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CORP ENV MGMT
Environmental Issues
• The Litany
• Global Problems
– Global Warming - Warmest Years on Record
– Ozone Depletion - Big Hole in Atmosphere
– Species Decimation
• Regional Problems
– Deforestation
– Acid Rain
– Water Pollution - Rivers, Lakes
• Local Problems
– Pesticides - Hazardous Materials
– Waste Disposal
Basic Philosophical Elements and Issues of the
Environment
• Are these concerns realistic?
• Are some more realistic than others?
• How serious are they?
• What are some example implications for
business? For these problems?
The Master Equation
GDP
EI = Population x
Person
EI = Environmental Impact
x
EI
unit of per capita GDP
GDP = Gross Domestic Product
Population = Population Concerns
GDP/PERSON = Affluence Concerns
EI/Unit of Per Capita GDP = Technological Concerns
What Alternatives Exist to Manage EI Here?
What is focus of New Economy?
What does Garrett Hardin think?
Tragedy of the Commons
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What are the commons?
What is the “tragedy”?
How does it work with the economic principles?
What are Hardin’s solutions?
Do you agree?
Will they work?
Environmental Consciousness
• What is man’s role with nature?
– Religion? Dualistic?
• What is meant by take dominion over nature?
– Nature exists to serve humans
• anthropomorphic view
• is environment in “profit” equation?
• In calculation of “national” accounts?
Stages of Environmental Concern
• Conservation
• Use resources wisely - nature’s utility is in its service to humans
• Preservation
• Leave certain areas alone - nature has intrinsic value
• Protection
• pollution control - protect humans
• Sustainability
• global perspective, “sustainable growth” and equity.
Environmental Ethics and Business
• Western Society - Objectifies Nature
– Locke - “Something in a state of nature has no
economic value and is of no utility to the
human race”
• Ethics - a concern with actions and practices
directed to improving the welfare of people.
• What are the environmental implications of this
philosophy?
Economic Fundamentalism and
Ethics
• The corporate social responsibility of a business is to
increase profit. - M. Friedman
• Those things that cannot be traded on the market have no
value.
• Where does the environment fit in these definitions for
environmental ethics?
• Will people and corporations do environmentally
responsible things on their own? What happens if they do?
Corporate Social Responsibility
• What is it?
– Corporations have responsibilities that go beyond production of goods and
services for profit;
– These responsibilities involve helping to solve important social problems
especially those they helped create
– Corporations have a broader constituency than stockholders alone, i.e.
stakeholders
– Corporations have impacts on society that go beyond simple market
transactions
– Corporations serve a wider range of human values than can be captured by
economic values
CSR
• By doing socially responsible things,
businesses better human life.
• Supposedly ..good ethics is good business.
• Is this true?
• Is enlightened self interest a good way to
push this?
CSR theories
• Stakeholder theory
• Normative theory is the standard ethical theories and
applying them to business. Social values should guide
businesses. Environmental Limitation?
• Social Contract Theory - A contract should exist between
business and society.
Incorporating Environment into Business
Ethics
• Environmental Ethics is a starting point.
• What are Leopolds’ arguments?
– What is the difficulty in doing this?
– What does the Biocentric ethic say (Goodpaster?)
• Biocentrism
– Natural objects have intrinsic value and morally
considerable in their own right.
– Deep Ecology nature has an ethical status at least equal
to humans.
Management starting to think in this
perspective?
• Ecocentricism views industrial relationships in a
cycle, and a whole set of philosophies.
• Expanded stakeholder theory –
• Sustaincentric - going beyond sustainability of
“development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their needs.
– Human and economic relationships inextricably linked
with natural systems.