Abstract

Sustainability has become important in the operation of the global economy and its regulatory structure, leading significant shifts in the way powerful ‘lead firms’ in global value chains approach sustainability. In this paper, I argue that private, value chain-oriented forms of sustainability governance are not addressing the environmental problems they are putatively designed to solve. Through the analysis of how lead firms stimulate environmental upgrading along their value chains, I show that the mainstreaming of sustainability in business operations has allowed global buyers to accumulate ‘green’ profits and capital in ways that extract value from suppliers – especially those based in the global South. Drawing from analyses of the wine and coffee value chains, I show how lead firms push the hidden costs of sustainability compliance and related risks upstream towards producers. These processes have important redistributive repercussions as they raise entry barriers for smaller, less organized and/or more marginalized actors. Under the mantle of achieving environmental sustainability, lead firms in value chains stealthily capture value for themselves, while extracting more demands from their suppliers and promoting a further consolidation of their supply base. In the meanwhile, serious environmental challenges remain unaddressed.

摘要

可持续性在全球经济运行及其监管结构中变得非常重要，导致全球价值链中强大的“领先公司”实现可持续性的方式发生重大转变。在本文中，我认为私人的、以价值链为导向的可持续性治理形式并没有解决它们假定设计要解决的环境问题。通过分析领先企业如何刺激其价值链上的环境升级，我表明，可持续发展在商业运营中的主流化使全球买家能够以从供应商那里获取价值的方式积累“绿色”利润和资本——尤其是那些位于全球南方。根据对葡萄酒和咖啡价值链的分析，我展示了领先企业如何将可持续性合规和相关风险的隐性成本推向生产商的上游。这些过程具有重要的再分配影响，因为它们提高了规模较小、组织较少和/或边缘化程度较高的参与者的进入门槛。在实现环境可持续性的名义下，价值链中的领先企业悄悄地为自己获取价值，同时从供应商那里获取更多需求并促进其供应基础的进一步整合。与此同时，严重的环境挑战仍未得到解决。价值链中的领先企业悄悄地为自己获取价值，同时从供应商那里获取更多需求并促进其供应基础的进一步整合。与此同时，严重的环境挑战仍未得到解决。价值链中的领先企业悄悄地为自己获取价值，同时从供应商那里获取更多需求并促进其供应基础的进一步整合。与此同时，严重的环境挑战仍未得到解决。