Corporate Behaviors in Indonesia

Every company has a responsibility to support the society it serves. This indicates that a company that wishes to truly thrive in a market should not just follow the business and consumer laws of the country but take an active interest in the community that it serves in each country. Today’s global market is led by companies that concern themselves with the sustainability of the company and its products, as well as the continual improvement of the

Environmental concern have grown steadily where more and more consumers are demanding for products that are from sustainable source (Kotler,

There is increased pressure from governments and the general public about the way companies operate and their effect on the environment. ‘In 2008 Kraft Foods Inc. came under pressure when Rainforest Action Network asked companies such as Kraft Foods Inc. to stop buying palm oil from Indonesia to prevent deforestation.’ (CNN, 2008)

New problems are faced in countries every day concerning the environment. Today it is global warming; tomorrow it could be anything from nuclear devastation to lack of oxygen. Nobody really knows what is coming next but, one thing

The economy today runs on an antiquated ritual of exploiting, plundering, devastation, and manipulation of land for material wealth, profiting the wealthy and condemning the poor. This mindset is no more sophisticated than feudalism, a system so bad it had to be outlawed along with witchcraft. The idea that exploitation of land is justified has brought plastics to the ocean and leveled rainforests. Large corporations have grown larger by manufacturing and production, depleting the planet’s resources in the process. Now, companies must make a combined effort to put the environment first, before profit. Because of their harmful practices, consumers have the right to know where products come from, how they’re made, and the impact on the environment. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the large corporations to change their harmful practices, to make strides towards ending climate change and use clean, sustainable methods.

In the international business arena, particularly as a result of globalization, multinational corporations are beginning to understand that being "green" or ecologically minded, is not simply for environmentalists. By supporting sustainability, many organizations hope not only to reduce their carbon footprint but also to attract younger people who prefer to work for environmentally and socially responsible organizations. This spills off into personal decisions as well, but includes a different philosophical mindset one of holism and treating the planet as one organism. The advantages of "going green" are both tangible and intangible: lower operating costs, less energy use, increased property value, and a positive, proactive, public image. Historically, there has been a battle from the so called "environmentalist cadre" who wanted slow or no growth in favor of the environment and the "capitalist right" who believed in a strong economy and the aggressive use of resources. In the contemporary environment, however, there is no doubt that both a template for robust economic growth can merge with a cleaner environment. Unfortunately, in many ways, sustainability in design and output is no longer something that would be "nice to implement," but because of the loss of biodiversity, over-use of the environment, and continuing overconsumption, is almost a necessity for the 21st century.

In a culture based on consumption and consumerism businesses are the forefront of society providing every good and service imaginable. Although, in today’s society there has been an increase in significant issues concerning the ecology of our planet that have come along with this consumer culture. With issues such a lack of clean water, lack of food, lack of energy and a rapid decline in biodiversity. This rapid decline in natural resources is due to mostly to the over consumption and alteration of the planet and its resources. Where do we start though in the process to protect and preserve our resources? It starts with the very businesses that we all buy from; a major part of our everyday lives and the largest consumers of resources businesses can play a large role in sustainability and climate action. Increasing pressure is being put on businesses to create a more sustainable society, this is being done through many business sustainable business efforts.

Living on the Earth, it is important for each of the organizations as well as individuals to help with making it a better place to live. However for the current time, environmental degradation is still one of the most threatening problems confronted with human beings. The carbon dioxide emission has made the global warmth, which may cause the diminishing of lands where human beings could live on; air pollution has caused more diseases, climate change has led to more serious problems in biodiversity which is important to form a balanced natural environment, water toxic pollution has reduced the available access to clean water. In the everyday life of human beings, the unfavorable influences on the environment could be worse on condition that environmental degradation is not paid with enough attention (Bare, 2014). For instance, the applying of cars, which would cause inevitable air pollution and energy consumption, would add pressure for environmental protection (David and Michael, 2014). For the environmental sustainability, the individual activities are essential, but the responsibility of individuals could not be described as primary as the roles of organizations are rather important. This essay is going to talk about the responsibility of individual customers for environmental sustainability, as well as the responsibility of organizations. To form the environmental

The concept of going green has been a growing trend in recent years across all types of industries. Some have argued that it’s simply a fad that can be attributed to the popularity of global awareness amongst celebrities, but in reality it is more than that. It is redefining the way the business world works. As more companies expand on an international level, more stress is put on the surrounding environment to accommodate those expansions. While the bottom-line still is the primary goal of companies, they must now react to the new values of their consumers, which include protecting the community that they are a part of. This results in companies like Patagonia, an outdoor clothing company based in Ventura, CA, Bamboo Sushi, a sushi restaurant in Portland, Oregon, and Ben and Jerry’s, the famous ice cream brand coming out of Vermont, focusing on different bottom-lines but similar socio-economic goals. These companies aren’t in the same industry, but those socio-economic goals like high levels of sustainability are being shared across lines. Patagonia, Bamboo Sushi, and Ben and Jerry’s are all Benefit Corporations. Emerging from the non-profit, B-Lab, Benefit Corporations (B Corporations) are corporations focused on “using the power of business to solve social and environmental problems” that our society is starting to face (What are B-Corps?, 2014).

As awareness increases for these environmental concerns, media and consumer trends follow in support of the eco-friendly movement. Armed with information on the environmental issues at hand, the conscious consumer has come to the realization that their collective purchases have incredible power. Many individuals are making every-day choices to support companies whose ethics align with their own environmental conscience. In response to these trends, businesses find that not only must they appeal to consumers with competitive quality, performance, and value, but also with environmental sustainability. However, in order to attain a “green” brand status, they must invest time and money into re-evaluating their business models and supply chains. While some companies may choose to make this investment, other competitors opt to invest in deceptive marketing strategies which greenwash their products to mislead

A key point which is continuously brought up within each article is that environmental consumerism is becoming more and more prevalent in today’s society (Mazar and Zhong, 2009). Although there

They not only want to help endangered and unique wildlife, but they also aspire to help the local economies and communities, and keep our air clean and pollution-free, but what is their plan? WWF, World Wildlife Fund, has been working with governments, communities, and companies for over 50 years to promote responsible forest practices and to protect forest areas, and right now, 20% of all forests are properly protected. Ending deforestation has no silver bullet solution; forest industries are worth millions, and we use forest resources in our everyday lives, but if we work together, we can create approaches that will make big differences to our forests. For example, if corporations introduce a “zero-deforestation” policy, they can clean their supply chains. This policy makes businesses hold their suppliers accountable for producing their commodities in a way that does not fuel deforestation and has a minimal impact on our climate. Companies should also consider maximizing their use of recycled products, and for products that are non-recycled, follow a certification system such as the Forest Stewardship Council. Until businesses take action, organizations and activists have taken matters into their own hands by investigating, exposing and confronting the environmental abuse by corporations. Some major establishments such as McDonalds and Nestle have already taken steps in the right direction by changing their ways and building solutions to protect

Many studies have shown that a large extent of environmental degradation is in fact related to the consumers (Heiskanen and Pantzar, 1997). Consumption has become the predominant and essential phenomena of our lives (Ratneshwar et al., 2000). In order to reduce the negative impacts humans place on the environment, the issue of sustainability has been prioritized since the 1992 World Summit in Rio. Consume sustainably and having a sustainable lifestyle is the fundamental part to favor the

The earth’s environment in the year 2017 is in a vulnerable state that is believed to have been caused by humanity. Humans have impacted most, if not all of the environmental concerns we have today. These include overpopulation, global warming, the extinction of species and the loss of genetic diversity, deforestation, expansion of landfills and toxic waste, oil spills, and nuclear contamination. Interestingly, the countries who contribute to these problems the most do not experience the repercussions as much as the countries who are contributing the least. With the ecological crisis in full force, scientists and innovators are looking for ways to control the issues. Consequently, companies are trying to go about their business in a more environmentally friendly way. Not only is this good for the environment, but going “green” can also improve the businesses themselves as customers may choose their products instead of the competitor’s products which may not be as environmentally friendly. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that many companies have caught onto the “going green” trend with hopes of helping their own company. However, many companies are taking advantage of this trend by misleading people into believing a company is environmentally friendly, when in fact it is not. This kind of deception is called greenwashing.

With the kick-off of The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) in 2008, Unilever has been focusing its business strategy on the need to develop solutions to some of the world’s deep social and environmental challenges. According Unilever (2014), the success of their business relies on finding sustainable solutions to support long-term growth. They target to double the size of the business while reducing the environmental footprint (Unilever, 2014). In 2013 Unilever launched the compressed deodorant aerosol spray technology, a sustainable solution which resulted in less impact to the environment. According to the LCA studies, if 1 million of people switched to compressed deodorants and assuming each person uses in average 5 units a year, there would be a reduction of 696 tonnes of CO2 in the air (Unilever, 2013). However, Unilever recognizes that to achieve great solutions there must be partnerships with both suppliers and customers; a complete value chain analysis (Unilever, 2014). Important to highlight that from a business point of view, Unilever experienced tremendous growth since they start their sustainability plan (Karlsson and Luttropp, 2006). Other companies are following a similar path on sustainability such as Colep. By supporting customers to achieve their objectives, Colep’s