The Business and Environment

Charmaine Aquino

Mikee Charlemagne Factores

Penny Laine Puazo

I.                   Abstract

This paper aims to explore the real reasons why businesses (public and privately-owned) exist and what their relationship to the environment really is. The main focus is to discuss the negative effects these businesses give to the environment and the possible ways on how to address these—either to minimize or stop them. The continuous subjugation and exploitation of the environment by established businesses has posed a great risk in the complete destruction of natural resources. This and its undesirable consequences to the people living around them. Rules and regulations regarding the preservation of biodiversity and all other natural resources has been enumerated, along with a non-comprehensive discussion of the Corporate Social Responsibility practiced among all organizations and what ethics has to do with it. The result of the paper indicates that laws regarding these should be properly observed because it is the way government wants to protect our environment. Business is not just about profit gains but also considers many factors that helps it operate, in this case the environment has the greatest contribution to it. In addition, ethics is an essential ingredient for today’s business success, because it is considered as a final value produced by and for the company.

  Keywords

Environment         biodiversity                 exploitation                 preservation

Business                natural resources         mining                         subjugation

Ethics                    DENR                         illegal logging              rules and regulations

Business and the environment

 Introduction

A Business

Every business has a purpose. This is the main factor which drives the business to operate. The purpose of a business is to offer value (through products and/or services) to customers, who pay for the value with cash or equivalents. Minimally, the money received should fund the costs of operating the business as well as provide for the life needs of the proprietor (Weiss, 2013). This is often associated with the mission and vision of every business entity. It defines the reason for the company’s existence. Having a strong sense of purpose gives people a clear sense of what their contribution to the company means, and also how they should do things every day. It makes their work feel more meaningful – a key motivator for staff across all generations, because we all have an innate desire to contribute to something bigger.

The Philippine Environment and Environment in General

“God created man in His image and likeness; in the divine image He created him; male and female He created them.

“God blessed them saying, “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on earth.”

-Genesis 1:27-28

The passage from the Bible might have been taken literally by the people—to have dominion over all things on Earth. This is exactly what happened in the past, what’s happening today and probably might be happening in the future. The subjugation and exploitation of the environment has caused major damage in the past centuries and sadly, the human way of “taking dominion over all things on earth” will continue in the future.

There were a few people then and the Earth has easily recovered from the “damage” humans inflicted on it. But now, there are more than 5 billion people compared to less than half a million many years ago, it becomes very difficult for the earth to recover. (Deauna and Dorado, 2008)

The Philippines has a total land area of about 300,000 square kilometres, about 92,000 square kilometres are farmland, and about 72,000 square kilometres are forest land, including 65,000 square kilometres of public land and 7,000 square kilometres of privately owned land.

In that vast expanse of land lies minerals and other valuable items that can bring large profits to businesses. The major natural mineral resources, for example, include coal, cobalt, copper, chromite, gold, gypsum, iron, natural gas, nickel, petroleum, salt, silver, and sulphur.

Also, the Philippines fertile lands can house millions of trees which are habitats of other millions of land animals, some of them rare and now, very much extinct. Some of these include the tamaraw and tarsier which can only be found in the country.

Not only that, the Philippines’ aquatic reaches expands wide and contains more riches than anyone can ever imagine. It’s blessed with excellent natural harbors for ports. Most popular tourist attraction is the famous underground river in Palawan; the heart-shaped Laguna de Bay; lake Taal in Batangas; Maria Christina falls and the Pagsanjan falls are among others. These are precious stones and beautiful Coral Reefs which are contained under them.

Being surrounded by the ocean, it is no surprise that the Philippines rely on the waters as an important natural resource. There are more than 640,000 square miles of territorial waters in the Philippines and within these waters; there is an abundance of marine life and materials that are valuable to the nation's people and those across the world. At least 65 species of the 2,400 available species in Filipino waters have solid commercial value, and the crabs, seaweed, pearls and other ocean treasures make the sea among the top resources for this archipelago. (Morgan, 2015)

However, the Philippines is prone to natural disasters, particularly typhoons, floods, landslides, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis, lying across the typhoon belt, in the active volcanic region known as the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” and in the geologically unstable region between the Pacific and Eurasian tectonic plates. The Philippines also suffers major human-caused environmental degradation aggravated by a high annual population growth rate, including loss of agricultural lands, deforestation, soil erosion, air and water pollution, improper disposal of solid and toxic wastes, loss of coral reefs, mismanagement and abuse of coastal resources, and overfishing. (Narsus, 2015)

              Kennedy, N. (2010). Global Environmental Health in the 21st Century: From Governmental Regulation to Corporate Social Responsibility: Workshop Summary. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK53982/

 

Relationship between Business and Environment

Environment is closely related with business. There is a constant ‘give and take’ relationship between environment and business. The business receives inputs, information and technology from the environment and gives it back in the form of goods and services (Tanuja, 2017). Every business should always take into consideration the community that maybe affected in their daily operations. They are part of the stakeholders as well. They may not be directly benefited from the business operations but the wastes from the businesses greatly affect their daily living. Many business operations depend on the environment, as it can be the primary source of raw materials and can affect business processes. Companies around the world are integrating environmental interest with business and are becoming proactive in finding ways to reduce environmental impact. Additionally, consumers are favoring businesses that contribute to protecting natural resources. How your company addresses environmental issues affects the turnout of your business (Davoren, 2017). Regardless of the type of business you run, it's possible to reduce your impact on the environment and improve your bottom line. Lowering your carbon footprint, reducing your waste and becoming more sustainable can result in energy, water or waste management savings. It can also increase your profit through efficiency or productivity gains.

Environmental issues affect business because laws require them to change equipment and procedures to meet imposed standards, which costs business money. Many businesses do such Corporate Social Responsibility effort to preserve the environment. Some environmental issues affecting business include industrial waste, sustainable development of raw materials and water and air emissions. These issues require additional cost to the business in man hours, procedures, and equipment.

Proper disposal of waste is the most common issue that needs to be addressed. Businesses most especially those in the manufacturing process create waste that obviously harms the environment. By products from these needs to be dispensed properly in accordance with the environmental laws existing in that certain place. Recycling programs can also be done; the waste of one manufacturer can be a raw material for another business. Waste is minimized and the business also benefits from it because selling the wastes in the form of raw materials is also an added profit for them.

Another environmental issue is the sustainable development of raw materials. Raw materials used by manufacturers which include natural resources such as wood require business to take measures to replace what it uses. Planting trees to replace them is the simplest way but it will take time for these to be able to grow into mature ones. Again, the effect on business is cost in terms of higher raw materials costs, which usually include the supplier's cost to “replant” or “restock” the natural raw materials.

Emissions both air and water affects the environment as well. Again, environmental protection laws require businesses to protect the environment from exposure to these. Remedial process include placing screens of specified gauges over smoke stacks, filtration of waste water and lining of retention ponds with clay and poly liners. New regulations are implemented frequently that require retrofitting of manufacturing facilities with increased protections, such as screens of even finer gauges and pond liners of newer and safer materials. All of these measures are costly to business and affect businesses first by decreasing profit margins

Ethical Relationship between Business and the Environment

Environmentalists and business leaders have traditionally seen themselves at odds. But the concepts of business, ethics, and the environment can be aligned to create innovation rather than legislation and litigation. There are no magic solutions; however, asking the right questions is a step in the right direction.

Businesses must continue to create value for their financiers and other stakeholders. To leave a livable world for future generations, business leaders also must pay attention to environmental matters. Yet most of the methods, concepts, ideas, theories, and techniques used in business do not put business, ethics, and the environment together. Neither ethics nor regard for natural systems is typically central to the way we think about business.

In a similar way, environmental considerations are frequently viewed as barriers to profitability. They are viewed as necessary evils, costs to be minimized, or regulations with which to comply. The environment is rarely considered central to business strategy unless there is some regulation that constrains business goals. Historically, business people neither have been encouraged nor discouraged to get involved with environmental concerns. Models and theories of business traditionally have been silent on the subject of the environment. Silence, however, is no longer an option in the face of society’s recognition of the potential environmental price of corporate profits.

An increasing number of citizens consider themselves to be environmentalists. Governments are increasing their cooperative actions to address worldwide environmental concerns such as global warming and biodiversity. And interest groups are beginning to propose solutions to problems that involve business decision-making outside of and beyond government regulation.

The success of every business depends on adapting itself to the environment within which it functions. For example, when there is a change in the government policies, the business has to make the necessary changes to adapt itself to the new policies. Similarly, a change in the technology may render the existing products obsolete, as we have seen that the introduction of computer has replaced the typewriters; the color television has made the black and white television out of fashion. Again a change in the fashion or customers’ taste may shift the demand in the market for a particular product, e.g., the demand for jeans reduced the sale of other traditional wear. All these aspects are external factors that are beyond the control of the business. So the business units must have to adapt themselves to these changes in order to survive and succeed in business. Hence, it is very necessary to have a clear understanding of the concept of business environment and the nature of its various components.

Business and Environment

There is a close and continuous interaction between the business and the environment. This interaction helps in strengthening the business firm and using its resources more effectively. As stated above, the business environment is multifaceted, complex, and dynamic in nature and has a far-reaching impact on the survival and growth of the business. To be more specific, proper understanding of the environment helps the business in the following ways:

a.       Determining Opportunities and Threats: The interaction between the business and its environment would identify opportunities for and threats to the business. It helps the business enterprises for meeting the challenges successfully.

b.      Giving Direction for Growth: The interaction with the environment leads to opening up new frontiers of growth for the business firms. It enables the business to identify the areas for growth and expansion of their activities.

c.       Continuous Learning: Environmental analysis makes the task of managers easier in dealing with business challenges. The managers are motivated to continuously update their knowledge, understanding and skills to meet the predicted changes in realm of business.

d.      Image Building: Environmental understanding helps the business organizations in improving their image by showing their sensitivity to the environment within which they are working.

e.       Meeting Competition: It helps the firms to analyze the competitors’ strategies and formulate their own strategies accordingly.

f.       Identifying Firm’s Strength and Weakness: Business environment helps to identify the individual strengths and weaknesses in view of the technological and global developments.

Every business enterprise is an integral part of the society. It uses the scarce resources of the society to continue and grow. Hence, it is important that no activity of business is injurious to the long run interests of the society—that’s where ethics comes in. However, it is observed that, in practice, there are a few socially undesirable aspects of business such as, polluting the environment, non-payment of taxes, manufacturing and selling adulterated products, giving misleading advertisement and so on. This has resulted in the development of the concept of social responsibility of business whereby the owners and managers of business are made conscious about the responsibilities of their business towards the environment.

Environmental responsibility is widely viewed as an aspect of corporate social responsibility. But the idea that business has a responsibility toward the environment is treated almost as a self-evident proposition, and the theoretical basis for such an assumption is rarely discussed. Whether the objects of environmental ethics wildlife, the natural environment, and so forth qualify as stakeholders is among the key questions that need to be reexamined.

However, when it comes to responsibility toward nature or the global environment, the objects of responsibility are non-human entities the atmosphere, soil, water, wildlife, and so forth that are not covered by traditional ethics. The concept of responsibility toward the natural world as a whole has arisen only in recent years, as human activities that interfere with natural cycles have been carried out on such a scale as to upset the balance of nature and the environment.

Environmental ethics considers the ethical relationship between business and the natural world and the kind of decisions companies have to make about the environment: Should we continue to cut down the rain forests for the sake of human consumption? Should we continue to manufacture petrol-driven cars when we have the technology to make cars which do not pollute the environment? Should we knowingly cause the extinction of other species? What are our environmental obligations to future generations? Should humans be forced to live a simpler lifestyle in order to protect and preserve the environment?

Most people recognize that our planet is in a bad way and we all seem to have an opinion on environmental issues, such as climate change or the use of four-wheel drive cars in cities. The importance of environmental ethics is brought home daily by the news of global warming and its effect on our lives, both now and in the future.

           Conclusion

All human and business activities have an impact on the environment. Indeed, each individual has an ecological footprint that represents the sum of that person’s resource use and contributions to pollution. (United Nations Environment Programme, 2009)

The government should be the one leading the preservation of the Earth. In the Philippines, current President Duterte stated that mining companies and all others who exploits the environment relentlessly have the right to mine, but in doing so, care must be exercised that we do not harm the environment. In any way we can, we must give back what we’ve taken to preserve our natural resources (Anunciado and Gita, 2017).

The success of every business depends on adapting itself to the environment within which it functions. Adjusting the relationship between business and the environment is one of the most fundamental issues businesses face and must deal with Here, organization managers have major tasks and responsibilities. Ethical principles concerning environment should be internalized by all the organizations for an effective environmental management. In order to meet their social and business responsibilities, organizations should behave like this and sustainability should be the key of their guidelines.

Ethics is an essential ingredient for today’s business success, because it is considered as a final value produced by and for the company. In other words, ethical management should be implemented to achieve not only a value that will provide a better external corporate reputation, but also a good place to work (Palomino, Gomis, Banon, & Carmen, 2011). Ethical management is not only necessary for a good business atmosphere or success of organizations, but also for environmental values.

Corporate Social Responsibility is an added bonus to the preservation of the environment. At a minimum, corporate social responsibility includes environmental issues, but it also takes on social, ethical, governance, health, and other issues (Kennedy, 2010).

The business-environment interaction is a continuous process. We primarily get our resources from the environment, and in return we should learn how to take care and preserve it. There will soon be a time wherein these resources would vanish and all of us will suffer. Laws regarding these should be properly observed because it is the way government wants to protect our environment. Business is not just about profit gains but also considers many factors that helps it operate, in this case the environment has the greatest contribution to it.

VII.           References

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•                    Umezo, M. (2010). Business’ Responsibility to the Environment;    

Retrieved from http://www.nikkei.co.jp

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•                    Karatas, A (2015). Importance of Ethical Principles for Eco-friendly Management. David Publishing. Niğde University, Niğde, Turkey. http://www.davidpublisher.com

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•                    Deauna, M. & Dorado, S. (2008). Environmental science for Philippine Schools. Quezon City. Phoenix Publishing House, Inc

·                     Morgan, Lee. (2015). List of natural reources in the Philippines. Retrieved from https://www.list-of-natural –resources-in-the-philippines.html

·                     Narsus, B. (2015). Geography and natural resources in the Philippines. Retrieved from https://businessmirror.com.ph/phls-natural-resources-near-brink-of-depletion/

·                     Duerr, R. (2013). Philippine’s natural riches faces dire threats. Retrieved from http://www.dw.com/en/philippines-natural-riches-face-dire-threats/a-17301439

·                     Magno, C. (2016). Beyond Responsible Mining in the Philippines. Retrieved from http://news.abs-cbn.com/focus/07/05/16/beyond-responsible-mining-in-the-philippines

·                     Anunciado, D & Gita, R. (2017). Duterte to miners: stop destroying the environment. Retrieved from http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/local-news/2017/07/25/duterte-miners-stop-destroying-environment-554663