Essay On Importance Of Sustainability In Business

In today’s world, sustainability has become an essential topic in the everyday lives of humankind. By definition, sustainability means fulfilling the present generation’s needs so that the upcoming generations do not get deprived of their individual needs. In the simplest form, sustainability is divided into three pillars: social, environmental, and economic (Purvis, Mao and Robinson 2019). Sustainability Is Also Considered a Necessary And Valuable Attribute In The Corporate World. It Is Argued That Businesses Must Be Sustainable To Succeed In Their Whole Operational Domain. This paper aims to delve into the research topic of the importance of sustainability in business.  The argument formed in this essay will take a stand that without sustainability, no corporate entity can be optimal (Johnsson et al. 2020). In forming this argument, this essay will also include theoretical underpinning in its construct. The upcoming sections of this essay will discuss the levels at which sustainability plays a major role in businesses and how businesses can include sustainability in their operative domain. 

When sustainability is associated with businesses, it refers to the impact commercial entities have on the social and environmental aspects of the external world. Moreover, suppose the environmental dynamics of the present world are considered. In that case, it can be said that this planet is going through dire climate change, which is not only inflicting nature but also on businesses worldwide that are affected by it (Parveen 2019). Thus, from this contextual background, if a business adopts sustainable measures in its operations, it will have several benefits. Furthermore, there are several instances when businesses add to the hazards by harming humankind's environment and socio-economic lifestyles. International organizations, in their reports, have exclaimed that if the present level of disruption continues to take place in the world and inside the working domain of businesses, the entire will be facing the consequences of it; even those members of the society who are not directly involved in these disruptive actions. Hence, it falls under the basic operating responsibility of the businesses to become more sustainable in their activities (Kardos, Gabor and Cristache 2019). Again, researchers and sustainability practitioners have exclaimed that there are four levels on which businesses can focus to bring sustainability. These hierarchical levels are business owners and organizational leaders, business administrators and supervisors, human resources professionals, and employees. The employee stakeholders can supply the organization with their valuable inputs to create sustainable practices. Then, the HR professionals can chalk up strategies for successful implementation. Next, admins of business organizations can add their expert insights to make the strategy implementation more effective. Finally, upon assessing all the advantages and disadvantages, the owners and leaders implement the policies to make the organizations more sustainable. The benefits an organization can obtain by looking after the economic, social, and environmental aspects are a reduction in their business cost, an enhanced reputation of the business, competitive advantage in the market, and the acceleration of profit margin and bottom line (Petrescu et al. 2020).

 

A commercial entity can become sustainable by using those measures that decrease the negative implications it has on the environment. For instance, companies can take up strategies like reducing their production waste, structuring activities in such a way that recycle the wastage, pollution reduction measurements, adopting renewable energy usage, waste conservation, tree plantation in corporate social events, and structuring the manufacturing of product and services in such a way that sustainability gets maintained throughout every step of the process (Sharma 2020). The theoretical implications that guide the companies to include sustainability in their operational dynamic are Corporate Social Responsibility and Triple Bottom Line. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a theoretical model that states that any business, regardless of its effective genre, is responsible to itself, its stakeholders, the general public, and the environment (Christensen, Hail and Leuz 2021). Typically, a firm adopts CSR on four responsibility levels, environmental, ethical, philanthropic, and economical.  Environmental responsibility can be fulfilled through pollution reduction, increased use of renewable energy, and offsetting the negative implication on nature. Ethical responsibility can be fulfilled through fair practice in businesses aligned with the legislative specificities. Philanthropic responsibility can be fulfilled through community help and aid donations to the deprived part of society. Finally, economic responsibility can be fulfilled by making financial decisions that support the other three responsibilities, and the firm gets to attain a higher profit margin. Following CSR, a firm can examine the business operations regarding hiring and managing employee stakeholders, manufacturing process, and value creation for the clientele. On the other hand, the triple bottom line works with three “Ps” of an organization, profit, people, and planet (Tseng et al. 2020). As per this model, a business can be sustainable if it emphasizes gaining higher profit by serving all the stakeholders (people related to the business operation) in such a way that the planet also benefits from it, and the negative implications get diminished. 

In conclusion, this essay argued that sustainability is one of the major areas in which any business entity must give the highest importance to become successful and to reduce the negative externality they inflict on society. The reason behind this is that the world is going through a dangerous phase, and if business does not take up sustainable measures, their actions will only add up to the destruction of the world and the entire human race. Furthermore, by including sustainability in the business operations, the commercial entities can also be benefitted by reducing their cost, expanding the trust of their clientele, and creating an advantageous position in society. Two segments through which sustainability can be included in businesses are Corporate Social Responsibility and the Triple bottom line. This essay suggests that every business must adopt sustainability to excel in their operations; the measures and areas of sustainable development vary between companies based on their activity domain.

This year was challenging for me in a positive way, where I gained useful insight regarding time management and applied self-learning techniques to increase efficiency in the work undertaken by me.  I believe in reaching to the goals set by oneself, it is essential to enhance my time management skills so that every minute I am investing in my efficiency development is given for the greater good. I can actually incorporate the developed attributes. For example, while constructing this essay, I first determined the resources I had beforehand. The basic concept of sustainability and an idea of business operation was already known aspects to me. Thus, with the help of the internet and academic journals, I researched the linkage between sustainability and businesses. Further, while constructing an essay, it is also important to refer to the theoretical frameworks, and thus I also linked the empirical significances with theoretical underpinning and completed the essay.

Christensen, H.B., Hail, L. and Leuz, C., 2021. Mandatory CSR and sustainability reporting: economic analysis and literature review. Review of Accounting Studies, 26(3), pp.1176-1248.

Johnsson, F., Karlsson, I., Rootzén, J., Ahlbäck, A. and Gustavsson, M., 2020. The framing of a sustainable development goals assessment in decarbonizing the construction industry–Avoiding “Greenwashing”. Renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 131, p.110029.

Kardos, M., Gabor, M.R. and Cristache, N., 2019. Green marketing’s roles in sustainability and ecopreneurship. Case study: Green packaging’s impact on Romanian young consumers’ environmental responsibility. Sustainability, 11(3), p.873.

Parveen, R., 2019. Globalization, climate change and global environmental law. International Journal of Environmental Science, 4.

Petrescu, A.G., Bîlcan, F.R., Petrescu, M., Holban Oncioiu, I., Türkeș, M.C. and Căpuşneanu, S., 2020. Assessing the benefits of the sustainability reporting practices in the top Romanian companies. Sustainability, 12(8), p.3470.

Purvis, B., Mao, Y. and Robinson, D., 2019. Three pillars of sustainability: in search of conceptual origins. Sustainability science, 14(3), pp.681-695.

Sharma, A., 2020. Sustainability research in business-to-business markets: An agenda for inquiry. Industrial Marketing Management, 88, pp.323-329.

Tseng, M.L., Chang, C.H., Lin, C.W.R., Wu, K.J., Chen, Q., Xia, L. and Xue, B., 2020. Future trends and guidance for the triple bottom line and sustainability: a data driven bibliometric analysis. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 27(27), pp.33543-33567.