Business Ethics and Sustainability

1. Business Ethics Today: Sustainability, a
key issue facing businesses
Dr Jennifer Lawal

2. AIM
To introduce you to the components of sustainability and the
ethical issues facing business; engage you with a range of
ethical challenges faced by contemporary businesses in
carrying out their activities and operations in an effort to meet
sustainability goals and targets.

3. Learning Outcomes
❏ Demonstrate knowledge of components of
sustainability.
❏ Understand key contemporary ethical issues faced by
businesses with regards to sustainability.
❏ Utilise critical thinking skills in analysing sustainability
ethical issues explored with the use of case studies.

4. Business Ethics
"Business ethics is the study of business situations, activities, and
decisions where issues of right and wrong are addressed."
Andrew Crane
"The ethics of business is the ethics of responsibility. The business
man must promise that he will not harm knowingly."
Raymond C. Baumhart

5. Why is Business Ethics important?
❖ Business has a huge power in society.
❖ Business has the potential to provide major contribution to
our society.
❖ Business malpractice has the potential to inflict enormous
harm on individuals, communities and the environment.
❖ The demands being placed on businesses to be ethical by
its various stakeholders are becoming more complex.
❖ Employees face significant pressure to compromise ethical
standards.

6. Sustainability

7. Sustainable Development
‘Sustainable Development is development that meets the
needs of the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’
Sustainability
‘Sustainability refers to the long term maintenance of systems
according to environmental, economic and social considerations’

8. Why is Sustainability important for Business Ethics?
‘Business does not have one single goal- namely, adding
economic value- but that it has an extended goal set which
necessitates adding environmental and social values too’
- John Elkington
Director, SustainAbility Consultancy

9. The three components of Sustainability

10. Environmental perspective- the effective management of physical resources so
that they are conserved for the future.
Economic perspective- A narrow concept focuses on the economic performance
of the business itself. To develop, produce and those products that secure the long
term performance of the business.
The broader concept includes the business’ attitude towards and impacts upon the
economic framework it is embedded.
Social perspective- The key issue in the social perspective is that of social justice.
With 80% of the world’s gross domestic products belonging to around 1 billion
people in the developed world and the remaining 20% shared by around 5 billion
people living in developing countries.

11. QUIZ
1. Which of the following demonstrates an example of sustainability in business?
A company makes a product of durable material that will last a long time.
A company focuses first on helping society and ends up making a profit.
A company makes decisions that will allow it to last for many years
A company is very profitable and will sustain its earnings for many years
1. Which of the following is implied by environmental sustainability?
The capacity of resources must continue to meet the needs of present generations.
Future generations will have to find ways to meet their own needs through the use of technology.
Humanity should not deplete renewable resources faster than we can replace them.
Environmental, economic, and social sustainability are all interrelated

12. CONCLUSION
According to the concept of sustainability, there are clearly
significant implications of how we look at business ethics.
Issues of an ethical nature such as plant closures e.t.c.
demand that we consider a diverse range of concerns which
we will be discussing in our next class.