Sustainability as fairness: A Rawlsian framework linking intergenerational equity and the sustainable development goals (SDGs) with business practices

The article explores sustainability from a normative perspective to determine the legitimate uses of the concept in general and in business practices in particular. It is evident that when sustainability is used as an instrumental bluff to maximize profits, it is being diverted from its main objective: intergenerational and environmental justice. To avoid that trap, most of the justifications in favor of sustainable business adopt a structure based on the idea that sustainability conceived as a particular policy can bring benefits to society and to businesses. Strategic management based on stakeholder theory appears often as a pertinent solution to this problem: considering future generations as valid stakeholders would allow to integrate sustainability into the calculation. But stakeholder capitalism defends a pragmatist view that erases the borders between strategy and ethics. It considers sustainable goals as normative goods as well as strategic means for cost-effective results. We think that it is insufficient to treat and understand sustainability as a matter of justice and fairness that ought to be addressed by businesses. We defend that in the case of sustainability only moral justifications are logically valid and consistent. Hence, we suggest an argument based on the Rawlsian conception of justice as fairness. Thinking behind the veil of ignorance in the original position allows to defend sustainability as an economic and social model needed not only to secure a fair distribution of basic goods or capabilities between generations, but also to preserve the consistency of any true commitment with the concept of fairness.