Corporate Environmental Responsibility

• Published in: Journal of business ethics Vol. 17; no. 8; pp. 825 - 838
• Main Author: DesJardins, Joe
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Kluwer Academic Publishers 01.06.1998; D. Reidel Pub. Co; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Business ethics; Classical growth model; Consumers; Corporate responsibility; Ecological sustainability; Economic activity; Economic growth; Economic models; Economic resources; Ecosystems; Enterprises; Environment; Environmental ethics; Environmental protection; Ethics; Farm price supports; Free markets; Green businesses; Market economy; Morality; Natural resources; Philosophers; Population growth; Profits; Responsibility; Social responsibility; Society; Studies; Sustainable development; Sustainable economies
• ISSN: 0167-4544; 1573-0697
• DOI: 10.1023/A:1005719707880

This paper offers directions for the continuing dialogue between business ethicists and environmental philosophers. I argue that a theory of corporate social responsibility must be consistent with, if not derived from, a model of sustainable economics rather than the prevailing neoclassical model of market economics. I use environmental examples to critique both classical and neoclassical models of corporate social responsibility and sketch the alternative model of sustainable development. After describing some implications of this model at the level of individual firms and industries, I offer an ethical justification of the sustainability alternative that is derived from the same values that underlie traditional market economics.