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Eleven words to relieve the climate emergency

Support #TheCode

Add your name to the Open Letter calling on the Australian
Government to adopt the Code for Corporate Citizenship

  • The Shoalhaven Declaration

    The Shoalhaven Declaration

    The Shoalhaven Declaration describes a solution for ending the abuses to the environment by changing the corporate law – everywhere – to require company directors to never again allow their companies to cause severe damage to the environment. By Robert C. Hinkley* Today, governments all over the world are failing to protect the environment from…

  • Video: Round table on corporate citizenship

    Video: Round table on corporate citizenship

    Placing ‘The Code’ under the microscope in a European context. In this 84-minute round table discussion, Francesca Leucci and Susanna Cafaro from Italy and Young-Jin Choi from Germany place Robert Hinkley’s proposed code under the microscope within a European environmental and climate change context, and they discuss it from both a legal and an investment/economic…

  • Article: Corporations need a moral compass

    Article: Corporations need a moral compass

    By Robert C. Hinkley. Photo by Denise Jans, Unsplash 29 May 2023 Companies inflicting severe damage on the environment are encouraged to continue by the Corporate Law. The climate emergency proves that an economy based on companies proceeding without guardrails to protect the environment from severe harm is unsustainable. Corporate directors must be obligated to…

  • Sign the Open Letter

    Sign the Open Letter

    Call on the Australian Government to adopt The Code for Corporate Citizenship Corporations formed pursuant to Australian law should never cause severe damage to the environment. Yet, a small number of companies – less than one per cent of all companies – are doing just that, through the daily emission of huge quantities of greenhouse…

  • Global launch event in Geelong

    Global launch event in Geelong

    On 25 May 2023, Robert Hinkley is coming to Geelong to give a presentation at the Geelong Library. The event has a $5 admission fee to cover the costs.→ Book your seat here Code for Corporate Citizenship: Global Launch in Geelong On 25 May 2023, Geelong will be the site for the worldwide launch of…

  • Who is Robert Hinkley?

    Who is Robert Hinkley?

    Robert C. Hinkley is an accomplished US corporate attorney and a dual Australian-American citizen. He has over 20 years’ experience advising large companies and investment banks in US securities offerings. From 1989-2001 he built and managed Skadden Arps’ US legal practice in Australia. He is the author of the book ‘Time to Change Corporations: Closing the…

Duty of Care Bill versus The Code – what’s the difference?

The Duty of Care bill says that politicians and regulations must consider future generations in holding big companies to account. It’s one step removed from requiring big companies to not cause severe harm in the first place. It’s an indirect attempt to hold companies accountable, where The Code makes it clear that they are not to engage in severely destructive behaviour from the start.

“Clearly we can’t be too far — and nor should we be — from a world in which directors are held personally responsible for the climate policies of their companies and institutions and for the statements they make about those policies. This would certainly focus the minds of these corporate leaders on their responsibilities, and perhaps spur them to work with their private sector peers and governments to accelerate a realistic transition to a low carbon Australia.”
~ John Hewson, former Liberal leader, in The Saturday Paper on 6 May 2023

Listen to interview about ‘The Code’

Listen to podcast

Corporate lawyer’s ‘code’ that will change the world
The Climate Revolution episode 4: ‘The Code’

→ Podcast notes

→ Full transcript

I support ‘The Code’ because…

Too many companies are playing games by artfully getting around emissions standards.
Yvonne Parker

The environment is continuously being exploited, degraded and destroyed often in the pursuit of corporate profits. As stated above in the Corporations Act, the condition that requires corporations to adhere to good environmental benefits and outcomes is systematically ignored. Governments of both major persuasions have been neglectful and derelict in their duty to enforce this requirement.
Keith Reynard

To hold businesses accountable and ensure corporate environmental stewardship is embedded
Birte Moliere

I support the The Code including words of concern for our environment, because I have grandchildren who are blameless for the climate emergency, yet are at risk from serious climate degradation. It is their future that we all have responsibility for.
Joe Boin

I support The Code because it appears to be the 1st thing that I’ve come across where corporations can be called to account. Individuals are doing all they can, but it is consistently the corporations and governments that let us down. This wording could help change that.
Debra McIntyre

As a parent of young children, I support The Code as we need as many ‘common sense’ solutions as possible at this time.
Madeleine Serong

Protecting the environment is the key to future human survival and happiness.
Helen Eager

Companies are totally misaligned to the wellbeing of our planet. We need to start realigning them.
Owen Miller

Healthcare professionals deal every day with the downstream health effects of environmental degradation. Conditions include Type 2 diabetes and mental health issues, as well as the obvious – asthma, covid susceptibility etc. Most people are unaware that allowing corporations to continue plundering our resources and polluting our air, waterways, soil is actually generating the diseases that have them on lifetime medications. Microbiome, fungome, dysbiosis, insulin resistance… many are just learning what devastation we are causing. The code is essential to our sustainable existence.
Dr. Michael Axtens

Quotes from the media

Talk on greening corporate law

Geelong Independent on page 5 on 19 May 2023

Code calls for corporate responsibility on environment

Surf Coast Times on page 21 on 19 May 2023

Why I added my name to the Open Letter

It’s astounding that it’s not illegal for corporations to negatively impact the environment. The Code for Corporate Citizenship is a simple common sense solution, which could have a profound impact on the existential threat of unabated climate change.
Vicki Perrett

It is critical to act urgently to address the climate emergency – because it is an emergency we are fighting. This is a necessary step for Australia – to ensure the protection of our climate and environment – and should be included without hesitation.
Sue Phillips

To protect the environment the Code’s 11 words must be immediately added to the Australian Corporation Act (2001).
Robert Patterson

Worldwide enforcement of corporate ethics are of paramount and immediate importance and action must be taken by citizens to rein in the rampant greed and corruption that has already caused an immense amount of damage to our world.
Vincent Pieri

The CODE is a simple way to change corporate law so that corporations are legally required to do no harm to the environment as a top priority.
Ingrid Crosser

We need system change, and corporations account for a huge part of that change.
Bryony Edwards

Corporations are making huge profits for a few people at the expense of a liveable planet. They must be stopped.
Andrea Paul

Let’s make the obligations of corporate ESG goals legally binding.
Jasper Lee

I am fully supportive of this endeavour of Robert Hinkley’s. It is shameful that the Corporate sector identifies no moral obligation other than that to shareholders. 
Robyn Baxendale