Environmental Ethics and Corporate Responsibility

Environmental ethics is becoming an important issue for many companies and businesses as there is a greater push for corporate responsibility. Leaders of organizations of all sizes and in all sectors face a growing number of issues related to ethical behavior, particularly in terms of environmental responsibility. As global understanding of the significant ecological and environmental ethics issues we face expands and moves to the forefront of debates, it is even more important for leaders to take action to both remedy the causes of the problem and to act as models for other organizations and individuals. Although there are many examples of responsible corporate and organizational environmental governance and behavior, there is yet to emerge a global initiative aimed at changing the face of environmentally ethical and responsible action that will promote further corporate responsibility. This lack of understanding of issues of environmental ethics and corporate responsibility occurs for a number of a reasons, one of which could be because of a lack of global consensus on the importance of taking the necessary steps to remedy the problem. As one scholar notes, "In our pluralistic societies, there is no uncontested common ethical ground in general and no undisputed conception of environmental responsibility in particular" (Enderle 2006) and as a result there is little unified action. If this assessment is valid then it is necessary to first define a clear set of issues and resolutions that organizations and leaders can agree upon.