Environmental Sustainability Programs - Essay Example

ENVIRONMETNAL SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAMS BY BP Introduction The issue of change in the environment has been one of the most daunting tasks that many organizations have to deal with. At the turn of the last century, there was increasing awareness of the changes that were taking place in the environment and therefore there was increasing need for the organizations especially those in the business world to come up with a more practical way to deal with these issues. (Arthur, 2003; Avery, 2000) British Petroleum otherwise known as BP has been one of those companies that have taken initiative of addressing the changes that were taking place in the environment. Therefore the decision by the company to take action on environmental issue was not coincidental but a long process aimed at retaining its reputation in the market and at the same time retaining itself in business. It is in the reasoning with the teleological ethics which calls fro moral obligation towards a desirable good end of any process that the company has acted on the environmental consequence of its business as a part of its moral obligation. Let us look at the initiatives that BP has taken towards addressing the issue of the changes in the environment. (Shah, 2003) Outlook at BP BP traces its existence from 1908 when it was involved in the search for oil in the rugged part of Persia after it conducted a long and difficult search for the precious commodity. Since then the company has been able to propel through the years with use of superior technology and good management practices to a global company that it is now. (BP, 2008e) It has different products for the road for home and for business. On the road the company provides BP gas cards, Fuel and stations, motor oil and lubricants, route planner, station locator and target neutral. On our homes the company provides liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and solar which are important sources of energy for our homes. Fore the business field, the company has an array of product like air BP, ARCO Aluminium, Aromatics and Acetyls, Asphalt and Bitumen, BP Crude, BP Franchising, BP gas cards, Gas and power, Industrial Lubricants, Invoice tracking system, Marine fuel and lubricants, and solar. . BP and the environment One of the biggest challenges that the company faced by the turn of the century was increasing criticism from many parts of the world on the way it was responding to the changes that were taking place in the environment. It was a challenge that the company had to take initiatives in since it was a threat to its line business. (Thompson, 2001) The company was faced with an ethical dilemma of continuing with its business amid the outcry from the public on the effects of fossil fuel on the environment. Its direct line of business was being affected and it had to do something. Since the company also understood the effects of the fossil fuels on the environment, there were not many alternatives to the problem and therefore the best way to deal with the problem was to do something about it. It had to stay in business despite the effects it was making on the environment. In light of the deontological ethical theory that dictates that obligatory or the duty that we have, the company had to come up with a way of dealing with the problem. Following the postulation of the theory, the line of business of the company was legal and justified in driving the economic system of the world. But at the same time it the consequences of het action were right and wrong at the same time. They were right in the sense that we all depend on fossil fuel as a source of energy and wrong in the sense that they are polluting the environment. The more the company tried to apply these ethical theories, the more complex the matter became and the more the dilemma. Environment and society In order to address the changes that were taking place in the environment and to play a role in the society, the company started environment and society program. Although the program started on a small scale it has expanded in the recent times and it covers all part of the word. This problem has been one of the most important way in the company has shown the solidarity with the plight of the world especially on environment matters. Environment project in Papua New Guinea This was project that has been aimed at ensuring that there is a clean environment in the transport to oil production. Under the project tanker leaving Bintini Bay for Mexico would logically head north in the existing ship lane. But because this lane crossed an important ecosystem in the world which is Raja Ampat which is a home to several turtles and dolphins and a migratory passage for protected whales, the company has performed a risk assessment projects on other option routes in order to avert from taking tankers on these route. BP Indonesia will have to use another route detouring some 550 km in order to avoid Raja Ampat. (BP, 2008d) Reducing carbon dioxide emission in china China which is one of the rapidly growing economies in the world has been faced by a challenge of developing cleaner energy and reducing carbon dioxide emission due to the growing number of city residents. BP Zhuhai PTA plant has been coming up with a program that is expected to act as an example to other companies on how they can engage constructively in the preservation of the environment. This is in consideration that many companies in china still use coal and heavy oil as source of energy. (BP, 2008c) Therefore BP has come up with a heat recovery projects which allows the plant to optimize the use of steam in order to reduce LPG consumption as a way of saving the expensive energy. It has been reported that this has been one of other significant types that have been taken to reduce energy consumption and emission of CO2 in the environment. Working with nature on remediation projects - Alaska Every winter, the remote Alaskan Tundra is frozen. BP America has been dispatching specialists in the area in order to remove gravel, drill cutting and other wastes which are produced in the earliest days when oil exploration was taking place in the area. The team is guided by engineers and it has one mission of ensuring there is a stepwise clean up of the environment in order to reduce the level of emission. Up to now, the team has achieved a 40% clean up and restoration of the region under an agreement that was made between BP America and the State of Alaska. The team will be returning to the site on regular basis until it completes all the work of cleaning the area. (BP, 2008b) In Algeria it is a duty of reducing environmental liabilities BP has been having an important operation in Algeria which is aimed at reducing environment liabilities. It has been working to mitigate soil and ground water impacts from its operations by taking an approach of embedding liability prevention processes and tools to the planning and operations of the clean up agenda. Working closely with State oil company Sonatrach and Norway Statoil, the company has set objective of doing the best possible on the environment and moving forward with appropriate actions in order to take liability that were inherited from the previous operations. The project identifies the potential cause of soil and ground water liability during the life cycles in the operation. (BP, 2008a) Conclusion At the turn of the century, there has been increasing demands from the customers to have an eco-friendly initiative. As such many companies took to the concept of corporate social responsibility as a way of responding to the needs of the consumer. CSR has been an important tool that has enabled companies to practice ethics in their operation and to respond to the demands of the consumers. Reference Arnold, M. (19980. The Next Bottom Line; World Resources Institute, Washington Arthur, L. (2003). The business case of corporate social responsibility; Harvard Business Press Avery, C. (2000). Business rights in the time of change. London: Rutledge BP, (2008a): Reducing environment liabilities in Algeria. Retrieved from http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.docategoryId=9021307&contentId=7039387 on 5th May 2007 BP, (2008b): Working with nature on remediation projects in Alaska. Retrieved from http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.docategoryId=9021030&contentId=7039187on 5th May 2007 BP, (2008c): Reducing CO2 emission and saving energy in China. Retrieved from http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.docategoryId=9021026&contentId=7039200on 5th May 2007 BP, (2008d): Operating in an environmentally sensitive area in Papua. Retrieved from http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.docategoryId=9021025&contentId=7039199 on 5th May 2007 BP, (2008e): About BP. Retrieved from http://www.bp.com/marketingsection.docategoryId=2&contentId=7013628 on 5th May 2007 Shah, T. (2003): CRS in corporations. Oxford University Press Thompson, J. (2001). Social Responsibility and Business; Journal of Business Management, Vol. 3(2): 3-9 Dear Writer, Thank you for sending the file , however I have some comments on the way that the questions were answered which I would love you to have a look at before resolving them and sending back: - First I asked for 1500 words and the file I recieved is more than 2000 words. - The background on the organisation is too long, although I asked for a very short one. -No critical evaluation of the ethical dilemmas within the organization was available. as it was (descriptive ) -No Ethical theories and approaches were mentioned such as Teleological theories, Deontological Theories, etc. -Please also consider an evaluation of possible ways in which the dilemmas can be managed and resolved. Thanks for you cooperation. Read More