Lm Ericsson Environmental Considerations for Communities and Shareholders

LM Ericsson: environmental considerations for communities and shareholders

As to the question “What is the business’s role in the society”, Milton Friedman (1970) argued that “the business of business is business”. The opinion seems outdated and biased today. The insight of business is not confined to focusing on business itself. Instead, the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become increasingly popular among enterprises. Modern companies, especially those large international corporations, consider shouldering social responsibility as one of their major concerns. One such corporation is LM Ericsson, which provides network equipment and related professional services for telecommunication operators worldwide（Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson,2011）LM Ericsson has long been seen as a bellwether in the telecom industry and has exerted considerable influence on social needs within society. This essay will focus on Ericsson’s social performance in terms of its environmental operations which create value for the company, employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders and society as a whole. The stakeholders to be covered in this essay are mainly the communities in which Ericsson conducts its business operations and the company’s stockholders.

Business and environment was once seen as “competitors”, but this has not always been the case. Environment, in fact, is an integrated part of business, without which business would malfunction (Thampapilla, 1991). Ericsson endeavored to reduce the environmental impact by adopting Design for Environment (DfE) Approach to mitigate the detrimental effect its products have on environment through their entire life cycle (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson. 2011). Ericsson attaches great importance to material management for the purpose of meeting legislative and market requirements and complying with its Code of Conduct established in May, 2002. Ericsson strictly listed banned or restricted substances to be used in its...