The Ethics of Global Business

Chapter EightThe Paradox at the Base of the Pyramid: Environmental Sustainability and Market‐Driven Poverty Alleviation

The scientific community warns that the Earth is facing an environmental crisis because of historical patterns of consumption and waste in production typical in the United States and other industrialized economies (Wackernagel et al. 2002). These negative environmental impacts will have a disproportionately harmful impact on the base of the pyramid (BoP) populations. If TNC business strategies contribute to environmental degradation, then serving the social needs of the world's poor may undermine the integrity of the natural environments they inhabit and actually harm them. We provide an analysis of the BoP proposition that gives equal weight to ethical considerations regarding environmental harms and strategic considerations regarding the exploitation of BoP markets. In the first part of this chapter, we provide a conceptual framework for understanding the environmental harms that transnational corporations (TNCs) and other business organizations can have on the BoP. Next, we identify the paradox of BoP business strategies in relation to environmental sustainability and offer a business policy‐based resolution to the paradox that is consistent with the logic of the BoP proposition.

In the previous chapter, we argued that some BoP ventures may negatively impact human capabilities and functioning and thereby undermine the attainment of the basic human rights ...