Environmental risk.

The first meaning of risk in Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (1986) is "possibility of loss or injury." To risk is "to expose to hazard or danger." The meaning of environment is, most generally, "the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded," including biophysical factors determining the form and survival of organisms or ecosystems, and sociocultural factors influencing individuals and communities. Environmental risk, then, as relevant to business ethics, encompasses those actions or inactions by which businesses give rise to and are affected by the possibility of biophysical or social loss or injury to entities of all kinds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]