[*240] As Part II of this article will show, standard reassurances about technology, corporate resourcefulness
But trading relations and economic development are seriously at risk in a world beset by warming and erratic climate conditions, environmental refugees, and war over economic resources. How can corporations claim a role of conscience and citizenship at a time when environmental threats to trading and commerce are legion?
There are ways, but only if we are open to new paradigms and possibilities. It may help to talk about the parameters of peace. Peace means more than the absence of armed conflict; it also means the prevailing ethos of cooperation and nonviolence. n11 Peace is more akin to balance and harmony, not only among the various parts of an organization, but between the organization and its political, cultural, and ecological environment. In the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001, Rabbi Michael Lerner [*241] wrote that the world has become out of touch with itself and is tipping irrevocably toward conflict.
We may tell ourselves that the current violence has "nothing to do" with the way that we've learned to close our ears when told that one out of every three people on this planet does not have enough food, and that one billion are literally starving. We may reassure ourselves that the hoarding of the world's resources by the richest society in world history, and our frantic attempts to accelerate globalization, with all its attendant inequalities of wealth, has nothing to do with the resentment that others feel toward us... if the U.S. turns its back on global agreements to preserve the environment, unilaterally cancels its treaties to not build a missile defense, accelerates the process by which a global economy has made some people in the third world richer but many poorer, shows that it cares nothing for the fate of refugees who have been homeless for decades, and otherwise turns its back on ethical norms, it becomes far easier for the haters and the fundamentaliststo recruit people who are willing to kill themselves in strikes against what they perceive to be an evil American empire represented by the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. n12
Rabbi Lerner's words may strike some readers as the needless hand wringing of a bleeding-heart liberal, not nearly hard-headed or realistic enough. But even if citizens of the United States have stopped asking "why do they hate us?" and have turned toward supporting preemptive military attacks as a primary strategy in the war on terror, n13 we would be wise to acknowledge that free trade and globalization are not universally welcomed and that the world seems out of balance, both socially and environmentally
[*242] This article considers the ways in which corporations can work either for or against achieving more peaceful, sustainable societies on Earth. It begins with a vision that explicitly rejects the notion that any of us-- citizens, immigrants, corporations, NGOs, political leaders, scholars, bloggers, journalists--ca
We are all connected. People, institutions, and corporations all need to embrace a worldview that turns away from forms of thought marked by domination, empire, force, and fear. An alternative vision--nonline
[*243] We stand at a critical moment in Earth's history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise. To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace. Toward this end, it is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations.n16
The Earth Charter's vision calls for a greater commitment to corporate environmental citizenship. Corporations are such a central and visible fact of global commerce in twenty-first-ce
In accord with the Earth Charter, then, I submit the following directions for the kind of corporate environmental citizenship that can help co-create a more peaceful planet. Corporate environmental citizenship for sustainable grace recognizes the power of corporations to influence the rules of the game. It demonstrates restraint in what it says to the public and what it asks from the public sector. It understands that governments and corporations can be self-dealing; that bureaucratic systems need constant monitoring, transparency, and accountability;
As in all positive change, we must begin with awareness. Readers who approach war, peace, and business from a traditional mindset may reject my prescriptions out of hand. However, Part II will help to clear our vision and tell us where we really are by describing a set of mistaken mental frameworks that most people bring to the question of how business enterprises (or commerce) can contribute to making the planet a more peaceful place.
This article has three aims. The first is to make clear that--contrary to prevailing mindsets--corpo
The five mistaken mental frameworks are: (1) corporations do not make war--government
Much of the above is no longer true. The vision of American businesses spreading the light of peace and prosperity and free trade throughout the world is at best a partial truth. There are exceptional businesses, some of them American, whose actions abroad create respect for the rule of law; respect for the environment; and fairness for employees of differing ethnicity, race, and gender and who refuse to bribe corrupt public officials. n20 Still, more than a few corporations are engaged in the kinds of activities that contribute to global warming and lobby against regulatory solutions of any kind; n21 others are profiting handsomely in the projection [*246] of American military power n22 and may also do business with regimes that sponsor terrorism. n23 Further, America's addiction to oil consumption--by
Corporations may also actively collaborate with regimes that are oppressive, antidemocratic,
[*250] The extent of the capture of public policy by private interests has apparently increased during the Bush II administration.
[*251] The extraordinary degree to which public and private sectors are merging has been evident in no-bid contracts for Iraq, the activities of Halliburton, and -- according to Kevin Phillips in American Dynasty--in the public and private lives of the Bush family. It is tempting to dismiss Phillips' indictment of the Bush family as blatantly political, but the pattern of three generations of Bush men using political office for private gain is well documented and disturbing. n39 If both Bush I and Bush II are oil men, then it seems fair to assume that the search for oil as profit shaped their perspectives, and it should not be surprising that oil companies would use political access to help forge critical U.S. energy policies. n40 U.S. foreign policy and national security are inextricably linked to the primacy of oil supplies and oil companies. n41 Yet continuing down the fossil-fuel energy path seriously undermines the environment and the future security of global capitalism.
European and U.S. dependence on oil--and the predicted rise of Chinese and Indian dependence on fossil fuels--is the macro-economic story of our time and the biggest resource struggle of all. The still-growing use of oil and fossil fuels poses dangers to a stable global environment and thus to a predictable social and natural environment for doing business. U.S. foreign policies encouraged by the business sector--oriente
The current reality, however, is that corporations may (singly or in concert with others): (1) work to undermine policy making by misleading the public, (2) avoid accountability under the rule of law, and (3) lobby for new or continued subsidies and anticompetitive
[*253] The Global Climate Coalition (GCC) n48 was one of several industry-backed
Thus, a time-honored corporate strategy of avoiding accountability for environmental damage is to use law to defeat otherwise valid claims from citizens and government. Those familiar with Jonathan Hair's award-winning book, A Civil Action, n50 will not be surprised that [*254] W.R. Grace is alleged to have continued its polluting ways in Libby, Montana. n51 W.R. Grace has denied doing any harm in either Woburn, Massachusetts or in Montana. n52 Despite these denials, the U.S. [*255] government has nonetheless indicted Grace for covering up information about its Libby operations. n53
In Part III, General Electric (GE) under Jeff Immelt will be noted as a corporate exemplar. But under the leadership of Reg Jones and Jack Welch, tough-minded lawyering was used to oppose the cleanup of polychlorinated
In the late 1980s and 1990s, GE began an aggressive public relations campaign to convince the public that PGBs were not all that harmful. One brochure written by M. Peter Lanahan, hired by Welch, made the claim that PGBs are not dangerous, citing as evidence two statements from scientists at the Institute for Health Policy Analysis, a pro-business think tank in Washington that GE sponsored (its financial support of the institute was not disclosed in the brochure). GE also published a quarterly newsletter called River Watch, which minimized the dangers of PCBs and could have given readers the impression that it was a publication sanctioned and authored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
[*256] O'Boyle provides a glimpse of GE's legal strategy with regard to regulatory agencies that embodies a take-no-prisone
The company has sought to ply its influence in other ways, some subtle and some not. One of the simplest ways is to swarm the regulatory process by keeping regulators tied up. The protracted controversy over the Hudson has generated hundreds of public hearings. Lanahan and his cohorts understand intimately how government functions, and they also understand how to stall and delay governmental procedures. That is why Welch hired them, many believed. GE used the hearings to deluge the government with commentary, which in turn requires the EPA to spend months responding to what GE has said. Two years after the EPA began the reassessment of the Hudson River in 1989, the agency issued its Phase One report; GE's response to the report was more than 600 pages long, longer than the EPA document. n57
In December 2000, the EPA ordered GE to spend $ 490 million to clean up the Hudson by dredging 2.65 million cubic yards of mud containing 100,000 lbs of PCBs from a 40-mile stretch of the river. GE described the cleanup proposal as "absurd" and "outrageous" and vowed to fight the plan in every way it could.
Clearly, much of GE's legal, political, and public relations strategy trades on scientific uncertainty. But like trichlorethelyn
For instance, crony capitalism may have helped to perpetuate the fossil-fuel economy in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. n62 While renewable energy made some inroads, the bill, as signed by President Bush, was largely fossil-fuel business as usual, with increased possibilities for renewing the nuclear power industry. n63 Those with a focused agenda and money to pursue it seem to have done quite well in the process. n64 Those who [*258] followed the controversy over Vice-President Cheney's National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPDG) will recall that the Administration refused to provide the names and affiliations of industry parties who attended and that the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch brought a lawsuit after the General Accounting Office was unable to obtain the names of nonfederal attendees. n65 But fairly reliable inferences can be made that energy industry members assisted in the shaping of a pro-industry policy and that included continuing subsidies and exemptions for fossil-fuel interests. n66
[*259] Identifying domestic subsidies and exemptions was not the sole focus of the NEPDG; Judicial Watch's request for documents in its case against Vice-President Cheney yielded maps of Middle Eastern oil fields and lists of companies competing lor Saddam Hussein's oil. n67 Such a focus for the NEPDG is consistent with U.S. energy policies that have emphasized growth in supply, resisted cutbacks in consumption, and relatively little importance assigned to renewable resources and conservation.
The NPDEG task force and subsequent energy bill, together with U.S. military interventions in the Middle East, with strong involvement by politically connected contractors, undermine the image of the United States as promoting peace and democracy and reinforce the [*260] impression that its consumption patterns require military responses." n68 These developments model an open, competitive capitalism; rather, they suggest that enough cronyism has taken root that private interests are supplanting the public good. n69 In sum, the conventional paradigm of corporate compliance with public-minded laws and regulations needs to account for aggressive corporate public relations to manage the legal environment, n70 the use of lawyers to avoid accountability to the public, n71 and corporate access to policy makers that promotes private interests as the public interest. n72 C. Free Trade, Global Exchange, and the Spread of Peace and Democracy? Under the conventional mindset, America is a beacon of democracy, and its promotion of free trade brings numerous nation-states into the fold of peaceful trading nations. n73 A compelling alternative view--more often articulated outside of the United States--is that the United States is a consumer nation, requiring massive material inputs and energy to maintain a standard of living that is not sustainable from an ecological perspective. n74
[*261] Historically, the United States has used armed force on numerous occasions in the twentieth century to defend its interests. Stephen Kinzer writes that the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was not an isolated episode, but was instead the culmination of a 110-year period during which Americans overthrew fourteen governments that displeased them for various ideological, political, and economic reasons. n75 In Central and Latin America, these include Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Chile.
Chalmers Johnson points out that the United States now maintains over 725 military bases worldwide, in every continent but Antarctica. n76 The United States did not begin as an empire, but the Cold War gave new functions to the bases created for strategic purposes during World War II. Gradually, the armed forces began to be privatized and professionalize
The principal public business remains oil resources and the war on terror. The two are interlinked. The post-9/11 presidential rhetoric of [*262] democracy and freedom fades as the exigencies of the war on terror (currently the war on Islamofascism n81) makes allies of nondemocratic regimes for bases and other coordinated activities.
Moreover, in the competition for Central Asian oil, the United States faces an emerging superpower (China) intent on making deals with aggressive and authoritarian oil-rich nations. n82 The so-called new great game in Central Asia for access to oil will pit the United States against China, and it has already become the stuff of geopolitical strategies and spy thrillers. n83 The post-Mao "Who lost China" n84 question among U.S. armchair strategists will quickly morph into a question of how we lost the Central Asian oil that (implicitly) rightfully belongs to the United State.
The conflict between resource consumption and preservation of human rights is evident in the Sudan. In 2001, Talisman Energy of Canada had a twenty-five-per
Thus, there are realistic limits on the Bush administration'
The coming resource wars that Michael Klare warns of should make us mindful that positive peace--not just the absence of armed conflict will not be easily secured. n89 Historically, the big wars, like World War II, [*264] have also been linked to national needs for resources. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had its origins, at least in part, in a decision by the United States to limit oil exports in response to the Japanese invasion of China. n90 Even if the new great game does not lead directly to surrogate wars with the Chinese (along with surrogate wars against Iran), the desire to maintain U.S. and European access to oil resources is woefully expensive. Cass Sunstein has already noted the irony that the cost of the Iraq war will soon exceed the anticipated cost of the Kyoto Protocol; for both, the cost is somewhere in excess of $ 300 billion. n91
Aside from the history of big wars and other armed conflicts over resources, there are systemic difficulties in an oil-driven global economy for fostering peaceful societies willing to cooperate with one another and foster a global rule of law. Thomas Friedman has theorized that there is an inverse relationship between democracy and nations having great oil wealth. n92 In Friedman's view, if democracy and peace are linked, then national security policy requires a sustained commitment to finding alternatives to oil. As Friedman notes, "any American democracy-promo
[*265] Yet many U.S. corporations have willingly subscribed to a national domestic energy policy that continues established patterns of oil consumption and looks to increase supply rather than decrease demand. U.S. automakers set a pattern of consumption in the 1990s with SUVs, opposition to electric vehicles, or higher CAFE standards n95 that make them less competitive today. Some auto and oil companies joined together to deliberately misinform the public about the realities of GHG emissions and global climate change. n96 For some U.S. companies, reality politics may seem to require a continuing commitment to accessing Middle East oil and regards China as a strategic competitor.
Setting aside rhetoric about global free trade and the spread of peace-loving, democratic nations, we can see that the United States is not always seen elsewhere as a peace-loving democracy intent on spreading freedom, self-determinat
What is natural capital? Natural capital is breathable air, drinkable water, fertile soil, wetlands and coastal dunes that mediate storm surges, aquifers that provide a source for irrigating otherwise unproductive land, rivers and lakes that provide recreation and fishing, and oceans that have provided sustenance and a way of life for people over the centuries. In our economic calculations of how we are doing in terms of wealth creation, the now-acceleratin
The well-documented
Economists recognize that the market allocates resources and distributes wealth among participants. While agreeing with this, Douglas Kysar also documents the recent emergence of the concept of scale from ecological economists such as Robert Costanza, Herman Daly, and Kenneth Boulding (whose classic essay on "Spaceship Earth" n102 challenged prevailing macroeconomic assumptions). According to Kysar,
[*267] Ecological economists argue that a third function served by the market has been overlooked by conventional analysis: moderation of the scale of human economic activity vis-a-vis the ecological superstructure upon which all life and activity depends (scale). While allocation determines the purposes for which resources are used, scale determines the rate and amounts of resources that are used. n103Boulding noted that mainstream economists viewed the economy as an open system of pure exchange value with externalized environmental consequences, yet their view failed to note that the scale of externalities was becoming massive and on a public scale. He summarized the mainstream perspective as "cowboy economics," in which natural frontiers are seen as limitless, resources as inexhaustible, and wastes as innocuous. n104 Given the assumptions of an open system with infinite reservoirs of natural capital and no limits on the effluvia that can be left behind, infinite growth is an entirely rational and uncontroversial
On a spaceship, you can not ignore the byproducts of production and consumption, and you must, of necessity, pay attention to the stock of resources that you carried on board. Likewise on "Spaceship Earth," humans must be concerned with the capacity of the global vehicle to support their needs and accommodate their wastes. "The essential measure of the success of the economy is not production and consumption at all, but the nature, extent, quality, and complexity of the total capital stock, including in this the state of the human bodies and minds included in the system." n105
Should we simply let posterity worry about Spaceship Earth? Boulding seems to think we humans have enough "ethical myopia" to do just that. But doing so fails to meet the moral challenge of our time, whether as individuals, corporations, or nations. Nonetheless, mainstream economics does not (according to Kysar) pay particular attention to Boulding's ideas. Along with mainstream economics, we prefer to live for today, defining progress in standard economic terms of growing [*268] GDP. n106 In short, we are only being efficient in narrow terms, without reference to our larger environmental context. Corporate citizenship requires the encouragement of and support for laws and regulations (domestically and internationally
[*269] Some commentators have reminded us that the first corporations were chartered explicitly to serve some perceived public good" n108 or that, even when corporations were chartered for any lawful purpose there was an implicit social contract, that is, that in return for limited liability and perpetual duration, corporations provided progress through jobs, innovative products and services, and even social stability for the nation. As Robert Reich pointed out in 1988, n109 General Motors Chairman Charlie Wilson's famous 1950s dictum ("What's good for GM is good for America.") was a fair statement of the social contract between business and society at that time.
The current globalized reality is radically different. A number of articles in the 1980s celebrated "stateless corporations, n110 and many leaders of MNEs have tried to delink their corporations from any national brand identity. However, nation-states have more difficulty regulating and taxing the denationalized MNE. In a largely unregulated global order, smaller nation-states can serve as offshore havens for private money--keeping it beyond the purview of public authorities in developed nations. Thus, the global system can have unrestricted financial flows, which sounds good, but the unrestricted flows can also be secret flows, unaccountable to any public authority.
In his book, Illicit, Moises Naim shows that illicit trade has soared during the past twenty years. Illicit trade "breaks the rules--the laws, regulations, licenses, taxes, embargos, and all the procedures that nations [*270] employ to organize commerce, protect their citizens, and enforce moral codes. n111 The list includes illegal drugs, endangered species, human chattel for sex slavery and sweatshops, human cadavers, live organs for transplant, rocket-propelle
In The Achilles Heel of Capitalism, Raymond Baker catalogues the kindred ailments caused by deregulated global money flows: among these are tax evasion and the deliberate mispricing of international commercial transactions by MNEs in order to avoid taxes. n115 What is common to Nairn's and Baker's list of globalized capitalism's ailments is that druglords, terrorists, MNE transfer pricing tricks, and tax evasion schemes all rely on the same tax havens (sometimes known as Offshore Financial Centers). Thus, large parts of the global economy are beyond the power of government to effectively govern; the private sector, much of it illegal and/or disinterested in the public good, is undermining if not overwhelming the public sector. The political weight of those who would keep the flows of money free, yet secret and unclean, include major accounting firms, law [*271] firms, and banking firms in the United States, n116 as well as the corporations they serve.
In conclusion, corporate citizenship clearly requires more than a stale mantra of maximizing profits and must be reframed for a globally deregulated world where public and private spheres have become intermixed at best and where public governance has been captured by private interests at worst. To take a stand for peace, corporations must acknowledge that some private interests may encourage war, foment conflict, and profit from arms sales and perpetual war. They must come to understand that conflict resolution by force of arms is unhealthy for children, the planet, and the prospects of sustainable businesses for the next generations.
Corporations must clearly acknowledge that they--and their trade associations--c
Corporations must consider the historic potential of capitalism to be a force for world benefit; they must then solicit and accept guidance from the public that conforms to the core values or principles of a more trustworthy capitalism--abu
If the answer to any or all of this is "dream on," then dream on we must, for (to paraphrase Einstein) we will not solve the problems at hand with the same thinking that got us here. n117 New thinking in light of current realities is urgently required. We will now look at some companies that are starting to embrace that new thinking.
III. CITIZENSHIP EMBRACED
Corporations who embrace the vision of a more peaceful world will choose to exercise their economic and political power more responsibly. They can do so by rejecting market fundamentalism,
Some corporations and trade associations are joining together, sometimes with environmental NCOs, to seek better rules for local, national, and global business activities, not just to ask for exemptions and subsidies, [*273] to reduce regulatory effects on profits, or to avoid accountability.
But Washington is a bazaar of competing interests, many of them corporate. The public-private distinction is breaking or has broken down. n120 Corporations and trade associations must find the courage to articulate rules and systems that will work in the long term for all, not just for them. While Altman talks about a "stunning failure of leadership" from Washington on our oil dependence and on climate change, corporations that are deeply embedded in the culture of the U.S. capital must also acknowledge their own need to lead. n121
[*274] With regard to global warming and GHG emissions, a good corporate citizen would recognize the futility of unilateral action to combat a problem with so many sources, yet also understand that the costs of collectively doing nothing are unacceptably high. n122 Such an understanding makes it untenable to cloud public debate by instilling doubts about global warming science and inflated figures about the costs of a carbon emissions trading system with fixed caps. Shell, BP, Chrysler and Ford were all members of the GCC. n123 However, in December 1999, Ford Motor Company announced that it would withdraw from the GCC. n124 It was the first automaker to admit that global warming was a serious problem and the largest American company to drop out of the GCC. William Clay Ford, Jr. explained why his company left the GCC:
Time is not on our side, we need to keep moving forward, and we need to move fast. We're at a crucial point in the world's history. Our oceans and forests are suffering, species are disappearing; the climate is changing. Around the world, billions of our fellow human beings lack the most basic requirements of health and dignity. Enlightened corporations are beginning to understand that these issues are business issues. They realize they can no longer separate themselves from what is going on around them. That, ultimately, they can only be as successful as the communities, and the world, that they exist in. ... The present risk is clear. The climate appears to be changing, the changes appear to be outside natural variation, and the likely consequences will be [*275] serious. From a business planning point of view, that issue is settled. Anyone who disagrees is, in my view, still in denial. n125DaimlerChrysler
The GCC did in fact disband in 2002. n128 Facts and credibility had begun to matter even more by then. The fifteen warmest years in the last century have occurred since 1980, ice is melting on every continent, snow packs are shrinking, the volume of the ice cap in the Arctic Ocean has shrunk over 40% over the past 40 years, and continuing denials in the context of such compelling evidence risk loss of credibility. n129
It is a good first step toward global environmental citizenship for an oil, gas, electric, chemical, or auto company to disassociate themselves from advocacy groups that seek to create confusion and policy gridlock. Some corporations have taken the next step and are starting to advocate for a national climate policy with mandatory controls. According to CERES, n130 companies like Alcoa, Duke Power, DuPont, and United Technologies have become "leaders in their industries by articulating the business case for [*276] GHG controls and a supportive government regulatory framework." n131 A growing number of American chief executive officers (CEOs) say that "a more aggressive approach is needed and that U.S. companies are hampered competitively by the lack of a clear national strategy." n132 Many CEOs, Wall Street firms, and even evangelical leaders "are questioning the U.S. government's voluntary approach to climate change and are calling for greater measures to reduce regulatory uncertainty." n133
One approach for corporations is to constructively join with broader-based organizations to seek consensus and the kind of forward-looking
[*277] One can argue with the specific content of their suggestions; any company or industry that takes a position for or against the Kyoto Protocol or proposes a different system of reducing fossil-fuel emissions can be criticized for being naive, misinformed, or just plain mistaken about the likely efficacy or results of what they propose. But being proactive in this way is also part of citizenship; corporations can and do get involved in the legislative and regulatory process, as well as supporting political candidates with dollar donations; in the United States at least, such speech is protected under the First Amendment. The ethical question is not whether a corporation's regulatory or legislative suggestions are beyond any possible reproach; rather, the question is whether they are motivated by a spirit of the common good and enhancement of a more trustworthy capitalism.
GE, a company with little evidence of green thinking under CEO Jack Welch, has reportedly become (under CEO Jeff Immelt) a more environmentally
GE's "ecomagination"
GE is now working to impose new, more stringent government regulations that will raise energy costs and reduce energy availability without providing significant, or even measurable, benefits. GE is lobbying lawmakers, and even supporting politicized activists in hopes of enacting in the U.S. greenhouse gas regulation similar to the Kyoto Protocol. n143
The Free Enterprise Action Fund (essentially Thomas J. Borelli and Steven J. Milloy n144) was concerned that GE had joined the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, which had advocated mandatory GHG controls. n145 Mr. Immelt and other senior GE officials have publicly proclaimed "that global warming is real, and also call for American government regulations to deal with it. GE is sticking its neck out and, among the most influential big American businesses, it has taken something of a lead." n146 [*279] GE had also joined the Northeast Climate Group, n147 a partnership between businesses and the World Resources Institute, building "strategies for companies to thrive in a carbon-constrai
In an interview with the Washington Post, Mr. Immelt said he would like Congress to pass an energy bill that set "clear milestones" to reduce GHG emissions so that companies would know how to invest to achieve them. "The bill should include market-based mechanisms to encourage businesses to cut pollution, such as caps with incentives or the ability to trade emissions credits. He also called for fuel incentives to encourage fuel diversity and a centralized effort to develop new environmental technologies that can be used throughout U.S. industry." n149
There is little doubt that Mr. Immelt's leadership involves risks. If he is right, notes the Economist, "not only will GE benefit, but business everywhere will have to follow in its tracks in one form or another. If he is wrong, Mr. Immelt will have led one of the world's biggest and most powerful companies down a dead-end." n150 But GE's new strategy was not launched on a whim; the firm spent eighteen months discussing it with customers and took away "a clear message: rising fuel costs, ever tighter environmental regulations and growing consumer expectations will translate into demand for cleaner technologies, especially in the energy industry." n151 It may even be smart strategy --GE may be better positioned than certain of its rivals to exploit government interventions on GHG emissions. n152
B. Going Green: Efficiencies and Environmentally
Chevron integrated renewable technologies into its energy portfolio; it now invests over $ 100 annually in low-carbon and carbon-free energy alternatives. n155 American Electric Power (AEP) is the world's largest producer of carbon dioxide. In 2005, AEP said that targets for carbon reduction "represent a common-sense approach that can bring the process of lowering emissions along a gradual, cost-effective path." n156 AEP "bitterly opposes mandatory action on carbon." n157 But it expects carbon regulation to come some time in the next thirty years and has joined with GE on a joint venture to test clean-coal technology. n158 DuPont has cut its GHG emissions by 65% since 1990, saving hundreds of millions of dollars in the process.
With major operations in the United States, BP has spent $ 20 million on its carbon emission reductions strategy and realized $ 650 million in savings over three years. n159 BP was able to reach its initial target of reducing emissions by ten percent below its 1990 levels without cost. Indeed, the company added around $ 650 million of shareholder value, because the bulk of the reductions came from the elimination of leaks and waste. n160 Other firms--such as electricity generator Entergy, car manufacturer Toyota, and mining giant Rio Tinto--are having similar experiences. The message from these measures is that efficiency can both pay dividends and reduce emissions. n161
[*281] Environmental citizenship can come from surprising sources. NGOs and labor activists used to bashing Wal-Mart find themselves puzzled by Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott's rhetoric in October 2005. He pledged to transform Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer and number two on the Fortune 500 list, into a company that runs entirely on renewable energy and produces zero net waste. Similar goals have been expressed and notable advances achieved by Ray Anderson, CEO of the world's largest carpet company. n162 Wal-Mart's initiatives do seem substantive.
The company has already set up more than a dozen "sustainable value networks," each focused on a particular area like packaging or facilities, each made up of Wal-Mart managers and outside educators, regulators, and environmentalis
[*282] Efforts like these are being noticed in the marketplace and also by the U.S. government. The U.S. Department of State's annual Award lor Corporate Excellence recognizes both large and small businesses that demonstrate corporate social responsibility.
In 2003, for example, one nominee was a high-tech company that worked with the Philippine government to "influence changes in regulations and environmental structure to support the rapid growth of the industry, while creating more environmentally
The Bank of America is making employees part of the solution as well by offering $ 3,000 rebates to employees who buy hybrid vehicles. More than 21,000 employees who live within ninety miles of Boston, Charlotte, and Los Angeles will be eligible for the rebate. n171 They join Timberland and Google in offering such incentives. These are in addition to the government's tax credit, which can exceed $ 3,000, depending on the model. n172
Supply chain management with a green intent can make a major difference. Starbucks is making significant inroads in this area. n173 HP began a program in July 2006 to increase social and environmental responsibility practices for its supplier factories in China. n174 The most significant inroads of all may be made by Wal-Mart, if their aims are even halfway met: Wal-Mart is planning to reduce overall packaging, move heavily into organic products (textiles and food), and even buy more local food. By their own reckoning, ninety percent of Wal-Mart's environmental impact will come through influence on its supply chain. The company is ordering wild-caught seafood from fisheries certified by the Marine Stewardship Council and is developing a sustainable certification system for gold. Where Wal-Mart is the biggest retailer (and there are many areas in which [*284] its buying power is dominant) its demands could change entire industries. Wal-Mart is also likely to signal other businesses that corporate environmental savvy is more than a fashion trend. n175 D. Transparency Some corporations are choosing not only to be more carbon conscious, but to regularly report on their efforts. A company's motivation can come from a number of sources: wanting to be attractive to potential investors, looking for continued brand loyalty from customers, or making itself attractive as a reliable supplier by committing to standards like ISO14000. n176
There appears to be a growing conviction among pension funds and institutional investors that, despite the "raging bull market in fossil fuels," n177 a tipping point has been reached. A broadened view of fiduciary responsibility requires them to make longer-term valuation assessments of corporate offerings. n178 Examining the financial implications of "currently undisclosed environmental liabilities" n179 (or considering liabilities contingent upon an ever-changing set of environmental laws and regulations) requires these investors to look at GHD emissions of potential buy recommendations
In September 2005, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) n180 released its third annual survey of FT Global 500 companies. The survey seeks information on companies' carbon emissions and policies so that investors can make more informed decisions about carbon risks. The CDP's 2005 report provides a "climate leadership index" of the top 60 companies "based on targets, [*285] reductions, and trading." n181 U.S. companies on the climate leadership index for the second time include Citigroup, AEP, Ford, and UPS. GE, Duke Energy, and Bristol-Myeis Squibb made the list for the first time.
This kind of transparency may be welcomed by Wall Street. In the wake of 2005's destructive hurricane season in the United States, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase "are telling clients for the first time that climate change poses financial risks." n182
IV. CONCLUSION
The Climate Change Group has estimated that, if no action is taken, economic losses from the extreme weather will exceed GDP by 2065. n183 The United States--which represents only four percent of the globe's population but with twenty-live percent of the world's GHG emissions--will
Even if our political leaders--with the support of corporations--c
Ironically, businesses are probably the best solution that we can have to the challenges that face us as a society, because they are the ones that can innovate, can produce solutions, and can be part of the engine of development that will eventually bring developing countries out of poverty that may, just may, have a whisker of a chance of achieving sustainability.
But business can only do so much innovation in a political economy that does not account for natural capital, rewards political connections, and approaches resources with zero-sum mentality. True leadership will require a new set of mental frameworks that recognizes the current confusion between public and private interests. This confusion can be turned to ecological advantage: the standard antagonisms between business and government, and between businesses and their NGO critics, have begun to break down in favor of more collaborative efforts for the common good. Peter Senge notes, following Einstein, what folly it is to think we can correct the fragmentation of the world via processes that recreate that fragmentation. n187 To go beyond the view of ourselves and our corporations as isolated and fragmented centers of thought and action, we must remake and reconstitute ourselves for a world of diminishing resources, environmental threats to business and societies and deliberately create more peaceful relations. These more peaceful relations must be within corporations (through conflict resolution, diversity, learning organizations that listen to dissent and to potential whistleblowers)
Corporations are beginning to act on the premise that the old paradigms no longer serve use well. To the extent we recognize and discard them, we may encourage more of the corporate leadership that is starting to emerge.
Legal Topics: For related research and practice materials, see the following legal topics: Business & Corporate LawCorporationsNearly two thirds of the services provided by nature to humankind are found to be in decline worldwide. In effect, the benefits reaped from our engineering of the planet have been achieved by running down natural capital assets ... Unless we acknowledge the debt and prevent it from growing, we place in jeopardy he dreams of citizens everywhere to rid the world of hunger, extreme poverty, and avoidable disease -- as well as increasing the risk of sudden changes to the planet's life-support systems from which even the wealthiest may not be shielded.Id. at 5.
The ecosystem services evaluated in the millennium assessment (MA) include provisioning services (food, fiber, genetic resources, biochemicals, natural medicines, pharmaceuticalsId. at 17. n4 See MICHAEL T. KLARE, BLOOD AND OH.: THE DANGERS AND CONSEQUENCES OF AMERICA'S GROWING DEPENDENCY ON IMPORTED PETROLEUM (2004) (explaining why the United States must overcome its addiction to oil in order to enhance national security and freedom of action in its foreign relations). Klare especially notes the need to reduce oil consumption in the transportation sector, singling out "America's mammoth fleets of light-duty vehicles." Id. at 193. Yet auto manufacturers in the United States have generally opposed increases in fuel efficiency standards. As to the conflicts over diamonds, see Julie L. Fishman, Is Diamond Smuggling Forever? The Kimberly Process Certification Scheme: The First Step Down the Long Road to Solving the Blood Diamond Trade Problem, 13 U. MIAMI BUS. L. REV. 217 (2005). As Fishman notes:, and fresh water), regulating services (air quality, climate, water, erosion, disease, pests, pollination, and natural hazard regulators such as wetlands and mangroves); except for crops, livestock, and aquaculture, other indicators are on a downward trend.
Blood diamonds play a vital role in fueling war in many African nations. These rough diamonds, also known as conflict diamonds, originate from nations such as Angola, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Rebel forces, who oppose the legitimate and recognized governments of these nations, control much of these countries' diamond producing areas. These rebel groups control the mines and sell blood diamonds in order to buy arms and supply cash flow for their military actions against such governments, in contravention of United Nations Security Council resolutions.Id. at 219. See also Security Council, General Assembly adopts resolution on 'conflict diamonds,' (March 21, 2001), available at http://www.un.o
[o]ver the next century, millions of people living in coastal areas and small islands in the developing world are likely to become 'environmental refugees', losing their homes to rising sea levels and extreme weather ... The worst affected areas will be along the densely packed coastlines of south and south-east Asia, and Africa. They will account for 80 percent of the people flooded. The small island nations of the Caribbean, the Pacific, and the Indian Ocean ... are in even greater danger.Id. See also GORE, supra note 5, at 86. n7 See KLARE, supra note 4, at 146-79 (Geopolitics Reborn: The U.S.-Russian-Ch
... great powers have always battled for control over important sources of wealth and advantage. European states fought over the resource-rich territories of the Americas and Africa; imperial Britain vied with Russia for control of Central Asia and with the Ottoman lurks for Egypt and the Levant. These rivalries often led to border skirmishes and local wars, usually al the outer edges of imperial expansion; but on occasion they led to epic conflicts, such as the Seven Years War, the Napoleonic wars, and World War I. Thought the risk of such earth-shaking upheavals has subsided in recent decades, the imperial impulse behind them have by no means disappeared. And if there is a prize that could provoke great power warfare on a grand scale today, it is the vast untapped energy reserves of the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea areas.Id. at 146-47. Klare creates a compelling history of the links between nations' economic goals and their willingness to use military force to secure vital resources. He concludes, as others do, that the Middle East is a "powder keg of ethnic and religious conflicts, territorial disputes, and local power struggles" that major powers may be tempted to exploit for tactical advantage. Id. at 178. See also infra note 26. n8 See, e.g., Stefano Ambrogi, Oil Plant Leak Damages a Third of Lebanon's Coast, REUTERS, Aug. 3, 2006, available at http://www.enn.
As to the recent hope that free trade in globalization could bring local communities into modernity and well-being, he notes that
[T]he theory underlying corporate-led economic globalization posits that human progress is best advanced by deregulating markets and eliminating economic borders to let unrestrained market forces determine economic priorities, allocate resources, and drive economic growth. It sounds like decentralizatioId. at 13. Korten claims that the overarching source of this kind of core-periphery domination is our tendency toward empire, a tendency fed by the "subordination of the feminine to the masculine and of the organizing principle of partnership to the organizing principle of domination." Id. at 19. Korten urges individuals, nations, and corporations to confront what he calls "our imperial legacy." Id. at 18. n16 The Earth Charter, pmbl. (2000), http://www.eartn, but the reality is quite different. A market without rules and borders increases the freedom of the biggest and most economically powerful players to become even bigger and more powerful at the expense of the freedom and right to self-determinat ion of people and communities. Corporations and financial markets make the decisions and reap the profits. Communities are left to deal with mounting human and environmental costs.
As distinct from other peoples on this earth, most Americans do not recognize--or do not want to recognize - that the United States dominates the world through its military power. Due to government secrecy, they are often ignorant of the fact that their government garrisons the globe. They do not realize that a vast network of American military bases on every continent except Antarctica actually constitutes a new form of empire.Id. at 1. See also the Web site for Robert Greenwald's film, Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers, http://iraqfors
Environmental destruction attributable to militarism includes not only the more obvious impacts of armed conflict (conventional war, weapons of mass destruction and troop and tank activities), but also those created by the presence and wastes of military personnel and their bases, and the fuel consumption of the military vehicles, ships and planes, especially jet planes.Id. n27 President Eisenhower made this point in his farewell speech in 1961: the military industrial complex determines the direction of government, but is beyond democratic process because it operates - quite legally, but in relative secrecy beyond the purview of the people and the press. See BRIODY, supra note 21, at xxvii. See also Aaron Sadler, Experts critical of secret defense budgeting system, LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL,
See also Peter W. Singer, Warriors for Hire in Iraq, SAJ.ON.COM, Apr. 15, 2005, available at http://www.broo
As anyone familiar with construction or home repair will attest, it is essential to have competition to determine the most efficient contractor at the best price; it is also essential to maintain oversight to prevent being bilked and getting shoddy work. In the military effort in Iraq, this basic function has largely been AWOL ... The contract management office in Baghdad, for example, originally had five personnel in charge of managing some $ 18 billion in contracting. It later added nine more, leaving a still-daunting ratio of about $ 1.3 billion in oversight per person, in the middle of probably the most confusing contract zone in history. The result has been a series of snafus and suspected swindling, best captured by the weekly drumbeat of financial scandals that Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has unearthed about Halliburton contracts in Iraq. The allegations circling the firm ranged from charging for tens of thousands of meals never served to soldiers, to billing for inappropriate extras such as adding the firm's logo to hand towels. But Halliburton was far from the only firm about which these concerns were raised. An investigation by the Pentagon's inspector general report found Pentagon procurement rules have not been followed in 22 of 24 deals by the Defense Contracting Command for services in Iraq.Id. n35 As Joel Bakan points out, "Though the assistance provided to the Nazis by U.S. corporations may seem shocking in retrospect, it should not be forgotten that many U.S. corporations today regularly do business with totalitarian and authoritarian regimes again, because it is profitable to do so." JOEL BAKAN, THE CORPORATION 89 (2004). According to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), fifty-nine companies settled charges of trading with the enemy during April 2003 and have been lined more than $ 1.35 million for civil violations of the sanctions laws. Enemy nation-states include countries on the U.S. State Department list designated as sponsors of terrorism, including Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria. New OFAC enforcement information releases are published periodically on the U.S. Department of Treasury Web site, http://www.ustr
See generally BRIODY, supra note 22 (providing ample evidence of the legal yet troubling pattern of former high-level government employees in the Carlyle Group and how their access to current officials and their expertise and connections in lobbying leads to government purchases of the wrong weapons).
n38 See Interview with Chalmers Johnson, supra note 37. See also Tim Shorrock, Crony Capitalism Goes Global, THE NATION, Apr. 1, 2002, at 11-16. Crony capitalism is a pejorative term describing a capitalist economy in which success in business depends on an extremely close relationship between the businessman and the state institutions of politics and government rather than by the frequently espoused democratic free market virtues such as merit, consent of the governed, open competition, and economic liberalism. Crony capitalism may be seen through favoritism in the distribution of legal permits, government grants, special tax breaks, no-bid contracts, and the like. It should be clear that this kind of capitalism is one that many nation-states have experienced. See, e.g., Return of the Czar (Frontline report), originally aired in 2000, available at http://www.pbs.[The book is] about small-town Montana and the devastating horrors visited on it by a vermiculite mine owned by those fun-loving corporate souls at W.R. Grace & Co, and the Zonolite Company before it. The mining of vermiculite, used in products ranging from insulation to potting soil, led to exposure to asbestos that caused and is causing the deaths of hundreds of Libby residents. Grace knew of the dangers, but didn't tell the workers or their families of the deadly dangers associated with living in an environment where more than two and a half tons of asbestos were released into the town's air every day, when one heavy exposure or even one tiny fiber can inaugurate the downward spiral to the grave.Id. Holt's review also strongly suggests that private interests again overcame public good.
The Bush White House, through its Office of Management and Budget, blocked the El'A's long-awaited declaration of a public health emergency in Libby in April 2002, and an accompanying warning to millions of citizens that their homes and businesses might contain Grace's deadly asbestos-contamId n52 See W.R. Grace, http://www.gracinated insulation. A drastically watered-down memo was finally made public. The authors also reveal the Bush White House's successful campaign to cover up the asbestos problem in lower Manhattan in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
A federal grand jury in Montana has indicted specialty chemical maker W. R. Grace & Co. and seven current and former executives on charges of knowingly endangering residents of Libby, Montana, and concealing information about the health affects of its asbestos-relateId. n53 Grace filed lor (chapter 11 protection in 2001. See No Deal between W.R. Grace and its Asbestos Creditors, ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 24, 2006, available at http://www.mesod mining operations. According to the indictment, Grace and its executives, as far back as the 1970s, attempted to hide the fact that asbestos was present in vermiculite products at the company's libby plant. The grand jury charged the defendants with conspiring to conceal information about the hazardous nature of the company's asbestos-contam inated vermiculite 'products, obstructing the government's cleanup efforts, and wire fraud ... [Grace stated that] [a]s a company and as individuals, we believe that one serious illness or lost life is one too many. That is why we have taken so seriously our commitment to our Libby employees and the people of Libby.
Despite all of our hard work, however, the Congress chose to largely follow the path of a 19th century fossil-fueled past instead of crafting an energy bill for the 21st century that would lead us to a clean energy future. UCS opposed the bill because it fails to reduce our dependence on oil, fails to address global warming, fails to reduce home heating and gasoline prices, fails to significantly increase the deployment of renewable energy and actually increases the threat of nuclear terrorism.Id. n64 See Robert S. McIntyre, How Times Have Changed, AMER. PROSPECT; Sept. 2005, at 18 (stating "[t]he Energy Policy Act of 2005 includes billions of dollars in tax breaks and grants to oil, ethanol, coal, nuclear, and (to a much lesser degree) renewable-energ
The Appellate Court today ruled against any discovery related to the make up of the Energy Task Force or its committees and dismissed the suit. According to the court, the open meetings law does not apply even if an outsider participates in or influences an advisory committee, but only if the outsider actually "votes" as a member of the committee or "vetoes" the committee's recommendationsId. Judicial Watch fared little better at the Supreme Court. See Cheney v. District Court, 542 U.S. 367 (2004). n66 While the participation of Ken Lay is not officially recognized, The Nation magazine reported that Cheney and his aides met at least six times with Lay and other Enron officials while preparing the group's report, which was the basis for the Administration'. The court further ruled that statements provided by administration officials were sufficient evidence, by themselves, to conclude that no outsiders voted on or vetoed the task force's recommendation on energy policy.
Regardless of nonofficial participants, the Cheney task force report released in May 2001 became the basis for the Republican-spon
The bill includes exemptions to the Safe Drinking Water Act for oil and gas drilling and the Clean Water Act for construction related to oil and gas development. Moreover, the bill opens up coastal areas that have been under moratorium for decades to a harmful inventory of oil and gas resources. It also contains a provision that could be used to disadvantage communities and states that wish to seek redress lor contaminated drinking water in any new suits filed in slate courts. The bill stacks the deck against having an environmental review of a broad range of oil and gas activities, making it much more difficult for the public (o have meaningful input. Further, it threatens wildlife and subsistence values of the 23 million-acre National Petroleum Reserve Alaska.Id. n67 H. Josef Hebert, Group: Cheney Task Force Eyed on Iraq Oil, ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 18, 2003 available at http://www.glob
A spokeswoman for the vice president did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Friday. A two-page document obtained with the map and released by Judicial Watch lists, as of March 2001, companies in 30 countries that had an interest in contracts to help then-President Saddam Hussein develop Iraq's oil wealth. The involvement of Russia and France has been documented. Also on the list were companies from Canada, Australia, China, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, India and Mexico.Id. n68 See supra notes 61-67 and accompanying text. See also infra notes 74-91 and accompanying text. The question of whether the United States is an empire evokes endless discussion among some. See, e.g., Alexander J. Motyl, Empire Falls, FOREIGN AFFAIRS, July/Aug. 2006, at 190-94 (reviewing Craig Calhoun et al., Lessons of Empire: Imperial Histories and American Power and Charles Maier, Among Empires: American Ascendancy and Its Predecessors). Motyl (and others) find that the debate over whether the United States is an empire offers very little concrete advice to policy makers. Motyl writes that the concept of empire is "unnecessary for understanding the United States' current role in the world -and that both policymakers and scholars would be better off discussing contemporary foreign policy issues without recourse to false analogies from a distant past." Id. at 191.
For purposes of this article, noting the United States' global military presence and the economization of foreign policy is offered only as a counterpoint to the commonly held concept (in the United States) that U.S. foreign policy is or has been largely altruistic or progressive in terms of creating social justice and democracy globally.
n69 See infra notes 37-41 and accompanying text. n70 See supra notes 45-49 and accompanying text. n71 See supra notes 50-59 and accompanying text. n72 See supra notes 60-67 and accompanying text. n73 See, e.g., James Lee Ray, Does Democracy Cause Peace, 1 ANN. REV. POL. SCI. 27, 27-46 (1998) (discussing what political scientists call the "democratic peace theory."). n74 See A.R. Palmer, Evaluating Ecological Footprints, ELECTRONIC GREEN J. (Dec. 1998), http://egj.lib.In China, we wanted to stop revolution instead of dealing with the economic and political reality on the ground. Then we set out to isolate Mao's regime and for 25 years isolated only ourselves. And, most fatally, the right-wing ideologues fought their political war by branding as traitors all who disagreed with them. They drove the serious China scholars out ol public life, and by that "victory" crippled America's ability to deal with the Far Fast for a generation.Anthony Lewis, Abroad at Home, Who Lost China? N.Y. TIMES, May 15, 1983, at 193. n85 David Buchan, Oil Company Defends Sudan Operations, FIN. TIMES, Oct. 17, 2001, at 14. n86 Id. n87 Broder, supra note 25, at 2391. n88 Id. Ironically, when asked about China's indirect support for the atrocities in Darfur, a foreign minister from China reportedly shrugged and said "business is business." Id. at 2392. n89 See KLARE, supra note 4. As Klare notes,
[a]n outlook that view economic and security interests as 'inextricably linked' will naturally tend to place high priority on the protection of vital resource supplies. Without a steady and reliable How of essential materials, the American economy cannot expand and generate the products needed to ensure continued U.S. competitivenessId. at 8.in global markets. The uninterrupted (low of energy supplies is especially critical: as the world's leading consumer of oil and gas, the United States must retain access to overseas supplies or its entire economy will face collapse.
Given the choice between economic collapse and military conflict, U.S. political leaders will presumably choose conflict. But this "dilemma" is predicated on economic assumptions that ignore environmental costs and an addiction to oil that could be softened and then broken.
n90 Broder, supra note 25, at 2387. See also FORT & SCHIPANI, supra note 9, at 188.
n91 Cass R. Sunstein, It's Only $ 300 Billion; If We Can Fund the War in Iraq, Why Cant We Fund the Kyoto Protocol, WASH. POST; May 10, 2006, at A25. The National Priorities Project, as of December 3, 2006, estimated the ongoing cost of the Iraq war to be over $ 347 billion. See http://national
Since the earth itself is developing without growing, il follows that a subsystem of the earth must eventually conform itself to the same behavioral mode of development without growth, alias "sustainable development." This could happen at any scale which is below carrying capacity. The optimal scale, following our basic ethic, would be one that maximizes lives ever lived over time at a sufficient level of per capita resource use for a good life.Id. at 223. Part Vll of BEYOND GROWTH is titled Ethics, Religion, and Sustainable Development. In essence, Daly leads us to conclude that we are "creatures endowed with creativity but also subject to limits, and have obligations to our Creator to care for Creation, to maintain intact its capacity to support life and wealth." Accordingly, sustainability-
With memories of the abuse ol corporate monopoly power fresh in mind, sentiment in the early days of the new nation demanded strict limitations on corporate charters. Consequently, state legislature issued such charters only for fixed periods to serve narrowly defined purposes, kept a close watch on corporate operations, and retained the power to revoke charters at will. It was also common practice to place specific limits on corporate borrowing, ownership of land, and even profits.Id. Rowe's article describes the process in the late 1800s by which New Jersey, and then Delaware, provided the most lenient oversight of those wishing to incorporate. At the same time, according to Korten, the power of the state and federal governments were leveraged in favor of "plutocracy." The use of government violence for corporate purposes was evident. Id. at 208-09. n109 Robert Reich, Corporation and Nation, ATLANTIC: MONTHLY, May 1988, at 76-81. n110 See, e.g., William J. Holstein, The Stateless Corporation, BUS. WK. May 14, 1990, at 98. n111 MOISES NAIM, ILLICIT: HOW SMUGGLERS, TRAFFICKERS, AND COPYCATS ARE HIJACKING THE GLOBAL ECONOMY 2 (2005). n112 Id. n113 Id. at 13. "Global crime has not just soared in volume but, thanks to its ability to amass colossal profits, has also become a powerful political force. And the lenses through which we interpret world politics and economics need to be adjusted to this change--urgentl
U.S. Senate investigations found (hat many other accounting firms with the help of lawyers and bankers had pushed the legal limits of tax shelters. See MINORITY STAFF REPORT OF THE PERMANENT COMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS, U.S. SENATE, S. REL NO. 108-34 (2003), available at http://www.sena
Baker contends that abusive tax shelters are but one piece of a larger problem for global capitalism: transfer payments by MNGs that are also intended to deprive OECD nations of tax revenue, and both dubious tax shelters and transfer payments require the same offshore, secret banking and money laundering that aids drug kingpins and terrorists. It is the untaxed, unaccounted-for
committed to constructive and responsible participation in the international policy process concerning global climate change. The ICCP recognizes that the continued growth in emissions of greenhouse gases is an important concern for all nations and that efforts are underway internationallyn135 Environmental Leadership Council, http://www.pewcand in national governments to develop policies that address this concern.
Milloy runs the websitejunkscieId. n145 Media Release, Pew Center on Global Climate Change (July 13, 2005) (CEO Jeff Immelt noted at the time that GE was "... glad to join Pew's effort to work toward these goals."). n146 A Lean, Clean Electric Machine--The Greening of General Electric, ECONOMIST; Dec. 10, 2005, at 78. n147 Climate Northeast Climate Group, http://www.climnce.com, which is dedicated to debunking what he alleges to be false claims regarding global warming, DDT, environmental radicalism and scare science among other topics, (http://www.junk science.com/def ) His other website, CSR Watch.com, is focused around attacking the corporate social responsibility movement. He is also head of the Free Enterprise Action Fund, a mutual fund he runs with tobacco executive Tom Borelli, who happens to be listed as the secretary of the Advancement of Sound Science Center, an organization Milloy operates from his home in Potomac, Maryland.ine.htm
The Interface mission statement on sustainability says:
Here's the problem in a nutshell. Industrialism developed in a different world from the one we live in today: fewer people, less material well-being, plentiful natural resources. What emerged was a highly productive, take-make-wasteInterlace, Inc., Our Goals: Sustainability Overview, http://www.intesystem that assumed infinite resources and infinite sinks for industrial wastes. Industry moves, mines, extracts, shovels, burns, wastes, pumps and disposes of four million pounds of material in order to provide one average, middle-class American family their needs for a year. Today, the rate of material throughput is endangering our prosperity, not enhancing it. At Interface, we recognize that we are part of the problem. We are analyzing all of our material flows to begin to address the task at hand.
In the Focused Improvement Supplier Initiative, participants are required to commit factory management staff to attend monthly social and environmental responsibility training in the Shenzhen and Shanghai regions, providing monthly reports of the progress of corrective actions, "key factory metrics," and other measures for moving toward greater social and environmental responsibility.
