Eric Orts

Background

About Eric Orts

I’m a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with research and teaching interests in corporate governance, sustainable business, securities regulation, and professional ethics. I have had a long-standing concern about the global climate emergency going back to attending the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro as an unofficial observer with the U.S. Department of State. I describe myself as a Climate and Democracy Hawk because in my view we collectively need to make these topics the highest priority in order to leave a livable, decent, and prosperous future for our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, etc. Together with others, I’ve been a founder of a number of academic initiatives including the Alliance for Research in Corporate Sustainability (ARCS), the Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership (IGEL) at Penn, the Committee for an Institutional Response to the Climate Emergency (CIRCE) at Penn, and new curriculum focused on environmental sustainability at the undergraduate, graduate, and executive education levels. One current book project is on “Ethics and ESG” (co-edited with several colleagues) and accepted for publication by Cambridge University Press. Other work focuses on what I call “business theory” relating to the need for a “normative reconstruction” that goes beyond the mantra of profit maximization. This work builds on “Business Persons: A Legal Theory of the Firm” published by Oxford University Press.