Sustainability In Marketing

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

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

Wal-Mart uses its resources in research since before (2011-2012) for the sole purpose of coming up with new ideas and new ways to sustain itself in the local and global community. Locally it provides electricity in stores from solar panels and wind turbines. “Wal-Mart has taken strides to obtain its sustainability objectives. It has opened two environmentally friendly stores in McKinney, Texas, and Aurora, Colorado.” The company hopes that these experiments will conserve natural resources, save energy, and reduce pollution. In addition, Wal-Mart is attempting to reduce fossil fuel. Its fleet of hybrid trucks is a new technology for going “green (Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, 2011).” Similarly, Wal-Mart is “Currently working on four main green areas: waste improvement and recycling, natural resources, energy, and social/community impact. Wal-Mart’s long-term goals are to be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy, create zero

I decided to do my research at Lowe’s Home and Improvement. Lowe’s Home and Improvement is a hardware store that sales everything from your basic household appliances to minor cleaning supplies. Lowe’s believes that in order to maintain great customer service they feel that they must follow these simple rules: Provide customers with environmentally-responsible products, packaging and services at everyday low prices, educate and engage employees, customers and others on the importance of conserving resources, reducing waste and recycling, review and communicate progress made toward achieving established goals and objectives, and to engage on public policy issues related to sustainability. In this report I will discuss how I observed two

Wal-Mart stores serve millions of customers globally each day – and they do their best to make certain that the products on their shelves are a sign of the diverse needs and wants of their customers. Wal-Mart states they are focused on four strategies and the top one is becoming truly global. (Wal-Mart Stores Factsheets). In 2010, Wal-Mart reduced the plastic bag waste across their global operations by 47.95 million pounds, or approximately 3.5 billion bags. This represents a 21 percent reduction from our 2007 baseline. In Chine in 2010 reduced the waste by 84percent using 2007 as a baseline. Wal-Mart wants to stay on top globally where economics

Another argument often used against sustainable entrepreneurship is the price increase of products. Opponents claim that customers will choose for a low price instead of for a more expensive, though sustainable and green product or service. And of course this assumption may apply to some products; on the other hand, opponents seem to completely ignore the increasing awareness of new values of the modern educated customer. It is not enough any more for a product or service to just meet traditional business criteria, such as functionality, quality, fashion and price. Nowadays, people who can afford it in the developed world expect at least a basic level of sustainability of the products they buy as well as of their manufacturers. Research shows that almost 75 percent of the customers indicate that there is too little background information about products and services (Lageweg et al., par.5). Providing reliable and clear information about sustainability maywill benefit for the competitiveness of many organizations. I believe tThe market for sustainable products and services will continue to grow and someoon customers will simply refuse to purchase things ifof which the origin is not known as education increases across the world.

Another problem that Wal-Mart faces is one shared by all people. There is a concern for the environmental well-being of the Earth. There is much press about corporations that have violated safe environmental practices. Their “receipt, transportation, handling, identification, recycling, treatment, storage and disposal” of hazardous material has been under scrutiny. Also their greatest associated environmental concern is urban sprawl. They have counteracted these problems by trying to become a greener company. They are working to reduce greenhouse

As much as Walmart may care about the environment, they will not sacrifice some profit now in order to actually help it in the immense way they are able to. These large companies recognize that sustainability is good business, so why will they not actually change? Eventually, they will not have any choice. And by that point, it will cost millions more to reverse the damages. By looking at the environment through an economic lens, Walmart sees the importance of changing but also that the monetary value of changing is not as great as the monetary value of continuing on as they are. Despite already being the largest corporation in the world, Walmart continues to add more harm to the environment because they are still not satisfied with their

Perhaps this is giving Walmart a free ride in the media/marketing as being sustainable without any parties doing their due diligence to verify the actual numbers. As Senge explained, perhaps “Walmart is using going green to offset negative press for treatment of its employees” due their recent lawsuit losses and settlements (Senge, 2010, p. 114). Although Walmart should be commended for its sustainability portfolio, I believe the results of their goals need to be looked at from proportional aspect as well as how/where Walmart sources their products.

Moving ahead,in order to get the idea about company’s internal environment and its capacity to survive and prosper in the market(Strategic capability), I analysed the resources and competencies(Appendix 3) ,the value chain (Appendix 3),the Cultural Web(Appendix 5). To find out the influence of stakeholders on the company I applied Power/Interest to the company and finally analysis of strengths,weaknesses ,opportunities and threats to the company(SWOT Analysis-Appendix 7) provide with clear idea about the strategic position of M&S.

“Sustainable” business practices are being touted, or even required, more and more by western society. What is ANZ’s sustainability policy and how is this congruent (or not) with cutting edge sustainability thinking and theory. Does this thinking and practice change across borders? And if so, how does the ANZ’s Australian head office engage with it? Does what they espouse align with the reality of their practice?

Due to increasing environmental imbalances, it is necessary for firms to achieve competitive advantages in the area of environmental convergence as well. Wal-Mart is putting continuous efforts from a long time for environment sustainability and energy conservation. It also received Aspen Institute Energy and Environment award for Corporate Energy Efficiency in 2009. Here are a few steps that Wal-Mart has taken to encourage environmental sustainability:

Every living being are directly or indirectly depend on natural environment. Sustainability helps to balance financial, social, and environmental factors to facilitate responsible business decision making over the immediate and long term. . Sustainability refers to meeting the needs of present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Oxford University press 1987, p.43). Sustainability is also being protective and aware of use of natural resources and development that meets the need of present and everything that is need for our survival and well being depends, directly or indirectly on our natural environment. According to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Sustainability is

Wal-Mart now has to rebuild their images, procedures on how they conduct business nationwide and how the use ethical business practices. The New York time article reported, “Wal-Mart announces new ethical and environmental principles complete by 2012”. (Robinson, 2008)

A. The Wal-Mart China work in co-operation with the government and employees in advancing sustainability. The best practices known by Wal-Mart should be shared with government and employees to reduce carbon footprints. Also Wal-Mart should abide by the regulations of the government pertaining to sustainability and also Wal-Mart should voluntarily adopt best practices which lead to greater sustainability. The employees should be trained for reducing carbon footprints resulting from their actions and should be rewarded to encourage them to continue addressing sustainability issues.