It is fairly evident that climate change exists and is a huge threat to the environment. When looking at what causes climate change, we can conclude that a huge portion that contributes to it is caused by businesses and companies. This can be due to the fossil fuels they use to create their products, office buildings using up electricity, offices using large amounts of paper, and more. However, the apparent effects of climate change and the impact businesses have on the environment have since been widely recognized, causing many companies around the world to alter their business decisions to become more eco-friendly. Samsung, one of the largest companies in the world, is a great example. 

In 1992, Samsung signed its Environment Declaration. Ever since then, Samsung has carefully considered every business decision and has put the environment as a factor influencing decisions; according to Samsung, they claim to “have put Eco-management into action, offering [its] customers eco-friendly solutions and leading the way to a sustainable future.” Samsung has also listed the environmental factors that affect their decision-making on their website, and they include Eco-Design, Energy Efficient Products, Sustainable Materials, and Responsible Recycling. 

Samsung describes Eco-Design as “considering environmental impacts at each stage of the product life cycle.” In other words, Samsung makes sure to analyze how a product may affect the environment from its creation all the way to its disposal and designs its product to be as environmentally friendly as possible at all times in its life cycle. Next, Samsung describes Energy Efficient Products as “developing the most energy-efficient products and solutions.” Samsung makes sure to design products to meet the global energy regulation while reducing power consumption generated by it. Sustainable Materials comes after, and is described as “implementing materials and product designs to facilitate a circular economy.” In other words, Samsung has incorporated eco-friendly materials into their products in order to maintain a circular economy, which is an idea where materials are reused and waste products are completely eliminated. Finally, Responsible Recycling is described as “operating global take-back and recycling programs in 60 countries.” This means that Samsung has been widely successful in reusing their materials, and contributing more to their desired circular economy.

Many other huge companies like Apple and Microsoft have also addressed the negative impacts businesses have on the environment and revealed many business decisions aimed at becoming more friendly to the environment. Other small companies are also following in their footsteps. However, in order to truly save our planet from the increasing threat of climate change, every single business must start to consider the environment as a factor influencing their business decisions. Anyone, including me and you, can work together to reach this goal by exclusively purchasing products from eco-friendly businesses, in order to encourage other businesses to also turn eco-friendly. 

Sources: 

1: https://www.dummies.com/home-garden/green-living/how-businesses-affect-the-environment/ 

2: https://www.samsung.com/us/aboutsamsung/sustainability/environment/

3: https://news.samsung.com/us/samsung-global-green-management-initiatives-journey-sustainable-future/#:~:text=Since%202005's%20Kyoto%20Protocol%2C%20brought,order%20to%20help%20reduce%20emissions.&text=In%20addition%2C%20an%20accumulated%20amount,in%20the%20same%20time%20period.