Pollution against CSR - Essay Example

?Alcoa Inc Pollution against CSR Historically, through the years companies, both small and large, have been working for making higher and higher sales, thus getting higher and higher profits. The industrial revolution did not change much. The volumes of production and consumptions were steadily increasing. However, with time the extent to which companies were influencing their environments increased as well. Raised levels of production lead to increased usage of all kinds of recourse, including natural and human ones. As a result, came the moment when the world realized what powerful structures the industrial era had created – corporations. Surely, large companies have never been the greatest evil of the society. Nevertheless, their influence over people’s behavior (buying habits), government regulations and even environment has risen drastically in the latest decades due to the expansion of globalization processes. For that reason the level of social responsibility each company overtakes in the contemporary business environment is now greatly influencing both the society and the company’s success. The given paper will present Alcoa, a manufacturer of primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum, and alumina combine (Alcoa Inc. 2011), as an example of a company that tries to ensure that it is not only a good manufacturer of its products, but also a positive and contributing member of the world society. The goal of this paper is to outline the company’s achievements with regards to fulfilling social needs within society, as well as defining areas that need improvement. We will also analyse how Alcoa’s social activities impact the society and stakeholders. Alcoa Inc. Today Alcoa is an international organization with its main headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and 31 headquarters all over the world. The history of the company started in 1886, when Charles Martin Hall, a student at that time, started working of developing a commercially aluminum extracting process (The spark of innovation (1886-1920) 2011). In the search for investment for the research Charles made contacts with several entrepreneurs who helped him with the money and, finally, created a company named The Pittsburg Reduction Company. in 1907 the name was changed to Aluminum Company of America. It was only 1999 when the firm was renamed to Alcoa. These days Alcoa operates internationally and participates in all the major aspects of the business: developing technology, performing mining, refining, smelting, fabricating, and recycling of aluminum. The major business practices of the organization are Make to Use, Eliminate Waste, People Linchpin the System and ABS and Cost Savings. The Make to Use concept involves avoiding overproduction while manufacturing with the account of customers. Alcoa tends to create good working environments for its employees and is continuously working of improving its business processes for the purpose of increased savings at all the stages of operation (Inside the Alcoa Business System (ABS) 2011). The vision statement of Alcoa claims that the company works in a safe manner in order to protect and promote “the health and well-being of the individual and the environment” (Vision & Values 2011). Identifying Stakeholders Business can be conducted in different ways. So the question here is how much the organization influences various stakeholders of its. If the company in some way enriches the lives of the stakeholders, then the company can claim that it is socially responsible (Freeman, Velamuri and Moriarty 2006). At the same time, it cannot be said that the only stakeholders here are the direct consumers and shareholders of the company. As Marc Triebwasser (1998) points out, free market and competition are just the games that global elite and large companies play. Being large and powerful, they have plenty of tools for keeping and maintaining their current status. Among such tools are government campaign contributions, lobbying, and captured regulatory agencies (Triebwasser, 1998). Furthermore, a manufacturing, no matter what kind of manufacturing it is, directly consumes certain natural and other resources, influences the environment and changes communities. Therefore, large companies like Alcoa have the power and do influence not only the directly related to them individuals (consumers, employees and shareholders), but also have a great influence on the overall situation in business, politics, economy and environment. So, though in some sense indirectly, Alcoa has impact upon nearly every human on the Earth. Claims against Alcoa. Inc. Though the role of corporate social responsibility is becoming more important these days, it might be rather difficult to produce aluminum products without harming the environment. Alcoa is not an exception. In 2010 Alcoa Inc. was number 16 in the top 100 toxic air polluters of the US with a toxic score of 59,771 (Political Economy Research Institute 2010). From 1987 state and federal governments of the US have claimed Alcoa to have more than 47 pollution violations (SavingIsland.org 2006). Furthermore, SavingIsland.org names Alcoa one of the greatest polluters on the Earth that pollutes air, water and soil. Rockdale, Texas plant of Alcoa alone discharges around 104,000 tons of air emissions yearly, 60,000 tons of which are acid rain (ibid). Surely, the company’s management is aware of the problem. But fighting it would involve so high spending, that the company would simply go bankrupt. That’s why the aluminum giant keeps its plants working and contaminating. However, environmental pollution is not the only problem of the corporation. The company was penalized with $750,000 for illegal shipping of potassium fluoride and sodium fluoride to Jamaica and Suriname. The worst is that even this is not everything. The company shows to simply neglect human rights and freely violate the laws. In 2003, for instance, people tried to oppose Alcoa’s plan to move six roads of Bastrop County to free a new mine area of the corporation (Gee 2003). The company decided that the roads that cover 12 million tons of coal are not worth anything. Finally it appeared that, though the company is huge and powerful, people still have some power – the government did not allow Alcoa to do what they wanted. In general it can be seen that Alcoa Inc., being the third largest producer of aluminum in the world, feels free to act in accordance with its own will, no matter what government regulations prescribe. The company puts corporate interests above the interests of people, governments or the planet, and simply denies many pollution claims. Huge profits of the corporation make it think that everything can be bought for money, even respect and trust of the citizens. However, maybe it is a biased opinion? Let’s take a look at the other side of the company’s operations. Alcoa’s CSR Initiatives The official web-site of the company has pages devoted to environment, sustainability and community. The organization shows to be performing much environmental, social and economic work within the framework of their CSR policy. They even claim to have been one of the first world companies to employ CSR practices in their operations (Sustainability Approach 2011). However, the maximum of what Alcoa offers in terms of human rights protection is paying its employees guaranteed minimum wages and prohibiting slavery. At the same time, the company reports that it is implementing social initiatives related to work safety at Alcoa’s facilities, chemical and noise reduction, control of targeted noise and chemical levels in the regions and occupational medicine available to the workers (Health 2011). As for environmental protection, in 2008 Alcoa reduced its water consumption by 800 million metric tons and C02 output by 40 million m3 (Justmeans.com 2010). Alcoa also has a well-established aluminum recycling program. The corporate web-site reports that the company is continuously working on educating people on the importance of recycling and that their aluminum products are engineered specifically for 100% recycling (We're here to help you recycle aluminum 2011). Alcoa Inc. partners with Earthwatch Institute to help it develop solutions to the greatest sustainability problems of nowadays. The company also has a land restoring programs which intends to be restoring lands once used for mining the minerals. Ten Million Trees Initiative of the company is aimed at planting 10 million trees worldwide. This initiative is a part of Alcoa’s revegetation and mine rehabilitation programs. In order to help communities the corporation created Alcoa Foundation. The purpose of this organization is to help local communities in addressing their primary challenges. In 2010 only the Foundation’s giving made $37 million. Some of this money went as grants to the 23 countries in which Alcoa works. Conclusion Being the company that produces different kinds of aluminum products to be used in such industries as aerospace, automotive production, building and construction, commercial transportation, consumer electronics, packaging and many others, Alcoa is an initially positive for the society structure since it provides people with the material that helps to lead the usual for contemporary society lifestyle, as well as develop innovative highly technological products to improve lives further. Furthermore, using aluminum, which is a fully recyclable material at Alcoa, contributes to the waste reduction on the planet. Though Alcoa is trying to showcase that its CSR initiatives have a great impact upon the world, it looks like what they do in terms of CSR cannot compare to the harm Alcoa causes to the environment. Such a manufacturing simply cannot be safe and sustainable in all of its aspects. Therefore, the positive thing is that the company at least tries to improve its corporate image with the help of charitable donations, environment protection programs and social initiative. Nevertheless, much more should be done in order to reduce and minimize the negative influence of the production on the nature and communities. References Alcoa Inc. 2011. http://www.alcoa.com/global/en/home.asp Freeman, Edward, Ramakrishna Velamuri and Moriarty, Brian. 2006. “Company Stakeholder Responsibility: A New Approach to CSR.” Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics. Gee, Robert. 2003. “Residents urge Bastrop to can Alcoa road plan.” Utwatch.org. http://www.utwatch.org/oldnews/aas_alcoa_1_28_03.html Health. 2011. Alcoa Inc http://www.alcoa.com/sustainability/en/info_page/operations_soc_health.asp Inside the Alcoa Business System (ABS). 2011. Alcoa Inc. http://www.alcoa.com/global/en/about_alcoa/abs.asp Justmeans.com. 2010. “Can Manufacturing Giant Alcoa Be Socially Responsible?” http://www.justmeans.com/Can-Manufacturing-Giant-Alcoa-Be-Socially-Responsible/8885.html Political Economy Research Institute. 2010. “Toxic 100 Air Polluters”. PERI. http://www.peri.umass.edu/toxic_index/ SavingIsland.org. 2006. “ALCOA’s Alarming Record on Pollution.” http://www.savingiceland.org/2006/02/alcoas-alarming-record-on-pollution/ Sustainability Approach. 2011. Alcoa Inc. http://www.alcoa.com/sustainability/en/info_page/home.asp The spark of innovation (1886-1920). 2011. Alcoa Inc. http://www.alcoa.com/global/en/about_alcoa/time_machine/time_machine.asp Triebwasser, Marc. 1998. “How Corporations Influence the Government.” Polisci.ccsu.edu. http://www.polisci.ccsu.edu/trieb/InfluGov.html Vision & Values. 2011. Alcoa Inc. http://www.alcoa.com/global/en/about_alcoa/vision_and_values.asp We're here to help you recycle aluminum. One can at a time. 2011. Alcoa Inc. http://www.alcoa.com/global/en/eco_alcoa/info_page/alcoa_recycling.asp Read More