Environmental Protection and the Social Responsibility of Firms - Literature review Example

Corporate Social Responsibility Policies contribute to environmental protect Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Discussion 3 Environment protection and CSR 4 Demand side forces 5 Supply-Side Forces 6 The legality and CSR for environmental protection 6 Conclusion 8 References 10 Introduction Companies across the world have started not only working hard towards improving their business operations in the global market but the top companies are also making sincere efforts towards maintaining the good condition of the environment and also helping the society and the government in making the environment more green. Because of the increasing infrastructure and also increasing number of cars and bikes in the overall world the amount of pollution in the environment has gone up at a good pace and it has caused a big problem to the nature. The increasing number of infrastructures in the form of companies, factories and also residential apartments has also led to cutting of many trees as a result of which the environmental balance around the world has been disturbed in huge way. In this essay it can be seen how various companies work towards helping in improvement of the environment by conducting various corporate social activities which has now become an internal part of most of the companies. Discussion Companies across the global market and many business leaders and government officials are continuously putting their focus towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) and mainly towards the direction of protecting and for improving the environmental conditions. It was been said by Plato that human’s have the measure of all things and they are the creators and also the destroyer of everything. Human beings love and nourish the nature in turn the nature nourishes and provides many facilities to the well being of the humans. Thus the humans have the opportunity to grow the nature and environment around them and also to maintain the environmental balance in the society (Shastri, 2005, pp. 45-52). Edward Goldsmith an ecologist said that it is very clear looking at the present declining environmental condition that the nature and environment has now become less capable of sustaining the growing economic condition around the globe and it might affect the ecological balance of the world in a huge way. Corporate social responsibility falls under the policy made by the companies in their business operations to show their concern towards the environment, society and also for the welfare and well being of the customers and the society (Hay, Stavins and Vietor, 2005, pp. 76-82). The big companies especially the MNC’s expand their business in the global market and mainly towards the developing countries because of many reasons need to maintain good environmental standards while starting their operations in a new country. CSR is related to helping the customers, the general people in the society and also the environment so that the balance is been well maintained in the country and also in the entire world without causing much harm to the society and the environment (Salcines, Babiak and Walters, 2013, pp. 34-38). Environment protection and CSR Companies are needed to have their business operations within the standards of environmental compliances. But all the companies are not able to fulfil all the needs and nor are they able to protect the environment with their business operations like Steel manufacturing companies, chemical factories, oil and gas plants, plastic producing companies etc. do emit a lot of pollutants which does cause a lot of problem for the environment. Because of companies do follow a lot of corporate social activities to make sure they help in improving the condition of the environment in certain way (ShivaRamu, 2000, pp. 98-104). Various resources that are been used by various companies like coal, petrol, natural gases, cotton for manufacturing different items do affect the environment in a huge way. Apart from this the accidents that take place in the factories like Bhopal Holocaust in 1984 in India, Love Canal Incident of USA in 1978, Seveso Incident in North Italy in 1976, Minamata Bay in Japan in 1956, Three Mile Island, the nuclear power station of the USA in 1979 and Chernobyl in the USSR has created a lot of impact in the environmental condition in that particular locations and the impact of those accidents has been felt for many years later. The increasing attention been given to the initiatives taken by the corporate for environmental protection does show that the market forces for capital, labour and products are the major drivers for the corporate making attempt to improve the environment. The demand and supply forces does affect the level of CSR related to environment is been done by the company (Azapagic and Perdan, 2011, pp. 23-28). Demand side forces Demand among the customers for the organic food, organic cotton dresses, and also for eco-friendly fuel like ethanol has been increasing at a good percentage. This has led in the growth of production and sales of such eco-friendly products more. The level of competition in the global market does affect the environmental CSR done by the companies in a huge way. In the market with the price of non environmental products being low customers prefer to buy such products more than the eco-friendly products which are been priced at high price (Barth and Wolff, 2009, pp. 223-226). As it is known that the demand among the customers does vary in accordance to the price of the product so if the price of the eco-friendly product goes down and in comparison to it the price of the non-eco-friendly product is high than customers will shift their demand for the eco-friendly products more. Employees also prefer to work in environmental friendly place where they find themselves involved in not only improving the business process but also feel good by helping in improving the environmental conditions. Thus companies look to retain and get good employees by maintain a good environmental condition in their companies and also in the outside society (Anton and Shelton, 2011, pp. 23-28). Supply-Side Forces Apart from the demand side forces, the supply-side forces also play a vital role in the environmental CSR. This focuses on the proper utilization of the resources, reducing the wastes, dumping and degrading the wastes in a proper way, less emission of pollutants and also it must not affect the company’s operations neither increase the cost. The companies especially in the manufacturing sector need to have a good policy for dumping and degrading their wastes as the waste which is been left out after the production does cause a lot of pollution and is also very harmful for the environment (Portney and Stavins, 2000, pp. 56-64). Special attempts are to be made to make sure that the company emits less pollutants and cause less harm to the environment. These can be done by bringing certain methods in their production process which can reduce the emission of pollutants by a good amount. The legality and CSR for environmental protection Different countries have maintained different regulation and laws for the companies that they need to follow with regards to the protection of the environment. Companies need to follow these rules and regulations very strictly and many companies do make efforts to help in improving the conditions of the environment apart from these governmental regulations to create a good brand image in the market and also to make sure that society around the company is well maintained and the environmental condition around stays good (Elworthy and Holder, 1997, pp. 22-26). The various types of environmental CSR done by companies are like providing cotton and paper bags to carry their products instead of plastic bags and also many companies have made attempt to make sure that they use good quality plastics which would cause less harm to the environment, companies do make alliance with various NGO’s to make sure that they can participate and support in various environmental protection camps been conducted (Dodds and Pippard, 2013, pp. 123-125). This does helps in improving the society and also in increasing the awareness of maintain a good environmental condition in the society among the customers and also among other companies. Other than participating in the camps the companies also help the NGO’s by supporting them with money and also with other facilities so that the event is been conducted successfully and also in a big manner. The companies also look to maintain a good infrastructure facility along with maintain a lot of greenery inside the company to make sure that the environmental conditions in the company remains good (Louche, Idowu and Filho, 2010, pp. 46-57). This makes the employees happier and creates a feel good factor for them as they can say to their relatives and family members the way they are helping in environmental protections and also they are able to serve to the society without even paying anything from their pocket. The multinational corporations do look to use renewable resources for their business process so that the natural resources present in the nature which is getting extinct quickly is been protected from usage at high rate. This also encourages the companies to come up with products which are eco-friendly and if the companies reach the economies-of scale in producing such products than the market price of such products will be much lesser than the non eco-friendly products (Idowu and Louche, 2011, pp. 34-37). All these will increase the demand of such products among the customers and the usage of eco-friendly products like hybrid car will increase at a great rate and thus improve the environmental condition. Companies do try and conduct various CSR activities in a way that they don’t incur any loss in their revenue generation as the main objective of every company is to continuously keep increasing the revenue and profit margin every year (CQ Researcher, 2009, pp. 87-95). Thus companies look to help in the environmental protection in a way that they do increase their brand image and create a good image in the minds of the customers thus it helps the company to increase their sales volume by huge amount. Conducting the CSR activities is thus a win-win kind of strategy for the company as it does help the company and also helps in maintain a good environmental condition in the society (Steinberg and VanDeveer, 2012, pp. 119-125). In the initial moment when the company starts doing environmental CSR it does get a bit of loss as the cost incurred in doing such activity but in log run it does helps the company in huge way and also helps the environmental condition to improve at a good rate maintain the ecological balance in the society in a good manner. This improving condition of the environment also increases the sustaining capacity of the environment for accepting the increasing growth of economic conditions in the global market and thus allowing the companies to also grow. Thus the environmental CSR is a circular process which does help in improving the condition of the environment and also helps the company to grow in a good way moving ahead towards achieving its objectives (Perez and Leonard, 2013, pp. 34-38). Conclusion Looking at this essay it can be seen that companies do conduct various Corporate social responsible activities related to the environment to make sure that the environmental condition in the external as well in the internal places is been well maintained. These helps in maintain the ecological balance of the society in a good way in such a way that the employees, general people and also the animals have a safe and good environmental condition to live a happy life. The company doesn’t do these activities at a cost of incurring loss as these activities do help the companies also in a huge way to grow and improve in the growing economic condition in the global market. This essay gives a clear understanding of the way the companies do perform various corporate social responsible activities to help the environmental conditions of the society to improve in a good way and provide a healthier environment to employees and also people to have a happy life. Thus the corporate social responsibility done by the companies do help a lot in environmental protection and maintain the good ecological balance. References Anton, D and Shelton, D. 2011. Environmental Protection and Human Rights. London: Cambridge University Press. Azapagic, A and Perdan, S. 2011. Sustainable Development in Practice: Case Studies for Engineers and Scientists. London: John Wiley & Sons. Barth, R and Wolff, F. 2009. Corporate Social Responsibility in Europe: Rhetoric and Realities. London: Edward Elgar Publishing. CQ Researcher. 2009. Issues for Debate in Corporate Social Responsibility: Selections From CQ Researcher. London: SAGE. Dodds, F and Pippard, T. 2013. Human and Environmental Security: An Agenda for Change. London: Routledge. Elworthy, S and Holder, J. 1997. Environmental Protection: Text and Materials. London: Cambridge University Press. Hay, B. Stavins, R. and Vietor, R. 2005. Environmental Protection and the Social Responsibility of Firms: Perspectives from Law, Economics, and Business. America: Resources for the Future. Idowu, S and Louche, C. 2011. Theory and Practice of Corporate Social Responsibility. London: Springer. Louche, C. Idowu, S and Filho, W. 2010. Innovative CSR: From Risk Management to Value Creation. London: Greenleaf Publishing. Perez, M and Leonard, L. 2013. Principles and Strategies to Balance Ethical, Social and Environmental Concerns with Corporate Requirements. London: Emerald Group Publishing Portney, P and Stavins, R. 2000. Public Policies for Environmental Protection. London: Resources for the Future. Salcines, J. Babiak, J and Walters, G. 2013. Routledge Handbook of Sport and Corporate Social Responsibility. Kent: Routledge. Shastri, S.C. 2005. Environmental Law. India: Eastern Book Company. ShivaRamu, S. 2000. Corporate Crisis Management: Challenges for Survival. New Delhi: Response Books. Steinberg, P and VanDeveer, S. 2012. Comparative Environmental Politics: Theory, Practice, and Prospects. London: MIT Press. Read More