> government should be compelling businesses to make these sort of changes
That's exactly what governments do all the time. Every regulation on food safety, or pollution standards, etc. came from them. Because left to their own devices most businesses would settle on the same "maximize profits regardless of consequences" path.
P.S. Well you can "ask/demand" anything. But with no authority the process would be painfully slow, if even moving at all. Voting with the wallet works only when we have many good alternatives, which we usually don't.
I agree, but that's orthogonal to the question of whether we should ask/demand businesses to do better.
This doesn't fall under philosophy. Businesses have financial incentives to not make environmentally friendly changes. They do have some marketing incentives to change, but that has proven itself solvable via greenwashing. If you wait for a for-profit organization to become socially aware, when their financial incentives are not aligned, you'll be waiting a long time.
E.g., McDonald's shifting to cage-free hens for egg purchases. Regardless of the reasons, that was expected to have a huge impact on egg farming.