Some people believe that corporations have the responsibility to promote the well-being of the societies and environments in which they operate. Others believe that the only responsibility of corporations, provided they operate within the law, is to make

Big corporations are not just companies, but also a big influence on the society it operates in. Therefore, corporations should have the responsibility in promoting the well-being of the environments they operate in, as it serves as an example for the rest of the society to follow.

In our everyday lives, we hear names of big corporations very often. Turning on the news, reading the daily newspaper, or scrolling through an article online, there are always things in circulation relating to corporations and their activities. In the world we live in, corporations are not only companies, but also a big influence on the place it operates and serves in. Therefore, corporations should have the responsibility in promoting the well-being of the societies and environments they operate in, as it serves as an example for the rest of the society to follow.

Corporations demand a great deal of resources for their operations to run smoothly. Take, for example, an illustrious textbook company. The company’s main source of profit comes from selling textbooks, and in order to produce these, they must allocate a great amount of trees from the forest. If the process of taking down the trees was badly done, resulting in the damage of the forest area and the habitats of animals living there, it would also hinder the textbook company’s future as they destroyed an area where they could get their resources from. Thus, for a corporation to continue doing well, they must look at the overall picture and be careful in their actions. Being reckless and damaging the environment does not only harm the nature and wildlife there, but also the corporation’s prospective amount of profit they would earn.

Many corporations, because of their brand value and reputation, are often times under the public eye for the things they do. For instance, a famous chemical company that pours their waste into their neighboring waterbodies may trigger other smaller companies in doing so. People may justify that, because such a large corporation is doing this, it is fine for them to do the same. However, that is not the case! As a result, many fish, wildlife, and other activities are harmed. In other areas, like the fishing industry, people may have a hard time fishing for healthy fish to sell, as the chemicals have either killed or damaged all the fish. Therefore, by a detrimental action that one company does, a series of consequences follow, negatively impacting the environment and society. A corporation should not only want to make profit, but also live up to their reputation as a well-known and just company.
On the contrary, many examples we see on the news about corporations not taking care of the environment may arise from the fact that the government does not impose strict laws on bigger corporations for them to follow. For example, some corporations may feel it is not their problem to take responsibility for environmental problems, in the hopes that another corporation would do the job for them. This way, no one steps up to take the responsibility, ending up with many environmental and societal damages caused by corporations. Therefore, to limit the chances of this happening, governments should come up with stricter laws more specific to the corporation, so that each corporation must abide to the law with no chances of a leeway.

A corporation may operate across many different countries and environments, influencing the people, wildlife, and nature associated with them. For such well-known corporations, there should be responsibility for them to care for the areas they operate in. In the long run, promoting the well-being of the societies and environments a corporation functions in will enhance the performance and earning of the corporation, as well as ensure that nothing is harmed in the process. Earning profit is, of course, important, but no matter how big the scale of business is, one should not forget that the people, nature, and wildlife of a place are not simply commodities that can be harmed and replaced. To damage a whole place is to take away a culture, and no price can ever be paid for that to be brought back.