Corporate Responsibility and Response in a Crisis Situation Case: Botnia in Fray Bentos, Uruguay

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Corporate Responsibility and Response in a Crisis Situation Case: Botnia in Fray Bentos, Uruguay 1. How proactively ‘responsible’ was the company in its anticipation and assessment of the environmental and/or social (and/or political) consequences of its actions? According to studies toward the case of Botnia in Fray Bentos, it is true to say that the company was proactively responsible in making environment and social assessments the outcome of building a pulp mill in Fray Bentos. The company soon anticipated that there would be many claims concerning with the pulp mill polluting the river, and then damaging the flourishing tourism business of the local. Therefore, right after Botnia S.A was found and before starting construction, in 2003, a team including Finnish and Uruguayan experts was established to carry out Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study and Socio-economic impact study. Those studies were required to make assessment on the consequences of building pulp mill in many aspects, such as, socio-demographic, forestry sector development, regional economy and macro economy. A year later, in 2004, these two studies, which results explicitly proved that the mill’s impact on environment was minimal and the welfare of environment will not be endangered, were completed and presented to local authorities. Until then, in 2005, basing on the studies’ out come along with environmental permit granted by Uruguayan authority (DINAMA), Botnia‘s board of directors finally approved the construction plan. Moreover, anticipating that the reaction of local people was politically important to the success of project, the company organized local information session in order to educate and clarify local frustration about the project. In October and November 2013, Botnia arranged conferences and meetings with the participants from many organizations, such as: local

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