Analytical Essay
Running head: ANALYTICAL ESSAY- SUSTAINABILITY
ANALYTICAL ESSAY- SUSTAINABILITY
2
Sustainability
Sustainability can be treated as the ability to continually maintain something at a
certain rate. The class readings convey sustainability as the ability to keep both human beings
and the biosphere to exist at the same time. Corporate sustainability, as portrayed in the
speaker notes, is an effective approach that is designed to establish admirable stakeholder
value (Benn, Edwards, and Williams, 2014). The notes state that such an outcome can be
achieved through the strategy to take a step that prioritizes economic, cultural, social,
environmental, and ethical principles of guiding business. Some of the most effective steps in
driving sustainability in business comprise the following:
1. Involving a sustainability manager who is responsible for advising an organization on
best sustainable practices.
2. Having budget and action plan.
3. Assessment of the company’s culture, property, practices, and buildings.
Compare with the knowledge learned from class lectures, it is evident that
sustainability strategies are created to promote proper employee environment, longevity, and
transparency to fuel development in a business setting. To better understand this concept, it is
important to identify the difference that exists between corporate social responsibility (CSR)
and sustainability (Grayson & Hodges, 2017). CSR is filled by norms, morality, and ethics,
while sustainability drives businesses to undertake intertemporal trade-offs. The trade-offs
often help companies to protect intergenerational equity. In other terms, the guest speaker’s
note pictures the bane of sustainability as short-termism (Castle,2019). To successfully
enhance sustainability effectiveness in any businesses, three key factors must be strongly
adhered to. These include stakeholder engagement, transparency, and the ability to foresee
the future and think ahead (Benn et al., 2014).
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
ANALYTICAL ESSAY- SUSTAINABILITY
3
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…In this regard, both the class lectures and the guest speaker’s PowerPoint hold that
stakeholder engagement promotes lots of education that often informs stakeholders on how to
respond to critical issues (Skift, 2019; White,2019; Castle,2019). Issues, in this case, maybe
energy efficiency and waste production. The ability to think ahead improves the capability of
a business to look forward to the future. This is essential, especially in understanding trends.
At the same time, it is a sustainability aspect that enables one to generate rational ideologies.
Both class and guest speaker’s PowerPoint make it clear that sustainability is a tool that helps
create profitable businesses (White,2019; Castle,2019). In sum, this analytical essay is mainly
focused on sustainability and technological trends and, at the same time, compare and
contrast classroom knowledge with the guest speaker’s notes.
Sustainability comes along with a wide range of advantages to any organization or
business setting. Generally, at the implementation stage, it increases the ability of an
organization to draft operational initiatives. For example, an organization can define how to
reduce its expenses on energy and water consumption without necessarily affecting its
operations. Alternative actions that arise from sustainability include adoption recycling and
composting programs, carbon offsetting initiatives, ethical and local sourcing, and cutting
excess packaging (Castle, 2019; Skift, 2019). Sustainability for businesses enables them to
create models that help, especially in resolving the ever-emerging 21st-century challenges
(Castle, 2019; Skift, 2019).
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
According to the presentation by the guest speaker, it is clear that apart from the listed firms,
ANALYTICAL ESSAY- SUSTAINABILITY
4
business leaders across the globe are seeking practical metrics and standards that support the
application of sustainability principles (Castle,2019). Sustainability reduces the negative
impact of innovation and, instead, helps increase opportunities for businesses. At the same
time, sustainability principles enable corporations to pay attention to how their operations
influence the community, environment, and economy (Benn et al., 2014).
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
Most importantly, sustainability enhances the acknowledgment of climate change. That is,
through sustainability, firms get to appreciate that addressing climate change requires zero-
emission goals, efficient discharge and waste management, increasing resilience, risk
management, as well as cost reduction measures.
At the meaning while, while addressing such factors, businesses would be, at the same
time, ensuring a safe working environment for workers, creating amicable manufacturing
chains, promoting privacy protection, and fostering security policies that are respecting the
rights of people (Dyllick & Hockerts, 2002). By applying an analytical approach to both the
class lectures and guest speaker’s PowerPoint, individuals may understand that sustainability
comes with a wide range of advantages (White,2019; Castle,2019). For instance, companies
that are considered to be sustainable have proved to be great contributors to economic growth
as they tend to enforce women empowerment. On the other hand, sustainability is a factor
that enforces businesses
to………………………………………………………………………………………………
…… Another policy may presuppose that bottle depot-generated revenue would be
reinvested into green projects (Benn et al., 2014). On the same note, sustainability also guides
firms on how to undertake local sourcing and ethical purchasing. According to Benn et al.,
(2014), sustainability comes along with the principles that define how to work with suppliers
that share the same ecological and ethical ideologies, as well as purchasing goods and
ANALYTICAL ESSAY- SUSTAINABILITY
5
products that are credible and certified. Firms that follow these principles will focus on local
sourcing, as well as promote edible gardens in society.
The world economic forum extends the perception of business sustainability. The
WEF has, over decades, continued to employ experts with the role of drafting applicable and
profound sustainability principles in various fields. It is based on the fact that the world
economic forum recognizes the significance of corporate sustainability as it creates a strong
foundation upon which most world business leaders base their sustainability practices and
policies (Dyllick & Hockerts, 2002). To improve the positive influence attached to
sustainability, most corporations are not only choosing to partner with just start-ups that are
considered greener, but they are also paying attention to three major corporate sustainability
pillars (Benn et al., 2014). These pillars are economic, social, and environmental ones. The
environmental pillar seems to be the most important as it arguably guides corporations on
how to review their processes for greener alternatives. It is through this pillar that
sustainability enables companies to cut packaging waste and carbon footprint (Benn et al.,
2014). Not only does sustainability under the environmental pillar help companies to reduce
their negative environmental impact, but also aids firms to enhance their financial returns and
public reputation. In sum, sustainability increases environmental awareness by creating
formidable greener practices. The social pillar helps improve support that a company gathers
from society, employees, and other stakeholders. That is, a firm can understand how to
interact with the community and stakeholders. The pillar facilitates fair employee treatment,
as well as having a respectful supply chain. The guest speaker’s presentation proves that
building a business that is characterized by a profound culture which is community-oriented
enhances the firm’s sustainably (Castle,2019). Such a culture often promotes innovation
among employees, thus, gradually improving the business model, processes, and product
quality.
ANALYTICAL ESSAY- SUSTAINABILITY
6
Under the economic pillar, business leaders are changed that they do not only focus
on accumulate profits, but also pay attention to risk management (Dyllick & Hockerts, 2002).
This pillar makes sustainability more critical as it shifts the company’s focus to acquire a
balance of ethics and profits. On the same note, the economic pillar balances the pressure that
arises from the implementation of the sustainable measures (Dyllick & Hockerts, 2002).
Sustainability enables companies to appreciate that corporate policies do not have to be
dangerous and self-defeating, but instead, they should focus on how to achieve positive
reputation and growth (Benn et al., 2014). In this case, the economic pillar of sustainability
enables a company to continue implementing change at a rate that is gradual and financially
beneficial.
In conclusion, the analysis above includes both comparison and contrast of class
lecture notes and guest speaker’s presentations.
ANALYTICAL ESSAY- SUSTAINABILITY
7
References