BUSINESS ETHICS

Business Role in Poverty Alleviation

Millennium Development Goals
Earth Responsibility and Sustainable Development
Earth Ethics
Social Responsibility towards the Environment

TOPIC OUTLINE:

a. Business Role in Poverty Alleviation

b. Millennium Development Goals
c. Earth Responsibility and Sustainable Development
d. Earth Ethics
e. Social Responsibility towards the Environment

BUSINESS ROLE IN POVERTY ALLEVIATION

"The role of small businesses in poverty alleviation, economic growth and job
creation has emerged as an important topic not only for policy makers but also for
academic research. The importance of small businesses arises in view of the dismal
performance of previous policies that emphasized large scale industrialization. Recent
economic reforms have also created opportunities for the fledgling small businesses, and
thus generated interest in small business research initiatives. It is generally agreed that
encouraging the development of small businesses is an effective way of fostering growth
and alleviation poverty, despite conflicting evidence obtained in several studies."

How Can Businesses Alleviate Poverty?

1. Contribute to Sustainable Infrastructure

Is the business promising to donate 5% of all proceeds to a charitable

organization that helps provide education to children in need or are they claiming to
donate one jacket for each one you purchase? There are many business models that fall
under the category of “socially responsible”, but very few businesses implement
sustainable ones.

Sustainable strategies have the added advantage of not only providing one - time
support, but providing the tools necessary for people to empower themselves and break
the cycle of poverty altogether. Businesses who invest in programs or initiatives
designed to build sustainable infrastructures, which the poor can utilize to better their
financial and social circumstances, inevitably end up having a much greater impact.

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 Such practices as “buy one, give one” models do not necessarily accomplish this.
In fact, many companies who utilize “buy one, give one” models need poor people
without their product in order to sell their product.

2. Pay Attention to Supply Chains

Earning a living wage in working conditions that respect human rights is

essential to alleviating rates of global poverty. However, in today’s globalized economy,
it’s hard to know where exactly the product you buy is being made and in what kind of
conditions it was produced.

Though the company may be based out of the U.S., the raw supplies may be
imported and the product manufactured in South East Asia via numerous factories with
no association to one another. Despite the barriers, there are mechanisms available for
consumers and businesses to identify supply chains behind the products they purchase
to ensure the fair and respectable treatment of the workers who produce it.

Those businesses who have taken the extra effort to guarantee ethical supply
chains usually will indicate so on their website. There are also organizations such as the
United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) who can help you locate such businesses,
as well as online shopping sites such as fashiongchange.org that claim to only allow
businesses to operate through their website if they meet certain socially responsible
prerequisites.

3. Work with Local NGOs

Businesses who work with local NGOs (local, as in where their product is
manufactured) have a higher probability of not only adhering to sustainable practices,
but also actually addressing the most pressing problems of that region. If a
business donates high - strength eye glasses to a population that suffers from an
unusually high percentage of cataracts, the business would most likely categorize this
effort as socially responsible.

However, what they might not know is that the high presence of cataracts is
largely due to malnutrition. Cooperation with local nonprofits increases the amount of
knowledge businesses have about the population they are trying to help, and increases
the likelihood that their efforts do not bypass the actual causes of the problem they
attempt to alleviate.

During the holiday season there is often a sharp increase in charitable donations.
However, using the above guidelines, you can also ensure the gifts you purchase make

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were the eight international

development goals for the year 2015 that had been established following the Millennium
Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations
Millennium Declaration. All 191 United Nations member states at that time, and at least
22 international organizations, committed to help achieve the following Millennium
Development Goals by 2015:

1. To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

2. To achieve universal primary education.

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3. To promote gender equality and empower women.
4. To reduce child mortality.
5. To improve maternal health.
6. To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
7. To ensure environmental sustainability.
8. To develop a global partnership for development.

Earth Responsibility and Sustainable Development

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 Earth Ethics - is a subsection of philosophy that studies the ethical relationship
between people and the natural environment. It is a scientific theory that exerts
influence on a large range of disciplines including geology, sociology, law, theology and
economics.

I learned as human beings we have the responsibility to exercise environmental

stewardship and ensure that there is sustainability in the activities we engage in.

There are many ethical decisions that human beings make with respect to the
environment.

Sustainable Development - it is defined as “development that meets the needs

of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs”. is a process of developing land and resources, rural settings and cities, business
and communities and so on that "meets the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"

Environmental Stewardship — it is a theoretical term that captures the

contemporary reaction to the Biblical call for human beings to exercise caring
"dominion" over all creation. It affirms that socio-economic progress and the integrity
of creation are standards that are not only compatible with one another but also
dynamically related. It means that human development should not compete with
environmental conservation. In 2005, the United Kingdom adopted the term
“environmental stewardship” as an agri -environment scheme designed and run by its
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs.

Why Should Business Be Seriously Concerned with The

Environment?

The environment is the last, but certainly not the least, stakeholder that company
has to take into serious consideration while doing business. All public and private
entities, whether individual or corporate, should practice some kind of social duties
towards the environment — because of the following reasons.

· The Environment is the main source of raw materials for production and it
serves as the main dumping ground for wastes generated by production and
consumption patterns

· Environmental compliance costs are steadily rising in many countries

· A growing number of individual and institutional investors are considering a

company’s environmental and social performance in making investment decisions.

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 Why Is Earth Ethics Imperative?

Today, chemical factories, tanneries, alcohol distilleries, paper mills, beauty

product and food manufacturing plants are familiar sources of water pollution.
Although they are recognized as gateways to economic progress, micro and small-scale
enterprises are known to discharge untreated or partially treated wastewater directly
into the different waterways and river systems.

Toxic substances, which are deadly elements found in the environment that are of
human origin, may cause an increase in mortality rates, irreversibly incapacitating
illness and other adverse effects on health and environment like miscarriage, cancer,
reproductive defects, and congenital malformation in humans and animals.

Has Air Quality Improved Dramatically?

Unlike the US federal, state and local governments, our government does not set
emissions targets. A US Department of Interior analyst concluded after surveying
emissions in 1999 that cleaner air is a direct consequence of better technologies and the
enormous investments that “only a rich nation” could afford to devote into developing,
installing, and operating these technologies. Today, American businesses, consumers,
and government agencies spend about $40 billion annually on air pollution controls
(Bailey, 2000). We cannot even implement our Clean Air Act.

We can point our accusing finger to industrialization. Toxic substances are the
health hazards closely attached to modernization. These include acidic chemicals,
metals (like mercury and arsenic), radioactive wastes, flammable solvents, pesticides,
herbicides, etc. Aside from toxic substances, there are also solid wastes that contaminate
the environment.

Solid waste is a form of garbage produced from industrial, agricultural and

mining processes, and from the residential sector. Garbage dumps are significant
sources of pollution that contain toxic substances. In some cities of the underdeveloped
and developing nations, some 3,000 to 5,000 tons of solid wastes are generated everyday
(or the equivalent of about 0.50 kilo per person per day).

Is Mother Nature Showing Erratic Behavior?

Erratic behavior is manifested in climate change.

By the consistent and ill - considered acts of exploitation and lack of social
responsibility in the use and abuse of Mother Nature, we have destroyed a big chunk of
our beautiful nature and in turn have become the victims of this degradation.

It appears that the socio - economic destitution that we experience today flows
from the destitution of nature. Not only is our material environment leading into a
permanent menace — global warming (Greenhouse Effect), flash floods, red tides and
dead fish incidents and new illnesses of an absolute destructive capacity — but also a
frightening reality that the whole global system can no longer be put under human
control.

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 The warning does not have to be apocalyptic. The whole world is already
experiencing the abnormal behavior of climate, perhaps principally due to massive
environmental destructions of our own making.

What Are the Other Irreparable Damages of Global Warming?

In his movie and book, An inconvenient truth, Al Gore (2006) enumerated the
irreparable damages of global warming. They include the enhanced greenhouse effect
(global warming), acid rain, depletion of the ozone layer, and disruption of reproduction
in animals and, probably, in humans (Global Environment & Technology Foundation,
2003).

There has been an increasing awareness and understanding on the part of

scientists of the kinds of damages that man is inflicting on the environment in recent
years.

It is now a global concern. Human survival is at risk.

Will the Potential Cures for Cancer, AIDS and SARS be Lost?

If this continues what will we have lost? A great deal will be lost, including
income to the locals after the resource is gone, the thin layer of topsoil as the torrential
rains of the tropics wash it away, the regular production of oxygen by the plants, the
moderation of climate by the forests, the potential cures for cancer, AIDS, SARS and
other diseases that might have been discovered in the tropical plants, and the pure
aesthetics of these forests.

We are also damaging the ecosystem by the unwarranted introduction of

chemicals into the environment. Some of them are naturally occurring chemicals, yes,
but are being released in unprecedented quantities.