The Natural Environment is a Stakeholder of Business Actors: Based on what you see in the first 4:40 of the Pittsburgh video, how is the natural environment a stakeholder of business actors? Remember – stakeholders affect and are affected by a business actor’s activities.

The environment was a huge stakeholder of business actors when the rivers frequently flooded the streets of Pittsburgh and smoke pollution was caused by mining soft coal. These environmental factors stopped people and businesses from moving to Pittsburgh. So, in this case, the environment affected the business actors’ activities. The way that the natural environment was affected by businesses is very clear because the mining of soft coal became a large industry. However, the soft coal made Pittsburgh very smoky and polluted the air.

Challenges to the Idea of the Natural Environment as a Stakeholder : Based on the two sections in the Mother of Slow Food video, what are the limitations to the argument that the natural environment is a stakeholder of business actors?

The problem with arguing that the natural environment is a stakeholder of business actors when considering the food industry is that nowadays many people eat at fast food places and do not base their diets off of “slow food”. Since slow food is essentially homegrown, natural things they can be considered the natural environment element in this discussion. So, if people are not utilizing the natural environment when it comes to their food, then businesses such as restaurants do not need to consider the natural environment.

Other Examples Like This?: As a future manager facing complex environments, where do you see this debate over the degree to which the natural environment is a stakeholder coming up in the future?

I feel like this debate will come up quite often because the environment is becoming more contaminated everyday and the need to do something will become more urgent as time goes on. I can see this coming up in discussions about the best way to transfer products and goods based on gasoline usage and other, similar factors. I can also see this coming up in factories that aren’t using environmental friendly materials and/or processes to produce their goods. We are already seeing this argument in stores like Starbucks that use millions of plastics straws and cups everyday. This will definitely continue to be discussed and disagreed on.