Embracing Environmental Sustainability within a framework of Ethical Egoism: A research into the question if a concern for environmental responsibility falls within the self-interest of Multinational Corporations

Abstract

This paper examines if multinational corporations concern themselves with environmental sustainability if they are considered as moral actors within a framework of Ethical Egoism. First, there is a defence of utilizing Ethical Egoism when discussing corporations as moral agents. This defence is based upon the foundations of the framework correlating with the actual practices of corporations, namely that corporations must serve their self-interest to remain functional, and that Ethical Egoism poses that fulfilling self-interests is morally good. After this defence certain terms are explained, namely what self-interest and environmental sustainability could mean for moral actors within the framework. The corporation Royal Dutch Shell is examined as an example of a moral agent, and its actions are examined to see how far the commitments of oil companies are towards environmental sustainability. This paper concludes that there is a change in the activities of oil companies: While their commitment towards environmental sustainability seemed to have been shallower in the past, environmentally sustainable investments are now considered to be economical viable choices. This change brings environmental sustainability part of the self-interests of oil companies, now that it coincides with their desire for revenue generation and appeasing shareholders. This paper questions if these commitments are enough to tackle the problems brought about by oil companies, or that shareholders must demand more intense measures to ensure that corporations can continue to operate in the future.