Sarbox welcomes carbox
by Miki Saxon
Post from Leadership Turn Image credit: clafouti CC license
It’s not that I’m a big lover of laws and regulations, but they’re necessary these days, since it seems to take the fear of jail to affect the myopia of executives and Boards.
The games played, messes created and the just plain malfeasance done by executives, whether backed or ignored by Directors, have a global reach beyond anything that could be imagined just a few short years ago.
Sarbox has been reviled by corporations since its inception and every effort has been made to water it down, but it still has the very real effect of making execs and directors far more aware and cautious, since their own skin is at risk.
One result is carbox, a far more careful look at the company’s carbon footprint.
“Sarbanes-Oxley, or Sarbox, requires companies to disclose any business risks facing the company to investors in public filings… “Sarbanes is a lens through which management and boards should view climate risk,” said Bob O’Connor, a partner with Palo Alto, Calif.-based law firm Wilson Sonsini and member of the firm’s Carbon Counseling Practice. “In viewing climate risk, management and boards must be governed by the standards that Sarbanes establishes with respect to transparency and accountability.””
The problem with Sarbox and other rules and laws is that they are only passed when there is a very loud public outcry; they are created and passed in outrage.
They pass because they’re designed and brought to vote when emotions are hot—too hot for lobbyists or partisan politics to overcome.
Careful, considered legislation is less likely to pass as is; rather it’s a watered down version acceptable to foes, but falling short of what’s needed that becomes law.
What do you think? Is there any way to change “business as usual?”
Your comments—priceless
July 5th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Miki- business, or for that matter politics, as usual may never change. It makes me think of history I’ve read about Thomas Jefferson surreptitiously paying a newspaper to publish lies about John Adams during their run for the presidency. I thought you were going to criticize the overbearing nature of SOX when you were talking about the hotness of the moment. I believe that these types of laws always go too far simply because the politicians who write them are going with the whim of the moment instead of doing the right thing.
July 5th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Hi Bob, thanks for stopping by. In some ways we’re saying the same thing, i.e., legislation written in moments of high emotion isn’t necessarily well reasoned. However, as I point out in the last paragraph, intelligent, well thought out legislation doesn’t accomplish much since it’s usually watered down by interested parties.
As to self regulation, I think it’s the biggest oxymoron joke ever dreamed up. It works about as well in the business world as it would in a prison.
And finally, ‘politicians’ and ‘doing the right thing’ is another hilarious oxymoron to my mind. For years I’ve voted for the person whom I feel will do the least amount of damage, but with the best chance of winning. Sad commentary:(
July 31st, 2008 at 6:52 am
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