Business Ethics and Sustainability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Business Ethics and Sustainability - Essay Example Reference is made to a specific case, as an example: the oil spill caused by BP in Mexico in 2010. Different ethical approaches are used for evaluating the role of parties in the specific ethical issue and for understanding how the effects of this issue, in terms of ethics, could be limited. Also, the following problem is explored: can a particular ethical theory be used for realising all aspects of an ethical issue in the business sector or a combination of different ethical approaches would be rather preferred? The examination and the analysis of the facts of the specific case, as based on appropriate literature, lead to the following assumption: business decisions and operations can be quite complex; current ethical approaches are not able, if used separately, to explain all ethical issue related to business activities no matter the size of a business. In the 20th of April 2010 a strong explosion occurred in BP’s ‘drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico’ (The Guardian, 2010). The site’s safety measures were proved quite problematic: a mechanism that had been established for controlling the leak of oil did not operate while no plan appeared for limiting the human losses in regard to the company’s staff in the particular site (The Guardian, 2010). As a result, about 11 employees died while 17 others suffered severe injuries; also, an extended oil slick was gradually developed affecting the natural environment, see waters and coasts, in the greater Gulf area (The Guardian, 2010). About ‘200 million gallons of oil’ (Geggel, 2015) have been released in the Gulf of Mexico during the 87 days that followed the explosion in BP’s particular drilling rig (Neuhauser, 2014). The damage caused on the area’s natural environment has been quite critical (Figure 1). Due to its effects on the environment, the specific incident was carefully investigated by the authorities, as of all its aspects. At a first