Making Sustainability Work in the Business World

Introduction A globally sustainable organization has the ability to meet the needs of present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Organizations are getting more and more concerned with sustainability and corporate social responsibility. A sustainable organization always give importance to the economic, social and environmental benefits when doing business. Instead of only looking for economic bottom line such as profits and shareholder returns, global firms need to pursue a balanced set of “triple bottom line”, which consists of economic, social, and environmental performance, and satisfy the demands of all stakeholder groups. A stakeholder is someone who is dependent on or affected by organizational

Introduction Sustainability of the supply chain has increasingly become a crucial aspect of corporate responsibility. Apart from being good for business, management of social, economic, and environmental effects of supply chain remains the right thing to do. Constantly changing markets have created complex landscapes that businesses must navigate to build sustainable supply chains. Sustainable supply chains aim at creating social, economic, and environmental value for all stakeholders throughout the supply chain. Building sustainable supply chains not only benefits the stakeholders but also aims at safeguarding business interests.

Sustainable Production Utilizing sustainability policies within a Corporate Social Responsibility framework allows companies to be socially responsible and respond to the concerns of third parties whilst still maintaining economic control and maximizing their profits (Dauvergne & Lister, 2013). The majority of the sustainability practices big brands are integrating focus on enhancing the eco-efficiency of production, in order to improve their bottom line (Dauvergne & Lister, 2013). The primary focus of sustainable production practices is to find ways to continue to make products, but with less resources, energy and waste. Looking for solutions to improve production efficiencies allows businesses to coast through financial downturns that cause

Customer social responsibility can build the loyalty and trust that both ensure a bright and sustainable future in business. In our global society, corporations are becoming increasingly visible, and are judged on their results and behaviour. The reputation of a brand is achieved, in part, as a result of corporate governance. By integrating corporate social responsibility into your business as a core value, you are contributing to a better society and will be recognized for doing so. Businesses can increase their CSR by supporting public expectations, focusing on long-run profits, complying to ethical obligations, boosting their public image, bettering the environment, discouraging further government regulation, balancing responsibility and power, remembering stockholder interests, and building a superiority of prevention over cure.

It is paramount that social and environmental sustainability are achieved as without it not only will businesses develop a poor brand image and reputation with consumers but their profits and bottom line will too suffer. The successful and proficient implementation of the triple bottom line or some other method to manage sustainability is crucial in ensuring complete business success. Being environmentally and socially sustainable can lead to many benefits such as greater profits, positive reputation and brand image, a competitive advantage, increased efficiency and economic sustainability.’ increased awareness of sustainability in various industries and businesses has helped expand the notion of business excellence and has drawn attention to the need to use resources in a socially and environmentally responsible manner.’ (Asif and Searcy 2011). However, it is important to note that it has been argued by some that societies sudden fixation with sustainability has resulted in many serious ethical and practical concerns and issues go unnoticed. (DesJardins 2016).

Sustainable Businesses have become imperative to the corporate industry in part due to global environment awareness. Although sustainability is not a new approach to doing business, sustainable businesses see the value in contributing toward a sustainable society. Today businesses are creating a sustainable strategy aimed not only towards the environment, but have included how the business will operate in the social, cultural and economic environment. Some important practices of sustainable businesses are to be more efficient, attract and retain employees, improve customer and community relations, grow supplier commitments and gain investors’ confidence by doing what is right. Sustainability has already been embraced by consumers, employee, shareholders and stakeholders who are demanding value in products and services but have also become aware of the growing need to protect the environments’ future.

“Corporate Social Responsibility is a hard-edged business decision. Not because it is a nice thing to do or because people are forcing us to do it because it is good for our business” – Niall Fitzerald, Former CEO, Unilever This quote came from the sustainability page of Unilever website. This company’s website also has statistics about what the firm is doing to plan for sustainable growth in the future and how they are changing to become more environmentally friendly. Additionally, Unilever has published statistics detailing various safety, environmental, and social performance indicators relative to their industry. Clearly, this is a firm that deeply cares about its environmental and social sustainability efforts and performance.

While the World Business Council for Sustainable Development provides the most universal definition of CSR: it is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large, CSR is an still evolving concept that currently has a multi faced definition, but it is fast becoming a globally successful concept, and being seen as crucial in creating an attractive corporate image, providing competitive advantage and differentiation to the enterprise over its competition leading to business success. The CSR trend has grown to be a methodology that integrates ethical and economic concerns into long term business values and company visions. It creates a direct link to business strategy and operations that help a firm establish better practices that lead to a better society. Vaitkevicus and Stukaite describe CSR as an engagement to improve t... ... middle of paper ... ...Lantos (2002) argues that if a company implements strategic social responsibility, it achieves positive publicity, improves its CI, and receives other benefits. This is why Lantos (2002) states that companies implement CSR in order to benefit from it, not to help stakeholders.

The incentives for all of the responsibilities mainly correspond to an increase in the bottom line as well as a healthy public image. Therefore, corporations can choose which one of these responsibilities they value the most and apply that to their business strategy while increasing both the bottom line and public image. Due to their power, corporations have the responsibility to operate in the best interest of their stakeholders, the responsibility to protect the environment they use for earning a profit, the responsibility of acting as a global citizen by contributing to the efforts to stop climate change and lastly, . By respecting all of these responsibilities businesses can provide a boost to their bottom line as well as act as a responsible citizen would do in order to protect our environment.

Sustainability is a crucial social responsibility as it is linked with the business and how they enact on making effective resources that are eco friendly and ensuring that the future generation will be able to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. The Tata Steel definition of sustainability is ‘an enduring and balanced approach to economic activity, environmental responsibility and societal benefit’. With the notion of sustainability widely promoted by governments, businesses, NGO’s and academia, it is clearly vital that society understand its full implications and evaluate business ethics practices at least according to their potential to contribute to sustainability. The Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of Globalisation second edition Andrew Crane Dirk Matten, portrays a reliable source on a Sustainability Report which was undertaken in 2005 studied on Nokia which describes the statement they made