Capitalism is a system that pushes companies to prioritize profits over most or all other considerations. As such, they try to reduce costs by procedures such as waste dumping instead of recycling. Furthermore, humanity’s expanding consumeristic tendencies lead to a continually growing consumption of natural resources. In some cases, such as deforestation, the environment can sustain significant damage as a result. New ideas such as corporate social responsibility have improved the situation somewhat by introducing penalties for companies that harm nature. However, many issues remain, and so, this proposal puts forward the following research question: how can capitalism’s negative influence on the environment be diminished?
State of Knowledge on the Topic
The existence of various changes in the environment is well-known nowadays. Moore (2016) claims that the reason for the various new developments is not known definitively, though capitalism is one of the options. Alnesafi, Kasumba, and Aldhuaina (2016) claim that large corporations use the non-prohibitive legislation of developing countries to maximize profits at the expense of workers and nature. Even in wealthy nations, environmental legislation tends to be ineffective and fail to stop offenders (Lynch, Stretesky, and Long, 2019). Doğan (2016) claims that ecological disruption is an intrinsic function of humanity’s intelligence. However, capitalism is a popular target of criticism due to the examples provided by unethical large companies.
Some detractors promote socialism as an alternative that would share environmental responsibility across everyone. However, Legates (2017) disagrees and states that the political system lends itself to oppression and stagnation. With that said, Smith, Neil, and Zimmerman (2016) state that past attempts to make capitalism ecologically friendly have failed, possibly due to some critical flaw of the system. Still, improvement initiatives continue, with Warenius (2017) proposing a circular economy as a way to improve sustainability. Brown and Block (2019) suggest that laissez-faire capitalism is the sole option that would enable nature to thrive alongside humanity. Overall, there is considerable disagreement that is informed by a variety of political, economic, and practical issues.
Methods
The study will focus on capitalistic entities, mostly companies, and analyze their behaviors that helped the environment. As such, the researchers will analyze various corporate social responsibility initiatives and consider their costs as well as results. They will try to distinguish successes from promotional campaigns with more publicity than impact and determine the most effective efforts. The characteristic will be determined by both benefits to the environment and the overall result for the company, as companies should implement the changes willingly. Initiatives that help nature while leading to further profit for the organization would be easy to implement under capitalism.
The study will also evaluate the reasons behind various environmentally friendly corporate actions. The increase in widespread interest regarding the environment as well as government legislation designed to protect it are the most likely causes. However, many people do not know enough about current issues or have different beliefs. Moreover, as mentioned above, some countries do not protect their nature, enabling damaging exploitation by companies. As such, a framework that would be suitable for adoption worldwide would benefit these countries and provide further motivation for businesses to work on improvements.
Anticipated Results
The study is expected to produce a list of improvements that have led to the best results and can be applied across many different businesses. They will most likely not enable adoption via direct copying, but they can be used as inspirations for executive staff. It will also result in the determination of laws and initiatives that have led to significant efforts to be environmentally conscious by corporations. Governments around the world will be able to use the template to draft legislation that will protect their natural resources from exploitation. Furthermore, activists will be able to understand the dangers and approaches that will lead to the best results in their efforts.
Conclusion
Capitalism is a popular target for criticism due to the various scandals associated with the practices of large companies. However, there is still no viable alternative to the system, and so, most researchers concentrate on improving capitalism to reduce its environmental dangers. As such, the study proposes an analysis of successful recent corporate environmental initiatives as well as their causes. It will concentrate on both the environmental benefits of the effort and its influence on the company. The results are expected to be a set of suggestions that can benefit both companies and governments.
References
Alnesafi, A., Kasumba, S., & Aldhuaina, H. A. (2016). Global capitalism and predatory practices of transnational corporations in developing countries. Journal of the Association for Accountancy & Business Affairs, 15, 61-86.
Brown, C., Block, W., & Wirth, H.E. (2019). Free market for the environment. Economic Policy, 14(1), 116-125.
Doğan, M. (2016). Global environment problems in the developing and changing world. International Journal of Science and Research, 5(7), 49-51.
Legates, D. R. (2017). The experiment: Capitalism versus socialism. Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, 22(1), 16-22.
Lynch, M. J., Stretesky, P. B., & Long, M. A. (2019). Environmental crime prosecutions in Ireland. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 43(4), 277-293.
Moore, J.W. (ed.). (2016). Anthropocene or capitalocene? Nature, history, and the crisis of capitalism. Oakland, CA: PM Press.
Smith, R., Neil, W., & Zimmerman, K. (2016). Capitalism, corporations and ecological crisis: A dialogue concerning green capitalism. Real-World Economics Review, 76, 136-145.
Warenius, L. (2017). Sustainable capitalism in the making? The Marshallian citizenship conceptualisation expanded in a European circular economy. Web.