The Management of Green and Ethical Issues Essay

The Management of Green and Ethical Issues - Essay Example The Stern report points out that it is necessary for the energy sector to cut down the use of fossil fuels by 60% to retain the atmospheric balance. So, in the energy sector, there is the threat of water pollution, air pollution, and depletion of fossil fuel that is non-replaceable (Stern Review final report, HM Treasury). So, evidently, it is high time for businesses to look for alternative energy sources. Some other important environmental issues caused by businesses are the huge production of waste, water pollution, air pollution, and the loss of land and biodiversity. Probably because of this understanding, more and more consumers are going green. It is probably this realisation that made many companies to think about environmentally sustainable ways of operation. In other words, many companies presently think it is important to have an impressive range of environment protection measures as a part of their corporate social responsibility. A study by Hurst (2004) identified that a considerable proportion of leadership companies presently identify the value of taking care of environmental issues and the value of assessing their own performance on a regular basis. Corporate reputation Evidently, the first benefit associated with going green is the improvement in a company’s corporate reputation. It is seen that large high profile companies are effectively utilising an attractive CSR that helps the company enjoy a considerably greater reputation that it cannot normally achieve. A perfect example for this is the beauty and cosmetics giant The Body Shop (Values Report, 2009). The company, from its very inception, stood firm on certain ethical and environmental principles. For example, it is against animal testing, artificial ingredients, environmental degradation, and forced labour. The company claims itself to be carbon-free, and it advocates fair trade and fair price, along with the concept of community trade which ensures that the company procures its ingredients from marginalised producers (ibid). If someone thinks that all these cost the company a lot as this would make the company’s products expensive, the exact opposite is true. The companyâ€⠄¢s surveys show that 89% of its customers value the company’s ethical activities highly (ibid). Financial benefits According to USA Today reports, many companies have realised how to make money or save money through environmentally sustainable practices. For example, the Sun Microsystems saved hundreds of millions of dollars through the introduction of telecommuting (Sun’s open work energy measurement project, 2009). However, the industry that is benefiting the most from the green revolution is the hotel business. For example, the Holiday Inn on King in Toronto saved nearly $ 14,852 in a year by introducing low-flow