BASF, A Review
Memorandum
TO: Gerald Barnett
FROM: Wesley Smith
SUBJECT: BASF and Ethical Issues
DATE: April 10th, 2014
Ethics are a part of everyday life in the business world. People are faced with challenges wit outcomes that can affect their whole lives. Badische Anilin-und Soda-Fabrik (BASF) is the worlds leading chemical manufacturing company. With such a huge company, many ethical issues are going to arise. Today I will be talking about one instance that occurred in Beaufort County in South Carolina. This issue involved the site for a new chemical facility and the local environment and economy, all of which will be elaborated in the coming paragraphs.
BASF started out in Germany in 1865 and began to expand to other areas of the world soon after it was founded. Pollution and destruction of the environment soon became a problem for this large corporation. BASF plants had “polluted the Rhine and, in Belgium, the Schelde River” (Donaldson pg. 1). This was a major problem for BASF and the locations that it owned. One potential area that BASF was looking to build a plant in was Beaufort County. Beaufort County is located in South Carolina along the coast and is home to the Hilton Head, which is a wealthy resort community. Along with this up-scale community, we find the complete opposite in a majority of the community. Many of the areas are home to low-income black families who struggle to make ends meet while having seeing the luxurious lives that their neighbors live on the Hilton Head. In the late 1960’s BASF was looking for a new site to build a new chemical plant, and Beaufort County was in the running.
Ethical Issues in Business by Thomas Donaldson and Patricia H. Werhane elaborate more on this story in the first chapter of their book. Beaufort was chosen as one of the final locations for the plant. At first the two sides debated whether a machine industry or a recreation industry was best: “advocates and opponents
TO: Gerald Barnett
FROM: Wesley Smith
SUBJECT: BASF and Ethical Issues
DATE: April 10th, 2014
Ethics are a part of everyday life in the business world. People are faced with challenges wit outcomes that can affect their whole lives. Badische Anilin-und Soda-Fabrik (BASF) is the worlds leading chemical manufacturing company. With such a huge company, many ethical issues are going to arise. Today I will be talking about one instance that occurred in Beaufort County in South Carolina. This issue involved the site for a new chemical facility and the local environment and economy, all of which will be elaborated in the coming paragraphs.
BASF started out in Germany in 1865 and began to expand to other areas of the world soon after it was founded. Pollution and destruction of the environment soon became a problem for this large corporation. BASF plants had “polluted the Rhine and, in Belgium, the Schelde River” (Donaldson pg. 1). This was a major problem for BASF and the locations that it owned. One potential area that BASF was looking to build a plant in was Beaufort County. Beaufort County is located in South Carolina along the coast and is home to the Hilton Head, which is a wealthy resort community. Along with this up-scale community, we find the complete opposite in a majority of the community. Many of the areas are home to low-income black families who struggle to make ends meet while having seeing the luxurious lives that their neighbors live on the Hilton Head. In the late 1960’s BASF was looking for a new site to build a new chemical plant, and Beaufort County was in the running.
Ethical Issues in Business by Thomas Donaldson and Patricia H. Werhane elaborate more on this story in the first chapter of their book. Beaufort was chosen as one of the final locations for the plant. At first the two sides debated whether a machine industry or a recreation industry was best: “advocates and opponents