Sustainable Environment: Sustainable Business

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Sustainable Business In contemporary society, the importance of sustainability has aroused public attention and debate. This is because pollution is growing day-by-day with every second as time passes. It is like a bad dream that not only destroys our environment but also ruins our ecosystem and life cycle. Every single living creature, as well as non-living things, are all affected by pollution. Due to increasing community concern, firms are constantly in search of solutions to the existing environmental issues in terms of sustainability management. They achieve this using economic incentives as well as partnerships with various organizations (Wright 83). Businesses claim sustainability as a means of improvement for both the …show more content…

Walmart is an example, which sustainable goals aim at supplying renewable energy and sell products that sustain the environment and reduce waste to zero. There is a slogan which posted on Walmart’s official website, “More than ever, we know that our goal to be supplied 100% by renewable energy is the right goal, and we know that renewables combined with energy efficiency is especially powerful: for our customers, for our shareholders and for the future of generations to come.” Therefore, setting these ambitious goals began the company’s journey towards sustainability. For instance, reducing the use of resources became Walmart’s concern for environmental sustainability. Earlier, the company could buy cotton from Turkey and ship it to China for spinning before taking it to Guatemala for sewing (Plambeck 5). As a result of environmental risks, the company has been finding ways to do all processing in Guatemala and avoid shipping the cotton to China. This strategy not only helps company save cost but also reduces the use of resources caused by shipping. Another example could be eliminating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the supply chain. Since 2009, Walmart starts collaboration with The Sustainability Consortium (TSC). By the end of 2013, Walmart eliminated 7.575 million metric tons (MMT) of GHG, and by the end of 2016, they are estimated to eliminate 18MMT of …show more content…

It is evident from the People and Planet Positive report that such increase in power consumption could take place between 2012 and 2020. As a result, the management agreed that for the company to attain sustainable development, it had to achieve energy independence before 2020. Consequently, the company embarked on investing in solar and wind energy. Thus, the company’s ability to predict future challenges in its operations enables it to remain sustainable by investing in solving the problems before they occur. The 2013 sustainability report of IKEA shows that the company is following on its blue print to develop renewable electricity (Peter 2). Evidently, the company has reduced wastes and emission of carbon gases as a way of achieving environmental sustainability.
According to Pfeffer Jeffrey’s book Building sustainable organizations: The human factor ', Academy of Management Perspectives, he mentioned that IKEA’s business model of operating private holdings in different markets helps it to cut costs that are associated with operating as a corporate entity. The government may levy more taxes on corporate entities than the private holdings. Notably, the ability to operate in different models enables the company to remain sustainable because it can change the models depending on the business

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