A Critical Appraisal Of Social And Environmental Sustainability

Bertrand Piccard quotes, “In the 21st century, the heroes will be the people who will improve the quality of life, fight poverty and introduce more sustainability. This is a powerful message, it sums up the concepts discussed throughout the course. Additionally, the case studies such as the New Belgium Brewery, SC Johnson and The Kimberly Clarke organization have been proven to practice this philosophy. As society progresses in its efforts to provide a more sustainable future, there is a fundamental foundation of principles that must be followed to ensure success. Sustainable business development takes into account the application of business operations as it relates to the three pillars of sustainability, which is a dynamic yet integrative place to begin this journey. DesJardins, (2006) calls for a re-imagination of the future to create a vibrant sustainable model; which forms similar beliefs to Piccard. In addition, organizations are more inclined to create sustainable practices based on consumer demand and the willingness of leadership to participate in sustainability programs.

The analysis will focus on some key aspects such as; the overall plan, products/services sustainability, human resource relations, customer’s relations, environmental concerns, and the company social responsibility to the company. Descriptive analysis will help appraise of the company’s sustainability strategy. The critical analysis of the company’s sustainability will help in coming up with conclusions about sustainability of the strategy, and give insights on how the company can improve its sustainability strategy. There are also various recommendations based on these conclusions (Heslin and Ochoa 2008).

When talking about sustainability numerous people associate it with just protecting the environment. Sustainability is far more than going green, but it is a principle that many companies have adopted and have worked persistently to improve over the last several years. Sustainability is defined as the ability to continue a behavior indeterminately, but it also includes improving human life overall. Sustainable development is broken down into three pillars: economic, social, and environmental (Harich & Bangerter, 2014). Economics is the study of how people use resources, which correlates to the goal of sustainable development by using resources to their full potential (Laszlo, C., & Zhexembayeva, N., 2011, p. 60). Economic sustainable development allows companies to give their customers what they want without overusing mutual resources. Social development combines the social world with the physical realm to provide a good quality of life (Benoit, 2010, p. 7). Social sustainability focuses on the well-being of people and their communities. Environmental development, the most recognizable, includes protecting the environment by reducing pollution, recycling, switching of electronic devices when not in use, etc. All three of these pillars make up what is known as sustainable development. In this paper, I researched a company and their involvement in sustainability and how it applies to the

The idea of sustainability has become an increasingly common term in the rhetoric surrounding business ethics, as corporates are gaining broader acknowledgement of this pro-active method which guarantees business long-term viability and integrity by focusing on the triple bottom line. In business, the three aspects of sustainability include social, economic and environment.

Sustainability from a strategic business perspective is the potential for the long-term well-being of the natural environment, including all biological entities, as mutually beneficial interactions among nature and individuals, organizations, and business strategies. (O.C Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, 2015). Business sustainably is often defined as managing the triple bottom line – a process by which companies manage their financial, social and environmental risks, obligations and opportunities. These three impacts are sometimes referred to as profits, people and planet. (Business sustainability definition from financial times lexicon, no date). This essay will discuss the idea of sustainability being an important element within a businesses and its core strategies and the importance of it within different businesses. Secondly, this study will look at how different stakeholders are affected and influenced by sustainability as this could be seen as a catalyst to improving the environment as a whole and. Then this study will look at how businesses not focusing

Stakeholders are anyone who has a interest or influences the business in anyway. There are two

Never before has sustainability been more important on the corporate agenda. According to Brundtland Commission of the United Nations (1987) sustainability is defined as operating in a way that preserves the long-term quality and productive capacity of both the natural and social environments in which a company operates. For humans, sustainability is defined as the potential for long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions. Sustainability therefore involves:

There are three pillars that make up overall sustainability: social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Social sustainability focuses on all human needs being met and a society functioning properly indefinitely. Economic sustainability is achieving a certain level of economic success indefinitely. It also involves having an extremely low percent of people living below the poverty line, which relates to social sustainability. Environmental sustainability is described as, “the rates of renewable resource harvest, pollution creation, and non-renewable resource depletion that can be continued indefinitely.” ("Finding and Resolving the Root Causes of the Sustainability Problem", 2014) Achieving environmental sustainability will positively affect the social and economic aspects. These three categories are directly related to each other, and to truly reach complete sustainability each of the group’s needs must be met. There are many ways for individuals, groups, companies, and societies to help make a difference in reaching this goal. Environmental issues are currently very prominent in the US and other countries. There are countless activists and researchers doing everything they can to make a difference. Most businesses, like

This work will be based on a theoretical framework of sustainability and specifically that of corporate social responsibility (CSR).The work of Porter and Kramer (2003) indicated that businesses can indeed benefit immensely by engaging in CSR activities. These must be done while at the same time ensuring that the business remains profitable. As Carroll (1983, p. 608), CSR involves the conduct and behavior of a given business in a manner that is law abiding, economically viable, ethical and yet socially supportive. Eco-efficiency should therefore be one of the ways in which businesses can offer goods and services in a way that can improve the quality of life so as to make the clients satisfied (Elkington,1997,p.,78). I will therefore be engaging this topic from the point of view of environmental awareness, eco-efficiency and environmental corporate social responsibility and their impact on the image and profitability of companies.

Case studies provide a powerful tool for exploring and communicating how decisions are made by organizations and what outcomes have been achieved. However, due to limitations in time and resources available, this Study is not an all-encompassing, comprehensive study. This Study is also not an audit. Our aim is to provide a ‘ snapshot’ of EG’s attempts to makes its operations more sustainable. The Study therefore focuses on the specific situations and scenarios initiated and implemented by EG that represent sustainable development. By presenting a snapshot, we hope to assist the company in identifying areas it may need to focus on to further integrate sustainability measures into its day-to-day management processes in the future. We also hope that the methodology developed as part of this Study, which is relatively simple and low-cost, can easily be used by many organizations to help them become familiar with what sustainable development means in practice. This approach may be a useful first step for organizations to identify and measure their sustainability before embarking on lengthy and expensive professional assessments and audits.

As the fast development of the global economy, sustainability has been recognized as one of the main challenges that many companies have to overcome in the 21st century. In

Nowadays, many international companies take sustainable development seriously. They understand that sustainable development can enhance their quality of life and their reputation in public. Sustainable development is "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." (Brundtland, 1987) Sustainability requires monitoring and managing all the person to ensure that our economy and society can continue to exist without destroying the social and natural environment during development. The sustainability includes three pillars, which are economic, social and environment, forming a triple bottom line. The triple bottom line demands that a company 's responsibility lies

The perceptivity of sustainability is both in the sense of achieving long-term success and as survivability of a corporation (Zink, Steimle & Fischer 2008). Dunphy, Griffiths and Benn (2003) conceive corporations as channels of social purpose, constructed within society to attain useful social objectives. Henceforth, corporate social responsibility commits a significant role towards the sustainability of corporations. Both corporate social responsibilities and sustainability, and its related concepts influence all aspects of business. Chandler and Werther (2010) acknowledge the understanding of corporate social responsibilities as an

Sustainable development in a business, although a widely used phrase and idea, has many different meanings and therefore provokes many different responses. Although managing the economic bottom line and protecting social and environment resources is an important aspect of sustainability, it is not the only aspect. For example, sustainability refers greatly to an accounting framework with three parts: social, environment and financial. Commonly known as the Triple Bottom Line. One business that aims to achieve this concept is Cascade Engineering. The CEO, Mark Miller (2014) considers “the concept of sustainability as the three interconnected gears in motion”. Each category is an interdependent, innovation-enabling mechanism. Sustainability has been an often mentioned goal of business, non-profits and governments in the past decade, yet measuring the degree to which an organization is being sustainable or pursuing sustainable growth can be difficult. In broad terms, sustainable development is an attempt to combine growing concerns about a range of environmental issues with socio-economic issues.

With increased concern about education, health issues, climate change, depleting natural resources, and social development, a new corporation needs to tailor its operations to be as environmental friendly as possible and to tackle the needs of its customers and its employees by providing its employees with hand-on trainings and allowing them to grow financially, emotionally, and professionally. This is done by incorporating sustainability at the core of the business and not only as a peripheral choice. It needs to consider its customers as kings and to tailor its operations to tackle their needs and concerns.