Sustainability Reflection

Prior understanding about sustainability

My initial understanding of the Sustainability was all only about saving the environment by adopting environment friendly “green” measures. My concepts of Sustainability measures limited to the companies spending in recycling and innovation in technology, which helps to do more with fewer natural resources, consumer behaviour and the legislations’ measures by framing the rules such as carbon tax to reduce the companies’ carbon foot print and from damaging the environment. I believed that the Sustainable activities are the costs that businesses cannot afford. This opinion has further strengthened when many of my colleagues have not invested in Corporate Social Responsibility even in a business simulation

The companies have to take care of people who are involved in all the phases of supply chain, from the product’s inception to the post consumption phases. The big apparel company could have persuaded the suppliers in Bangladesh for the better working conditions to avoid these types of disasters.

My confusion whether the climate change debate is over doesn’t still bother me. The Climate change summary class has provided the empirical information through graphs of surface temperatures, Global GHG emissions, energy usage and the IPCC reports. I am convinced that the human’s intervention has accelerated the climate change that resulted in extreme variable climatic situations such as droughts and floods in different part of the world.

I still have doubts on the impacts of becoming carbon negative on food production globally and of not burning fossil fuels. These restrictions could hamper the progress in poor nations in Africa who can use their abundant coal and oil resources for electricity generation. (H,

Clear sustainability objectives will help to include sustainability metrics into the budgeting decisions.

Solve Capability issues: Mitigate the capability issues by providing training to those involved in sustainability programmes. The people who want to contribute may not have skills and experience to provide solutions to the complex sustainability issues.

Communicate the message to all stakeholders: The stakeholders must be informed about sustainability message to gain widespread support from them. Constant communication will ease the pressure between the stakeholder business interest and larger good for environment and society. This will help to determine the level of commitment the stakeholders can make.

Use Innovation: Sustainability leadership should encourage the innovation to meet the company’s sustainability goals. The leadership should be agile and not patriarchal, it should motivate the employees to try new things, coordinate and build on innovation.

Don’ts:

Don’t be exclusive: Sustainability contribution should not be limited to exclusive groups. Ignoring some of the stakeholders may impact the businesses as they lag behind the ones who pursue sustainability