Is there a growing pressure for businesses to operate sustainably?

Is there a growing pressure for businesses to operate sustainably?

Introduction

In every industry that a business is involved, sustainability is a key issue. Businesses have to adapt to the various changing issues to ensure that they remain in business. Managing the triple bottom line is a common definition of business sustainability. In a business, sustainability may be defined as the company’s performance in both the short and long term. There are numerous forces that impact company operations in the business environment, and these play an important role as managers must design strategies to overcome these obstacles. This essay discusses one of the elements of sustainability; the environment.

Achieving Sustainability in the industries

The current business climate necessitates the adoption of sustainable business techniques in order for a company to remain successful and sustainable in the foreseeable. The firm can employ a variety of tactics to achieve both immediate and long-term sustainability. The three main strategies that can be used in achieving sustainability include majoring in three different areas; economic, social, and environmental. In the frameworks utilized by managers to improve company sustainability, social, economic, and environmental activities are referred to as the triple bottom line.

Financial responsibility was the major goal in most firms prior to the promotion of business sustainability and corporate social responsibility, but this has evolved as the necessity for corporations to regard society and the environment prior to making any choices has increased (Rezaee, 48). Incorporating regard to society has been essential in ensuring businesses remain in operation. In the context of the environment, businesses have had to incorporate environment preservation strategies in order to appeal to the public and also abide by the environmental laws that are cropping up. Sustainability principles cover a slew of voluntary actions implemented by a firm that incorporate environmental issues into business operations and encourage stakeholder participation. These elements include social, economic, environmental, and business-related opportunities and dangers. When businesses include good environmental strategies, they are more capable of overcoming any current and future resilience, putting the company in a strategic position that enhances future growth (Rezaee, 48).

It is critical that a company recognizes the obligation to adopt environmental preservation methods such as using clean energy, supporting the utilization of lean business processes, and completing a lifecycle analysis to guarantee that the goods created do not pollute the environment at any point (Durst et al., 16). The various strategies that companies used to achieve sustainability have varied significance. In order to be successful, a company must constantly participate in actions that decrease expenses, enhance efficiency, increase product value, and minimize waste. All of these variables help the firm to enhance its profit margins, which leads to improved long-term sustainability. Lean manufacturing and services are the primary economic strategies that the firm may employ. This entails implementing measures to decrease waste created by the firm (Dyllick et al., 158). All wastes are recognized and methods for reducing these wastes are developed in lean. The environment has an important indirect role and should be conserved for present and prospective generations. The firm must guarantee that its products and services are safe and environmentally friendly. This is critical since environmental devastation will have an impact on the company’s consumer base as well as the environment in which it works (Durst et al., 18). Environmental sustainability entails adopting judgments and taking actions to maintain the natural world, with a special emphasis on maintaining the environment’s capacity to maintain human existence. It is a timely issue since people are becoming more aware of the full influence that corporations and people may have on the environment.

Environmental sustainability entails making sensible choices that decrease a company’s adverse environmental effect (Dyllick et al.,156). It is focused on establishing procedures that will result in firms becoming totally sustainable in the future, rather than merely lowering the amount of trash produced or consuming less energy. Presently, environmental sustainability is a hot topic that attracts a lot of coverage from the media and other government agencies. This is due to the number of studies being conducted to analyze the influence of human behaviour on the environment (Dyllick et al., 160). Whereas the long-term ramifications of this critical issue are not completely known, it is widely acknowledged that the risk is significant enough to warrant immediate action.

Conclusion

As knowledge of sustainability grows, societal pressures on business grow accordingly. With a growing number of consumers developing a greater concern for the environment, businesses are adapting to the environmentally conscious consumers in order to stay relevant and appease their customers. These changes are becoming evermore necessary for businesses to enhance their customer base and maintain a positive public image. Therefore, it is likely that businesses that don’t make an effort to operate sustainably will gradually decline in the foreseeable future.

Works cited

Durst, Susanne, and Malgorzata Zieba. “Knowledge risks inherent in business sustainability.” Journal of Cleaner Production 251 (2020): 119670.

Dyllick, Thomas, and Katrin Muff. “Clarifying the meaning of sustainable business: Introducing a typology from business-as-usual to true business sustainability.” Organization & Environment 29.2 (2016): 156-174.

Rezaee, Zabihollah. “Business sustainability research: A theoretical and integrated perspective.” Journal of Accounting literature 36 (2016): 48-64.