Organizational culture is one of the most frequently employed yet least understood constructs of organizational behavior and management. Organizational culture includes the common values, beliefs, assumptions and norms that govern the interactions between persons in an organization and how they work. These often run beneath the surface, often unwritten and yet enormously powerful in influencing day-to-day performance and execution of long-term strategy. Organizational culture cannot be a p...

Everyone, including people with disabilities, has the right to a basic standard of living adequate for their own health and well-being and for their families including access to employment and decent work, financial services and economic resources, adequate food (freedom from hunger and access to nutritious food), clothing, clean water and sanitation (essential for health and hygiene), secure housing (safe, habitable shelter with access to services like water, sanitation and electricity an...

In recent years we've watched respected impact-focused organizations destabilized by funding contractions, political reversals, regulatory shifts and leadership transitions. Programs serving vulnerable communities were reduced or eliminated not because their missions lacked merit, but because their financial and governance architectures were not designed for prolonged instability. These episodes were not failures of compassion or innovation. They were failures of structural preparation. Su...

In Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities, renowned legal scholar Alan S. Gutterman offers a profound and comprehensive exploration of one of the most urgent and often overlooked dimensions of global human rights. This essential volume traces the evolution of the disability rights movement, critically examines the international legal frameworks that underpin protections for disabled persons, and highlights the ongoing challenges they face across all facets of life—from educatio...

In Businesses and Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Alan Gutterman provides a compelling and timely roadmap for how businesses of all sizes and sectors can actively promote and protect the human rights of persons with disabilities. Drawing on principles from international human rights law, corporate social responsibility, and disability justice, the book moves beyond compliance and charity to make the ethical, legal, and business case for full inclusion. This work offers ...

Ableism—the systemic devaluation and exclusion of people with disabilities—remains a persistent barrier to full social, economic, and political inclusion. People with disabilities face barriers not because of inherent limitations, but because of the environment and systems around them. Combatting ageism and ableism requires more than just policy pronouncements or isolated programs. It demands a comprehensive, multi-sector approach that transforms communities, services and institutions in o...

Sustainable finance is a long-term approach to finance and investing, emphasizing long-term thinking, decision-making and value creation that considers environmental, social and governance ("ESG") issues. Sustainable finance has emerged in parallel to aggressive policy initiatives such as the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris climate agreement of 2015 as it has become clear that they cannot be realistically undertaken and completed without innovative private sector financing...

Impact investing is aimed directly at creating a positive environmental or social impact by identifying and solving a particular environmental or social problem. In contrast to the efforts of traditional philanthropy to generate positive, measurable social and environmental impact, impact investors also seek a financial return. Impact investment is an emerging strategy within the umbrella of sustainable finance, which seeks to provide the external financing necessary to support progress to...

Entrepreneurs, and the new ventures they lead, have been recognized as major engines for the creation of sustainable products and processes that can be used to solve many difficult social and environmental problems. Since venture capitalists focus on nurturing entrepreneurship and new ventures, they have an important role in the development, growth and maturation of these sustainable businesses. Venture capital is well suited to the inherent riskiness and longer evolution cycles of sustain...

This book provides readers with a basic understanding of sustainable finance and impact investing including history, definitions of impact, current trends and drivers, future challenges, and an overview of the key players in the global impact ecosystem.The term impact investing first appeared in 2008. Today the most commonly used definition is investing made with the intention to generate positive, measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial re...

Sustainability should be at the core of the purpose and activities of the business launched by the sustainability entrepreneur and planning for embedding sustainability into the entire organization, including sustainability reporting, should begin even before the business "goes live". Early planning allows for integrating sustainability into the business model and operations, which can help the sustainable entrepreneur manage risks, attract investors, and meet customer expectations for res...

To know whether sustainability initiatives and their related commitments are improving the company's performance it is necessary to have in place procedures for "communicating with stakeholders about a firm's economic, environmental and social management and performance". These communications take the form of "sustainability reporting", which is the preparation and dissemination of disclosures pertaining to "nonfinancial information" including information relating to climate change, water ...