Ethical Issues Affecting Businesses Today Term Paper

Ethical Issues Affecting Businesses Today - Term Paper Example There exists a direct correlation between ethics and businesses, with the long-term benefits associated with the interaction between the two being sustainable businesses. To understand what constitutes a responsible business, it is essential to consider morally acceptable business practices. In this regard, a responsible business behaves ethically and ethics are the moral precepts that determine the acceptable code of behavior (Riley 2012). The responsible business practice entails making decisions that are both legal and morally sound, basing on general standards of acceptable behavior in society. The other notions that work in conjunction with business ethics include corporate social responsibility, corporate responsibility, sustainable business and social enterprise, whereby it is hardly possible to separate these concepts, as they are highly interrelated. This is because an ethical business must be socially responsible, and similarly, a socially responsible business must be ethic al; therefore, these concepts are interlinked. Social responsibility is a broad concept as it covers the relationship between businesses and all the stakeholders involved and this relationship is defined with ethical principles and obligations. Every business is obliged to operate responsibly, and this entails doing what is morally acceptable and right all times; this calls for the establishment of principles that act as guidelines for the business. These principles define how the business relates to other stakeholders in the society such as consumers, suppliers, the surrounding communities and the government at large. Businesses must be careful to maintain good relationships with all these stakeholders for if they have to operate within the financial markets; this has both long term and short-term benefits. Businesses that are able to maintain such effective relationships are thus said to be socially responsible;  a socially responsible  business meets its  obligations to soc iety. For instance, businesses are expected to treat their employees with the utmost respect especially concerning employee privacy and protect employee rights such as entitlement to decent wages (Patil 2012); businesses that breach this obligation are bound to face criticism. Many businesses today have signed the UN Global Compact that obliges them to be socially responsible especially concerning environmental protection, human rights and labor standards (â€Å"From Fringe to mainstream† 2012). There has been a global drive to help firms become more socially responsible, especially with the initiatives of B- Lab, a non-profit organization that helps private firms be socially responsible (â€Å"B Lab's Bart Houlahan† 2012). Corporate responsibility entails being accountable to the society in general, by engaging in healthy business practices that promote the wellbeing of the world at large. In this case, businesses must take responsibility for their actions, as a form of responsible business behavior as opposed to being insensitive and unresponsive. Both excellent and awful corporate responsibility influences not only on the local communities of operation but also on the world at large. For instance, corporate responsibility has socio-economic and environmental effects in the world, and these can be either positive or negative.

Development strategy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Development strategy - Assignment Example These are what the typical demand of occupiers is currently. Occupiers also challenge developers to meet their power load reduction goals. Therefore occupiers demand that developers ensure that they meet modern mandates and energy conservation goals. They must therefore ensure transmission, generation, and distribution entities work together effectively. Occupiers also demand that available load demand side management assets are identified and unified and hosted DSM is provided for utilities throughout the distribution of infrastructure (Egan, 2002). Occupiers demand that energy requirements in buildings be reduced and sourced alternatively. They also need energy conservation solution with benefits such as: insight and visibility from generation to device unifying data throughout ecosystem of the energy; achieve compliance and reduction of load through the unified controls which execute and measure created diverse load control programs; cost savings through controlling peak charges; rapid adoption allowing utilities to participate in centralized programs; and future proofing with standard based system device agnostic supporting hardware legacy, data sources and applications. These demands must be met by developers. Analyses of how today’s energy requirements in buildings can be reduced and alternatively sourced. ... Another way to reduce energy demands and source energy alternatively is via the use of renewable energy generations to eliminate or reduce further their emissions of greenhouse gas in use. Evidence has it that buildings are responsible for around 45% of carbon dioxide emissions in the UK. Therefore good building designs can cut energy bills and carbon dioxide emissions by almost two third. Developers therefore need to incorporate renewable energy in order to give the buildings producing no net carbon dioxide in use. The Management of Energy and Water Efficiency in Federal Buildings has established a facility project management and benchmarking framework. This enables developers to identify all â€Å"covered facilities† constituting at least 75 percent of the energy of the building in use. The framework also demands that an energy manager be designated at every one building covered. Developers are encouraged to implement the identified water and energy efficiency measures. Deve lopers are mandated to ensure that their new buildings hit a long term zero net energy goal by 2025. New buildings also need to be located in places that regulate its illumination and temperatures, for example around hills, landscaping and trees in order to block wind and provide shade. In addition, buildings in cooler climates should be designed with south facing windows so as to increase the amount heat energy (sun) that enters the building. This minimizes the use of energy through maximization of passive solar heating (Egan, 2002). Reducing energy requirement is a demand that is typical with occupiers, who also need the energy to be sourced from alternative means. In order to reduce energy