Effect of Business Activities on the Environment
Senior 3 · Entrepreneurship
Effect of Business Activities on the Environment
Lesson 3 of 4
24 min
The lorry in the photograph is the end of a business chain. Someone cut trees, someone burnt the wood slowly in an earth kiln to make charcoal, someone loaded and drove it, and traders will sell it in town to households, restaurants and bakeries. Each step earns money. But the chain also has costs that nobody in it pays directly: a hillside without trees, soil washed into a river, smoke in the air. Follow the chain of effects:
Definition
Negative environmental effect: a change caused by an activity that damages the environment or the people who depend on it.
Pollution: the release into the environment of substances or energy (such as noise) that harm living things or reduce the quality of air, water or land. A pollutant is the harmful substance or energy itself.
Deforestation: clearing forests without replanting them. Soil erosion: the removal of topsoil by water or wind, faster than new soil forms.
Greenhouse gases: gases such as carbon dioxide and methane that trap heat in the atmosphere and cause climate change.
| Kind | Typical business sources | Effects |
|---|---|---|
| Air | smoke from kilns, stoves and factories; dust from quarries and building sites; vehicle and generator fumes | breathing illness; dirty buildings and crops; greenhouse gases |
| Water | untreated wastewater from processing plants, garages and car washes; fertilisers and pesticides washed from farms; mud from mines | fish and water plants die; unsafe drinking water; costly treatment |
| Land and soil | plastic and other solid waste; chemical spills; abandoned mine pits; dumped electronic waste | poisoned or useless land; blocked drains; harm to animals that eat plastic |
| Noise | loudspeakers at bars and shops, workshops, generators, heavy traffic | stress, poor sleep, hearing damage, conflict with neighbours |
| Business activity | Negative effects |
|---|---|
| Charcoal making; firing bricks and baking with firewood | deforestation, soil erosion, smoke and greenhouse gases |
| Mining and quarrying | open pits, dust, noise, muddy rivers, damaged landscapes, accidents |
| Farming steep slopes without terraces; overuse of fertilisers and pesticides | soil erosion; polluted streams and lakes; harm to bees and fish |
| Processing (coffee pulping, food, hides) with untreated wastewater | water pollution, bad smells, dead fish downstream |
| Building on wetlands and riverbanks | loss of wetlands that filter water and absorb floods; more flooding |
| Transport and generators | air pollution, noise, greenhouse gases |
| Selling goods in single-use plastic; dumping old electronics | plastic litter that lasts for centuries; toxic metals from electronic waste |
Harm to the environment comes back to business: firms pay fines and clean-up costs, lose raw materials (no forest, no timber), face complaints and lose customers, and their workers fall sick.
Tip
Exam technique: activity → change → harm. Write each effect as a chain: “A car wash (activity) lets oily water run into a stream (change), so the fish die and people downstream cannot use the water (harm).” One complete chain is worth more than three single words.
Worked example
Worked example 1: how much wastewater? (illustrative figures)
A car wash cleans 40 vehicles a day, using about 150 litres of water per vehicle, and lets the dirty water run into a nearby stream. It opens 26 days a month. How much oily, soapy water reaches the stream each month?
Per day: litres.
Per month: litres.
Interpret. About 156,000 litres of polluted water a month is enough to harm the stream for a long way downstream. A settling and oil-trap tank before the drain would remove much of the oil and mud, and the cleaner water could even be reused for the first rinse.
Worked example 2: effects of a quarry on all three components
A company opens a stone quarry on a hillside near a village. Analyse its effects using the three components of the environment.
| Component | Negative effects | Positive effects |
|---|---|---|
| Natural | trees and soil removed; dust; muddy runoff into streams; a permanent scar on the hill | none directly, unless the pit is later restored and replanted |
| Built | heavy lorries damage the village road; blasting can crack walls | stone for roads and buildings elsewhere |
| Socio-economic | dust and noise harm health; risk of accidents in an open pit | jobs and income; trade for local shops |
Conclusion: the quarry brings real economic benefits, but its harm falls mainly on the natural environment and on the village, so it must be managed (lesson 4). The quarry is illustrative.
Warning
Common mistakes. (1) Saying a business is “good” or “bad” for the environment: most have both kinds of effect, which must be weighed. (2) Forgetting indirect effects: a bakery that burns firewood does not cut trees itself, but its demand drives the cutting. (3) Ignoring noise and plastic as pollution: both harm people and the environment, even though neither looks like smoke or dirty water.
Practice
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the chain diagram, the tables, the worked examples and the practice items. The car wash, quarry, tannery and bakery are illustrative (2026).
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
