The Ruffin Series of the Society for Business Ethics

Volume 2, 2000

Environmental Challenges to Business

Lisa H. Newton
Pages 219-230

A Scaffold For Muir
A Logic for Environmental Protection

Everyone knows that somehow we must protect the natural environment as part of the ethical imperatives of doing business, especially in the era of globalization of business. But where, actually, do we find the structure of ethical imperatives that will support that “must”? The drawbacks of several candidates, some of them discussed in papers elsewhere in this volume, are considered, then supplemented with the Japanese concept of kyosei as supplying a missing link between ethics and the land. In the end, some questions are raised about the possibility of success of the entire environmental enterprise in face of the provisions of global trade agreements.