Ethical Energy - Case Study Example

 Contents Executive Summary……………………………………………………….page 3 Introduction…………………………………………………………………page 3 - 4 Main Body…………………………………………………………………...page 4 - 5 Discussion…………………………………………………………………..page 6 - 9 Conclusions………………………………………………………………....page 9 Recommendations………………………………………………………….page 10 - 11 References…………………………………………………………………..page 12 Executive Summary Energy crisis is one of the most important issues the modern world is facing. Though we have lot of energy sources, most of them cause environmental pollutions and hence we have to concentrate more on the non polluting energy sources. The short term benefits of the cheaply priced energy sources will have negative impacts on the human life after a certain period. The selection and utilization of the energy sources should be done judiciously. Business tycoons will concentrate only on their profits rather than the impacts of their activities upon the society in future. They will definitely try to exploit the uneducated people’s unawareness about the potential dangers of their activities in the label of energy supply. In business most of the people sacrifice ethics or morality to exploit the natural resources. So it is the government’s duty to identify the short term and long term challenges of each of the new projects, before the implementation. Introduction Energy is an important requirement to run any industry. We can depend, so many sources for generating energy. The production cost of some of them may be less and while the others may have large production costs. It is not wise to select a cheaper energy source simply because of the lower production cost. Each energy sources must be studied thoroughly for their production costs and also the other impacts such sources created to the environment. It is not wise to embrace the cheaper bids without having a detailed study about the proposal and also about the possible benefits and drawbacks both short term and long term. Main Body “A social system is a complex set of human relationships interacting in many ways. Within an organization, the social system includes all the people in it and their relationships to each other and to the outside world. The behavior of one member can have an impact, either directly or indirectly, on the behavior of others. Also, the social system does not have boundaries...it exchanges goods, ideas, culture, etc. with the environment around it.”(Organizational Behavior, 1998) An organization should have a social commitment. None of its activities should be harmful to either the society or the environment. The thirst for profit should never encourage them to make compromise on business ethics or moral standards. For a long term association with people and also for building up a brand impression, the organizations must concentrate on building the ethical standards. They must acquire the confidence of the people in their activities. “Organizational Behavior (OB) is the study and application of knowledge about how people, individuals, and groups act in organizations. It does this by taking a system approach. That is, it interprets people-organization relationships in terms of the whole person, whole group, whole organization, and whole social system. Its purpose is to build better relationships by achieving human objectives, organizational objectives, and social objectives. The organization's base rests on management's philosophy, values, vision and goals. This in turn drives the organizational culture which is composed of the formal organization, informal organization, and the social environment. The culture determines the type of leadership, communication, and group dynamics within the organization. The workers perceive this as the quality of work life which directs their degree of motivation. The final outcomes are performance, individual satisfaction, and personal growth and development. All these elements combine to build the model or framework that the organization operates from.”(Organizational Behavior, 1998) The principles of organizational behavior have undergone major changes in the current century. The autocratic methods adopted in the employer-employee relationships have given way for democratic approaches. The organizational structure itself has been changed a lot. More and more worker involvement is allowed in the decision or policy making bodies of the companies. The blind policies for harvesting profits by sacrificing all the other business ethics or moralities have been changed a lot. Social objectives have been given more preferences in the current century. People are well aware of the negative impacts caused by the visionless industrialization. They are more aware of the long term negative impacts caused by the excessive industrialization to the environment. So they support only the environment friendly business ideas. So in order to sustain an energy sector industry, especially in a poor country, the ethical standard should be strictly observed. Discussion The energy sources can be classified into two categories; renewable and non renewable energy sources. Some of the energy sources are environment friendly while the others cause environment pollution. Bio-fuels, Biomass, Geothermal, Hydro power, Solar power, Tidal power, Wave power, Wind power etc are examples of renewable energies. Renewable energy sources can be made again naturally in a short period of time. Energies produced from sources like Hydro power, Solar power, Tidal power, Wave power, Wind power etc will never have any bad impacts on environment under any circumstances. “Renewable energy refers to wind energy, methane capture, solar, geothermal and other clean energy sources. Energy generated from clean sources like these reduce the need to generate that same energy from dirty sources like coal or gas. Developing clean energy projects isn’t as cheap as building new coal power plants, at least not yet. That’s why it’s important for project developers to have access to additional streams of revenue other than the electricity they get to sell.” (Renewable Energy, 2003) The cost of production of energy from clean sources may be bit high compared to other sources. But when we compare the environmental problems generated by the dirty energy sources, this increase in cost of production of energy from clean sources is justified. The environmental impacts are not limited to the present human life alone, but it is a serious threat to the future human life as well. Instead of neglecting the clean energy sources simply because of the excess cost of production, we have to consider making additional revenue from the associated projects to make it profitable. For example, in hydro electric projects, the water coming out after the generation of electricity can be used for agricultural needs. The government should consider the revenue obtaining from the power project and the associated agricultural sector, together while calculating the success of the hydroelectric project. The less environmental impacts of the projects also should be considered, while comparing such projects with cheaper projects. Fossil fuels (such as coal, petroleum and natural gas) and nuclear fuel are some examples of non renewable energy sources. These energy sources are called nonrenewable, because they cannot be made again in a short period of time. Most of the renewable energy sources are environment friendly while most of the non renewable energy sources make harmful effects to the environment. “Nonrenewable energy sources come out of the ground as liquids, gases and solids. Right now, crude oil (petroleum) is the only naturally liquid commercial fossil fuel. Natural gas and propane are normally gases, and coal is a solid. Coal, petroleum, natural gas, and propane are all considered fossil fuels because they formed from the buried remains of plants and animals that lived millions of years ago.  Uranium ore, a solid, is mined and converted to a fuel. Uranium is not a fossil fuel” (Nonrenewable Energy) But the process of energy production from nuclear fuels and the refining of crude oil to produce petrol or diesel have negative impacts on the environment. The radiations emitting from the nuclear wastes after the production of nuclear power causes immense threat to the environment. The world is already debating the safety of disposing the nuclear wastes in our planet. The nuclear wastes coming out after the production of nuclear energy will be radioactive materials. Such materials have thousands of years life and hence it will emit harmful radiations till it is completely exhausted and hence disposing it on earth’s surface is not at all safe. Scientists are even thinking in terms of disposing the nuclear wastes in outer universe because of the immense threat such wastes can cause to the living things on earth. The green house gases such as carbon dioxide and methane are liberated in excess at the time of the refining process of the crude oil. These gases are extremely dangerous to the ozone layer which protects us from the dangerous outer universe radiations. The ozone layer is already thinned to an alarming level because of the excess carbon dioxide and other toxic gas contents in the atmosphere. The earth’s surface temperature has been increased around 0.750 C during the last century ending in 2005, as per the statistics collected by the scientists. It is likely to rise further 1.1 to 6.40 C during the twenty- first century. Studies showed that warming and sea level rise may continue for more than 1000 years even if we manage to stabilize the greenhouse gas levels. Increased global temperature can cause sea levels to raise, increased extreme weather intensities, changes in agricultural yields etc. Greenhouse warming of the earth’s atmosphere would eventually increase the temperature of the ocean, and seawater, like most other substances, expands when heated. That thermal expansion of the ocean might be sufficient to raise sea level by about 30 centimeters or more in the next 100 years. (Schneider, David, 1997) The overall rise of sea level by 30 centimeters will sink the cities which are below or around the sea level. More over the handling and control of energy production from such sources are extremely difficult and any one wrong step may result in severe causalities of human life. So while selecting new power projects, such negative impacts also should be evaluated carefully. Conclusions Energy sources are of two types; renewable types and non renewable types. Most of the renewable sources of energy are though bit expensive; they are environment friendly and will bring long term benefits compared to other sources. The cost of production alone should never guide us while selecting an energy project. Each project must be analyzed thoroughly for their benefits both in terms of long term and short term before giving approval. The projects which are dealing with renewable energy sources must be encouraged more. The business people will always consider their benefits only rather than the negative impacts their projects may cause to the environment or human life. Recommendations Before the implementation of a power project, the following key criteria should be observed. The project must be: Real: The project must generate the expected carbon offsets and reductions. Surplus: It must be additional to any mandated or regulated offsets, reductions or green power requirements. Verifiable: It must be certified to ensure against double counting. Permanent: It must permanently reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Additional: And it must be above and beyond business as usual, as defined by each certification body. Other key criteria include location, technology, price, market transformation potential, certification, etc. (Carbon Offset Project Selection, 2003) The expense factor alone should never guide us in selecting a power project. The natural energy sources, such as wind energy, tidal energy, wave energy, solar power, hydro power etc. should be given priority, if possible irrespective of the expense factor because of the less environmental pollution involved in such processes. Since these energy sources are renewable the investments on such projects will give us long time benefits though it may be expensive at the time of implementation. Other cheaper power projects may exhausted after a certain time period and the investments on such projects will be wasted after some time. So the investments on renewable energy sources must be encouraged keeping in mind about the usefulness of such projects on long term basis. Ethical Energy 12 References 1. Organizational Behavior (March 19, 1998,) Accessed on 6/1/09 2. Renewable Energy ( 2003) Accessed on 6/1/09 3. Carbon Offset Project Selection, 2003 Accessed on 6/1/09 4. Schneider, David- The Rising Seas (1997) Scientific American. March 1997, Volume 276, Number 3. pp. 112-117 5. Nonrenewable Energy Accessed on 6/1/09 Read More