Green economy and ethical challenges

TIØ 4261 - Grønn verdiskaping og etiske perspektiver
Green economy
and ethical challenges
Tekna’s Ethical Advisory Board
2015
Svein Nordenson

Tekna – Teknisk-naturvitenskapelig forening
Ethics and efficient decision-making
Leif Runar Forsth
Dr. ing. and management philosopher
to Magasinet Tekna no. 2 in 2012
“If you have a well-founded
set of values it is easier to
know what will be right for
you when you come to
make difficult decisions that
affect others. You will be
able to make better
decisions, more quickly,
allowing you to be more
efficient as a manager.”
See also: www.ipo.no
2Teknas Etiske råd januar 2015/jmr

Some general ethical principles
Teknas Etiske råd januar 2015/jmr 3
William Brett, Lord Esher
(1817-1899)
duty of care,
The Precautionary
Principle
There is a social responsibility to
protect the public from exposure to
harm, when scientific investigation has
found a plausible risk even if it is not
full scientific consensus about that risk.
Immanuel Kant
(1724-1804)
The categorical imperative
John Locke
(1632-1704)
The responsibility
for future generations
We ought to leave the earth in a
condition so that future generations
will have at least the same freedom
of choice as we have.
Act only according to that maxim
whereby you can, at the same
time, will that it should become a
universal law.

Easy to do ethical test: The Tekna version
As a memeber of Tekna you must be able to stand by
your decisions. They must stand up to ethical scrutiny,
to enable you to determine, in advance, whether your
decisions:
• are lawful,
• are fair in the way they effect the people concerned,
• have negative consequences for individuals, the
environment or Society,
• will withstand public scrutiny.

My agenda further on for today
• Ethics as a matter of perspective
• Case on perspectives on human rights
• Business and economy as an ethical
challenge
• Case on inequality as a challenge
• Sum up …

Perspectives on ethics
(Ethics of the practical life)
6
• Student ethics
• Research ethics
• Ethics of Management
• Ethics of Professionals
(Engineers, Economists, Lawyers etc)
• Ethics of the Working Environment
• Ethics of Competition
• Ethics of Anti-Corruption
• Etichs of surveillance
• Ethics of New Technology
• Bioethics
• Environmental Ethics
• Ethics of war (Just War)
• Whistleblowing
• Business ethics and Social Responsibility
Teknas Etiske råd januar 2015/jmr

Ethics of engineering
Focus on
RISK
Be
COMPETENT
Be
HONEST

Ethics of War
This is about:
• Weapon production and
sales
• Just war. Is there one?
• The idea of preventive
attack
• Terrorism: War or crime?
• The Rules of War
• Soldiers status and
responsibility
• The right to kill

Ethics as a matter of perspective
• We have seen that ethics is a matter of profession,
engineer or soldier, or many other fields of human
activity
• Ethics could also be a personal matter, shaped by
personal professional choices, as I will illustrate in
my next examples
• I will introduce Margrethe
... and Jomar

Tekna – Teknisk-naturvitenskapelig foreningTeknas Etiske råd januar 2015/jmr 10
Margrethe Lunder is 28 years old
and holds a master’s degree in
meteorology, on chemistry of the
atmosphere. She works as advicer
in climate and air quality and is
engaged in Tekna’s member group
working for reduced CO2 to the
atmosphere and global
temperature control.
The meteorologist
- It is a dilemma that we
ought to reduce the
amount of CO2 going in to
the atmosphere. We know
what we can do about it,
but the need for more
research on the overall
effect keeps us from doing
it. One should act and do
research at the same time
instead of waiting untill
complete knowledge is at
hand.

The Systems
Architect
- One important question for many
professionals such as myself is if
we should work in oil and gas or in
renewable resources. Since I
made my choice awhile ago, my
challenge is to make good future-
oriented solutions that minimize
environmental hazards. We must
aim at achieving optimal quality
and safety. We must have
solutions that have been tested
and well documented so that we
know they’ll be permanent.
Jomar Jentoft, age 34, Master’s
degree in Engineering on Energy
and Environment, NTNU, works
with systems architecture for
electric power distribution for
subsea installations. He works
with Siemens in Trondheim and
is engaged in Tekna’s member
group oil and gas.

On March 27,1980, the oil platform
Alexander Kielland capsized during a
storm in the North Sea with 212
people onboard. The platform ended
up tipping over and lying upside down
in the ocean. It had been floating on a
suspension system consisting of five
columns; however, a bracing had
broken, causing breaks in other
bracings so that the column ended up
splitting apart and breaking loose
from the platform. The bracing had
been weakened by welders when
mounting platform equipment. There
were only 89 survivors. After the
accident a series of new safety
measures were implemented.

ISO 26000 Social Responsibility
• An international standard …
• States what should be the preferable responsibility of
businesses and organisations in the societies where they
do their business.
Teknas etiske råd januar 2015/jmr 13
• Ratified by more than 100 nations
• But not ratified by national
authorities
• The ISO 26000 applies a very wide
definition of social responsibility ,
including a responsibility to adopt
human rights.

Human rights in short I
• The human rights were adopted by The General Assembly
of the UN in 1948. They covers ethnic discrimination,
discrimination of women, actions against torture, childrens
rights, protection of guest-workers, protection against
kidnapping and the rights of disabled persons.
• The human rights are:
• Inborn
• Yours to be, can not be taken from you, even if you agree.
No-one can steal them from you
• Universal
• Indivisible, can not be partly chosen away
• Mutually dependent and contribute mutually to fullfilment
of all the rights

Human rights in short II - A choice of rights
• Equality:
All human beings are born
free and equal in dignity
and rights.
• Also addresses rights
relating to three other
critical areas:
• Life and security
• Personal freedom
• Economic, social and
cultural freedoms
equality
life and
security
personal
freedom
economic, social
and cultural
freedoms
equality
By permission: Ingebjørg Gravlien, DNV

Introduction to the first case
LIVING CONDITIONS
RELIGION
IDEOLOGY
CULTURE
ISO 26000
Human rights

Some general ethical principles
(1817-1899)
duty of care,
The Precautionary
Principle
There is a social responsibility to
protect the public from exposure to
harm, when scientific investigation has
found a plausible risk even if it is not
full scientific consensus about that risk.
Immanuel Kant
(1724-1804)
John Locke
(1632-1704)
The responsibility
for future generations
We ought to leave the earth in a
condition so that future generations
will have at least the same freedom
of choice as we have.
universal law.

For reflection and debate
• Find and list arguments that ”our”
understanding of the standards set by
the declaration of human rights should
be what counts in all of the countries in
the world (Right side groups).
On the other hand:
• Find and list arguments that human rights, as
defined in the declaration of human rights, must be
understood and practiced according to local
standards of living, culture, traditions, ideology and
religion (Left side groups).

My pre-prepared sum up
• Are human rights universal?
• … or are they to be understood
and practiced according to
local standards of living etc.?
Immanuel Kant
(1724-1804)
universal law.

Green Economy is part of the path …
Green Cities is the aim

Green cities - The Albert Speer & Partner Way
From: Manifesto for sustainable cities
by the architects in Albert Speer & Partner

Ideas from classical economy still living
Vilfredo Pareto
(1848 – 1923)
The theory of
optimum use
of resources
We will say that the members of a society have
achieved optimum use of the resources when in
a position where it is not possible to move away
from this position in a way that will give one
individual a greater benefit witout the benefit of
someone else being reduced.
Adam Smith
(1723-1790)
Unintended consequences of
intended action will be to the
benefit of society at large.
.
The invisible hand
David Ricardo
(1772-1823)
The theory of
comparative
advantages
Ricardo showed in a study i 1817 that Portugal
and England both would benefit from Portugal
producing more wine and trading its cloths from
England even though Portugal on its own could
produce cloths cheaper than England.

There are challenges …
• A dispute among economists
and politicians as to how far
businesses social responsibility
reaches
23
• A wide range of world business practises
conserning labor rights, corruption, taxation etc
• Innovation is a regarded as a way to a better future,
but in it self it challenges the future
• Resulting inequality as probably the greatest
challenge of them all
Teknas Etiske råd januar 2015/jmr

Comments on ISO
26000:
Still a way to go!
Ref: ”Milton Friedman goes on tour” The Economist 29th January 2011.
”The social
responsibility of
business is to
increase its
profits, agree?”
Milton Friedman 1912 – 2006
Nobels memorial prize in 1976
Inspirer of ”The Chicago Boys”
UAE is United Arab Emirates
Many still agree
with Mr Friedman
even in Sweden!

Michael Porter on Creating Shared Value (CSV)
Michael Porter (1947 - )
professor at MIT and one of
the world’s most famous living
managing gurus
Creating Shared Value (CSV), differs,
says Porter, from CSR in different
important ways:
1) CSV is integrated in a business model
for competitiveness and profit-
maximization, not a response to outside
pressure as CSR is as Porter sees it.
2) CSV is integrated in the budget of the
business and not part of an isolated CSR-
budget.
3) CSV measures economical and social
benefits against cost and not against the
diffuse goal of CSR that seems to be
”doing good”.
See also: http://ledelse.tekna.no/csr-sr-csv-eller-baerekraft/

Dagbladet på nett onsdag 14.05.2008
This newscase is about:
A subcontractor of the subsidiary of the Norwegian telecom company
Telenor in Bangladesh. Working conditions for the employees employed
by this subcontractor were bad and included also child workers. The
news headlines in Norway included the word: “SCANDAL”.
How far does the responsibility of an employer reach?

• Acording to Transparency International,
Angola is rated as one of the world’s
most corrupt countries. One of the
president’s sons manages the country’s
oil fund. The presidents oldest daughter
was recently named Africa’s first female
billionaire.
• In order to strengthen local industry,
Angola requires foreign oil companies to
enter into partnership with local
companies. Somoil is one such
company. Owners here include
governmental ministers in Angola,
directors in its national oil company
Sonangol and others.
Kilde: DN 22.2.2014

Multinational wealth-
drain and ”-creation”
• Kofi Annan commented on The Africa
Progress Report that the work to give the poor
better living conditions advances to slowly.
The reason is tax-crimes and secrecy in
international merchandise export.
• Transfer pricing is widely used
to transport profit to countries
with low-tax-regimes.
• African countries lose at least
34 billion dollar in income-taxes
because of transfer pricing.
That is more than the same
countries get in aid from
developed countries.
• Investigations show that EU
has more import from countries
in Africa than what is reported
as export from the same
countries.
Country B
Tax haven
Country A
in Africa
Production
Country C
in Europe
Company
VCC -A
Company
VCC -B
Company
VCC -C
Cheap
product
Expensive
product Expensive
product
Market

Ethics of New Technology
New technology gives opportunities, challenges and uncertainty.
Industrial revolutions through the ages
Textiles CarTrain IT Nano

New technology: The format war of live picture
storage
VHS (Video Home System): 1976-2000
Betamax: Sony 1975-85
VHS – Betamax war: 1976-85
LaserDisc – 1978-1995
no distribution other than regionally in Asia
CD – 1982 and VCD fra 1993
DVD – Digital Video Disc – 1995
HD DVD from 2002 – to 2008
Blu-ray-Disc: Blue violet laser – 2003 – 2015?
HD DVD/Blu-ray war: 2003 - 2008
… and the resulting mountain of
garbage.

Inequality – The greatest challenge
• The outcome of labor exploitation is
inequality
• The outcome of corruption is
inequality
• The outcome of creative tax-
planning is inequality
• Inequality stands in the way of
effective measures against global
warming

Introduction to the second case
PRODUCTS
PRODUCTION
USED AND
GARBAGE
CO2CO2

General ethical principles to have in mind
Vilfredo Pareto
(1848 – 1923)
The theory of
optimum use
of resources
We will say that the members of a society have achieved
optimum use of the resources when in a position where it
is not possible to move away from this position in a way
that will give one individual a greater benefit witout the
benefit of someone else being reduced.
(1817-1899)
duty of care,
The Precautionary
Principle
There is a social responsibility to protect the
public from exposure to harm, when scientific
investigation has found a plausible risk even if
it is not full scientific consensus about that
risk.
Immanuel Kant
(1724-1804)
John Locke
(1632-1704)
The responsibility
for future generations We ought to leave the earth in a condition so
that future generations will have at least the
same freedom of choice as we have.
whereby you can, at the same time, will
that it should become a universal law.

For reflection and debate:
• Find and list arguments that supports that
in 50 years time we still have to accept
that some countries have significant
better living conditions for its inhabitants
than others if we should avoyd critical
global warming.
On the other hand:
• Find and list arguments that supports that rich
countries to day have to accept redused living
standard for its inhabitants if we should avoid
critical global warming.

My pre-prepared sum up
• Are human rights universal?
• … or are they to be understood
and practiced according to
local standards of living?
Adam Smith
(1723-1790)
The invisible hand
”The social
responsibility
of business is
to increase its
profits, agree?”
Unintended consequences of
intended action will be to the
benefit of society at large.
.

TO SUM IT ALL UP
36
• Ethics is a personal responsibility and a
collective one …
We have also talked about:
• Ethics as a matter of perspective …
• … and a case on perspectives on human rights
• Business and economy as an ethical challenge
• … and a case on inequality as a special
challenge
Teknas etiske råd januar 2015/jmr
Thank you
for your
attention!
A text-version available at: https://www.tekna.no/globalassets/filer/etikk/temahefter/temahefte-6-2015-green-economy-and-etchical-challenges.pdf

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