Business & Society, 16e (Lawrence)
Chapter 9 Sustainable Development and Global Business
1) Plants and animals living as a natural unified system are called an ecosystem.
2) Offshore wind turbines, genetic engineering, and energy-efficient homes are examples of smart
consumption.
3) According to the textbook, global population is tripling every 50 years.
4) In 2011, the world population was estimated at nine billion.
5) The world’s natural resource base—the air, water, soil, minerals, and so forth—is essentially
finite, or bounded.
6) The paradox of the commons is that if all individuals attempt to maximize their own private
advantage in the short term, the commons will still remain productive in the long run.
7) The leading contributor to global warming is the burning of fossil fuels, which releases carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere.
8) Black carbon is the second largest contributor to climate change, responsible for as much as 18
percent of global warming.
9) Deforestation—cutting down and not replacing trees—contributes to global warming.
10) Land, even when properly cared for, is not a renewable resource.
11) Biodiversity refers to the number and variety of species that have become extinct.
12) Rain forest destruction is controversial because these environments are more valuable cut
down than standing.
13) Life-cycle analysis involves collecting information on the lifelong environmental impact of a
product, all the way from extraction of raw material, to manufacturing, to its distribution, use, and
ultimate disposal.
14) Sustainable development will require technology cooperation through long-term partnerships
between companies in developed and developing countries to transfer environmental technologies.
15) All international standards and codes of environmental conduct are 100 percent enforceable.
16) Both large and small businesses have adopted sustainable practices to what advantage?
A) Cost savings from operational efficiency.
B) Opportunity to serve emerging economies.
C) Reduction of regulatory risk.
D) All of these answers are correct.
17) Natural capital refers to the world’s:
A) Supply of geology, soil, air, water, and all living things.
B) Combined stock ownership.
C) Combined capital investments.
D) Supply of sustainable developers.
18) Sustainable development:
A) Meets the needs of the present while compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs.
B) Gives precedence to environmental over economic considerations.
C) Balances economic and environmental considerations.
D) Gives precedence to present needs over future needs.
19) The core idea(s) of sustainable development is (are):
A) Economic development must be accomplished sustainably.
B) Poverty is an underlying cause of environmental degradation.
C) Affluence is an underlying cause of environmental degradation.
D) Both of these answers are correct: Economic development must be accomplished sustainably;
and poverty is an underlying cause of environmental degradation.
20) Which of these factors has accelerated the current ecological crisis?
A) Population reduction.
B) Economic stagnation.
C) Rapid industrialization.
D) All of these answers are correct.
21) Which of the following statements is not true about the population?
A) Over the next century, population growth is expected to be greatest in developed nations.
B) For many thousands of years, population growth was gradual.
C) Industrial production would have to quintuple over the next 40 years in order to maintain the
same living standard that people have now, given expected population growth.
D) Just 10,000 years ago, the Earth was home to no more than 10 million humans, scattered in
small settlements.
22) Rapid economic development is often accompanied by:
A) Increasing population growth.
B) Greatly decreased crop yields.
C) Rising incomes, bringing higher rates of both consumption and waste.
D) Decreasing incomes, bringing rates of both consumption and waste.
23) The amount of land and water a human population needs to produce the resources it consumes
and to absorb its wastes given prevailing technology is called:
A) Ecological footprint.
B) Technological innovation.
C) Sustainable development.
D) Consumption footprint.
24) Which pattern of consumption is recommended to reduce humanity’s global footprint?
A) Buying goods from firms that always seek to maximize their profits.
B) Choosing less harmful products.
C) Building more transit stops on the outskirts of town.
D) Eating more beef.
25) A shared resource, such as land, air, or water, that a group of people uses collectively is a(n):
A) Economic village.
B) Collective resource.
C) Global unification.
D) Commons.
26) Global warming can be described by which of the following?
A) The Earth has already warmed by between 0.7 and 1.1 degrees Celsius over the past century.
B) Burning fossil fuels is the leading contributor of global warming.
C) The amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased by as much as 40 percent
since the Industrial Revolution.
D) All of these answers are correct.
27) By promoting the use of clean cookstoves in developing nations, a global alliance hopes to
reduce:
A) Deforestation.
B) The burning of fossil fuels.
C) Black carbon.
D) Methane.
28) A thin layer of gas that protects the Earth from excessive ultraviolet radiation from the sun is:
A) Ozone.
B) Carbon dioxide.
C) Methane.
D) Oxygen.
29) Depletion of the ozone layer, destruction of the rain forests, and species extinctions all have an
impact on:
A) All of society.
B) A particular region.
C) A particular nation.
D) Only developing countries.
30) Participants in the Montreal Protocol agreed that by 2030 they would phase out:
A) Black carbon.
B) CFCs.
C) HCFCs.
D) Carbon dioxide.
31) The beverage industry’s partnership Refrigerants Naturally! is attempting to:
A) Reduce water usage.
B) Increase the amount of arable land in use.
C) Reduce the use of ozone-depleting chemicals.
D) Increase the consumption of natural beverages.
32) With respect to fresh water, according to one estimate, if it were possible to eliminate
pollution, capture all available fresh water, and distribute fresh water equitably:
A) Demand would exceed supply within a hundred years.
B) There would be a balance between demand and supply within a hundred years.
C) Supply would exceed demand within a hundred years.
D) None of these answers is correct.
33) Arable land is accurately described by which statement?
A) It is a renewable resource.
B) Over 50 percent of the irrigated lands in developing countries have been desalinized.
C) Poor farming practices have caused arable lands to turn into swamps.
D) Soil erosion helps to distribute dirt across arable lands.
34) Reasons for the destruction of rain forests include:
A) Commercial logging.
B) Cattle ranching.
C) Conversion of forests to plantations.
D) All of these answers are correct.
35) The commitments of the Convention on Biological Diversity include:
A) Developing national conservation strategies.
B) Eliminating CFC production.
C) Population control education.
D) Massive irrigation projects in developing countries.
36) Which of these activities is not considered to be a marine ecosystem threat?
A) Overfishing.
B) Ocean pollution.
C) Coastal development.
D) Ocean alkalinity.
37) Life-cycle analysis involves:
A) Accurately recording the production costs at each stage of a product’s life cycle.
B) Collecting information regarding the lifelong environmental impact of a product, from
extraction to disposal.
C) Reducing recycling costs for disposable products.
D) Increasing productivity while improving the environment.
38) An example of industrial ecology in practice is:
A) Developing a paper recycling program in business offices.
B) Using wastes from one process as raw materials for another process.
C) Manufacturing recyclable containers for products.
D) All of these answers are correct.
39) The idea that companies have a continuing responsibility for the environmental impact of their
products or services, even after they are sold, is called:
A) Life-cycle analysis.
B) Product life responsibility.
C) Extended product responsibility.
D) Cradle to grave.
40) An organization that produces net zero emissions of greenhouse gases is achieving:
A) Carbon offsets.
B) Carbon credits.
C) Carbon neutrality.
D) Black carbon.
41) The term circular economy refers to:
A) A production process that starts with raw materials, to product, usage, and disposal.
B) The cradle to grave cycle.
C) A production system that is regenerative by design.
D) Extended product responsibility.
42) Sustainable development through technology cooperation is best illustrated by:
A) The Paris agreement which aims to limit the rise of the average global temperature.
B) Microsoft provided the Jane Goodall Institute with animal tracking tools.
C) A Swiss company selling agricultural chemicals agreed to global sustainable development
goals.
D) Salesforce installed its own water recycling system.
43) An example of codes of environmental conduct that have been developed by and for specific
industries include:
A) The Equator Principles.
B) The Forest Stewardship Principles.
C) The Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
D) Both of these answers are correct: The Equator Principles; and The Forest Stewardship
Principles.
44) The most successful global businesses in coming years will be those companies that:
A) Develop short-term partnerships between companies in developing countries to transfer
environmental technologies.
B) Recognize the imperative for sustainable development as an opportunity both for competitive
advantage and ethical action.
C) Avoid fully accounting for environmental costs in calculating measures of production such as
the gross domestic product (GDP).
D) Produce products with a limited useful life.
45) According to the case Clean Cooking, the widespread adoption of clean cookstoves would
provide which of the following benefits:
A) Reduced health risks.
B) An increase in arable land.
C) More take-out food options.
D) Less entrepreneurial activity.
46) Identify a business with which you are familiar. What management steps could this business
take to operate more sustainably?
47) Two critical forces of change have combined to accelerate the ecological crisis facing the
world community and to make sustainable development more difficult. Explain and discuss these
forces.
48) What is meant by the Earth’s carrying capacity? How can it be measured? Discuss the changes
that need to be made in order to bring the Earth’s carrying capacity back into balance with the
demands placed on it by human society.
49) What defines an environmental problem that is inherently global in scope? Discuss in detail
two of the global problems outlined in the textbook that will have major consequences for business
and society.
50) Discuss some of the voluntary initiatives undertaken by businesses around the world in order
to incorporate sustainable development into their everyday business practices.
51) Do you believe the rapid economic development of poorer countries helps or hurts the
environment? Why?