Corporate Accountability for Environmental Damage: Legal and Ethical Approaches
A ‘CER’ or corporate environmental responsibility is upholding corporation’s responsibility for their impact on things economically, socially, and environmentally. This means that whenever a corporation makes processes for product creation, product placement, manufacturing–the employees of that business will need to take the viability of the environment into their own equation of making profit. By maintaining sustainability in corporation processes, it promotes the longevity of the ecosystem and the wellness of the environment.
Many legal acts have been taken internationally and within America to coerce business owners to take the environment’s well-being into consideration while managing their companies. Some key examples of statutory frameworks that were made to protect the environment in the United States are the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). All of these laws that were created in the United States were made to prevent corporations from utilizing too much of the environment and the resources–ultimately exhausting it. A few international examples of acts that would protect the environment would be the India Environment Protection Act and the EU Due Diligence laws. The acts of CERCLA and India’s Environment Protection Act both are similar with the relation of their causes–making companies responsible for their pollution upon the environment. There were also many liability mechanisms made as well to protect the environment. An example of a liability being held against a corporation for environmental harm was the case of Kelley v. ARCO. Executives of ARCO Corp were being held liable for the containment of groundwater to assist with their specialization in industrial structure construction. Liability measured cases like these are made against corporations to protect and sustain the environment.
Many ethical approaches have also been taken against perpetrators to maintain the environment’s condition–either by corporations themselves or individuals, for example. Corporations with niches in clothing must maintain their environmental responsibility while attempting to do tasks such as manufacturing. Patagonia and Unilever are examples of companies that steadily make efforts to maintain its corporate economic and social responsibility (CER and CSR). Also, many phenomena and theories have framed businesses–questioning corporations’ ethics. An example of this would be Stakeholder Theory, where believers think that a corporation exists less for profit but for the greater good of the people. It is a moral approach taken on businesses being created.
It is urgent in this day and age for corporations to maintain environmental sustainability while attempting to manufacture goods and do other things. There is an evident lack of regard for the environment nowadays at an alarming rate, which needs to be fixed.
Citations
Reporter, E.L. (no date) Kelley V. ARCO Industries Corp, Kelley v. Arco Industries Corp.. Available at: https://www.elr.info/sites/default/files/litigation/20.20264.htm (Accessed: 21 May 2025).
Gutterman, A. (no date) (PDF) stakeholder theory, ResearchGate. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/369194606_Stakeholder_Theory (Accessed: 22 May 2025).
Superfund: CERCLA (no date) EPA. Available at: https://www.epa.gov/superfund/superfund-cercla-overview (Accessed: 21 May 2025).
Clean Water Act (CWA) (2025) Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Available at: https://www.boem.gov/environment/environmental-assessment/clean-water-act-cwa#:~:text=The%20CWA%20is%20the%20principle,1251). (Accessed: 21 May 2025).
IO, V. (2023) What is Corporate Environmental Responsibility?, VITALITY IO, Inc. Available at: https://vitality.io/what-is-corporate-environmental-responsibility/ (Accessed: 21 May 2025).