The connection between a company's environmental footprint and its commitment to sexual orientation equality in the workplace might not initially seem evident.
From left are Faculty of Business Administration researchers Drs. Ashrafee Hossain and Tom Cooper. Photo: Rich Blenkinsopp
But a recent publication from researchers at Memorial University's Faculty of Business Administration explores this connection, finding that companies with higher standards of sexual orientation equality are more likely to have lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Dr. Ashrafee Hossain, professor of finance, and Dr. Tom Cooper, professor of strategy, published Corporate Sexual Orientation Equality and Carbon Emission in Accounting & Finance.
"It may sound far-fetched but it's not. They're both topics related to business ethics." Dr. Ashrafee Hossain
The study focused on companies in the U.S.
The researchers say that corporations hold a lot of sway in the U.S. and that they wanted to see how they treat employees with diverse sexual orientations, and how that potentially influences their carbon footprint.
"It may sound far-fetched, but it's not," said Dr. Hossain. "They're both topics related to business ethics. An ethical firm and its managers will work hard to ensure equal rights to all, and such ethical firms should also care about the carbon footprint that they cause."
Two arguments
The ethical contention, which sees firms as being more likely to act ethically in one area if they do so in another, is one of two main arguments the researchers make.
The other focuses on stakeholder pressure to address climate change, causing firms to make a strategic choice to reduce emissions and, again, extending that same ethical consideration to other areas of business.
The publication is part of Dr. Hossain's research project, Corporate Diversity and the Role of Political Corruption, which is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Prior research into corporate carbon footprints has focused solely on its causal factors.
The research is unique in the way it examines the relationship between the two separate ethical areas of decision-making.
"What we're interested in is looking at how ethical characteristics impact other ethical characteristics," said Dr. Cooper. "By marrying these two types of factors, we're doing something new and providing a basis from which other research may be done."
First researcher
Dr. Hossain is also one of the first researchers to examine LGTBQ rights in the field of financial economics.
"LGTBQ rights are human rights," Dr. Hossain said. "We would like corporate leaders to start taking initiatives towards installing equality and equity for LGTBQ+ employees, and understand that this is important for their long-term sustainability."
Co-authors on the paper are Amir Hossain, a master of science in management student at the business faculty, and Dr. Majidual Islam of the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University.
Drs. Hossain and Cooper received the Faculty of Business Administration Advisory Board's Impact Award earlier this year.
The award recognizes practical research impact on teaching, practice or policy.
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