EnvJustice

By Beatriz Macchione Saes, Daniela Del Bene, Raquel Neyra, Lucrecia Wagner and Joan Martínez-Alier.

Available to read here.

OR https://doi.org/10.1590/1809-4422asoc20210014vu2021L4ID

Abstract

After the Vale’s tailings dam failure in Brumadinho (Minas Gerais) in early 2019, a group of researchers and activists from around the world produced a thematic map in the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas) including 30 cases of environmental conflicts in which Vale had a prominent role. In this paper, these cases are analysed in light of Vale’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) discourses and practices, aiming to explore the contradiction of high CSR standards in the company and in other large multinationals in the mining sector coexisting with many socio-environmental conflicts. The analysis indicates that the company’s performance contrasts with its CSR discourse and that, even when Vale considers its performance both responsible and exemplary, the company reproduces environmental injustices and is therefore rather practicing Corporate Social Irresponsibility. 

Read it now here.

The EJAtlas has very recently produced another article on companies based on the EJAtlas and the concept of Corporate Social Irresponsibility, called Counter-reporting sustainability from the bottom up: the case of the construction company WeBuild and dam-related conflicts.