Teck, based out of Trail, BC, since 1896, is one of the world’s largest zinc and lead smelting and refining complexes in the world. Although it has been the areas main economic powerhouse for over 100 years, the company has also been causing environmental problems for the same amount of time. In September of 2013, a US woman filed a lawsuit against Teck claiming that the company is responsible for her diagnosis of breast cancer due to toxic pollutants that were carried down the river just 30km to where she lives. The environmental issues with Teck are familiar to me as I live very close to the town of trail. Teck has known for decades about the harmful pollutants it has been dumping into the Columbia River and air and has been almost completely ignorant to it. I believe that Teck has always had a corporate social responsibility to make sure that their business practices involved an environmentally friendly and conscious plan. It is in my best guess that Teck ignored the environmental damages they were causing because they were not prepared to pay the costs associated with upgrading to a more environmentally friendly operating system. However, they are now being forced by the government to spend billions to improve their operations and also have to deal with lawsuits against them that are costing them more money and bringing them bad publicity.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/washington-lawsuit-claims-teck-toxins-caused-disease-1.2472544