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This paper examines corporate greed as a significant business ethics issue and its profound implications for achieving Sustainable Development Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. The analysis covers the intersection of unethical business practices with sustainability objectives, explores a relevant academic journal article on organized carelessness in business, applies ethical theories to understand the underlying dynamics, and demonstrates how corporate avarice impedes global sustainability efforts. Ethics in business constitutes a foundational element for sustainable development, particularly as corporations wield substantial power over global consumption patterns, production methods, and resource distribution. When corporate priorities prioritize profit maximization above all else, the resulting practices can undermine environmental sustainability, social equity, and the very foundations of responsible business conduct necessary for achieving SDG 12.

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The journal article "Organized Carelessness: De-ethicizing the Organization of Death" by Matthias Wenzel (2025) examines how organizations systematically eliminate ethical considerations from their operations, particularly in contexts where care and sensitivity are paramount.  Published in Business Ethics Quarterly, this study uses funeral services as a case study to demonstrate how processes of sequestration, deauthorization, reskilling, and moralization collectively strip away ethical choices from organizational practices.  Wenzel describes organized carelessness as "little, if any, sensitivity or responses to the specific needs of the dying, their carers, the bereaved" in organizational settings.

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This concept relates directly to corporate greed and SDG 12 by revealing how organizations can deliberately structure their operations to minimize ethical considerations while maximizing efficiency and profit.  The elimination of ethical sensitivity towards human needs mirrors how corporations often disregard environmental and social considerations in pursuit of financial gains.  Wenzel's framework helps explain how otherwise ethical individuals within corporate structures can participate in systems that ignore the sustainability implications of their business practices, particularly those related to responsible production and consumption.  The study provides a theoretical foundation for understanding how organizations can normalize irresponsible practices through systematic de-ethicizing processes, making unsustainable consumption and production appear as inevitable business necessities rather than ethical choices.

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Two ethical theories from business ethics literature help illuminate the corporate greed phenomenon and its relationship to SDG 12: integrated social contracts theory and care ethics.

Integrated social contracts theory (ISCT) proposes that businesses operate within a hypothetical social contract requiring them to adhere to ethical norms beyond mere legal compliance.  This theory recognizes both hypernorms (universal ethical principles) and micro-social contracts (specific community norms) as guiding business behavior.  Corporate greed, as demonstrated in cases like ANZ Bank's false reporting and Qantas' unlawful termination of employees, violates these hypernorms by prioritizing profit over fundamental responsibilities to stakeholders.  In relation to SDG 12, ISCT suggests that businesses have a social contract obligation to pursue sustainable production methods even when not legally mandated.  The "vile maxim" that Adam Smith criticized—"All for ourselves and nothing for other people"—exemplifies the violation of this social contract, where corporate interests override broader societal needs for sustainable resource management and responsible consumption.

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Care ethics, focusing on maintaining relationships through responsiveness to needs and compassion, provides another lens for understanding corporate greed's impact on sustainability.  Wenzel's concept of "organized carelessness" directly draws from care ethics to explain how organizations de-prioritize human needs.  When applied to SDG 12, care ethics emphasizes our responsibility to current and future generations in conserving resources and minimizing environmental harm.  Corporate greed represents a failure of care—for communities, ecosystems, and future generations—in favor of immediate financial gains.  The case of ANZ Bank charging fees to deceased customers exemplifies this carelessness, showing how profit motives can override even basic human dignity.  Similarly, unsustainable production patterns reflect a careless relationship with the environment and future generations who will inherit the ecological consequences of current corporate practices.

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Corporate greed directly impedes the implementation of SDG 12 (Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns) through multiple mechanisms. Target 12.2 specifically calls for achieving sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources, while target 12.6 encourages companies to adopt sustainable practices and integrate sustainability information into their reporting. Corporate greed fundamentally opposes these targets by prioritizing short-term profits over long-term sustainability.

Recent cases from Australia illustrate this conflict. ANZ Bank pursued record profits while engaging in widespread misconduct including false reporting and charging fees to deceased customers. Similarly, Qantas achieved record financial results alongside unlawful employment practices. These examples demonstrate how corporate avarice leads businesses to prioritize financial gains over social and environmental responsibilities, directly undermining SDG 12's emphasis on sustainable business practices. As noted in the research on strategic shame management, sustainable production requires closing the gap between consumer demand for environmentally harmful products and manufacturers' sustainable practices. Corporate greed perpetuates this gap by resisting transparency and prioritizing profitable but unsustainable production methods.

The connection between corporate greed and unsustainable consumption patterns is equally significant. As noted in UN documentation, "sustainable consumption and production is about doing more and better with less". Corporate greed encourages the opposite—doing less with more—by externalizing environmental costs while internalizing profits. The pursuit of record profits often relies on planned obsolescence, overpackaging, encouraging wasteful consumption, and resisting circular economy initiatives that might reduce revenue streams. This directly contradicts target 12.5's aim to substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling, and reuse.

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For those seeking to deepen their understanding of corporate greed's relationship to sustainability and ethical business practices, the following resources provide valuable insights:

United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12 Overview

This official UN page provides comprehensive details about SDG 12 targets and indicators, offering essential context for understanding how business practices impact sustainability goals.

"Strategic shame management" Research

This study explores how quantifying ecological footprints can stimulate consumer guilt and manufacturer shame to drive sustainable behavior, offering potential solutions to counter corporate greed through behavioral interventions.

"Organized Carelessness: De-ethicizing the Organization of Death"

The full article by Wenzel provides deeper insight into how organizations systematically eliminate ethical considerations from their operations, creating frameworks that enable irresponsible practices.

United Nations Global Compact Principles

These principles provide guidelines for businesses seeking to align their operations with ethical standards and sustainability goals, particularly relevant for companies aiming to counteract greedy tendencies through responsible practices.

These resources collectively illuminate the systemic nature of corporate greed, its ethical implications, and potential pathways toward more sustainable business models aligned with SDG 12.

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Corporate greed represents a fundamental barrier to achieving SDG 12 and broader sustainability objectives. This analysis has demonstrated how organized carelessness in corporate structures systematically eliminates ethical considerations from business decisions, leading to unsustainable production and consumption patterns. Through the lenses of integrated social contracts theory and care ethics, we can understand how profit maximization absent ethical constraints violates businesses' social responsibilities and demonstrates a failure of care for communities, ecosystems, and future generations. The cases of ANZ Bank and Qantas illustrate how even prominent corporations can prioritize record profits over basic ethical conduct, highlighting the pervasive nature of this issue.

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The bigger picture importance of addressing corporate greed extends from local communities to global systems. For Australia, as evidenced by the cases discussed, unchecked corporate avarice risks entrenching unsustainable economic patterns while increasing inequality and environmental degradation. Globally, the pursuit of profit without ethical constraints directly undermines international sustainability targets, particularly SDG 12's vision of responsible consumption and production. Achieving meaningful progress on sustainability requires confronting the organizational structures and ethical frameworks that enable corporate greed to flourish. This entails strengthening regulatory environments, promoting ethical business cultures, and supporting transparency mechanisms that align corporate behavior with societal needs for sustainable development. Only by addressing these foundational ethical issues can we hope to establish the sustainable consumption and production patterns essential for our collective future.

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Rhodes, C. (2025, September 27). Record profits, record fines: Corporate greed is putting Australians in crisis. Independent Australia.

https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/record-profits-record-fines-corporate-greed-is-putting-australians-in-crisis,20209

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Strategic shame management – Leveraging individual footprints to nudge sustainable development goal 12. (2025, June 18). Sustainable Production and Consumption.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352550925000922?via%3Dihub

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United Nations. (n.d.). Sustainable Development Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production. United Nations China. Retrieved September 29, 2025, from

https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/goal-12-ensuring-sustainable-consumption-and-production-patterns-essential-requirement-sustainable

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Wenzel, M. (2025). Organized carelessness: De-ethicizing the organization of death. Business Ethics Quarterly. Advance online publication.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/business-ethics-quarterly/article/organized-carelessness-deethicizing-the-organization-of-death/C4901980523396BF4378CB26A67D0614