Ethics and Corporate Responsibility

The basis of the CWA was enacted in 1948 and was called the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, but the Act was significantly reorganized and expanded in 1972. "Clean Water Act" became the Act's common name with amendments in 1972 (EPA). This act is so important because it helped make it illegal, without a permit, to dump pollutants in navigable water. industrial, municipal, and other facilities must obtain permits if their discharges go directly to surface waters. (EPA) The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, or CERCLA, is an act that helps clean up hazardous waste. . The act was passed with a budget of 1.6 billion dollars to be used to clean up the hazardous waste from spills or hazardous waste sites (gale). The support for the fund came from a tax that was put on chemical feedstock producers. CERCLA is different from most environmental laws because it deals with past problems rather than trying to prevent future pollution, and because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in addition to acting as a regulatory agency, must clean up sites itself. (Gale) Under the law, the EPA determines the most dangerous hazardous waste sites, based on characteristics like toxicity of wastes and risk of human exposure, and places them on the National Priorities

Ethics in business addresses the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ behaviours of business practises, and how these practices impact the employees, shareholders, the general public and the environment.

1) The remedy chosen must attain a degree of cleanup that assures the protection of human health and environment. 2) The hazardous substances that will remain after the cleanup, they must meet the applicable and/or relevant and appropriate requirements under federal and state law (ARARs). 3) The remedy chosen must utilize permanent solutions and alternative treatment technologies or resource recovery technologies to the maximum extent applicable. 4) There must be cost effective response, taking into consideration total long-and short-term costs of the actions. And 5) It must be in accordance with the NCP to a practicable

The twenty-first century has seen pharmaceutical companies grow in unprecedented size and strength. Due to the unprecedented growth the larger pharmaceutical companies have gained leverage and power in the prescription drug industry, but they lack innovation to market and they seek ways to help the business continue to increase its profits. The pharmaceutical industry was once ethically sound and was a valuable player in the development of human health. However, overtime with the lack of innovation pharmaceutical companies are becoming an unethical market that exploits patients, doctors and anyone else it can to increase its profitability. With eyes only on profitability this can create a hazard for patients because there

The implementation process of the RCRA has been a complex and controversial issue in the history of the EPA. It provide a complex problem because the EPA often dictates how hazardous wastes is identify and dispose of. For example, according to Sullivan, the author of Environmental Law Handbook recognizes the implementation process, the author writes “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) and states have implemented this mandate in extensive regulations issued under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976(RCRA) and the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984.”(Sullivan 147 2014). The EPA policy implementation concepts functioned as the basis for the hazard identification and waste control. This model challenges society to protect the environment by isolating contaminants from the environment while at the same time addressing difficult regulations of hazardous wastes under the RCRA. Since the enactment of the act, it had experienced challenges because the regulation did and received much attention as a result of the hazardous waste classification. The most vital challenge implementing of the RCRA is the policy that rigorously limits on land disposal of hazardous wastes. Moreover, existing hazardous waste regulations do not create robust incentives for disposing of hazardous waste. The author recognized this challenge when he

The end result that Burch is fighting for is that these farms need to be regulated under the Superfund law. The Superfund law is a United States federal government program designed to fund the cleanup of sites contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants (Superfund, 2016, n.d.). This law is there to regulate the disposal of hazardous material as well as an emergency team that cleans up spills that will affect the environment.

The first agreement, in 1995, was successfully accomplished at a cost of nearly $3 billion. Due to their achievement on the first contract, they were picked up for the second phase which started in 2000 and they were supposed to close the project by the end of 2006 within a budget of nearly $4 billion. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) anticipated at the beginning that the project would require $36 billion and almost 70 years to be completed; however, the cleanup was finished with a total cost of about $8 billion. The project was named the PMI’s Project of the year in 2006 and received many other awards such as “Project Merit Award from the Environmental Business Journal in 2005” (Hunsberger, 2007). This project was considered a very successful one since it was finished almost half a billion under budget and more than a year earlier than the promised schedule on October 2005. There are a large number of lessons learned that could help every project specifically contamination cleanup projects. All the very on time planning and scheduling, well defined project scope, correct budget planning, and many others have helped this project to be an example project. In the following report we will explore thirteen lessons learned from the closure project (the second phase

The CHSEP, also is known as the State Superfund Program, administers the assessment of properties not listed on the EPA’s NPL that are suspected to be contaminated with hazardous substances. The CHSEP monitors hazardous site that are known or could potentially be contaminated with CHS or oil through its Brownfield Master Inventory (BMI). Once a potential site is added to the BMI, the CHSEP will attempt to identify the person or organization responsible for the release of hazardous substances. If the responsible party either refused or was unable to perform the necessary remediation work, the CHSEP will use State general funds to conduct assessments and carry out remediation at the contaminated site. The CHSEP also coordinates with the EPA in conducting preliminary investigations of NPL sites. The VCP encourages eligible purchasers and parties responsible for contamination to voluntarily clean up and redevelop brownfield sites.4 In 1997, Governor Parris N. Glendening singed Maryland's Brownfields Legislation (Senate Bill 340/House Bill 409) into law by, which allowed for the establishment of the VCP and the Brownfields Revitalization Incentive Program (BRIP). The VCP works to facilitate the reuse of eligible brownfield sites contaminated CHS substances or oil since October 2004. Applicants seeking to enroll a property in the VCP must submit a Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessment, a $6,000 application fee, and any other information required by the Maryland VCP. After reviewing the application, the MDE will notify the applicant whether the application is approved, incomplete, or denied. There are two types of final site approval documents: a No Further Requirements Determination (NFRD) or a Certificate of Completion (COC). A NFRD is a notice by the MDE that the

The principle VIII of the Code of Ethics for pharmacists emphasizes the importance of a pharmacist to seek justice in the distribution of health resources. Furthermore, a pharmacist has an obligation to balance the needs of patients and society by allocating limited health care resources in a fair and equitable manner. Under managed care, the needs of the patients are balanced with efforts to provide cost-effective care. During my managed care IPPE this semester, I had an opportunity to see how pharmacists in managed care settings perform their due diligence by providing patient centered care, as well as demonstrating cost-effectiveness strategies to address the societal needs. Managed care pharmacists engage patients to participate in their health related decisions by providing education regarding medications and health conditions and how they are related.

The Act is also intended to prevent or minimize environmental damage through project alternative development, mitigation measures and monitoring. Through CEQA, the agency’s decision making process is disclosed to the public. This is the process by which discretionary projects gain approval after the presentation of findings and statements. It has been seen to enhance the public’s participation in the environmental review process (i.e. scoping meetings, public notice, public review, hearings, and the judicial process). Most agree that CEQA effectively improves the interagency coordination with early consultations, scoping meetings, notices of preparation, and State Clearinghouse

Corporations can be large or small but they all have some sort of ethical impact on their employees, shareholders, customers, community, and surrounding environments. Richard DeGeorge writes, “We can speak of corporations having moral responsibilities to act in certain ways, and they are morally responsible for the consequences of their actions on people.” (p. 200). Large corporations are comprised of the board of directors, management, and their workers. They also deal with suppliers, customers, and have competitors. This essay will examine the moral responsibilities within a corporation.

The Pharmaceutical industry has been in the spotlight for decades due to the fact that they have a reputation for being unethical in its marketing strategies. In The Washington Post Shannon Brownlee (2008) states, “We try never to forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow.” This honorable statement is completely lost in today’s world of pharmaceutical marketing tactics. These tactics are often deceptive and biased. Big Pharma consistently forgets their moral purpose and focuses primarily on the almighty dollar. Big Pharma is working on restoring their reputation by reforming their ethical code of conduct.

Even though the pharmaceutical industry has made great improvements to human health and quality of life, like creating drugs for the treatment of AIDS, cancer, and other diseases, an increasing tension is growing between the public and the industry. These thoughts are fueled by issues such as drug pricing, affordable health care, and the battle against epidemic diseases in third world countries; social critics wonder whether this multi-billion dollar industry is giving enough back to the community and fulfilling its social responsibility.

ITC Ltd has worked exremly hard to start several procedures that have led to compliance of the standards of social responsibility. ITC’s dealings within the tobacco industry have contributed to the increase in company revenues and the company has worked towards following the triple bottom line and giving back to society. Most, businesses pay little attention to their social responsibilities and make it part of their overall strategy, instead they concentrate more on financial benefits from the sales of products. Consequently, managing business in a socially responsive manner contributes to the best combination of business success and societal acceptance, trust and loyalty. Giving back to the community in ways that benefits only society such as planting trees to curb pollution and help the environment or using biodegradable materials in packaging can reap financial benefits to a company by building loyalty among the community. The notion of business ethics and corporate social responsibility is becoming a defining concept in all industries worldwide. ITC believes in the Triple Bottom Line philosophy where the performance and perception of a corporation should not be judged only on the basis of its financial statements or revenues, but its environmental and social performance as well. ITC is one of the only companies in the world to be carbon positive, water positive, and conduct solid waste recycling. ITC provides water to areas where water is very

Congress passed The Solid Waste Disposal Act in 1965. The Agency of Environmental Safety considered this Act as the primary effort made by federal authority for efficient waste clearance technology. This act controls the dumping material; manage storage and management of solid, both and non-precarious and precarious wastage. It highlights the processes that are environmentally liable to dispose waste at the commercial, municipal, industrial and household levels (Tchobanoglous & Vergara, 2010). This was considered as primary initiative of a chain of systems focusing on resource management and air cleaning (Gerlak, 2005). There have been several major adjustments made to the Act with the reference to Resource Recovery and Conservation Act (1976). The involvement of federal