Personal Reflection;Understanding Sustainability

Personal Reflection;Understanding Sustainability

The course has been an integral learning point in increasing knowledge of sustainability. I have learned the overall meaning of sustainability within the business context, and the different approaches used to explain sustainability. I have learned that sustainability on the ability of a business to meets its present needs compromising on its future needs. Within the ecological understanding, it is perceived as the overall endpoint of all human efforts that can be measured and explained in scientific terms. Sustainable development, on the other hand, encompasses all the activities and entities undertake to ensure they do not hurt the environment. CSR is, therefore, all the economic and social benefits that a business offers the society to meet its overall objective of sustainability.

There is conflict, however, behind the ideas of CSR. The idea behind CSR, however, conflicts with business because business is all about making money. CSR, on the other hand, is all about giving back a portion of the money the business has made to the community. This defeats the purpose of business. Some argue that CSR is against the ideals of capitalism and limits free trade. Forcing businesses and entities to conform to CSR is the limitation of their overall scope and exploitation. Part of the learning was to understand the indicators of sustainability.

Factors such as population size, energy consumption, environmental destruction, emotional psychology of the people and other institutions can be key determinants of sustainability within the environment. These factors can be used to evaluate the trends in the market and to measure how effective sustainability measures are. Businesses consume resources from the environment, and their ability to compensate for the consumption will determine their sustainability. Some environments can handle continuous use from entities in them, but when they achieve their tipping point, they no longer support the ecosystem. It is therefore essential for businesses and people to ensure they maintain the natural balance of life. The point where all factors within the environment work together towards the betterment of the ecosystem is the point where the business can be termed as sustainable.

Sustainability Strategies

In the second lecture, I learned strategies for suitability. The learning material and lecture notes opened up my perspective of thinking in terms of sustainability strategies.  I increased my knowledge of business strategies and further diversified my understanding of how strategies can be employed towards increased sustainability development. Porter’s Five Forces model is one of the tools that have been used to explain strategies on sustainability. The ability of new entities to join the market, the ability substitutes to replace an entity and the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers will all play a key role in influencing the strategy a business will employ. Businesses are all looking to attain an advantage over their competition in the social market place. The business must, therefore, use varied strategies to understand their market and evaluate the effectiveness of their strategies.

Strategy development and formulation is a continuous process which allows businesses to measure their overall effectiveness. Depending on the nature of the economy and the ideals of the market, a business will highlight a strategy which best suits it and allows for adjustments. One of the strategies that businesses use is the Value Chain Approach by Porter. The approach allows a business to evaluate how its primary activities can be complemented with support activities to establish value. The BCG matrix, on the other hand, allows businesses to establish areas of high and low market growth versus control. This will direct the business on a specific area of focus to allow increased performance. Strategies such as the Ansoff Matrix allow a business to evaluate between new and existing markets and products. This will offer the business avenues to diversify and increase their creativity. The strategy which will offer the business flexibility, stability and manoeuvrability will be the best strategy for the business. This strategy will offer the business increased competitiveness and improve performance.

I learned that a business strategy would find a compromise where society, the environment and the economy experience equal representation. Finding the point where all three variables can interact without dislocating each other is termed as the point where the business strategy is sustainable. This point is, however, difficult to achieve due to the evolving and dynamic nature of society. Since people are the main players within the ecosystem. The majority of sustainability strategies will be skewed in their favour. To achieve economic sustainability that observes the overall needs of all, there will be a need to develop a paradigm that operates with the needs of society at the forefront. Developing a sustainable strategy will require the integration of the needs of the entire ecosystem towards mutual understanding and development.

The economy is subdivided into three spheres. The market economy is the portion that has the most impact on the ecosystem from human activities. Because of established rules and regulations in pollution control, the level of pollution is relatively low. The survival economy, comprised of the rural economy, is the largest growing economic segment, they contribute to 90% of the global growth rate and draw their necessities from the environment. Getting a strategy that works in their favour will ensure there is sustainable population growth in the rural parts of developing markets. The activities of businesses have contributed to the destruction of the environment and pushed this economic segment to extreme poverty. The last segment is the natural economy that encompasses all the resources which support life. Due to the finite nature of the resources, the economy is the most threatened by business and human activity. Necessities such as lack of water, clean air, and deforestation lead to increased environmental degradation and threaten the survival of the ecosystem.

Sustainability can only be achieved if all activities geared towards wealth creation can be geared towards having the least impact on the ecosystem. Technology has proven to be one of the avenues that can be used to reduce the overall impact of activities on the environment. By investing in sustainability management, businesses can improve their overall performance without having detrimental implications for the environment. Establishing a balance where all activities can interact for the good of all economies will increase the sustainability of business entities. The strategies that businesses employ should have transformational and transitional capabilities towards converting the environment to a sustainable ecosystem. Businesses also need to establish a sustainability vision that is driven towards incorporating all of the business activities towards sustainable development.

Examples of Sustainability in Action

Business entities should employ the knowledge and lifestyle of ants to increase their overall effectiveness in converting all resources to useful components. Ants are some of the most resourceful animals. They covert the waste humans give out and make it their food.  This is a clear example of how businesses can be engaged with their environment to convert waste into raw materials for industries. In society, nature will always work within the confines of the environment, industries and businesses, on the other hand, will work against the environment and general composition of nature. This is because industries do not have a defined approach to handling waste, and they end up polluting the environment. Within the ecosystem, all matter works to sustain each other. Therefore, there is no such thing as waste. All matter and material from one process can be used in another process as raw material. The biggest elements, namely, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen, are recycled and reused by different processes in the ecosystem. The efficiency of the environment to recycle different elements and the ability of the environment to utilize those elements into useful material will translate to sustainability. Eco-efficiency on its own is however, not a solution to the development of sustainability.

Life Cycle Analysis

Different products have defined implications to the environment. The economic, social and economic impact a product has on the environment defines the life cycle of a product. As part of the measure towards establishing sustainability, it is paramount for any business to conduct a life cycle assessment-driven towards the identification of the impact of the product on the environment. Understanding the impact will lead to increased knowledge of performance measures that can be adopted to decrease the environmental impact of the product. Conducting the assessment involves identification of areas of improvement, liaising with necessary decision-makers to highlight performance indicators, establishing the value opportunities and understanding of product development systems. The business will then assess key areas in the value chain that can be improved and then the establishment of the overall impact will have on the value chain. If the changes have a total impact on changing the business impact as opposed to transferring it, then the business will have adopted a sustainable strategy.

The business can also compare existing strategies and measure the environmental impact of each approach. By using available data, the business can establish how each approach works towards increasing business performance and improving growth and development. This approach will play a critical role in increasing sustainability and fostering reduced environmental implications of business activities. By auditing al the processes involved in the creation of value, a business can achieve increased efficiency in the production process. The business can measure areas of reduction that can be employed towards creating recycling tendencies and regulating material use and environmental impact.

There are four distinct stages in the life cycle assessment. These are the identification of goals and objectives, development of life cycle inventory, identification of life cycle impact assessment and interpretation. A business will first start by identifying the goals and objectives of key areas of evaluation that can be implemented. The business will then map out all the activities in value addition and develop an inventory of the most impactful activities. This will then be followed with an impact assessment to measure the overall impact of the activities on the environment. The business will then interpret the various impacts and ascertain the best approach to employ in reducing the impact of the business on the environment.

Transitional and transformational epistemology

Following the discussion in lecture six, it dawned on me that while sustainability has been embedded in various scientific disciplines, it is not owned up by one. Achievement of millennium development goals has been one of the objectives of the global market space. Ecological sustainability is one of the main ideas behind the realization of millennium development goals. Nature has an infinite selection of resources that can be utilized as raw materials. Nature still serves as the storage site for the waste products that will arise from the utilization of resources. Over time, this cycle of use and disposal will choke the environment and lead to degradation. Identification of strategies that will conserve the environment will lead to eco-centric epistemology which will improve levels of sustainability within the environment.

There has been a rigid approach to increasing knowledge on the utilization of resources. There is a general approach that land not utilized island wasted. The approach has been driven towards the notion of using land for the betterment and growth of the economy. The land has been viewed as having no inherent value of its own and means to be used for the desire of mankind. This approach, however, contributes to environmental degradation as a result of the overuse of the resources in the environment. This is because there has been a rapid increase in population to reach unsustainable levels. Environments are unable to comfortably support the soaring population numbers. Increased extraction of resources has also contributed to the rapid depletion of finite resources. Using the traditional approach to make a judgment on the use of resources will lead to the collapse of the ecosystem. This is because the environment will not be able to support life as a result of strain.

There is a need to adopt new ideologies and systems in the development of best practices in resource utilization. Maintaining a healthy ecosystem will lead to increased efficiency of the environment. A healthy ecosystem will also improve the quality of production processes towards increasing ecological sustainability. The adoption of new epistemology towards environmental management will result in an increased representation of the different areas of ecological conservation. The adoption of eco-centric business strategies will foster cooperation between various stakeholders in the increase in ecological management. The strategies to be employed vary from the use of biodegradable material to the application of technical nutrients. The use of these approaches will work to reduce the overall extent of wastage and further they will improve sustainability.

There is a dilemma on whether businesses will be quick to employ strategies that do not offer financial returns. By adopting eco-centric strategies, the business will change the nature of the products being sold. Businesses will be inclined to adopt measures that offer them a competitive advantage and offer points of differentiation from other players in the market. One of the brands to have tried the econ-centric approach to management is Nike. The company worked towards the development of shoes from vegetable leather. The shoes reduced the overall impact of the product on the environment and also increased responsible consumption. This shows that brands too, can audit their production process and increase the use of material that increases ecological sustainability.

The Psychology of Sustainability

It dawned to me that sustainability is more of a phycological function as opposed to a scientific function. Governments and other stakeholders can put in place laws meant to promote sustainable business practices, but the failure of businesses to have people geared towards sustainability toll leads to failure. Individuals will be exposed to all relevant information on sustainability and have all relevant resources to implement sustainability drive but still not do it. People will contribute to environmental degradation, both knowingly and unknowingly. The environment has been given the least priority in overall conservation leading to passive awareness in management. Despite knowledge on the impacts of human activities on the environment, individuals still relegate conservation as a secondary role.

Freudian Psychology has been put forward to explain some of the contributing reasons behind the behaviour. The theory states that human behaviour is unconscious. The body has developed its defence mechanism which splits our awareness levels based on activities surrounding us. Our overall sense of self is developed based on our interaction with entities within our environment. The continuous development of the self-suppresses the areas of our personality that are observant of the environment and related factors. Because of our prior relationship with the environment where we do not give it much importance, we are reduced to not caring about the environment ourselves. Because those we interact within our environment do not give much importance to the environment, we are also forced to care less about the environment. This withdrawal of attention on matters of the environment leads to reduced ecological awareness.

Excessive early demands forced children’s personalities to conform to a predetermined social structure where they perform various tasks out of routine and not a necessity. This further leads to the development of a false self-system where we think we are aware of ourselves, but in reality, we are emulating the routine functions we have been doing since childhood. This behaviour of the false system leads an individual on the path to environmental destruction. Because they are not aware of their environment, they are driven towards destruction and unsustainable activities. The modern world view has been geared towards the promotion of laissez-faire policies to promote land use among other policies. The approach promotes land use for the gain of individuals as opposed to the development of communities.

The new ecological psychology is geared towards erasing the traditional mindset and mentality of resource utilization for personal gain. The new ideology is geared towards resource utilization to increase social gain and conservation. The philosophy is geared towards the idea the plants and animals have an equal right to the ecosystem as human beings. The new philosophy is geared towards increasing social benefits and gain for all while nurturing a sense of responsibility among the general population. The idea is governed by three policies, namely the importance of creating social balance, institution to limits of economic growth and revision of man’s role in the domination of nature. The philosophy encourages social action to reverse the implications of human activity to the environment.

Product Stewardship

The learning on product stewardship played a key role in widening my scope of knowledge on improvements businesses can employ towards increasing performance. Porter developed the shared value model to explain the cause of all social problems. He stated that business is not the solution to social problems but a problem in itself. Profit realization leads to increased business inefficiencies within the ecosystem. Under the shared value model, the business will benefit from diversifying profits towards solving social problems while increasing responsible behaviour. The business can engage in sustainable production where it ensures its activities do not cause harm to the environment.

Michael Green, while highlighting areas of improvement that businesses can employ to increase sustainability, noted that SDGs are side-lined while reduction of poverty is being amplified. It is essential for business entities and corporates to ensure they put in place measures that will increase sustainability while improving the overall performance of businesses. Getting a blend of all the identified variables will ensure there is an overall improvement in service delivery and performance. This course has been an eye-opener for me. More than just saying that I advocate for sustainability, I now understand what sustainability involves and how I can be part of the conversation. The learning has exposed me to different theories and ideologies, which will help me evaluate if my activities are sustainable to the ecosystem.  This knowledge will play a key role in the development of strategy and the promotion of sustainable business practices.