Social Justice and Sustainable Business Practices

Table of Contents

Issue
Remedy
Legal Elements
References

Climate change and environmental degradation have become evident problems around the world, stemming from waste and emissions produced by human activity. Large businesses play a significant role in contributing to global emissions with practices ranging from manufacturing to transportation and overuse of certain materials such water, plastics, and others, creating the need to implement environmentally sustainable business practices.

Issue

For decades, businesses have contributed to the destruction of the environment in a major way. Although regulations have been in place, the emission of pollutants resulting from business activities are tremendous. Some of these elements include emissions from manufacturing processes including respirable particles and other pollutants such as sulfur and carbon dioxide. A significant portion of emissions come from transportation of goods and materials via all methods. Approximately 22% of global CO2 emissions stem from production of goods and global trade (Hausfather, 2017). Businesses create other types of pollution depending on the industry. Similarly, factories and energy industries will produce toxic wastewater and land pollution which are then discharged into the environment. Despite potential safety procedures, leakage into running water, ground water, and soil occur commonly even in developed countries. One of the biggest issues is generation of solid waste that occurs as both a result of business activity and consumers who utilize business-provided products. The major concern is plastics which are utilized virtually everywhere but have a tremendous waste footprint in ecology, not degrading for hundreds of years while exponentially increasing as waste is piling up, including in natural environments where it is causing tremendous economic destruction (Jowit, 2010).

Remedy

The best remedy is to establish corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a mandatory aspect for all businesses, which combined with stricter regulation and public pressure can contribute strongly to resolving the negative environmental impacts. CSR is a management concept where businesses integrate social and environmental concerns and issues into business practices, attempting to strike a balance of economic benefit and environmental impact and social trends (UNIDO, n.d.). CSR has become prevalent in recent years, largely due to tremendous public pressure and stakeholders in firms that have pushed firms to consider responsibility to society and environments alongside with making profits. This has had beneficial impacts as firms in most parts of the world are approaching manufacturing practices with caution, streamlining supply chains to reduce transportation carbon footprints, and reconsidering the use of materials.

Some examples include, the major drinks and snack manufacturer Pepsi Co. exploring other packaging options beside plastic, introducing recycling programs, and ensuring to return the water used for production processes in the same volume in communities that struggle with access to water. Another corporation, Apple Inc. has continuously reduced its carbon footprint from manufacturing and packaging and has recently announced some of its products will no longer ship with chargers and headphones, products that commonly get unused or thrown away as e-waste. As a result of CSR, the majority of major companies publish annual environmental impact reports or at least include such information in their annual financial statements.

Legal Elements

CSR is inherently linked with many aspects of international and local law as corporations must abide to a wide variety of regulations in terms of environmental law, labor law, corporate law, and contracts. However, the power and reach of operations for transnational corporations, makes them almost impervious to traditional standards of jurisdiction. Furthermore, CSR can vary significantly in nature, but remains a private self-regulatory instrument for economic activities. Many companies nevertheless strive to adopt stronger CSR policies, working together with international institutions and non-governmental organizations. CSR policies are gradually acquiring legal effects as they are integrated into elements such as supply chain contracts and labor law. Meanwhile, both local and international jurisdictional standards are tightening, with organizations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) playing a direct role in regulating elements of following environmental and technical regulations based on international requirements (Lambooy, 2014).