Research Methods Ethical Social Environmental

Question: Discuss about the Research Methods for Ethical Social Environmental. Answer: Introduction: The ulterior motive of any private organization is profit maximization, but in the rush of earning an enormous amount of revenue, companies often tend to overlook the duties and responsibilities it has towards maintaining ecological balance on the earth. ECSR is a recently emerging issue whereby an organization incorporates the idea of environmental concern in the process of making business. An organization, in the process of production of goods, often ends up in contaminating the environment, and this is highly detrimental to the growth of the company, as it depends largely on the natural resources of the environment, and even this whole thing begets the organization negative reputation in the consumer market. Although the government as well as the EPA authority has already taken sufficient measures to control the emission rates as well as the waste disposal methods by these industries, studies suggest that a huge number of organizations, finding the ECSR completely a voluntary thin g, rather than a mandate, are neglecting it to a considerable extent (Fernandez et al. 2014). Discussion: As the Forbes Magazine suggests, most of the organizations are reluctant to follow the environmental laws and regulations, largely because these are not very cost-effective methods; thus although by following these regulations, an industry can maintain the ecological balance on the planet, it may end up incurring a considerable amount of expenditure. This is the reason , why many small and medium scale industries are making news for not following the norms of ECSR properly. Even some reputed organizations, have also made news for discarding the policies, as was the case with BP, whose indifference to environmental issues led to a huge amount of oil spill with the oil flowing from the Macondo well , and contaminating the Gulf of Mexico. Many recent studies have suggested that the desirable result achieved by the medium scale organizations, through the implementation of ECSR, is more of illusory nature. This is because, since ECSR is more of a voluntary process, many organizations may claim to their stakeholders about their environmental conscious efforts, and yet put less significant efforts to achieve the same. There is no separate panel, in most of the organizations, to monitor and supervise their activities, and as Mazurkiewicz, asserts, no one is entrusted with the duty of verifying as to how far the organizations are keeping up with the assurance standards of the Environmental Protection Act (Yadava et al. 2015). Walmart is one of the most internationally reputed retail chain of supermarkets, and yet it was recently alleged of having employees who are dumping randomly the waste products and contaminating the roads as well as the sewer systems of California and Missouri. Further, the organization has also being charged with the accusation that it has dumped fertilizers, pesticides as well as harmful bleaches in the water channels, thereby not only polluting them, but also causing a huge damage to the marine creatures (Prieto et al. 2014). However, on the contrary, there are organizations, as well, which are investing sufficiently to ensure that their production process does not intervene with the question of ecological sustainability (Lu et al. 2016). Some companies actually have understood over the years, that high rate of ECSR implies greater amount of public recognition, whereby the organizations succeed in creating a goodwill in the minds of the potential consumers. In addition, this can help them innovate and develop more fully in a sustainable environment. Companies having green labels, are capable of attracting greater number of potential consumers. Microsoft offers a glaring example here, as it conserves, reuses as well as recycles the natural resources; further the company also uses energy efficient methods of production, and issues a carbon fee, in case the emission of total carbon released by the companys activities exceed the limit. Above all, the company has also created its official site, called Microsof t Environment, meant only for updating its consumers about the environmental efforts, and this helps the company keep a positive reputation in the consumer market (Alves et al. 2015). Coca Cola is another multinational company, which also proves to be a good exception. The management authority of the company, puts much emphasis on the issue of natural resource conservation, as well as use of energy efficient modes of production, and sustainable packaging methods, to control the dumping of wastes and contamination resulting in pollution and climate change (Hamilton et al. 2014). Further it has also introduced the concept of water neutral whereby the company pledges to return as much water to the world as much it uses. Google, has also shown much environment friendly attitude in production through the use of renewable resources only and energy efficient methods of production, and very much like Microsoft, it makes its users aware of their sustainability efforts, with the help of Googl e Green site (Khojastehpour et al. 2014). Even car companies such as BMW have also adopted much innovative strategies to combat the pollution issues. BMWs South Carolina plant has already reduced the total amount of its water consumption by 58%, the net amount of its energy consumption by 65%, and it has also sufficiently checked the total amount of wastes it disposes in the nearby landfills. Same is the case with large organizations such as Walt Disney, Apple, Colgate, Sony, etc . Conclusion: Any private organization, nowadays aims at maximizing their profit with minimal investment. However, in the process it should not compromise with the question of environmental sustainability, as doing so will prove to be disastrous for the organization itself. Nowadays, many organizations, are realizing that the investors also check and verify the environmental footprint of a product, before investing in it, and hence companies like Cadbury, and others are taking environmental conscious decisions to ensure and maintain good public reputations (Maas et al. 2014). Recommendations: According to AISI, the installation of pollution control methods amount to as much as $ 8.5 Billion, which is too expensive an investment for the SMEs to afford. Further, an increase in the expenditure of the pollution control measures or equipments will mean an increase in the production cost, and this increase in the production cost, has to be compensated by the company by increasing the cost price of the product. For this reason, the government and the NGOs should come forward and provide financial assistance, especially to the SMSE industries for installation of pollution control devices. To help the companies maintain ecological sustainability, the government of the particular country must be very strict about issuing the permits and should create stringent environmental standards. Compliance with environmental standards should be a mandate, rather than a mere choice. The government can also identify the organizations, which are violating the laws of environmental conservation, and must arrange conferences and meetings, making them more environment conscious in future (Mann et al. 2014). Reference List: Alves, S., 2015. Ethical, Social and Environmental Standards and Practices of Microsoft. Fernandez-Feijoo, B., Romero, S. and Ruiz, S., 2014. Commitment to corporate social responsibility measured through global reporting initiative reporting: Factors affecting the behavior of companies.Journal of Cleaner Production,81, pp.244-254. Hamilton, J.M., 2015.The Ekocenter: A Case Study in Coca-Cola, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Bluewashing(Doctoral dissertation, University Of Minnesota). Available online at https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/174772 Khojastehpour, M. and Johns, R., 2014. The effect of environmental CSR issues on corporate/brand reputation and corporate profitability.European Business Review,26(4), pp.330-339. 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