Nordstrom Environmental Impact

On average 700 people worldwide drink contaminated water worldwide. The leading cause to water pollution is sewage and waste. On average the world dumps 5-10 million tons of untreated industrial waste into streams, rivers and oceans. In 2011 a tsunami that hit Japan sent a forty-three and half miles long island made of debris floating out into the pacific ocean. Also from causes of the tasumi it promoted the Japanese government to dump two million of radioactive water into the pacific ocean as well. In 1989 Exxon accidently spilled eleven million metric tons of crude oil into the sea off of Alaska’s Prince Williams Sound. The disaster cover 3,000 square miles.

Now, there has been 23 nuclear tests conducted near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Proving Grounds during World War II and for some time after the war. The real issue here is that radiation from those tests is lingering far longer than predicted. This is a serious health risk to the residents on the island. As they have to pick whether the fruit from the island is safe to eat or not.

As someone who has never had the privilege of living near a Nordstrom’s I’ve always seen going to the store as a treat. Because of where I’ve lived I had never seen an advertisement. What I do find interesting however is their influence over Google and other search engines. I online shop more than I care to admit and anytime I google an article of clothing described a business, or semi-formal their brand pops up in the top 5.

In an attempt to diversify itself, and gain greater market penetration, Nordstrom took on a new name, “Nordstrom Best”, and ventured into the clothing market. Now, upon entering a Nordstrom store, “customers were greeted with a selection of both shoes and fine apparel” (Nordstrom Employee, 2006). Now for the first time in history, Nordstrom offered a diverse product mix, something no other competitor offered.

A year short of its 100th anniversary, Nordstrom Inc. was in trouble. An expensive marketing and merchandising campaign begun in early 2000, dubbed "Reinvent Yourself," was flopping in its attempt to reach out to younger customers.

Following the Fukushima disaster, the US and Japanese nuclear experts developed and began implementing countermeasures to future extreme disasters in order to prevent another disaster similar to Fukushima. These countermeasures included additional equipment, training, and the creation of two emergency response centers. The majority of these will be completed by 2016 and the remainder will be completely in place by 2019.

Natural disasters are a huge challenge for the planet because of the adverse effects that are associated with them. One of the major earthquakes to have shaken the earth is the Great Sendai Earthquake or Great Tōhoku Earthquake that occurred in 2011. The event started when a powerful earthquake hit the northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, and resulted in a widespread damage on land. A series of massive tsunamis later devastated many parts of the coastal regions of the country with the worst affected being the Tohoku region. The tsunami further resulted in a major nuclear accident that damaged distant regions on a power station located along the coast. The economic effects of the tsunami qualify it as one of the major natural disasters because it affected Japan’s economic stability as the country ended up resorting to importing as an alternative to cover the loss.

Luckily, there was no tsunami, but California and Oregon had waves up to 2.4 m high and obtained at least $10 million in damage (Mueller, 2014,1). The waves from the tsunami in Japan swept cars, planes, houses, and over 1.5 million tons of Japanese debris into the ocean, which have slowly floated towards the Unite State’s coast. Light objects like bins, balls, and buoys were the first to reach the United States, while large objects like docks took longer to wash ashore (Mueller, 2014,1). Along with the debris hundreds of organisms have made the long journey across the ocean. Some of theses organisms are extremely unpredictable and may be invasive (Earth Island Journal). As a result of the destruction of the Fukishima Nuclear Plant, large amounts of radiation could also stat to head towards the United States (Oregon Live). Already there have been traces of airborne radiation detected in milk in the United States (Oregon Live).

Physically the world was in no better shape than the people in it. Due to the radiation impact, the environment suffered. Much of the land was contaminated far beyond one could imagine and it would take years for the land to be suitable for living. However many were not aware of the radiation manifesting within the depths of the soil, and still lived on the land where one should not call home. The radiation impact stretched a wide radius of Japan and disease within plants and animals in the environment was a direct link that remained for decades to follow.

Because of the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, the Pacific Ocean experienced more discharge of radioactive waste than any other ocean in the world. The immediate effects were devastating for fishers. Around 56% of all of fisher’s catches had noticeable traces of cesium. Because of such drastic conditions, drastic measures were taken to ensure safety of Japanese citizens. Fishing was banned off some coasts of the countries for months before it became regulatory again.

From 1946-1958 67 radioactive bombs were tested on the northern Marshall Islands. During this time the islands environments were devastated, some of the islands were completely vaporized. The bombs destroyed six coral islands, obliterated natural resources and contaminated all the islands with radiation (the northern islands are inhabitable to this day). The resources that the Marshallese were self-sufficient on like coconuts, pigs, fish, coconut crab, papaya, squash and arrowroot (staple crop) were ether destroyed or consisted of extremely high radiation levels. The U.S. government did a great environmental injustice for they viewed the Islanders as sub human.

Nordstrom Company is determined to expand its operations through having wide market coverage. As a result, expanding to Japan would be the main investment to focus on where a number of branches will be opened and start operating in the country. The investment activity will be aimed at increasing the sales amount of the company (Wood, 2008). The investment will also be aimed at expanding the company so that its operations will be global. When an organization operates internationally, there is the possibility of creating networks that will enhance business activities. For Nordstrom, the investment activity will involve taking products and services closer to the consumers so that they will not have to travel to access them. The investment will also ensure that the company maximizes its profits through utilization of all the available resources. The investment opportunity will also ensure that there is the creation of job opportunities for people in

You stated that Japan was not prepared for what was to come in this situation, and I agree with your statement. Although, regulations, safety precautions, and communication are critical standards in the operation of the nuclear reactors, is it possible to prevent a nuclear disaster which resulted from nature? Considering that it is virtually impossible to prohibit nature from causing destruction, I am confident that the government of Japan new plans and strategies will be successful if another incident of nature was to occur? I credit that Japan has provided enough information about

If I were the CEO of Nordstrom then I would focus on investing towards E-commerce. It is important to realize that majority of the consumers are shopping online for products. The company should create different categories on their website and try delivery products to customers very quickly. I would close stores that have been not performing well because it cost a lot of money to the company. I would leave stores open that generate a lot of revenue. If I were to open new stores then it would be important to place them in strategic locations that have a lot of foot traffic. The article mention that Nordstrom wants to spend a lot of money towards revamping 122 stores. I wouldn’t invest a lot of money without having solid data. The company should

On March 11th, 2011, the northern section of Japan was hit by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, followed by a 15 meter tsunami, causing the death of over 15000 people. (Spacey) Even though the earthquake and the tsunami caused a tremendous amount of deaths in the northern region of Japan, the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plant caused a severe damage to northern Japan’s ecosystem that people still cannot go back to their homes; despite it is 4 years after the disaster. After the earthquake, the tsunami destroyed the power supply used by Fukushima’s three nuclear power stations, causing severe levels of meltdown to be occurred inside the reactors in the timespan of 3 days. It was not until 2 weeks after the tragedy, when the reactors were finally stabilized, and took several months to approach what is called a “cold shutdown condition”, in which the fission in the reactors are completely stopped.(Fukushima A)