Corporations’ Accountability: Mother Nature’s Call to Preserve Our Environment

For the first time since its designation in 2009, Mother Earth Day^[1] is being recalled within the UN Decade,^[2] focusing on the topic of Ecosystem Restoration^[3] in support of all life on earth. This Ecosystem Restoration is in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2030, which aim for international cooperation in identifying the key challenges to sustainability worldwide. This is Mother Earth’s call for action – urgent and necessary to hold ourselves accountable for nature’s dangerous decline, which has only worsened since the industrial revolution. 

Through the eyes of the greedy, nature is only deemed enough to be a commodity that exists to benefit people. In order to restore, halt, and reverse the loss of environment, the UN Decade on Ecosystem recalls its Resolutions, one of which emphasises that forests, wetlands, drylands, and other natural ecosystems are essential for sustainable development, poverty alleviation, and improvement of human well-being. The General Assembly widely acknowledges that the world’s depletion of natural resources and rapid environmental degradation is the result of unsustainable consumption and irresponsible production patterns.

The adverse consequences for both the earth as well as the overall well-being give rise to the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a complementary regulation for large corporations to protect the environment. CSR derives from SDGs as the Key Tools for Social and Environmental Performance^[4] and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Throughout the 20th Century, CSR’s objective has evolved and conformed to the purpose of private governance. Heeding the constant change of social norms, corporations have been adopting the concept of CSR as a form of accountability for their business activities. The application of CSR within corporations’ activities in processing raw materials, distribution, marketing, transportation, and disposal fosters accountability to protect mother earth and all the life it is home to. 

The urgency of accountability became more apparent in 1992, when the UN initiated the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED),^[5] known as the Earth Summit, in Rio de Janeiro blueprinted international action on integrating and balancing economic, social, and environmental issues in meeting our needs. Striving both the environment and social development at once requires new perceptions of the way we produce, consume, live, work, and make decisions.

Facing the Reality: Chevron’s Failure Creates Amazon Chernobyl in Ecuador

The imposition of CSR is evident as necessary taking into account past practices where corporations had posed considerable harm to our environment, such as the notable Chevron Texaco^[6] accident in the 1960s. It all began from a usual contract to extract oil from the Basin of the Amazon rainforest between Chevron, an American Oil Company operated under the Texaco brand, and the government of Ecuador. Yet, in the process, Chevron committed one of the worst environmental abuse in Ecuador, the rainforest of the Amazon. Ecuador is named by Conservation International as one of only 17 mega-diverse countries that harbours the majority of the earth’s species, including a vast array of animal and plant species. Aside from that, Ecuador is also home to several indigenous groups, i.e. the Azúcar, Sequoia, and Cofan nationalities. These people live off the land and use the rivers for drinking, fishing, bathing, and cooking. Now, because of Chevron’s contamination, these people are suffering and dying from doing so.

Normally, oil extraction starts with drilling the well and creating pits. The lined pits temporarily store the remaining toxic wastewater known as ‘produced water’ from refining the crude oil. These pits are lined with an industrial tarp to prevent membrane puncture and tear from heavyweight liquid and extreme temperatures. The tarp serves as a prevention of oil waste toxins from seeping into the ground. When the drilling is complete, the oil waste is disposed of and the pit is refilled, restoring the site to its natural state. These steps are important to protect the surroundings from contamination by oil drilling.

In 1962, American Petroleum Institute published a manual describing the proper reinjection of produced water into the ground. This manual states that extreme care must be exercised in the handling the disposal of produced water and warning of possible seepage into nearby surface water sources or onto lands used for farming and grazing. Chevron usually followed such due care, but not in Ecuador, where Amazon is located as one of the most fragile and biodiverse countries in the world and is home to five indigenous groups. 

In Ecuador, Chevron^[7] directly installed the pipes to drain the toxic wastewater into rivers and streams and did not line the waste pits, causing the toxins to seep into the soils and contaminate the groundwater. None other than that, they also left the toxic sludge in the unlined pits and installed pipes to transport the sludge into the nearby streams which, as a consequence, contaminated the rainwater into the nearby streams. Lastly, rather than capturing the toxic natural gas during the extraction, Chevron uses flaring to burn off the gasses, which causes huge flames and releases dioxins into the environment. All at the same time, this blatant pollution and destruction took place right in the backyards of the indigenous peoples of Ecuador. 

Due to this negligence of due care, hundreds of wells and toxic pits spread over 1,500 square miles. Chevron’s own top legal official and Ecuador estimated that the company had dumped more than 16 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into the Amazon. On the other hand, independent studies estimate Chevron had dumped more than 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater. Meanwhile, the local peoples of Ecuador continued to use the rivers and streams as their sources for drinking, bathing, and fishing. 

What is worse is that Chevron officials even assured Emergildo Criollo, the Leader of the Cofan Indigenous People, that the oil in the water was full of vitamins and minerals. In fact, the exposure to the total petroleum hydrocarbons that are found in the soils and water in Ecuador can cause a vast array of diseases, such as liver damage, nervous system damage, spontaneous miscarriages, cancer, and even death. It has been confirmed by Laboratory Studies that the soils and Ecuador’s Amazon have extremely high levels of toxins, some as high as 10,000 times over the maximum tolerance allowed by regulatory authorities in the United States. One analysis of health and population data found that more than 9,000 people in the area of Chevron’s operations are going to contract cancer in the coming decades. 

The Effort of Chevron Texaco: Restoring Its Reputation over Restoring the Environment

After decades of its disaster, in 1993, the affected ones filed a lawsuit to force Chevron to take responsibility considering Chevron is required to use modern technology and operate with care towards the environment under its contract with the government of Ecuador. This contract required Chevron to extract oil in a safe manner, which Chevron failed to do so. Moreover, Article 14 of the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador^[8] preserves the right of Ecuadorians to live in a clean and ecologically balanced environment, under which any corporations must guarantee sustainability and a good living (sumak kawsay) environment. Chevron had thus violated such an article as it neglectfully operated its operation in a reckless manner and inflicted harm on the local people. Chevron had also violated Article 396 of the Constitution, which ensures the corporations’ strict liability in regards to environmental damage, requiring the responsible party to restore the ecosystem and compensate the affected people and communities. 

Regrettably, Chevron chose to avoid it and instead used a laboratory test that only captures a tiny fraction of oil field contamination called the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure to quote-unquote proof that they had cleaned up the contamination and their remediation was effective. In fact, the truth is far more than their so-called proof. Chevron spent $40 million to treat a small fraction of 916 waste pits by covering them with dirt without removing the toxins.

Finally, after years of avoiding being accountable, an Ecuadorian Court in 2011 found Chevron liable and ordered them to pay $18 billion for cleanup to compensate the affected rainforest communities. The court also found that Chevron had dumped 16 billion gallons of produced water into Amazon waterways and failed to clean up its unlined oil waste pits. But still, Chevron cleaned out its assets from Ecuador and refused to comply with the judgment. Chevron is doing everything in its power to avoid accountability. The Former Chevron Vice President and General Counsel, Charles James, said “Chevron will fight until hell freezes over, and then fight it out on the ice.”

While the impacts still affected the local people, Chevron is more preoccupied to slip away from the negative publicity by launching a greenwashing advertising campaign concerning the company’s care for the communities in which it operates. This campaign speaks the opposite way since Chevron cares more about its image than dozens of communities in Ecuador that continue to suffer from its reckless operational practices. Chevron continues to avoid taking responsibility by abating the negative publicity using bribery, false testimony, and fabricated evidence.

In their efforts to do so, Chevron tried to bribe an Ecuadorian judge by paying spies called Diego Borja,  although their attempt failed. Chevron also used false testimony by pressuring a military official in Ecuador, Manuel Bravo, to write a fraudulent intelligence report that was used to block accord inspection of one of the company’s most notorious toxic wastewater sites. None other than that, Chevron also used fabricated evidence by paying experts to manufacture the so-called proof that there is no increased risk of cancer in the operational area. While Chevron is spending millions of dollars to evade its responsibilities, numerous soil samples taken from Chevron’s well sites remain to show that they contain high levels of cancer-causing toxins. 

The Significance of the International Standard on Holding Corporations’ Accountability to the Environment

Since the 1970s, there has been no emergence nor the proper application of an international instrument on CSR.^[9] Private and public codes of conduct have only been existing to guide corporations build their own standard for what is deemed acceptable within a corporations’ decisions and actions. The incentive in setting this benchmark is to showcase their concern for protecting the environment. In designing such a benchmark, the governments have no input since the standard is designed voluntarily. Hence, from a legal perspective, such codes of conduct do not legally bind corporations in its implementation. Due to this, it is paramount to uphold uniform and universal legal grounds for corporations to achieve a standard that can duly protect our environment, not to take unfair advantage or preserve its good reputation.

Various international organisations have offered fundamental public codes of conduct to be implemented by transnational companies, one of which is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. On the other hand, the UN Global Compact can be considered a regulatory instrument for private companies. Established in September 2000 by the UN Secretary-General, the UN Global Compact has been deemed the foundation for designing private codes of conduct, where it contains ten principles focusing on human rights, labour standards, fighting corruption, and environmental protection. The principles are derived from various resolutions, among which is the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development​​. Last but not least, principles 7 to 9 of the UN Global Compact^[10] also signify the protection of the environment through a company’s conduct. Therefore, corporations are now highly encouraged to implement a set of private codes. 

In addition, it is equally possible to enforce CSR at the domestic level by taking into account the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, where business enterprises shall respect human rights, including the ability to remediate any impacts on adverse human rights.^[11] Thus, the enforcement of CSR as a key tool in restoring the SDGs on social and environmental performance shall be the solution to prevent similar corporations like Chevron Texaco slip away from its accountability to the environment and its surroundings.

Learn with Coca-Cola: It Is the Time to Protect Our Environment

Corporations must raise their awareness that the critical state of Mother Earth at present is mostly due to their irresponsible production of goods and services. What a relief that corporations’ efforts to protect the environment during their activities are progressing within the last decade. Numerous industries now promote sustainable ways of development and implement environmentally-sound business strategies.^[12]

For instance, Coca-Cola had been contributing the most to plastic pollution and the mountain-tops of littered plastic bottles branded with their bright red logo.^[13] Coca-Cola has realised that its entity as a major-multinational company plays a monumental role in the pollution of the earth. As a result, Coca-Cola launched the World Without Waste program in 2018 to reduce its pollution waste.^[14] Through this program, Coca-Cola came up with the unveiling of new packaging made from 100% plant-based plastic.^[15]  The core of Coca-Cola’s new prototype plant-based bottle is the plant-based paraxylene (bPX) that has been converted to plant-based terephthalic acid (bPTA). Coca-Cola encourages other corporations to take action to prevent harmful impacts on the environment – if Coca-Cola can do it, so can the others.

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Promoting harmony between humans and nature is the objective of this year’s Mother Earth Day, to achieve balance in terms of the economic, social, and environmental needs of the present and future generations. The implementation of CSR within corporations’ business activities is a vital instrument in achieving this goal. When such implementation is supported through the international statement and initiative, such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the UN Global Compact, the corporations shall put forth CSR in its daily activities. It is a call for all corporations to secure a safer and brighter future for our environment.