Are Companies Fulfilling Their Social and Environmental Responsibilities as Mandated by the Sustainable Development Goals? by Shaohao WU

s8079520 — 2024-10-15 12:23:43 UTC

The ethical decision-making behavior of the enterprise affects the company's reputation and customer trust. Moral management helps to build long-term business success and good social relationships. Nowadays, environmental problems are becoming more and more serious, “steel, cement, paper, plastic, and aluminium creates 55% of CO2 worldwide”(Opoku et al., 2022, p.1). Carbon dioxide affects the balance of the ecological environment, which requires enterprises to make correct ethical decisions in the production process. The purpose of this padlet is to examine the ethical dimensions around production and consumption. In this analysis, it will be linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12, and the ethical theory of egoism and utilitarianism will be brought to the forefront.

s8079520 — 2024-10-15 12:36:19 UTC

An article titled “Sustainable development goal disclosures: Do they support responsible consumption and production ?”, was written in 2020 by Juniati Gunawan, Paulina Permatasari and Carol Tilt. The journal article focuses on whether corporate social activities of Indonesian companies support sustainable development goals, particularly responsible consumption and production. The ethical issue here is whether companies are fulfilling their social and environmental responsibilities as mandated by the sustainable development goals. In the context of global challenges such as environmental degradation and social inequality, the sustainable development goals were established to guide sustainable development. Corporate social activities is considered a crucial tool for companies to contribute to these goals. The analysis of the Indonesian company reports reveals several key points. As mentioned in the text, “companies are expected to go beyond just their responsibility to shareholders, but must broaden out to relevant stakeholders, by treating the environment properly and not damaging it for the sake of present and future generations”(Gunawan et al., 2020, p.3). The social activities of some enterprises are in line with the sustainable development goals, reflecting the assumption of social and environmental responsibility. For example, in terms of SDG 12, the enterprise has waste management and other activities. However, Some companies may be for the sake of short - term economic interests, such as reducing costs and increasing sales, while ignoring the support for SDGs. These enterprises may be reluctant to invest in environmental protection equipment or sustainable production technologies. They only consider the benefits of the company in the short term and ignore the overall social interests in the long term. This suggests that companies still have ethical flaws in fully fulfilling their social and environmental obligations.

SDG 12

s8079520 — 2024-10-15 12:51:01 UTC

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals established in 2015, to address the social, economic and environmental challenges in the world. The goal is to achieve global sustainable development by 2030 and promote inclusive and equitable development(United Nations, n.d.). Among them, SDG 12 aims to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. Its main goal is to promote sustainable economic growth by increasing the efficiency of resource use and reducing waste generation.

Analysis of UN SDG

s8079520 — 2024-10-15 12:54:04 UTC

Although some enterprises have made positive reforms, progress in achieving sustainable development goals is relatively low. There are many factors that affect the achievement of the goal. The first one is that some enterprises ignore their environmental responsibilities in order to pursue short-term economic interests. This typical selfishness affects the implementation of the goal. Secondly, some enterprises have made efforts to achieve responsible production, but consumers hinder the process of the goal in terms of action. As Tanner and Kast said, “there is a strong moral stance on sustainability and support for sustainable practice, with practice considerably limited”(Hume, 2010, p.392). Young consumers have a certain understanding of sustainability, but their actual consumption behavior is far from meeting the standards of sustainability. For example, some people do not take environmental protection measures such as recycling waste, and some people waste food. Therefore, in order to achieve the goal, enterprise and customers need to work together.

Egoism

s8079520 — 2024-10-16 06:09:54 UTC

Egoism refers to the ideology and code of conduct that only cares about one’s own interests and ignores the interests of others and interests of the collective. It believes that personal interests are above all else. For egoists, they find it difficult to act environmentally, and that their efforts are meaningless unless others do the same things. Egoists are reluctant to make sacrifices for environmental protection, believing that they have the ability to cope with the consequences of environmental changes. As Norman Bowie said, “legal harm to the environment caused by business is regarded as morally permissible by society”(Arnold & Bustos, 2005, P.108). For example, from the perspective of egoism theory, some enterprises, even though they know that their carbon emission behaviors will lead to global climate change, still continue to pursue maximum profit and are unwilling to take active measures to reduce carbon emissions. The production activities of these enterprises do not fulfill their social and environmental responsibilities.

utilitarianism

s8079520 — 2024-10-16 06:10:37 UTC

For utilitarianism, it prioritizes actions that maximize overall happiness. It asserts that the best action is the one that produces the greatest good for the greatest number of people. For utilitarians, individual interests are important but should be weighed against the collective welfare. They advocate for decisions that promote the most favorable outcomes for society as a whole, often emphasizing the importance of making sacrifices when necessary to achieve greater benefits for the majority. In the journal, “ Indonesian companies tendency is to disclosure comprehensively sustainable consumption and production linked directly to their business activities”(Gunawan et al., 2020, p.11). This shows that enterprises recognize the long-term benefits of sustainable development goals and hope to achieve energy conservation and emission reduction through the use of new technologies. When a company decides to produce and sell environmentally friendly and socially responsible products, it can be seen as fully complying with utilitarian principles. This is mainly because such actions can generate greater benefits by effectively reducing negative impacts on the environment and society. If a company persists in engaging in behavior that is blatantly harmful to the environment, it will undoubtedly be considered immoral. This is because, in the long run, it will have an irreversible impact on the environment and affect the sustainable production of enterprises.

s8079520 — 2024-10-16 06:58:44 UTC

Arnold, D. G., & Bustos, K. (2005). Business, ethics, and global climate change. Business & Professional Ethics Journal, 24(1/2), 103-130. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27801374

Gunawan, J., Permatasari, P., & Tilt, C. (2020). Sustainable development goal disclosures: Do they support responsible consumption and production?. Journal of Cleaner Production, 246, 118989.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652619338594?via%3Dihub

Hume, M. (2010). Compassion without action: Examining the young consumers consumption and attitude to sustainable consumption. Journal of World Business, 45(3), 385 - 394.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2009.08.007

Opoku, A., Deng, J., Elmualim, A., Ekung, S., Hussien, A. A., & Abdalla, S. B. (2022). Sustainable procurement in construction and the realisation of the sustainable development goal (SDG) 12. Journal of cleaner production, 376, 134294.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652622038665?via%3Dihub

United Nations. (n.d.). The 17 goals | sustainable development. United Nations. https://sdgs.un.org/goals

s8079520 — 2024-10-16 08:47:17 UTC

The padlet focuses on the role of ethics in business, particularly in relation to sustainable consumption and production. It begins by highlighting the importance of moral management for business success and social relations. The padlet analyzed shows that some Indonesian companies support SDG 12 through activities like waste management, but others fall short due to short-term economic interests. Then egoism and utilitarianism theories are discussed, with egoists often neglecting environmental responsibilities and utilitarians advocating for actions that benefit society. Finally, the ethical issues of the enterprise are analysed by linking the sustainable development goals. Overall, the issue is crucial globally as it affects environmental balance and sustainable development. It also has implications for economic growth and social equality. To achieve SDG 12, businesses and consumers need to take ethical action and work together to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

Volkswagen emissions cheating incident

s8079520 — 2024-10-16 09:28:44 UTC

The cheating behavior of Volkswagen clearly reflects egoism. For its own economic interests, the company does not hesitate to violate moral and legal regulations and put its own interests above social interests and consumer interests. This behavior only considers the interests of the company itself and ignores the impact on other stakeholders. After the cheating behavior of Volkswagen was exposed, it faced huge fines, legal lawsuits and serious reputation losses. In the long run, this has caused great damage to the interests of the entire society, including continuous pollution to the environment and a reduction in consumers' trust in the automotive industry, which violates the principle of utilitarianism that pursues the maximization of overall social happiness. At the same time, enterprises have not been responsible in production, which has led to the influx of cars that do not meet emission standards into the market, increasing environmental pollution and violating the concept of sustainable development.