College of Business Administration

Business Management and the Natural Environment

Discussion Questions for October 13, 1998

"Careful, you may run out of planet."
--December 1997 magazine ad for the Infiniti QX4

The following questions relate to Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce

1) Hawken states, "When prices rise, people have to reconsider usage patterns. This may be painful at first but it generally results in innovation and creativity." Has this notion ever been reflected in the U.S. economy? How did the oil crisis of the 1970's affect the behavior of consumers, business and government, for example?
See also:
www.howard.net/ban-suvs.htm

2) Describe the "industry equivalent" of the tragedy of the commons. (p.80) How do we limit the number of brands on the market without compromising freedom of choice and inciting monopolistic pricing practices? To what degree should we be willing to give up consumer choice in exchange for more accurate environmental feedback?

3) GATT insists on leveling trade across the globe at the expense of attempts by sovereign nations to restrict importation of environmentally questionable products. Is this fair to countries trying to make real efforts in environmental protection? What is more important, free trade or the ability to "discriminate...on the basis of the method of production"? (p.97)

4) Pigou's solution suggests that by including external costs of production, we can achieve a sustainable market. Would government action requiring external cost accounting oppose Adam Smith's free market theory any more than current legislation supporting corporations does now? Do today's corporations reflect Smith's concept of free markets?

5) Corporations have taken the place of monarchies in the sense that "we are being asked again to subordinate our conscience, our common sense and our collective will to a higher authority..." (p. 115) Do you agree?

6) Is Corporate America out of control? How do we as citizens and as consumers redefine the limits to liability of large corporations (p.114), especially in the realms of resource extraction and long-term health risks? Should we, in a free-enterprise system, limit big business at all or let it be self-correcting?
See assigned article "Who Scores Best on the Environment"
See also:
http://www.businessweek.com/1997/45/b3552101.htm,
http://www.businessweek.com/1997/45/b3552098.htm,
http://www.goodmoney.com/gmj/sum98/greenews.htm

7) How do we switch from a growth-based economy to a restorative one? (p.140, p.156) Can more accurate cost accounting do this for us?

The following questions relate to Welford & Starkey's Business and the Environment

8) Is local government advice to small business enough to encourage environmental responsibility, or must this kind of responsibility be mandated? What if environmentally accurate costing practices removed the market advantages of bigger businesses and leveled the playing field?

9) Can government initiate environmental responsibility without the support of (big) business?

10) Levett says there are limits to business interest in environmentally responsible behavior. (p.263) Does the consumer initiate change in the marketplace or does business?

11) If a free market is unsustainable, how does the American market maintain this condition? (p.265)

The following questions relate to The Greenmoney Journal's "Socially Responsible Investing"

12) Is SRI an effective way to encourage environmental responsibility on the part of business? How can the consumer reach privately-held businesses?
See also:
a href='http://www.goodmoney.com/qna.htm

13) How effective are eco-ratings? How much power do consumers have in dictating what goes on in the marketplace?
See also:
http://www.eco-rating.com/benefits.html

The following articles relate to Spash's "Economics, Ethics, and Long-Term Environmental Damages"

14) As today's consumers, what is our obligation to future generations?

15) Are monetary regulations (such as taxation) and monetary penalties the best way to force responsible behavior onto corporations on behalf of future generations? How do we invite a change in business policy that does not rely on money?

16) Does America preach egalitarian rule and practice elitist rule?

17) Is our environment so priceless that we are "obliged to identify all activities causing long-term damages and ban them regardless of the cost"? (p.128) Is the money better spent on a technological fix?

18) Do citizens have the right not to be harmed? Who should compensate 'environmental refugees'?

19) What should our stance be, as a first-world nation, with regard to spurring economic development in developing countries?

Return to Professor Dunn's home page.