconsistent acknowledgement of the purpose of sustainability regulations beyond a tick-box compliance commitment.

Originality/value

The importance of sustainability has been amplified without a due consideration of what its translation into regulation must look like. This paper argues that no meaningful change can be lobbied without understanding how its practical implementation is performed.

Citation

Teichmann, F.M.J. and Wittmann, C. (2024), "How can sustainability be effectively regulated?", Journal of Financial Crime, Vol. 31 No. 5, pp. 1156-1165. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-07-2022-0174