...Business sustainability 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. There are a number of best practices that foster business sustainability, and help organizations move along the path from laggards to leaders. These practices include:• Stakeholder engagement: Organizations can learn from customers, employees and their surrounding community. Engagement is not only about pushing out messages, but understanding opposition, finding common ground and involving stakeholders in joint decision-making; • Environmental management systems: These systems provide the structures and processes that help embed environmental efficiency into a firm’s culture and mitigate risks. The most widely recognized standard worldwide is ISO 14001, but numerous other industry-specific and country-specific standards exist; • Reporting and disclosure: Measurement and control are at the heart of instituting sustainable practices. Not only can organizations collect and collate the information, they can also be entirely transparent with outsiders. The Global Reporting Initiative is one of many examples of well-recognized reporting standards; • Life cycle analysis: Those organizations wanting to take a large leap forward should systematically analyze the environmental and social impact of the products they use...
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...Aleisha Wiley Business Sustainability December 15, 2013 What does sustainability mean in general terms and in a business context In general terms, the key principal of sustainability is to support, endure, perpetuate and supply the necessities of life on earth without depleting resources at a rate in which they cannot replenish themselves, crossing any thresholds or boundaries potential harmful the existence of life or destroy ecosystems that are important to animal and plant life on earth. These principals can also be applied to the life we lead as business owners, manager and other working professionals. In this paper I will be discussing what the key principals and meaning of sustainability as it applies to general terms and in a business context. Sustainable business or green business is an enterprise that has no negative impact on the global or local environment, community, society, or economy. The organization participates in environmentally friendly activities that ensure all processes, products and manufacturing activities adequately address current environmental concerns while maintaining a profit. In other words, it is a business that “meets the needs of the present world without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs. Exemplary examples of a green business are the efforts of Nike and Adidas. They developed a new way of dyeing clothes with CO2 instead of water. The process is a potentially revolutionary technique that...
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...Business Sustainability: a business doing what is does while taking in the needs of it’s stakeholders. Stakeholder: anyone who has an interest and can be influenced by your company Primary Stakeholders: employees, customers, owners. Sustaining the availability and quality of resources into the future --Sustaining itself: manage in an efficient way; long term time horizon --always need human and natural capital Pillars of Sustainability: --Four Pillars -Cultural -Environmental Responsibility -Social Equity -Economic Health People, Planet, Profits but also Culture -Culture: traditions, way of living, values -5th dimension: Governance: how are decisions being made within a system. Economics (basic review) --Microeconomics (individual decision making) --Macroeconomics (aggregate decisions made by all; impact on broader economy. Functioning of the entire economy Economic Systems: -Traditional: localized region -Planned: socialism, communism -Market: capitalism -Mixed: capital/communist-individual decision making w/some control by the government. Macroeconomics and Sustainability ==Gross Domestic Output: the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a specific time period, typically one year --GDP doesn’t measure: distribution equity, pollution, social factors, production efficiency Alternatives: --to try and capture elements the GDP doesn’t --Genuine Progress Indicator --GPI: adds to...
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...SUSTAINABILITY IN AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS- PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE Introduction In today’s world, the challenges and issues that the growing economy faces are enormous and certain factors have not been given high importance. While trying to achieve their goals in this century, important factors like Sustainability have not been kept in mind, leading to certain issues. There is no simple definition of 'sustainability'. It can be an idea, a property of living systems, a manufacturing method or a way of life. To get the simplest definition of sustainability, we can say sustainability aims to meet human needs in the present while preserving the environment so that these needs can also be met in the indefinite future.[1]Firstly, Sustainability in marketing provides a pathway for a sustainability-oriented outlook of marketing for the present and the future. Secondly, the importance on the focus on consumer marketing while integrating certain principles of sustainability into marketing decisions through a step by step approach is a key factor for sustainability marketing to work. [2]Finally, it shall be seen how assessments are made to find out the consumer behaviour and market demand towards sustainable goods and will outline some principles of effective social marketing. MARKETING and its role: In the past, Marketing strategies were based on the assumption of infinite resources and zero environmental impact. As time moved on, marketers realized the need to change this strategy...
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...Letter of Transmittal June 01, 2012 Md. Khaled Afzal Associate Professor Department of Management Studies University of Chittagong Subject: Submission of Term-paper Report Dear Sir, I have the integrity to report you that i received an opportunity to prepare a Term-paper Report under your supervision as required for the completion of our B.B.A program. It is my great pleasure to submit Term-paper report on “SUSTAINABILITY ISSUEs OF SOCIAL BUSINESS” on the light of the overall picture of Social business in Bangladesh. I have devoted all my courage to prepare a Term-paper Report on “SUSTAINABILITY ISSUEs OF SOCIAL BUSINESS” worthy submission before you, I think. I have concentrated my best effort to achieve the objectives of the report and hope that my endeavor will serve the purpose. I request you to excuse me for any mistake that may occur in the report despite of my best effort. I would really appreciate it you enlighten me with your thoughts and views regarding the report. Your kind acknowledgement will spawn my effort and facilitate me to complete my BBA program. Thank you again for your support and patience. Yours Sincerely, (Md. Sazedul Karim) ID: 08302073 Session: 2007-08 BBA, 4th year Department of Management Studies University of Chittagong Acknowledgement First of all I would like to grateful to the Almighty Allah, the merciful and the benevolent...
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...The Relevance of Sustainability in Marketing Decision Making Introduction Sustainable marketing calls for socially and environmentally responsible actions that meet the present needs of consumers and businesses while preserving and enhancing the ability of future generations to meet their needs (Kotler & Armstrong 2012, p. 582). The aim of sustainable marketing is to satisfy the customer’s the needs and wants while also putting high emphasis on the environment and the social issues and thus creating profits in a socially responible way. Mention triple bottom line While traditional marketing is a process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return. (Kotler & Armstrong 2012, p. 5) This essay has been prepared to identify and understand the role of sustainabilty in marketing decision making and its impacts affecting current and future business operations. 1.1. Research Methods Data was collected based on qualitative research. Books, internet and online journals were used to identify different roles of sustainability in marketing. Sustainibilty of marketing by itself is a vast area for study, hence this paper will only focus and critically analysis some of the key aspects of s.m. The topics explored in this research are I. Role of sustainability in marketing II. 1. Sustainable Marketing practices adressing the triple bottom line. Sustainable marketing...
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...What are business ethics and sustainability? Introduction Steel is a unique and vital material. It touches almost every part of modern life. It is a key element of our infrastructure. From buses to buildings, from canned food to computers, almost everything we see around us is either made of steel or is made using steel. Steel is essential to modern society. TATA Steel Ltd. is the third largest steel producer in Europe and has its main steelmaking plants in the UK and Holland. It supplies steel and related services to major industries, such as construction, vehicle production and packaging. The European operations are a subsidiary of TATA Steel Ltd. ,one of the world’s top ten steel producers. The combined Group has around 50,000 employees. The challenges of sustainability A commitment to environmentally-sound practices is part of many businesses’ commitment to act responsibly. Social responsibility refers to an organisation’s obligations to maximise its long-term positive impacts and minimise its negative impacts on society. For TATA Steel Ltd., it is a core part of its vision to be ‘the global steel industry benchmark for value creation and corporate citizenship.’ TATA Steel Ltd. is committed to tackling the challenges of sustainability. This means that it takes its responsibility towards both the environment and its communities seriously, balancing these against the need to make a profit. It has put systems in place to meet international standards for environmental...
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...Groupon : In its simplest form Groupon (derived from "group coupon") is a deal-of-the-day website that features discounted gift certificates usable at local or national companies Business Model: The company offers one "Groupon" per day in each of the markets it serves. The Groupon works as an assurance contract using ThePoint's platform: if a certain number of people sign up for the offer, then the deal becomes available to all; if the predetermined minimum is not met, no one gets the deal that day. Groupon makes money by keeping approximately half the money the customer pays for the coupon. Its business model essentially consists of economies of scale and economies of networking. Sustainibility : According to an article published in Forbes titled “Is Groupon's Business Model Sustainable?” (http://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2011/10/22/is-groupons-business-model-sustainable/) Groupon’s business model is not sustainable for two reasons : 1) it is selling other company’s offering who have the upper hand in deal negotiation and 2) they have considerable direct competition from companies with a broad user base like Google, Yahoo, Expedia and so on. The findings of an academic study of Rice University from 2010, from 150 Groupon businesses in 19 cities: (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1696327) • 66% profitable; 32% unprofitable. • Restaurants were the most unprofitable category...
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...Assignment 1 MGT 3201 The virtual office’s impact on employee work-life balance and business sustainability Prepared for: Mr. Ray Hingst Submitted: 18 October 2013 Prepared by: Anton Tarasov 0061055930 Faculty of Business and Law In today’s world the virtual office is no more an innovation; numerous organizations have used this technology long enough to understand whether it is a helpful tool for business or just another source of complications. This paper is aimed to address practical issues related to the virtual office’s impact on employee work-life balance and business sustainability. Definitions of the virtual office, telecommuting, business sustainability, and other important terms will be given. Different pros and cons of using the virtual office for employees (work-life balance) and for organizations (business sustainability) will be presented reviewed and compared. Finally, the summarized conclusion will answer the main question of this topic: “is the virtual office a good solution for employees and organizations or not?” Since the virtual office and telecommuting are tightly connected, it is of great importance to distinguish between those two terms. Telecommuting has numerous definitions in business related literature, but they all present quite similar description. For example, Noonan & Glass (2012, p. 38) state it simply as ‘work tasks regularly performed at home’ while Thomas B. Cross (2013, pp. 7-8) specifies telecommuting as ‘performing job-related...
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...Customer Relationship and Corporate Governance in Sustainability of Business Vinod Krishna U. Makkimane Sr.Faculty Institute of Business Management & Technology Banashankari 3rd Stage, Bengaluru. Sustainability is a dynamic concept born out of the environmental debate of the last quarter century. There is growing concern nationally and internationally about biodiversity and protection of plants and animals and community based activity. It is important to view sustainable efforts from global perspective that addresses socio-economic and environmental issues. Sustainable Development as a norm has been accepted in the literature ever since the publication of the Brundtland Commission report in 1987.The Brundtland Commission defined Sustainable Development as that which "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs". A primary goal of sustainable development is to achieve a reasonable and equitably distributed level of economic well being that can be perpetuated continually for many human generations. It also implies using renewable natural resources in a manner that does not eliminate or degrade them, or otherwise diminish their usefulness for future generations. Sustainable development also requires depleting non-renewable energy resources at a slow enough rate so as to ensure the high probability of an orderly society transition to renewable energy sources. Mahatma Gandhi has observed long back that...
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...ACC 310 Fall 2013 – Case #1 Due Date – October 22, 2013, 1:30 pm An introduction to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and sustainability reporting The Sustainability Initiative at NC State was started through the endowed gift of Lonnie Poole. As part of the Initiative we are examining sustainability issues throughout the curriculum. For accountants one of the most important issues of sustainability is reporting information to stakeholders. Just as we are learning about financial reporting in Intermediate Financial Accounting we also want to learn about sustainability reporting. The purpose of this case is to make you aware of sustainability reporting and sustainability reports. On the moodle site I have assigned each student a company that has prepared a report based on the GRI Sustainability Reporting Framework and filed it with GRI. Each student should obtain the company’s report from the GRI webpage (globalreporting.org) or from the company’s corporate webpage. Sustainability reporting is not required Even though more and more companies are providing sustainability reports there is no requirement to report or any required standards like GAAP. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) currently provides a framework, with over 3,500 companies filing under the GRI framework. However, given that there is no enforcement of reporting companies may select different levels of reporting and different indicators to report on as well. This results in varied reporting...
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...BS1780 Macroeconomics for Business Problem Set 3 Group Assignment February 2016 1） Assuming that the nominal interest rate, the inflation rate, the real GDP growth and primary deficit remain constant for the next year, we can compute the projected next year end debt as a percentage of GDP by using the equation: dt+1=dt+i-πdt-grdt-st+1 In this case, dt is the public debt (as % of GDP) of 2011, which is 88%; i is the government interest rate 7% according to our assumption; π is the inflation rate, which was 2% if it is held constant constant in the next year; gr is -1%, the real GDP growth; and -st+1 is the primary deficit, which is 3%. Therefore: dt+1=88%+7%-2%×88%--1%×88%+3%=96.28% Thus, the projected next year-end debt (as % of GDP), based upon our assumptions, would be 96.28%. If we decompose the changes in debt-to-GDP ratio into three components, among the 8.28% of debt changes (as % of GDP), 4.4% is due to the real interest rate, 0.88% is coming from the growth, and primary deficit makes a contribution of 3%. The above calculation is shown in Table 1 below. Table 1: Debt to GDP ratio forecast | t=2012 | t=2013 | t=2014 | t=2015 | Inputs | | | | | Primary deficit (% of GDP) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | Interest rate (money market, %) | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | Inflation (%) | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | Real GDP growth (%) | -1 | -1 | -1 | -1 | Public debt (% of GDP, end of t-1) | 88 | 96.28 | 105.06 | 90.66 | | | | | | Miscellaneous calculations...
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...Sustainability Course Project Kathy Neihardt Sustainability 1. What is Sustainability? 2. Can our Society Endure? 3. What is a Sustainable Business? 4. World’s Most Sustainable Companies 5. Corporate Sustainability 6. What is the EPA Doing? 7. What is Sustainable Management? Sustainability Sustainability “creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony that permits fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations” (EPA, 2015). Sustainability is also “important to making sure that we have and will continue to have the water, materials and resources to protect human health and our environment” (EPA, 2015). Sustainability What is Sustainability? Sustainability is “everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends on our natural environment, we need to create and maintain the conditions under which nature can exist in productive harmony to support present and future generations” (U.S. EPA, 2015). Can our Society Endure? According to SustainAbility “today it is by no means certain our society has the capacity to endure, not in such a way the nine billion people expected on Earth by 2050 will be able to achieve a basic quality of life. The planet’s ecosystems are deteriorating and the climate is changing. We are consuming so much and so quickly that we are already living far beyond...
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...CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY & HENKEL’S APPROACH There is a growing trend for big companies to use sustainable concepts as core business drivers For decades, many companies have typically responded to sustainability challenges by pursuing incremental operational improvements. But we are beginning to see an interesting new trend – businesses using sustainability as a tactic for long-term offense, rather than just short-term defence. Despite the uncertain economic outlook, leading international companies across diverse sectors are investing heavily in sustainable products and services. Others are making cross-industry partnerships to develop next generation products such as the elusive mass market electric car. Some are even enhancing their business models through mergers and acquisitions that seek to address, and capitalise on, sustainability trends. Drivers of Sustainability A number of factors are driving the adoption of corporate sustainability programmes in the global business community: * Regulatory Mandates: Growing regulatory pressures compel companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, industrial effluents, and other environmental hazards. * Operational Cost Efficiencies: Rising raw materials and energy prices incentivize businesses to invest in waste recycling, waste-to-energy, water conservation and related technologies. * Reputational Risks: Increasing scrutiny of corporate conduct induces managers to engage environmental,...
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...2012 Cisco CSR Report < Previous View 2012 Cisco CSR Report Website How to Use This Report We Welcome Your Feedback C1 Supply Chain Overview Our Supply Chain Embedding Sustainability in Core Business Processes Partnering with Suppliers to Improve Performance and Build Capability Working with Industry Groups Watch the Video! Supply Chain We expect our suppliers to meet the same high standards on ethics, labor rights, health and safety, and the environment that we apply to our own people and operations. Cisco works closely with suppliers to manage these sustainability issues and improve their performance throughout the supply chain and at every stage of the lifecycle of our products. We look to use our relationships with our network of suppliers and peer companies to multiply the impact we can have on sustainability in the information and communications technology (ICT) supply chain. 2012 Cisco CSR Report < Previous View 2012 Cisco CSR Report Website How to Use This Report We Welcome Your Feedback C2 Supply Chain > Overview Our Supply Chain Embedding Sustainability in Core Business Processes Partnering with Suppliers to Improve Performance and Build Capability Working with Industry Groups Overview These first five pages give readers an overview of Cisco’s objectives, key challenges, progress, and performance with regard to Supply Chain. We have used this overview as part of our Executive Summary, which can be downloaded here. We...
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