Do businesses have an obligation to be conscious of the environment even if it hurts their bottom line?
A major ethical dilemma in modern business stems from the growth of environmentalism and the “green” lifestyle. Modern environmental activists point out that business -- especially big business -- is a main offender in terms of pollution and its impact on climate change. The green movement believes industry needs to redesign its production methods, goods and services to be more earth-friendly. Businesses argue that totally converting to new methods would be expensive, cut into profits, decrease production and likely result in unemployment for many of their workers. Technology enthusiasts counter that using technology and robots to take over many of the tasks, thus removing the human-error. While this will also result in unemployment increases, it will provide a faster return on investment than simply retooling. At the same time, they downplay the problems related to the safe operation, replacement, and recycling of the technology they wish to implement. Do businesses have an obligation to be conscious of the environment even if it hurts their bottom line?
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