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Corporate Citizenship and Social Responsibility
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Sustainability in the Business Context
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3.0 Sustainability
3.1 Defining Sustainability
Sustainability is broadly characterized as addressing the present generation’s needs without jeopardizing the future generations to address their own issues. Sustainable procedures are those that outcome from an establishment's commitment to environmental, social and economic, or the "triple bottom line." The term "sustainability," is the advancement of a procedure or management framework that serves to maintain economy and high standard of life while regarding the need to maintain natural resources and secure the nature.
3.2 Environment Sustainability
Environmental sustainability includes making choices and actions that are in the interest of legitimate concern for securing the environmental,
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Improving sustainability within the firms upgrades talented workers to be more proficient and profitable as a factor of their commitment to the organization. It is comprehended that organizations pay special mind to reasonable procedures as there can be an orderly way to deal with spotlight on business targets like decreasing expense of job,, expanding income, overall industry and benefit et cetera (Bob Willard 2012). Thus, firms can hope to produce better profits for their speculations for their partners and shareholders and enhance the organization’s advancement sustainability is …show more content…
However in order to observe such results, there has to be organisational behaviours that brings about such a relationship between sustainability and the intended result of productivity and returns. In order for productivity to increase, employees have to remain motivated and drive. Research have shown that employees, once they believe that they are fairly paid, are no longer motivated further by more salary. Therefore, in order to increase their productivity even further, organisations have to show to their employees that they are a sustainable organisation that not only allows them to do good for their employer, but also for themselves, the community they live in and also the world they are a part of (Dickerson 2010). This enables employees to come together to create solutions for a greater purpose, therefore, contributing to the organisation’s sustainability in the long
The case studies indicate a high ability to work with individuals and have inductive reasoning and a need for strong attention to detail. The available literature is extremely controversial on sustainability programs and how it has an effect on the bottom line of an organization. The qualitative research approaches make sense for the economic dilemma organizations face with the implementation of sustainability programs. However, there is a general limitati...
Another approach is bottom-up and it makes the employees the central cog in the innovation process. Such a concept, when applied to sustainability, shifts the focus from the happenings at the management level to what decisions the mid and front-line level employees make. The lower level employees are the ones who take daily actions that could make or break a company’s sustainability potential. A bottom-up approach has a multiplier effect since it is easily visible to others and becomes quite difficult to thwart. Furthermore, the daily decisions made by mid-level employees incorporate the views of the
Epstein, M. J. (2008). Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring corporate social, environmental, and economic impacts. Sheffield, UK: Greenleaf Publishing.
Companies commit to sustainability initiatives to achieve the triple bottom line (social, environmental and economic benefits) (Accenture & UN Global Compact, 2013). While companies have increasingly focused on sustainability, scholars have been attracted by the issues such as the financial outcome of these investments, and strategic importance of sustainability (Orlitzky & Benjamin, 2001; Orlitzky, Schmidt, & Rynes, 2003). However, the employee involvement in sustainability initiatives, and the effect of sustainability strategies on employee outcomes are not yet fully discovered. Given the emphasis on employee participation in corporate sustainability initiatives, understanding its effect on the employee related outcomes is critical.
Sustainability is a term frequently used by our leaders (and planners) but is often not questioned or defined. The root word sustain implies that it means making something last. However, what does it really mean to sustain something and what is it that we are talking about sustaining-- nature, our environment, our world? These are all very abstract terms themselves. Around the time the term sustainability arose, scientists had discovered a series of threats to our environment and viewed these as a major problem to the endurance of human population. The question then became: "How can we sustain humanity in today's world?" The American Heritage dictionary defines sustain as "supplying with necessities or nourishment," which addresses the key point of sustainability: what are the necessities to ensure that human will be around for future generations? Another way to look at it, which is suggested in the publication Caring for the Earth (a joint publication of the IUCN, UNEP, and WWF-I) is that sustainable development means "improving the quality of human life while living within the caring capacity of supporting ecosystems." It is perhaps important to note that this definition suggests that the quality of human life can only be improved if it is done with careful attention to its impacts on the environment both natural and social.
Sustainability is when something can be used and not be depleted, destroyed, or damaged past recovery. As we work to live sustainably, we are in effect making use of our resources in a fashion that doesn't eliminate them, and doesn't harm their source. Our resources come from the environment around us and we need to make sure that it is not harmed as we use it. According to the EPA, sustainability stems from a single principle that "Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment” (Sustainability Information). Considering this, it's obvious why we need to make sure we live sustainably and do not damage the source of our resources, our environment.
Sustainability could be defined in many ways. It could be defined as the process to sustain a process or develop new technologies to reduce environment pollution. It also means a measurement how badly the environment is being polluted by other factors. I have to admit that sustainability is a great idea related to many fields such as healthy, economy, food, social, and etc. However, I still remember the first day of “Sustainable Business” class, Professor Laverty showed to my class an example of sustainable product with the idea of “produce more with less waste”. This example narrows me down to one idea of “Sustainable Business”, which is producing the product and services in an efficient and sustainable way without causing harms to environment. In this essay, I want to emphasize into impacts of businesses on environments, profitability of sustainable business, and responsibility of business.
For the purpose of this essay, one must provide an apt definition to the concept of business sustainability .Business sustainability (corporate sustainability) is achieved when a business is able to manage and coordinate its financial, social and financial aspects whilst ensuring that it is ethical and responsible in its approach to attain continuous success (WhatIs.com).A businesses ethics and values, determine businesses sustainability in its approach to acquire continuous success.
Sustainability is a concept with a diverse array of meanings and definitions – a widely used glamorous, ambiguous, ambivalent and vague concept that is used by different stakeholder groups in various ways. Presumably to avoid noodling over a terminology or to avoid the confrontation with a definition, most widely the concept is broken down a planning process (c.f. e.g. Döring & Muraca, 2010). That is why most common sustainability is understood as sustainable development.1
Since the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700’s and early 1800‘s organizations have become increasingly prosperous. With this rapid growth, however, has come irresponsibility in the management of business resources. This irresponsibility increases the costs to the company and is also taxing on the environment, increasing: ozone depletion, deforestation, and global warming (Shrivastava, 1995, p. 936). Sustainability in the business sector goes beyond environmental initiatives and includes the company’s financial and managerial performance, and employee quality of life. The movement of sustainable human resource management provides a balance between economic development, environmental stewardship, and societal equity—often
Sustainability, as defined by academics in the late twentieth century is a process of meeting the needs of the present without compromising the future (Coyle, 2017), however as Carter and Rogers (2008) discuss, there have been considerable inconsistencies in published definitions. In a world of fierce competition bolstered by globalisation and modern technology the subject of sustainability in business and Supply Chain Management (SCM) has gained significant attention since being first discussed and is now recognised as a significant objective in today’s profit focused private business sector (Coyle, 2017).
Sustainability is the main start of the environmental protection; it is about maintaining health and efficiency of the natural environment as well as the social environment as nature and society are critically interconnected. Sustainability is about families, communities and society as well as air, water and the earth. Everything that sustains human life on earth, such as nature, society and economy are all important parts of the same connected whole. There are many energy issues, for example, natural environmental pollution and global climate change. Everything is made of forcefulness; cultural products such as our house, food, clothes all need energy.
The sustainability of the ecosystems on which the global economy depends must be guaranteed. And the economic partners must be satisfied that the basis of exchange is equitable” (World). This quote demonstrates the complexities of sustainability. Another thing corporations should focus on when trying to be sustainable is their environmental impact.
Sustainable development refers to not only meet the needs of contemporary people, but also not compromising the ability of future generations to meet development needs.Sustainable development and environmental protection have established contact, not the same. Environmental protection is an important aspect of sustainable development. The core of sustainable development is development, but requires strict control of the population, improve population quality and protect the environment for the conduct of economic and social development under the premise of sustainable use of resources.
The most common definition of sustainability is living in a way that meets the social, economic, and other requirements of the current population as well as ensuring the same requirements will be able to be met for future generations. Living sustainably is something that affects every person on the planet. The way we live now affects our lives today, as well as the future population. Some people believe that sustainability and living green will not matter to them as the effects of their actions will not manifest in their lifetime, but this assumption is incorrect. Currently two-thirds of the services provided to us by nature are declining, 85% of all fish stocks in the ocean are overexploited, depleted, recovering or fully exploited. There was a 38% increase in annual global carbon dioxide and it will take 50+ years for the ozone layer to get back to pre 1980 levels. Global warming is one example of long-term change in the environment that has been caused by humans. Other examples are the introduction of nonnative and invasive species, land development, and changes in water quantity and quality. Statistics according to the article Resilient People Resilient Planet. There is no guarantee that if people continue to live the way they are living, things will continue to be sustainable. However sustainability is not just about the environment, social and economic aspects are equally as important to creating a sustainable world. (Figure 1). In this paper I will explain what it means to live sustainably, why it is a problem, challenges and how humans can live more sustainably.