Green economy and ethical challenges

TIØ 4261 - Grønn verdiskaping og etiske perspektiverGreen economy

and ethical challengesTekna’s Ethical Advisory Board 2015

Svein Nordenson

Tekna – Teknisk-naturvitenskapelig forening

Ethics and efficient decision-making

Leif Runar Forsth Dr. ing. and management philosopherto Magasinet Tekna no. 2 in 2012

“If you have a well-founded set of values it is easier to know what will be right for you when you come to make difficult decisions that affect others. You will be able to make better decisions, more quickly, allowing you to be more efficient as a manager.”

See also: www.ipo.no 2Teknas Etiske råd januar 2015/jmr

http://www.ipo.no/

Tekna – Teknisk-naturvitenskapelig forening 3

Some general ethical principles

Teknas Etiske råd januar 2015/jmr

William Brett, Lord Esher(1817-1899)

duty of care,

The PrecautionaryPrinciple

There is a social responsibility to protect the public from exposure to harm, when scientific investigation has found a plausible risk even if it is not full scientific consensus about that risk.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

The categorical imperative

John Locke(1632-1704)

The responsibility for future generations We ought to leave the earth in a

condition so that future generations will have at least the same freedom of choice as we have.

Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.


Easy to do ethical test: The Tekna version

As a memeber of Tekna you must be able to stand by your decisions. They must stand up to ethical scrutiny, to enable you to determine, in advance, whether your decisions:• are lawful,• are fair in the way they effect the people concerned,• have negative consequences for individuals, the

environment or Society,• will withstand public scrutiny.



My agenda further on for today

• Ethics as a matter of perspective • Case on perspectives on human rights• Business and economy as an ethical

challenge• Case on inequality as a challenge• Sum up …

5Teknas Etiske råd januar 2015/jmr


Perspectives on ethics(Ethics of the practical life)

6

• Student ethics• Research ethics• Ethics of Management• Ethics of Professionals

(Engineers, Economists, Lawyers etc)• Ethics of the Working Environment• Ethics of Competition• Ethics of Anti-Corruption• Etichs of surveillance• Ethics of New Technology• Bioethics• Environmental Ethics• Ethics of war (Just War)• Whistleblowing• Business ethics and Social Responsibility



Ethics of engineering

Focus on RISK

Be COMPETENT

Be HONEST


7


Ethics of War


8

This is about:• Weapon production

and sales• Just war. Is there one?• The idea of preventive

attack• Terrorism: War or

crime?• The Rules of War• Soldiers status and

responsibility• The right to kill


Ethics as a matter of perspective • We have seen that ethics is a matter of profession,

engineer or soldier, or many other fields of human activity

• Ethics could also be a personal matter, shaped by personal professional choices, as I will illustrate in my next examples

• I will introduce Margrethe... and Jomar


Tekna – Teknisk-naturvitenskapelig foreningTeknas Etiske råd januar 2015/jmr

10

Margrethe Lunder is 28 years old and holds a master’s degree in meteorology, on chemistry of the atmosphere. She works as advicer in climate and air quality and is engaged in Tekna’s member group working for reduced CO2 to the atmosphere and global temperature control.

The meteorologist

- It is a dilemma that we ought to reduce the amount of CO2 going in to the atmosphere. We know what we can do about it, but the need for more research on the overall effect keeps us from doing it. One should act and do research at the same time instead of waiting untill complete knowledge is at hand.


The Systems Architect

- One important question for many professionals such as myself is if we should work in oil and gas or in renewable resources. Since I made my choice awhile ago, my challenge is to make good future-oriented solutions that minimize environmental hazards. We must aim at achieving optimal quality and safety. We must have solutions that have been tested and well documented so that we know they’ll be permanent.

Jomar Jentoft, age 34, Master’s degree in Engineering on Energy and Environment, NTNU, works with systems architecture for electric power distribution for subsea installations. He works with Siemens in Trondheim and is engaged in Tekna’s member group oil and gas.


11


On March 27,1980, the oil platform Alexander Kielland capsized during a storm in the North Sea with 212 people onboard. The platform ended up tipping over and lying upside down in the ocean. It had been floating on a suspension system consisting of five columns; however, a bracing had broken, causing breaks in other bracings so that the column ended up splitting apart and breaking loose from the platform. The bracing had been weakened by welders when mounting platform equipment. There were only 89 survivors. After the accident a series of new safety measures were implemented.


12


ISO 26000 Social Responsibility• An international standard …• States what should be the preferable responsibility of

businesses and organisations in the societies where they do their business.

Teknas etiske råd januar 2015/jmr

• Ratified by more than 100 nations• But not ratified by national

authorities• The ISO 26000 applies a very wide

definition of social responsibility , including a responsibility to adopt human rights.


Human rights in short I• The human rights were adopted by The General

Assembly of the UN in 1948. They covers ethnic discrimination, discrimination of women, actions against torture, childrens rights, protection of guest-workers, protection against kidnapping and the rights of disabled persons.

• The human rights are:• Inborn• Yours to be, can not be taken from you, even if you agree.

No-one can steal them from you• Universal• Indivisible, can not be partly chosen away• Mutually dependent and contribute mutually to fullfilment

of all the rightsTeknas Etiske råd januar 2015/jmr


Human rights in short II - A choice of rights• Equality:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

• Also addresses rights

relating to three other critical areas: • Life and security • Personal freedom• Economic, social and

cultural freedoms


equality

life and security

personal freedom

economic, social and cultural

freedoms

equality

By permission: Ingebjørg Gravlien, DNV

Tekna – Teknisk-naturvitenskapelig forening 16Teknas Etiske råd januar 2015/jmr

Introduction to the first caseLIVING CONDITIONS

RELIGION

IDEOLOGY

CULTURE

ISO 26000Human rights


Some general ethical principles



duty of care,










For reflection and debate• Find and list arguments that ”our”

understanding of the standards set by the declaration of human rights should be what counts in all of the countries in the world (Right side groups).


On the other hand:• Find and list arguments that human rights, as

defined in the declaration of human rights, must be understood and practiced according to local standards of living, culture, traditions, ideology and religion (Left side groups).


My pre-prepared sum up

• Are human rights universal?

• … or are they to be understood and practiced according to local standards of living etc.?



The categorical imperative Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.


Green Economy is part of the path …


Green Cities is the aim


Green cities - The Albert Speer & Partner Way


From: Manifesto for sustainable cities by the architects in Albert Speer & Partner


Ideas from classical economy still living


Vilfredo Pareto

(1848 – 1923)

The theory of optimum use of resources

We will say that the members of a society have achieved optimum use of the resources when in a position where it is not possible to move away from this position in a way that will give one individual a greater benefit witout the benefit of someone else being reduced.

Adam Smith(1723-1790)

Unintended consequences of intended action will be to the benefit of society at large..

The invisible hand

David Ricardo (1772-1823)

The theory of comparative advantages

Ricardo showed in a study i 1817 that Portugal and England both would benefit from Portugal producing more wine and trading its cloths from England even though Portugal on its own could produce cloths cheaper than England.


There are challenges …• A dispute among economists

and politicians as to how far businesses social responsibility reaches

• A wide range of world business practises conserning labor rights, corruption, taxation etc

• Innovation is a regarded as a way to a better future, but in it self it challenges the future

• Resulting inequality as probably the greatest challenge of them all



Comments on ISO 26000:Still a way to go!

Ref: ”Milton Friedman goes on tour” The Economist 29th January 2011.

”The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits, agree?”

Milton Friedman 1912 – 2006Nobels memorial prize in 1976Inspirer of ”The Chicago Boys”

UAE is United Arab Emirates

Many still agree with Mr Friedman even in Sweden!

Teknas Etiske råd januar 2015/jmr 24


Michael Porter on Creating Shared Value (CSV)


Michael Porter (1947 - ) professor at MIT and one of the world’s most famous

living managing gurus

Creating Shared Value (CSV), differs, says Porter, from CSR in different important ways: 1) CSV is integrated in a business model for competitiveness and profit-maximization, not a response to outside pressure as CSR is as Porter sees it. 2) CSV is integrated in the budget of the business and not part of an isolated CSR-budget. 3) CSV measures economical and social benefits against cost and not against the diffuse goal of CSR that seems to be ”doing good”.

See also: http://ledelse.tekna.no/csr-sr-csv-eller-baerekraft/

http://hbr.org/2011/01/the-big-idea-creating-shared-value

http://ledelse.tekna.no/csr-sr-csv-eller-baerekraft/

Tekna – Teknisk-naturvitenskapelig foreningTeknas Etiske råd januar 2015/jmr 26

Dagbladet på nett onsdag 14.05.2008

This newscase is about: A subcontractor of the subsidiary of the Norwegian telecom company Telenor in Bangladesh. Working conditions for the employees employed by this subcontractor were bad and included also child workers. The news headlines in Norway included the word: “SCANDAL”.

How far does the responsibility of an employer reach?


• Acording to Transparency International, Angola is rated as one of the world’s most corrupt countries. One of the president’s sons manages the country’s oil fund. The presidents oldest daughter was recently named Africa’s first female billionaire.

• In order to strengthen local industry, Angola requires foreign oil companies to enter into partnership with local companies. Somoil is one such company. Owners here include governmental ministers in Angola, directors in its national oil company Sonangol and others.

Kilde: DN 22.2.2014



Multinational wealth-drain and ”-creation”

• Kofi Annan commented on The Africa Progress Report that the work to give the poor better living conditions advances to slowly. The reason is tax-crimes and secrecy in international merchandise export.


• Transfer pricing is widely used to transport profit to countries with low-tax-regimes.

• African countries lose at least 34 billion dollar in income-taxes because of transfer pricing. That is more than the same countries get in aid from developed countries.

• Investigations show that EU has more import from countries in Africa than what is reported as export from the same countries.

Country B

Tax haven

Country A

in AfricaProductio

n

Country C in Europe

CompanyVCC -A

CompanyVCC -B

CompanyVCC -C

Cheap product

Expensive product

Expensiveproduct

Market


Ethics of New Technology


New technology gives opportunities, challenges and uncertainty.

Industrial revolutions through the ages

Textiles CarTrain IT Nano


New technology: The format war of live picture storage


VHS (Video Home System): 1976-2000

Betamax: Sony 1975-85VHS – Betamax war: 1976-85

LaserDisc – 1978-1995 no distribution other than regionally in AsiaCD – 1982 and VCD fra 1993

DVD – Digital Video Disc – 1995HD DVD from 2002 – to 2008

Blu-ray-Disc: Blue violet laser – 2003 – 2015? HD DVD/Blu-ray war: 2003 - 2008

… and the resulting mountain of garbage.


Inequality – The greatest challenge• The outcome of labor exploitation is

inequality• The outcome of corruption is

inequality• The outcome of creative tax-

planning is inequality

• Inequality stands in the way of effective measures against global warming



Introduction to the second case


PRODUCTS

PRODUCTION

USED AND GARBAGE

CO2CO2


General ethical principles to have in mind


33

Vilfredo Pareto (1848 – 1923)

The theory of optimum use of resources

We will say that the members of a society have achieved optimum use of the resources when in a position where it is not possible to move away from this position in a way that will give one individual a greater benefit witout the benefit of someone else being reduced.


duty of care,










For reflection and debate:• Find and list arguments that supports that

in 50 years time we still have to accept that some countries have significant better living conditions for its inhabitants than others if we should avoyd critical global warming.


On the other hand:• Find and list arguments that supports that rich

countries to day have to accept redused living standard for its inhabitants if we should avoid critical global warming.


My pre-prepared sum up

• Are human rights universal?

• … or are they to be understood and practiced according to local standards of living?


Adam Smith(1723-1790)

The invisible hand

”The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits, agree?”

Unintended consequences of intended action will be to the benefit of society at large..


TO SUM IT ALL UP

36

• Ethics is a personal responsibility and a collective one …

We have also talked about:• Ethics as a matter of perspective … • … and a case on perspectives on human rights• Business and economy as an ethical challenge• … and a case on inequality as a special

challenge


Thank you for your

attention!

A text-version available at: https://www.tekna.no/globalassets/filer/etikk/temahefter/temahefte-6-2015-green-economy-and-etchical-challenges.pdf

https://www.tekna.no/globalassets/filer/etikk/temahefter/temahefte-6-2015-green-economy-and-etchical-challenges.pdf