Educator Toolkit: Business and the Environment
Inspire awareness and action for protecting the environment by helping young leaders navigate the relationship between business and the environment. April’s toolkit of online materials supports learning on corporate social responsibility, sustainability and the power of individual choices.
Why This Matters Now
April is awash in green as companies broadcast their sustainable practices and Earth Day projects promote a cleaner, environmentally connected world. The message is appealing, but incomplete. Exploring the relationship between economic and ecological activities is important to help young leaders understand how business decisions aspire to balance profit and productivity with social responsibility. Can we have a healthy environment and a thriving economy? Discussing fundamental concepts that clarify both perspectives – as well as our role in the process – can foster innovative thinking around this long-term challenge.
Resources
Business Journal
The ‘Green’ Path from Corporate Social Responsibility to a Brighter Future for All of Us introduces students to the concept of CSR through the lens of corporate initiatives and student perspectives. KWHS Conversation Starters encourage critical thinking about the authenticity of CSR and how activism can begin with consumer choices.
Lesson Plan
Sustainability as Good Business Practice: What is sustainability and why has the business world embraced it? Students record and discuss their evolving knowledge of this concept through a KWL chart activity, as well as learn about a young entrepreneur’s clean-oceans startup.
Hands-on Learning
Each year Reputation Institute, a global consultancy, identifies the companies with the best CSR reputations in the world. These are powerful brands that many high school students know and buy from — we’re talking Google, Walt Disney, BMW, Lego and Apple. Have students check out the list on MySocialGoodNews.com and then break them into groups of three or four. Each group selects one of the companies from a hat (or you can have duplicates, if you prefer) and creates a video/media campaign based on one of the company’s most interesting CSR initiatives. They will present to the class, but don’t let them get off easy. Based upon what students have learned, encourage the class to challenge them on every angle of their CSR initiative!
Video Glossary
Provide an extra layer of learning for your students with our video glossary. Here Wharton professors define terms like: Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Business.
KWHS Quote of the Month
“Businesses are the ultimate trendsetters, so I think they have the responsibility to get involved with sustainable practices.” — Jessica Ainslie, Hawaii Preparatory Academy
“Businesses are the ultimate trendsetters, so I think they have the responsibility to get involved with sustainable practices.” — Jessica Ainslie, Hawaii Preparatory Academy
Where the water and the sky merge, there is an expanse of blue, the intersection of the sea and the sky seems like a poetic picture. The surface of the sea is a clear mirror, reflecting the glory of the sky.
The sea gave birth to thousands of lives,she was once the cradle of life. A vibrant fish swims across the blue and jumps out of the water with joy and grace. Schools of colorful fish danced around. The ocean is where they felt safe and loved. But soon a strange, murky cloud spread like ink in the clear water. From above, shadows loomed — large vessels were pouring out dark, toxic waste into the ocean.
This might sound like a fictional story. But, in fact, it is a daily reality around our world. Two years ago, when the announcement of nuclear waste entering the ocean came out, I and I believed all humans around the world were recently shocked by the news of the announcement. Nuclear power generation, part of the whole Nuclear Industry, is a significant milestone on our journey toward Type 1 civilization on the Kardashev Scale. Since the birth of civilizations, humans have done the unimaginable again and again. Through the development of the entire industry, fields like power generation, weapon production, medicine, and research are all involved with the radioactive waste left behind. Looking back at history, advancement of technologies almost always leads to both opportunities in the business world, economic growth of both local and national level, and unfortunately disruption of the environment. Advancement in the superstructure like technologies have the ability to influence business operation through employees and job creation later on. Corporations play a role in every bits of the nuclear power generation process, from export, extract, and process of uranium, to the machines and technologies along the process. For example, Global leaders like Electricité de France (EDF), Rosatom, and China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) are involved in various aspects process, from operating reactors to developing new technologies and participating in international projects.
Today, the act of releasing nuclear waste into the homes of marine animals reflects the conflicting priorities between human interests and environmental stewardship. While the government stated that the release of the waste is necessary and the tritium concentration is completely under Japan’s operational limit promoted by the IAEA expert analysis. Profound ethical questions about prioritizing short-term economic benefits over the long-term health of our planet.Nuclear waste carries the risk of harming marine ecosystems that are already struggling with pollution and climate change, potentially disrupting the delicate balance of oceanic life. Research led by Beatrice Gagnaire published in the Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Journal Article that tritium – in the form of titrated water – led to DNA damage, altered muscle tissue and changed movement patterns in zebrafish larvae.
Through the lenses we see the unsettling trend where humanity’s pursuit of convenience and financial gain rather than more of a broad perspective. For the millions of people of our own kind reliant on marine resources for their livelihoods fear the consequences, their health and futures are increasingly threatened by decisions made by a few. The reality is the choices of a few will affect the lives and future of a community. Ultimately, this situation challenges us to reconsider our values as a society, urging a shift towards more responsible and equitable solutions that safeguard the environment for generations to come, the beauty of humans and civilizations expressed through the perspective that includes the whole.