Businesses have no responsibility whatever to protect and conserve the natural environment - Assignment Example

BUSINESSES HAVE NO RESPONSIBILITY IN ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION AND PROTECTION By Location Businesses have noResponsibility in Environmental Conservation and ProtectionBusinesses do not have a responsibility of protecting and conserving the natural environment. Many proponents of corporate social responsibility have argued that businesses should play a critical role in the conservation and protection of the environment. However, businesses only have a responsibility to the shareholders. The primary role of a business is to make profits and protect the private property rights of shareholders.

According to the classical economic argument, businesses do not face the compulsion of contributing to the conservation of the environment because the main responsibility of business leaders is to ensure maximized profits to the business owners (Frederick 1999, p. 281). The participation in the environmental conservation and protection requires the use of business funds to pursue a corporate social responsibility agenda. It is not in the power of business management to invest funds in environmental protection.

Business leaders use the logic of delivering profits to business owners (Jackson 1996, p. 159). The owners can choose to use the profits in environmental conservation ventures. In any case, the participation in environmental protection and conservation can serve to reduce economic efficiency and profit margins of the business. In addition, if businesses are to participate in the conservation and protection of the environment, they are likely to pass on the costs to the customers. Therefore, the customers are more likely to pay more for goods and services.

Participation in environmental conservation is one of the corporate social responsibility sectors that may serve to impose unequal costs among competitors (Blowfield & Murray 2008, p. 240). Evidently, the modern business front is highly competitive. Therefore, when businesses face the compulsion of investing in environmental conservation, they register higher costs than competitors placing them at a disadvantage (Henderson 2009, p. 13). The role of environmental conservation and protection should be taken up by every individual in the society, and not imposed on businesses alone.

Therefore, businesses should not feel compelled to participate in environmental conservation. Worth noting is the fact that businesses should only do what is required by the law, and what is dictated by the commercial priorities while maximizing profits (Sinha 2012, p. 704). BibliographyBlowfield, M., & Murray, A. 2008, Corporate responsibility: A critical introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Frederick, R 1999, A companion to business ethics, Malden, Mass, Blackwell Publishers.Henderson, D 2009, Misguided corporate virtue: the case against CSR, and the true role of business today, Economic Affairs, 29, 4, pp.

11-15, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 3 March 2015.Jackson, JC 1996, An introduction to business ethics, Cambridge, Mass: Blackwell.Sinha, GA 2012, Corporate Social Responsibility in the 21st Cent, New York University Journal Of International Law & Politics, 44, 2, pp. 702-706, International Security & Counter Terrorism Reference Center, EBSCOhost, viewed 3 March 2015.