LIST OF PANELS

With growing economies, environmental impacts grow. In times where the effects of the impacts increasingly threaten or undermine people’s livelihoods through floods, droughts or plastic pollution, a growing number of policy-makers, activists and scholars ask how we can limit the biophysical impacts of our economy. Although this question is by no means new, the debate about this question has changed during the last decade. Earlier debates propagated CSR initiatives and environmental certification that businesses could pursue ‘on top’ of their usual business model. In the last decade, the ‘greening’ of the economy is increasingly portrayed as opportunity to innovate and change their entire business model to become global ‘frontrunners’ and standard setters. In the EU, some of the most prominent environmental and industrial policy debates are based on this framing, e.g. debates about a circular economy, a bioeconomy or a transition to renewable energy. In these debates, ‘green’ businesses are often described as crucial ‘first movers’ or ‘entrepreneurs’ who should actively shape processes to foster sustainability transformations. Under the framework of the SDGs, these debates have gained additional momentum.

A number of scholarly works deals with the role of businesses in policy processes. These stretch across many fields and include environmental policy processes. Yet, this changing role of businesses in environmental policy debates has not been scrutinized systematically across different policy processes so far. This panel aims to kick off a debate among scholars from various areas of environmental policy who cast a critical view on the role and engagement of businesses. It is interested in empirical analyses as well as theory building efforts related to this topic and particularly appreciates interdisciplinary research efforts.

Potential research topics include:

• the evolving nature of governance for sustainability transformation beyond CSR;
• the nature and significance of partnerships between business and non-governmental actors;
• business discourses and agency in governance for sustainability transformations;
• the diversity of theoretical approaches and terminology used to describe the engagement of businesses in sustainability transformations;
• the legitimacy of business actors in policy processes for sustainability transformations;
• the extent to which environmental policies strengthening opportunity-seeking have resulted in behavioral change on the part of corporate actors;
• the impact of business narratives and activities on the initiation of policy processes for sustainability transformations.

The key scientific relevance of the panel lies in the limits and possibilities of business actors in sustainability governance; the evolving relationships between business, non-state actors and governments in sustainability governance; and the opportunities to chart and evaluate the contours and direction of contemporary sustainability governance arrangements.

The goal of this panel is to bring together researchers from diverse disciplines and geographic locations with a common interest in understanding the perceptions, discourses, agency, and (potential) impacts of businesses in sustainability transformations. In order to facilitate exchange, this panel asks for empirical studies as well as theoretical contributions in relation to business actors in sustainability governance. Disciplinary as well as interdisciplinary work is welcome. Possible research questions include, for instance:

• What role do businesses play in the sustainability transformations?
• What new political dynamics/power structures are produced by the new rationale of “environmental solutions as business opportunity”?
• What new regulatory challenges and regulatory trade-offs emerge from businesses engaging in policy processes towards sustainability transformation?
• How are businesses discussed/understood differently across municipalities/states/regions and with what effects for their local/national/global regulation?
• How and why do businesses interact with existing institutions and interests?
• What impacts are engaged businesses having on policy processes and outcomes?