Environmental Sustainability Approaches of Successful Companies in Turkey

Abstract

Enterprises are responsible for many activities that pollute the environment, whether it be noise pollution, water pollution, air emissions, soil pollution, transportation- related environmental problems, or manufactured waste disposal (European Commission, 2001, p. 11; Karacan, 2002, p. 5). The literature approaches the topic of environmental sustainability in two ways. The first is the viewpoint of institutions and enterprises that willingly take on environmental responsibility. Here, businesses involve actors who voluntarily fulfill their environmental responsibilities to design a world where all stakeholders win (Gibbs, 2000; Mol & Spaargaren, 2000). The second approach states that organizations realize their responsibilities regarding environmental sustainability due to sanctions from states or international organizations (Gould et al., 2004; Konak, 2009; Schnaiberg, 2002). At this point, a situation occurs where parties’ interests come into conflict, and this issue should be evaluated ethically. According to Curi (2015, pp. 83–84), environmental ethics, unlike ethics, not only deals with interpersonal relations but also involves nature and future generations that have yet to be born. Thus, environmental ethics criticizes the arbitrary human behavior of putting themselves at the center of the universe and advises respecting and taking into consideration the interests and rights of the entire universe as opposed to being “masters of the universe” (Curi, 2015, pp. 83–84).