An expose of bad businesses and their unethical practices

Academics are beginning to perceive the issue of global warming in a different way: as an interdisciplinary problem. At a number of educational institutions in the United States, academics from the fields of Environmentalism, Global Cultures, Business Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility are joining together to conduct collaborative studies into this serious public issue.

Better yet, much of the funding is coming from the corporate world, from companies like Dow Chemical (giving $10 million to Cal Berkeley) and a combine of ExxonMobil, General Electric, Schlumberger, and Toyota are funding studies at Stanford in new energy technologies. Shell Oil and Wal-Mart are also involved in funding similar projects at other schools.

As an example of a collaborative program, Berkeley is using Dow’s money to set up a Sustainable Products and Solutions Program within its existing Center for Responsible Business. That is in the Haas Business School, but Kellie A. McElhaney, the center’s director, insists the program will draw on Berkeley’s chemists, biologists, financial analysts, policy specialists, even lawyers.

This trend is bad news for Bad Business and good news for our planet.