Why is business responsible for environment protection?
The environment is defined as the totality of man’s surroundings - both natural and man-made. These surroundings are also in the nature of resources, that are useful for human life. The resources may also be called natural resources like land, water, air, fauna and flora and raw materials; or manmade resources such as cultural heritage, socio-economic institutions and the people.
Pollution is the the injection of harmful substances into the environment is, in fact, largely the result of industrial production. Pollution changes the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of air, land and water. Pollution exists because the environment can absorb only a limited amount of pollutants and wastes. Some hazardous wastes or toxic by-products and chemicals are termed as hazardous pollutants because they have toxic characteristics that the environment can not assimilate. Pollution thus causes risks to environmental quality, human health and damage to natural and man-made resources.
A definite commitment by top management of the enterprise to create, maintain and develop work culture for environmental protection and pollution prevention will help.