Sustainability Ethics: Answering the Questions

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Those living in developed countries do some basic things differently from those who live in poor ones. For instance, when it comes to the process of cooking, people in the developing world have to use open cookstoves. According to Hanna-West, they have horrendous effects on human health, the environment, and economic development (328). The means and efforts needed to change it require the participation of multiple stakeholders.

First of all, the governments of developing countries have to get involved by giving people access to basic technologies. In many cases, kitchen appliances there are very costly because of high taxes or other obstacles fabricated or sponsored by governments. Moreover, local businesses have a role as well, as they are the ones that can ensure that ordinary citizens can afford kitchen equipment. If local businesses are unwilling to supply or sell cookstoves at sufficiently low prices, the campaign is destined to fail. In addition to that, civil society has to be involved in the initiative, too. If the public does not accept this project and advocates for it, it will not get enough support to succeed.

Sustainability is a concept that has been increasingly spoken about in the last couple of years. According to the article “What Is Sustainability and Why Is It So Important?”, sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the people of today without jeopardizing the ability of people of the future to meet theirs. I would define sustainability as the way of living and developing while carefully utilizing natural resources and ensuring that there is enough of them for our kids and grandkids. ‘Environmental sustainability’ does not significantly differ from ‘sustainability’ in that regard. For me, it is the way of interacting with the planet with the intent to conserve natural resources and avoid their depletion for the benefit of today and tomorrow. Finally, when I hear the term ‘business sustainability’, I think of the responsibility of companies to introduce eco-friendly measures into their practice. That is, business sustainability is the way organizations operating as not to damage and potentially benefit the environment, economy, and society. This means that my definition implicitly deals with people and planet but does not mention profits.

Hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, is the process of injecting a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals into rock layers to create cracks and provide a better flow of natural gas and oil. Despite fracking having several benefits for countries’ economies, it carries major environmental risks. Because of it, some organizations choose to experiment with new technologies for extracting gas and oil with less environmental damage. The main benefit of it for them lies in the fact that these companies can become pioneers in promoting a new culture of enrichment while reducing the damage caused to our planet. More sustainable methods of fracking are capable of not disturbing or destroying the surface of the earth. Natural resources will be preserved, and the time spent on extraction will be reduced; that is, less harm will be done.

Interface, Inc. is a global commercial flooring organization that was founded by a man named Ray Anderson in 1973. According to Lovins, Ray added a European carpet company to his brand family in 1994. When this company’s employees asked about Interface’s ecological policy, Anderson realized it did not have one and decided to learn something about the subject. Paul Hawken’s book Ecology of Commerce shocked Anderson to his core and made him begin the journey of Interface to sustainability.

The term ‘Integrated Bottom Line’ was adopted by Interface at the beginning of this century; in accordance with it, an organization’s commitment to sustainability contributes to improvements in a variety of categories. Among them are lower risks, improved brand equity, higher stock value, better financial efficiency, increased ability to attract and retain staff, improved stakeholder relations, and reduced costs of distrust. Interface reports on its progress every three years with a survey for Accenture, an IT services and consulting company. The organization’s sustainable development savings covered all the costs of policy changes and became a constant source of profit. Lovins reports that, in the first four years of sustainability efforts, Interface’s sales grew by two-thirds and its profits doubled. Reducing waste by 40 percent resulted in an extra $76 million; by 2000, annual savings amounted to more than $185 million.

Over the last century, the well-being of millions of people has improved immeasurably. However, the well-being of the planet continues to deteriorate with extraordinary speed. Among other things, temperatures are increasing, which means that humanity is on the brink of global warming (“Welcome to the Anthropocene”). According to Ivanova and Layne, there are major effects – economic, environmental, and social – associated with every degree of the Earth’s temperature rising. At 1 degree rise, inequality would rise, prices would change, and there would be a shift in where people die from cold or heat. At 2 degrees rise, crops would get damaged, coastlines would be reshaped, and hurricanes would get more destructive. At 3 degrees rise, whole island nations would disappear, heat waves would be experienced every five years by a third of the world’s population, and human bodies would start to fail. At 4 degrees rise, sea levels would rise, almost half the global population would be exposed to drought, and global GDP would decrease. At 5 degrees rise, underground reservoirs of water would be emptied, sea creatures would massively go extinct, and the world’s population would fall to around one billion. At 6 degrees rise, volcanoes would erupt and release tons of carbon, fierce hurricanes would rage, and oceans would become almost inhospitable to life.