Environmental responsibility generally refers to having the responsibility to take care of the environment to improve the world and that of new generations. Example: "The environmental responsibility of oil companies is great due to the pollution of the sea and beaches caused by spills."

Hans Jonas proposes an imperative that, formally following the Kantian categorical imperative, orders: “act in such a way that the effects of your action are compatible with the permanence of an authentic human life on Earth.” This imperative is known as the "principle of responsibility" and is of great importance in ecology and environmental law.

Environmental responsibility falls on individuals, companies, countries and the human species as a whole.

In environmental liability, the fact of "reparation for environmental damage" must also be evaluated. From the field of legal sciences, different types of responsibilities may arise in this case, such as civil liability for environmental damage, criminal liability for environmental damage and administrative liability for environmental damage.

Part of this environmental responsibility falls on organizations, as the main sources of environmental pollution. This is why today companies must include in their programs strategies that minimize environmental impact, one of them is the policy of implementing clean technologies with zero emissions.

Dirty cutting-edge technology in a company with technology that, when applied, produces side effects or transformations to the environmental balance or natural systems (ecosystems).

This adaptation process began to develop palpably in industrialized countries at the end of the sixties, and took shape especially after the Stockholm Conference of 1972, and the acceptance by the OECD, at the same time, of the "polluter pays" principle. Since then, all industrialized countries have been accumulating extensive environmental regulations to control industrial activities, and in response to them, technology and industrial production methods have tried to adapt to the new restrictions, although with very variable decisions and successes on the part of the different companies, industrial branches and countries.

Regarding clean technologies, the most notable thing is the reduction of non-biodegradable waste, and environmental self-sustainability, that is, the replacement of ecological expenditure caused by manufacturing activity. For example, if a logging company plans to use 10,000 trees, it must completely replace them and also pay for the use of the resource.