Business Ethics Resources

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Environmental Ethics

Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy

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Henderson, Hazel. (2007). Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy. Chelsea Green Publishing.

From Publishers Weekly: In this companion to the television series of the same name, economist Henderson delivers an optimistic overview of socially responsible, environmentally sensitive businesses, investors and visionaries. Keeping an eye on the “triple bottom line” that adds “people” and “planet” to the usual focus on “profits,” the book divides “cleaner, greener, more ethical and more female sectors of our U.S. economy” into three areas: lifestyles of health and sustainability, socially responsible investing and corporate social responsibility.

An economist with a long history of activism in “redefining success” (for example, revamping the GDP to include environmental capital and unpaid labor such as child-rearing), Henderson adeptly packs large amounts of information into chapters within her expertise. Discussion of topics that are further from her experience, such as green building and the health care system, tends to careen from problems to solutions so quickly that a reader can become confused. The interviews after each chapter, meant to show how CEOs are “walking the talk,” seem to be taken unedited from the TV show, coming across as incoherent and shallow. Fortunately, the book is crammed with Web references that can offer a fuller picture to readers tantalized by this glimpse of the economic revolution thriving below the radar of mainstream media.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 01 July 2008 17:16 )
 

Environmental Ethics: Readings in Theory and Application

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Pojman, Louis P. and Pojman, Paul. (2007). Environmental Ethics: Readings in Theory and Application. Wadsworth Publishing, 5th edition.

The most comprehensive introduction to environmental ethics available, ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS offers students a current look at the issues and topics that dominate the field today, organized into two main parts that take students seamlessly from theory to application. This Fifth Edition of the Pojmans' popular anthology, like its predecessors, includes numerous topic areas not covered in other anthologies-including an all-new section on Climate Change. Featuring articles carefully selected for clarity and accessibility, the text follows a dialogic pro-con format presenting divergent positions on each topic, ensuring that students are both exposed to and understand both sides of every topic so they can develop their own informed positions.

The bulk of royalties for this book are donated to groups dedicated to protecting the environment, such as the Wilderness Society and the Sierra Club.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 01 July 2008 17:16 )
 

Environmental Ethics: An Introduction to Environmental Philosophy

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DesJardin, Joseph. (2005). Environmental Ethics: An Introduction to Environmental Philosophy. Wadsworth Publishing, 4th edition.

Book Description: How can you use philosophical to make progress toward solving environmental problems? ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS: AN INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL PHILOSOPHY introduces you to ethical theory in new and easily understood ways. But most of all, this environmental ethics textbook shows you how we can work together to build a better future.

About the Author: Joseph DesJardins (Ph.D. University of Notre Dame) is professor of philosophy at the College of Saint Benedict in Minnesota.

He specializes in business ethics and environmental ethics and has also published Contemporary Issues in Business Ethics (Fifth Edition, Wadsworth, 2005) with John McCall.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 01 July 2008 17:16 )
 

Business Ethics and the Natural Environment

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Newton, Lisa H. (2005) Business Ethics and the Natural Environment. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

Business Ethics and the Natural Environment examines the present status of relations between corporate enterprise and the natural environment in the world today. Discusses such questions as: What obligations does a corporation have toward the environment? To respect entities unprotected by law? To care about future generations? Argues that environmentally-friendly business practices yield dividends exceeding expectations, and that the competitive firm of the 21st century will follow “green” standards. Provides a background in ethics, a survey of business ethics, an account of environmental philosophy, an overview of environmental legal issues, and an account of the problems associated with globalization.

Review: “With business’s renewed focus on sustainable growth, Newton’s hopeful book comes at the right time, providing us theoretically sound, eloquently presented, and practically wise frameworks and conclusions.” Dennis J. Moberg, Santa Clara University, and President, Society for Business Ethics

“This excellent book perfectly balances philosophical and case study analysis to help students explore within today’s political and legal framework the responsibilities of business and of individuals to the natural environment.” Mark Sagoff, University of Maryland

Here is an excerpt from the book’s Preface:

“Why I Wrote This Book

First, of course, there are the urgent practical, social, and moral problems. Things are not going well for the world. There is war, there is terror, and there is political instability. But the world has always had war, terror, and political instability; all these we have known since our youth. In addition to all these, underlying and exacerbating them, there is also an increasing sense that the natural environment of the globe is under terrible pressure, and this fear is quite new, no more than half a century old. There are new logging ventures in equatorial Africa, which enrich corrupt elites while slicing roads through forests recently untouched, making paths for the poachers who think nothing of killing the last wild gorillas, chimpanzees, and white rhinoceros. New governments in South America are pressing for economic development, which may come only at the expense of the Amazonian rainforest, home to half the species on earth. The Arctic National Wildlife Reserve may be invaded to acquire new reserves of oil. They say the great fisheries off New England are fished out. There are graphs that show that the earth is getting warmer, probably because of all the new carbon we are putting in the air through burning fossil fuels. If it gets much warmer we may lose some island nations, and the people of the Seychelles are very upset at that. They say the great coral reefs are bleaching, beginning to die. Hunters may take the last whales from the ocean, the last tigers from the forests, and eventually the last wild elephants from the African plains. We do not seem to be able to get a real handle on the problems. As stated, they seem real and objective enough, and no matter how serious or otherwise they turn out to be, they should be addressed and brought under control. Yet every statement of the problems (including in this paragraph), let alone every proposed solution, seems politically tinged, part of some political agenda, therefore safely ignored by those of the opposite political persuasion, and no one seems to know how to break through that perception.

We need methods to sort out the problems and the passionately held positions on the problems. One reason to write this book, then, is to analyze the conflicts that bedevil us in our daily lives, and see if formulations, and sensible courses of action, can be found that will dissolve the dilemmas and allow us to proceed peacefully.” (pp. vii-viii)

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 16 September 2008 18:29 )
 

Environmental Ethics: An Overview for the Twenty-First Century

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Attfield, Robin (2003) Environmental Ethics: An Overview for the Twenty-First Century, Polity

Review: "An excellent overview of the territory and a compelling account of consequentialism in environmental ethics." James Garvey, author of The Ethics of Climate Change

"Attfield has given us a most comprehensive environmental ethics, indeed the most inclusive, global, cosmopolitan, universal ethic. This is an unexcelled survey and synthesis of the emormous range of challenging issues (and of the literature of their debate), as we, turning the next century and millennium, figure out our human responsibilities toward each other and the larger community of life on Earth. Attfield’s 'biocentric consequentialism' is radical, compelling, urgent." Holmes Rolston III, Colorado State University

Product Description: In this clear, concise and up-to-date introduction to environmental ethics, Robin Attfield guides the student through the key issues and debates in this field in ways that will also be of interest to a wide range of scholars and researchers.

The book introduces environmental problems and environmental ethics and surveys theories of the sources of the problems. Attfield also puts forward his own original contribution to the debates, advocating biocentric consequentialism among theories of normative ethics and defending objectivism in meta-ethics. The possibilities of ethical consumerism and investment are discussed, and the nature and basis of responsibilities for future generations in such areas as sustainable development are given detailed consideration. Attfield adopts an inclusive, cosmopolitan perspective in discussions of global ethics and citizenship, and illustrates his argument with a discussion of global warming.

The text uses a range of devices to aid understanding, such as summaries of key issues, and guides to further reading and relevant websites. It has been written particularly with a view to the needs of students taking courses in environmental ethics, and will be of interest to students and scholars of philosophy, ethics, geography, religion and environmental studies.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 01 July 2008 17:14 )
 
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"Will not knowledge of [the good], then, have a great influence on life? Shall we not, like archers who have a mark to aim at, be more likely to hit upon what is right?"
-Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics