Business Ethics Society

Ethics & Cases

I founded FGCU's Business Ethics Society in 2025 and built a team that has competed at three national business ethics competitions. Each one asks the same question in a different industry: who absorbs the cost of a decision made by someone else?

IBESCC National Competition

The Price of Access

Biometrics and financial inclusion

Presented to the board of directors of Access Now, a nonprofit digital rights organization working on privacy, surveillance, and digital governance. Biometric identity systems promised inclusion for people without documents. When the database leaks, the promise inverts: unlike a password, a fingerprint cannot be reset, and the people with the fewest resources are the least able to recover from the theft.

What we argued

  • Voluntary biometric standards are not enforceable, and adoption is inconsistent across jurisdictions
  • Identity theft is permanent: fraudulent debt, redirected government benefits, and no bureau or lawyer to call
  • Exclusion from the system locks people out of the programs built to help them, and databases can be weaponized for targeting
  • Recommendations built on fairness, respect, and duty of care rather than consent theater
$2–4
Daily income of those left legally liable for fraudulent debt
Permanent
Biometric theft cannot be reset, unlike a password
#WHYID
The Access Now campaign our recommendations plugged into

Team

Fine Print Partners — Dario Benes, Ashley Fearday, David Goodwin, Emalee Postma, Emma Takacs.

View deck (43 slides)
Digital rights Privacy Financial inclusion Regulation Duty of care

Stetson National Competition

Sustainable Aviation Fuels

The gap between a 10% promise and the supply to keep it

Aviation is the hardest transport sector to decarbonize and the fastest-growing emitter of the major modes. Sustainable aviation fuel is the only near-term lever, and it is constrained on every side at once: a cost premium over jet fuel, scarce feedstock supply, and a 50% blend limit that caps how much can legally go in the tank. We worked the case through legal exposure, ethics, and the financial model before landing on recommendations.

What we argued

  • The industry’s 10% SAF commitment is not reachable on current supply, and the gap is the ethical problem
  • Current production is roughly 300 million liters against future demand of 450 billion liters
  • Cost premium and the 50% blend limit make voluntary adoption a competitive disadvantage without policy support
  • Recommendations balanced feedstock sourcing, disclosure, and the financing structure
2.5%
Of global CO₂ emissions in recent years
11th
Largest emitter globally, country equivalent
1,500x
Gap between current SAF production and projected demand

Team

FGCU Business Ethics Society — Dario Benes with Ashley Fearday and Emalee Postma.

View deck (28 slides)
Climate policy Aviation Cost of compliance Disclosure Financial modeling