The 3 P's of business...

Before I joined this company that I am working for now, it has never dawned upon me the importance of certain policies and actions of a company to ensure the well being of the people and planet. Maybe I have studied about "sustainability" during one of those business classes in college but I have never put it into use. In order for a company to sustain in the long term, it should encompass these 3 "Ps" which are PROFIT, PEOPLE and PLANET.

The company is responsible to make a PROFIT for its shareholders, take good care of its PEOPLE or employees and lastly it should be able to take in consideration of taking care of the PLANET that we are staying in! Why I am bringing this up today is due to a piece of news that I read after my Dad replied a forwarded mail I sent him.

I guess many of you did receive this email about a Japanese boy in Fukushima who sacrifices his part of the food ration for the those who looks more hungry than himself. He was all alone and shivering due to lacked of clothing and he lost his whole family to the earthquake and Tsunami. It was a really moving incident. This little Japanese boy who taught an adult like me a lesson on how to behave like a human being. This is a society that can produce a 9-year-old who understands the concept of sacrifice for the greater good must be a great society, a great people.

But the story didn't end. Today, TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Co), operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant started to discharge contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean, to speed up efforts to tackle the nuclear crisis. (Article here) Huh?!!

Do you have any idea what this translates to?

The level of radioactive substances in the water is up to 500 times the legal limit permitted for release in the environment. TEPCO has revealed that radioactive iodine-131 more than 10,000 times the legal concentration limit was detected in the water found in the pit. A total of 15,000 tons of water containing radioactive materials was set to be released, including contaminated groundwater from near No. 5 and No. 6 reactors.

Leaking radioactive contaminated water drain through crack of a maintenance pit, right, into the sea, near the Unit 2 reactor of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

And now these radioactive materials will to be diluted in the sea. Anyone knows how the marine environment will be affected by the impact of highly radioactive water? What will happen to the waters, the fish, the sea life and neighbouring countries in months and years to come? What will happen to us staying in Malaysia?

The point is TEPCO should have leased a large tanker ship (say, an oil tanker that is immediately available) and pumped the dirty water into the ship and keep it there while their engineers proceed with the next move which is to entomb the damaged reactor with strong concrete forever to contain the leak (just like the Russia's Chernobyl).



If this incident happened in the US, do you think the company can discharge the dirty water into the sea? Remember the BP oil spill disaster and the effects of the environmental damage? EVERY inch of the oil has to be removed and it cost BP a whooping $19billion.

We can all wallow in pity and touched by the culture that they embrace but what about responsibility to other people, other countries and the planet? What I want to say is that while we look up to the culture and society of this country but what its companies are doing is not exactly the sacrifice for the greater good. Is TEPCO acting selfishly or merely survival-biased?

And the million dollar question is - Can Malaysia handle a nuclear crisis like this?