This thesis focuses on ethics and explains some of its features, specifically the concept of moral consideration, rights, and interests, through three leading ethical theories in the field, utilitarianism, virtue ethics, and duty ethics. In this framework, environmental ethics is explored through three popular theories in the community, anthropocentrism, non-anthropocentrism, and holism. Furthermore, organisational ethics is discussed in the context of environmental ethics through a case study of America’s famous coffee giant Starbucks. The coffee company is used to discuss business ethics and explores some of the practices already implemented, what works, what does not, what can be done, and the critical role its members play. Moreover, the thesis argues that environmental ethics is necessary to address and mitigate sustainability challenges and create models of business that consider the natural world in its entirety.

Animal agriculture is a growing industry worldwide as the global demand for animal products increases. This has resulted in many harmful unintended consequences for human health, the environment, and animal welfare. This paper aims to uncover the hidden costs of negative externalities by answering the question: What types of subsidies is the US government distributing to the animal agriculture industry and in what amount? This paper will begin with some background on a few of the externalities created by the animal agriculture industry focusing specifically on environmental issues of water, air, and deforestation. Once this background is established, this will show that animal agriculture is in fact a negative-externality-generating industry. Next, subsidies will be defined and the principal findings of the research will reveal the different forms of support that the US government provides to animal agriculture. Lastly, these subsidies, both direct and indirect, will be quantified.