Multinationals: Innocent Capitalists or Environmental Destroyers?

The question of whether multinational energy companies should implement U.S. environmental policy overseas is a highly complex one.

As a business concerned with pleasing its shareholders with infinitely rising stock valuations, it makes sense from a dollars and cents perspective to act in their best interest and keep costs down by forgoing the myriad of environmental concerns in fragile ecosystems such as the Amazon. Furthermore, if the country in which the business is being conducted places a higher premium on revenue versus the environment, any logical-thinking corporate executive would naturally choose to make as much money as possible to the exclusion of the local ecology.

And then there's the question of ethnocentrism: the endemic attitude of rightful American superiority and domination over and above the "uncivilized" non-western nations. No more evident is this pervasive ethnocentrism than in American business.

While capitalism is in fact the most viable and wealth-producing socioeconomic model in the world today, it should be met with a broad understanding of and respect for other environments and cultures; not simply the old model of domination and capricious disregard for the local ecology and populace.

As a result of the multinationals' realization that they need a new, more eco-friendly face for their business operations, they are beginning to run numerous advertisements and promotional spots in the media portraying themselves as gentle helpers rather than indiscriminate destroyers of the environment.

Case in point is the veritable tidal wave of promotional advertising by the large multinational energy and agricultural companies, particularly on Sunday mornings. While watching my weekly dose of Meet the Press and The McLaughlin Group, I was mesmerized by soaring oratory, scenic pastures, and promises of alternative energy and environmentalism. And no wonder; for this new brand of softer, gentler capitalism has the beneficial effect of vastly increasing the bottom line.

These and other promotional programs are designed to change people's minds and persuade them that the multinationals aren't really the big bad global polluters and environmental destroyers they're made out to be. It's a move to reinvent their public face and in fact, their entire ethos.

But whether they are truly concerned with the environment or are implementing these changes purely for monetary gain is hotly debated. Furthermore, one must wonder whether these companies are simply hiding behind the veil of sustainability and environmental responsibility, yet carrying on business as usual. But one thing is for certain: green has become the new goose that lays a golden egg for the large multinationals.

In terms of the multinationals' behavior in other countries, it is vastly hypocritical to promise environmental responsibility through the American media and then do the complete opposite in other countries. Care of the environment should not simply be an American concern; rather it should be a global concern, because what happens abroad affects us all in one way or another. Furthermore, multinationals should take into consideration the respective ecosystems in which they do business, beginning with mandatory environmental impact reports before any business is commenced.

But it's also a question of American leadership and morality. Like the issue of global warming and Kyoto, should not America, the land of the free and home of the brave, the "moral" nation, be the prime example and lead the world into a more environmentally-friendly way of doing business abroad? Or will it continue to be recognized as a plundering, unfeeling, uncaring, selfish nation?

Hope is growing that advances in technology will make it less expensive for multinational companies to incorporate environmental standards into their business activities abroad. Will they respond voluntarily, or will a governmental body step in to enact new regulations, forcing them to clean up their act?

Either way, our multinationals should be held to account in upholding their lofty promises of environmental responsibility and sustainability wherever in the world they do business.