Acknowledgements
Civic Exchange acknowledges the assistance and guidance of the following individuals and organizations in preparing this report: Ray Anderson, Interface Inc. Brenda Bateman, International Resources Group Mike Bertolucci, Interfac e Inc. E. Milton Bevington, Servidyne Systems, LLC Paula Lawton Bevington, Servidyne Systems, LLC Glenn Frommer, Mass Transit Railway (MTR) Corporation The Esquel Group
Civic Exchange also thanks the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking (HSBC) Corporation for their support for this project.
Table of Contents
An Introduction to ‘Measuring Sustainability’ 1-5 1 1 2 3 4 4 5 6 6 6-7 6 6 7 7 7 7 8-10 8 8 8 8 9 9-10 11-17 11 11-12 12 13 13-17 17 18-26 18 18 19 19 20 20 21-22 22-23 23-24 24-25 25-26
…show more content…
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.
1
CIVIC EXCHANGE - MEASURING SUSTAINABILITY
Methodology Stage One Methodology – presenting a snapshot…
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
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 word ‘sustainable’ has been chosen as a second criterion, as the philosophy sets out to be
|[pic] |Syllabus | | |School of Business | | |MGT/360 Version 1 | | |Green and Sustainable Enterprise Management | Copyright © 2009, 2008 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. Course Description This course provides an overview of
Governments, environmental agencies, and corporations alike have utilized the term “sustainability” in order to convey their respective agendas for general sustainability in environmental, social, and economic realms. In spite of their initiatives, there has yet to be a generally agreed upon, uniform definition for “sustainability.” This lack of semantic clarity has promoted skepticism among some parties, skepticism primarily focused in the legitimacy of sustainability agendas, as well as the idea of sustainability in itself (Context & Development, 1992). This essay seeks to inspect the concepts of sustainability generated by two
We started our research by finding a bank (Bank of America) that is moving towards sustainability but has not started to apply these concepts into their financial institution. We decided that Bank of America should focus on all the aspects of sustainability meaning they should have a strong role in being environmentally friendly, they should be socially sustainable, and should be economically sustainable. In our research, we looked at two major things: the process of any company becoming sustainable and how a bank should become sustainable in the financial world. We then decided the exact tasks that we want Bank of America to do and began more research on each specific area.
The New Sustainable Advantage showcases the importance of how organizations, large and small can identify areas in which their sustainable measures can improve their green thumbprint as well as increase their overall revenues in about 5 years. Bob presents this model in a systematic way pursuing that organizations can improve productivity and become more sustainable over time without sacrificing revenue. This should begin at the CEO Level of every organization as well. Without upper management cooperation and understanding, it will be much harder and near impossible for a company as a
Although there is no formal definition for the term, individuals have tried to define sustainability according to their function or area of study. The term “sustainability,” once an obscure ecological concept, has now been adopted by many in the business world to connote the principles of social and environmental responsibility (Joseph Fiksel, Jonathan Low and Jim Thomas). Further, sustainability can be seen through the eyes of business as a way to create value. More likely than not, the term sustainability can be linked to the ability of decreasing costs, wastes and inefficiencies. According to the vice president of General Electric,
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
As requested, we has prepared an economic Study Report of David Jones analysing this company business operations and evaluating how their long-run business viability may be affected by the sustainability practice they adopt in their business operations.
Sustainability is a topic that has become very important in recent years. Sustainability is defined as, “the ability to continue a defined behavior indefinitely.” ("Finding and Resolving the Root Causes of the Sustainability Problem", 2014)
There are a number of different definitions of sustainability; the most accepted being that of Brundtland (1987) as cited in Opoku and Ahmed, 2015, pg 56:
Moreover, it reveals an acceptance of diversity and reassures that well-being, growth, and cooperation is prevalent among all individuals in a society. “Environment Sustainability is the rates of renewable resource harvest, pollution creation, and non-renewable resource depletion that can be continued indefinitely” (Environmental Sustainability). Human activities should not interfere with the proper health of the environment. Creating less pollution, minimizing harvesting renewable and nonrenewable sources, avoid damaging ecological features will increase the maintenance and sustainability of the environment.“Economic Sustainability is the ability of an economy to support a defined level of economic production indefinitely” (Economic Sustainability). GDP (Gross Domestic Product), observing average GDP Per person, and Poverty Threshold are indicators used for observing whether economic sustainability is maintained and strong. Economic Sustainability demonstrates that each person is at least given the minimum level of comfort to live satisfactorily.
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).
What is sustainability? There is a Native American proverb which says: ‘When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money’. Defining sustainability is a challenge itself, achieving it is even more arduous but what it is certain are the consequences of not acting sustainable. For too long the main goal of western countries has been profit, ignoring the long list of benefits deriving from acting sustainable. The sustainability topic offers a wide range of arguments to discuss but in this paper only few of them are reviewed. It will be firstly analysed the ‘three legged stool’ model as a way of conceptualising sustainability and its stability. Secondly the aim is to examine the benefits deriving from businesses’ sustainable behaviour according to the introduction of the ‘triple bottom line’ framework. Conclusions follow.