Business Regulation Simulation Many firms have growth opportunities to invest in profitable projects. (Ross, Westerfield, & Jaffe, 2005). The new millennium brought in fierce competition, aggressive marketing and strategic alliances; the extent to which a business succeeds or fails often depends upon that business's ability to be in n sync with states, federal, governmental and environmental regulations. This paper will identify the key facts, regulations and legal issues in Alumina’ company; the conflicts among the competing stakeholders will be discuss, the handling of the regulatory issue by the internal counsel will be analyze and alternative solutions will be discussed by using the risk analysis matrix as metric system. These solutions must be align with Alumina’s values in order to be efficient and affective. Alumina Inc. is a $4 billion aluminum maker, based in the United States and operates in eight countries around the world. The United States market constitutes of 70% of its sales. The company manufactures, packaging materials, automotive components, aluminum refining, bauxite mining and aluminum smelting. Five years ago, Alumina was in violation of environmental discharge norms in a routine EPA compliance evaluation. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established to administer federal laws that concern pollution of the air and water, solid waste and toxic substance disposal, pesticide regulation, and radiation. (Reed, Morehead, Shedd, & Corley, 2005). A clean up was ordered by EPA, which Alumina promptly complied and the violation was considered corrected after a follow up audit. The company now falls under the jurisdiction of region 6 of the EPA. The company now faced new allegation. Kelly Bates, a 38-year-old single mother, accused Alumina of repeatedly contaminating the waters of Lake Dira with carcinogenic effluents, and has alleged that the company caused her child of ten years to contract leukemia, a cancer illness directly related to the company's toxins (Simulation, 2008). Bates believes that there is a direct correlation between her daughter's condition and Alumina's first environmental violation. Most Companies’ main objective is to identify cost-cutting measures that will improve profitability, boost growth therefore maximizing stakeholders’ profits. In the same token they cannot ignore their enronmental and social responsibility. Alumina has a responsibility to its communities and the government where it operates; the company must follow legal, social and environmental regulations in order to be a successful company. Alumina Inc.'s legal issues can be a potential damaging lawsuit brought up by a local resident a mother who filed a five-million dollar personal injury lawsuit against Alumina, Inc.
In the 1970s, engineers found contaminants in the local wells: Well H and Well G. They found suspected carcinogens including trichloroethylene (TCE) known to cause cancer. Families gathered after the Anderson family noticed the recurring events of a rare disease in a small town. Although Woburn had a history of industrial activity, the two major companies that contributed to the contaminants were W.R. Grace Co. and Beatrice Foods. The families sought help and went to a Boston lawyer, Joe Mulligan, and signed his firm. No one picked up the case due to not enough evidence, but Jan Schlictmann, who was a newcomer, picked up the Woburn case. Although advised to neglect it, he still looked into it. He joined with a non-profit firm who were seeking an environmental case like Woburn’s. They quickly filed a complaint against the two major companies.
How CAPSIM Works: The business simulation is relatively unaffected by external factors such as politics. The only time CAPSIM required additional decision-making was in regards to the ethical dilemma of offshore cost-cutting. Not once did CAPSIM require the teams to make additional decisions in regards to changing labour, tax, regulatory and other legislations.
At the turn of the 21st century, the already vulnerable residents of Mesquite, NM, were receiving an unequal distribution of air, water and other types of pollution because of a nearby multinational company called Helena Chemical. I will examine Helena Chemical Company by using justice theory, considering vulnerability and examining cases between the Mesquite community and Helena Chemical.
Negligience is the major key to be considered. Most businesses only care about profit and neglect the hazard they pose on the environment. The two companies were making so much money that it wouldn’t cost a lot to clean up considering the profit they make. They eventually paid $69million but what about the destiny that has been destroyed because of their negligence. They knew dumping of these chemicals was polluting the local water and causing life threatening health issues but they never cared.
In the movie Erin Brockovich not only were children affected by the water contamination but the adults were also negatively affected. In this film the families were directly exposed to carcinogens that were used for water pressure in a multi-million dollar company located a few miles away from the home. One particular family that caught my attention was the first family that filed a case against Pacific Gas & Electric Company. Donna Jensen and her family filed a lawsuit again this company because of a real estate issue. Fortunately, Erin Brockovich worked as the lawyer's assistant and was the first individual to realize that this company was hiding the truth about the chemicals used in the facility.
Shell’s decision to pump for oil, although legal and in development for decades, had major negative repercussions on the local environment. Some, such as Norma Bowie, argue that because they were operating legally, Shell’s obligation to protect the environment isn’t very strong. Others, such as Arnold and Bustos, assert consumers/ stakeholders cannot be held responsible for policing the operating companies if the government doesn’t give them that sort of power, and therefore Shell had an obligation to protect the stakeholders (Arnold et al, 2012). The arguments must be weighed by any company that has the potential to augment the environment in which they will be operating. In another industry, chemical companies are regulated well in the U.S. to keep them from contaminating the local water supply, but in countries without these regulations is it ethically responsible of the company not to damage the ecosystems surrounding them, although they are not legally bound to do so. Another major learning point is what the involvement of major companies in politics can do to an economy and its people. Had Shell utilized their power in the region to perhaps mediate between the activists and Nigerian government perhaps the outcome of the trial could have been different. Given the unstable situation, politically and socially in Nigeria, Shell’s decision to work quietly with international leaders “behind the scenes” and offer on their local manager, Brian Anderson, to issue a public statement on the necessity for a “fair trial, medical treatment, and lawyers of their own choosing” (Paine and Moldoveanu, 2009), may have been the best option available at that time and can serve as a point of learning for other companies operating in such volatile, unstable, and complex international situations. This is also a tough concept to argue
The environment and the health of the surrounding population go hand in hand. The Environmental Protection Agency takes on this ever so important mission of protecting them both. The mission statement of the EPA states, “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Small Business Programs is to support the protection of human health and the environment by advocating and advancing the business, regulatory, and environmental compliance concerns of small and socio-economically disadvantaged businesses, and minority academic institutions (US Enviromental Protection Agency, 2010).” The impact of its mission can be defined clearly as it examines the impact of contamination in the air, the water, and the land on human health.
Whether the State of Setonia have standing under the doctrine of standing and the parens patriae to file a case and sue the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for the release of toxins in the state. The state of Setonia alleges that massive toxins emitted by the Environmental Protection Agency have resulted in global warming, which, in turn, has severely eroded the land where the state of Setonia is and threatens its fourth major industry, tourism, with imminent destruction. The question before us is whether the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) action that the Act authorizes, displaces Setonia’s claims. I hold that to be fallacious.
The movie “A Civil Action” released on January 8, 1999 provides viewers with an extraordinary story of the nightmare that occurred in Woburn Massachusetts in the late 1970’s. The people of this small town at the time had no idea what was going on until there were various cases of Leukemia in small children that ultimately resulted in the early passing of them. The people eventually had gone to find out that the drinking water in this small town was contaminated and there were many women that stepped in to get answers. This movie is a tremendously jaw dropping, eye opening account of a heartbreaking true story incident. There are various elements of negligence in this movie including, duty, legal cause, proximate cause and damages.
Soledad, A. (2012). UNEP: World Congress on Justice, Governance and Law for Environmental Sustainability. Environmental Policy and Law, 42(4/5), 204-205. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.proxy1.ncu.edu/docview/1239086063/fulltextPDF/938578CF70664516PQ/3?accountid=28180
They try to prove that the emission of chemicals from the Shell company are actually hazardous and are released at unsafe concentrations. With respect to the Ecological Model of health, the focus here is the relationship between the citizens and their environment, so any change in the environment can affect the health of citizens (Drummer. 2008). Another focus is the location relative to the Shell company that is an issue. The residents of this town are faced with health problems due to the location of the Shell company, which enforces that Health Geography is a big influence here (Drummer. 2003). Citizens within the Diamond community report increasing rates of asthma in children, along with machines in their house to help prevent/cope with allergies. The location plays a major role as to why these negative health effects are occurring since the chemical plant is emitting these chemicals nearby. When the air was tested, multiple chemicals were found but one that stood out was Benzene which is known to have cancer causing effects (WHO. 2018). Even with this knowledge, the Shell company continued to claim that the living conditions within this city were adequate (Grunberg.
As the paper suggests, Du Pont has been a dominant company in the TiO2 market as it is the only company which possesses the operation technology of ilmenite chloride which eventually led to lowering its cost below its competitors. Given the fact that chloride technology is cheaper than other technologies and Du Pont is the only company that manages the facility, these two factors give Du Pont major advantages over other companies. But it won’t be long before it loses the privilege of these advantages unless Du Pont thinks of new strategy to maintain them. In this case two strategies have been introduced and considered by Du Pont, growth strategy which calls for an aggressive expansion to control the market and limit competitors’ ability to expand. The other one is called maintain strategy which aims for 45% of market share by gradually increasing investment. Each of these strategies carries different kinds of risks which Du Pont should take into consideration.
This case focuses on corporate obstacles to pollution prevention. Pollution prevention can complex especially for large corporations. There are many different forms of pollution prevention including emissions control devices and incremental changes in existing technology. The author reviews the impact of emissions controlled devices, however the focus of the case study is on incremental changes in existing technology. Incremental changes include substituting one or two steps in a production process or relationship changes between production steps. One example of incremental changes that was provided by the author was eliminating chlorofluorocarbons and saving energy by replacing a refrigeration process with a heath exchanger that can exploit waste cooling from another part of the process. There are three critical decision-making stages for incremental changes; identifying a pollution prevention opportunity, finding a solution appropriate to that opportunity, and implementing that solution. The author discusses the three aspects of an organization (culture, ability to process information, and its politics) and how they impact the decision-making stages.
The Criminal Process in Environmental Regulation. (n.d.). UH Law. Retrieved April 6, 2014, from http://www.law.uh.edu/faculty/thester/courses/Environmental-Practicum-2014/syllabus/chap6.pdf
Within the Gilbane Gold case, the major problem is the contribution of water pollution by dumping chemicals to speed production for Z CORP. However, there is doubt as to what extent the company violated city regulations. Tom Richards believes that Z-CORP broke regulations repeatedly but Professor Massin believes that it is not solid evidence. Part of the problem is that two different tests are involved: an older and a less sensitive test which does not break regulations but there is also the newer and more sensitive one which does. The newer test was said that the company just broke city regulations, but not by a large amount.