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• 1 2017-12-05T13:01:56-08:00 The Role of Consumers in Holding Refineries Responsible 4 by Sam Hermann plain 2017-12-07T18:28:47-08:00 While CSR has shown to be effective in past cases, but in order for it to be effective against oil refineries, companies must face economic consequences for their actions. It was shown in the study by Lynch et al. that in many cases government agencies do not hold corporations fully responsible for environmental crimes and racism. Therefore, this is where outside entities, such as the consumer, must play a role in holding companies responsible. The consumer must become aware of the actions of the companies from which they purchase. In many cases, public awareness in the United States  is only ubiquitous when the events occur within our borders. An example being the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, after which British Petroleum’s credibility was heavily damaged. In global cases, however, the public is largely unaware of environmental injustice at the hands of refineries. Since oil companies do not officially acknowledge their lack of action in environmental crimes, consumers and organizations must largely take it upon themselves to become informed of these issues.
  
  The Role of Victims of Environmental Injustice
  There are a few ways in which victims of environmental crimes may hold corporations responsible for their injustices. Social activism can in some cases be effective, such as in the case in Ogoniland mentioned above. Another way is through civil lawsuits. Professor of Law at the University of Delhi Santosh Kumar explains that “in several countries lawsuits have been introduced with a view to holding private corporations accountable for human rights violations in developing countries” (120). On a much larger scale, within the United Nations, according to Kumar, “several attempts have been made to hold such corporations accountable. In the past, such attempts had focused almost exclusively on the activities of transnational corporations (TNCs) and had been overshadowed by differences between developed and developing nations over sovereignty and natural resources” (120). Consumers and victims should continue to increase international pressure on transnational refining corporations in order to bring them to justice for environmental crimes.
  
  Works Cited
  • Kumar, Santosh. “Corporate Social Responsibility (Triple Bottom line); A Technology serves the company and Society.” International Journal of Recent Research Aspects 4.3 (2017): 188-125. Web. 28 Nov. 2017.