In the year 2009, the UN Climate Change conference held in Copenhagen firmly developed the issue of attention threats of global warming in both the global political and business arenas. Since the industrial revolution in the late 18th century, new factories were built which means more deforestation, more use of electricity, more burning of fossil fuel and resulting in emission of more Carbonized into the environment. At the same time with the increasing number of population in the world, people are getting more dependent on motor vehicles and machineries which also releases toxic and harmful gases responsible for global warming.
From a business perspective or an individual, the word Sustainability’ could have different meaning: According to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development(2005), “ It is concerned with meeting the needs of people today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. From a business perspective, sustainability has been defined as company’s ability to achieve its business goals and increase long term shareholder value by integrating economic, environmental and social opportunities into business strategies.
Many renown business organizations around the world such as; Paris based TOTAL, Sweden based VOLVO, Australia based Quanta’s and many more are concerned about global warming. Contributing towards sustainability and implementing them has now become one of their business strategies. These business firms are contributing towards sustainable development in various ways. The world is going to face a severe challenge of global warming due to emission Of enormous amount Of carbonized and other greenhouse gases.
Many scientist have predicted that by the end of 2050, a quarter of the planet’s plants and animals will be at the edge of extinction if the rate of mission of CO and global warming continues. (C. D. Thomas, 8 Jan 2004) Although it is too late to response for such upcoming disaster, still it’s in our favor. It is the responsibility for developed countries in the world to take necessary initiatives as they are mostly involved. In addition, to be responsible for global warming, developed countries, especially business farms are supervising some ongoing experiments and they are achieving their expected success.
A concern was expressed by David Suzuki and Holly Dressed in their book ‘ Good news for a change’ that “ we can make more fuel efficient cars and firms could supply less toxic products that can be reused and recycled” For instances; world famous soft drink manufacturing company decided to replace 100% of their vending machine and cooler to reduce HOFF which is a greenhouse gas, automobile company Volvo declared to manufacture carbon free car and one of its executives said ‘ u hope this project will inspire other companies.
The technology is there. It is a question of 2 Feb.. 2007), another automobile company Volkswagen and BMW are working to create recyclable cars, ANZA bank, Weakest bank, National Australian bank and Insurance Australia declared to buy electricity from the firm which does not uses coal. Quanta’s, one of the most successful airlines companies since it was established in 1 920, environmental sustainability is their guiding principle other than passenger safety. For continuous improvements, Quanta’s set and review their environmental strategies.
They have invested billions of dollars for buying fuel efficient aircrafts and also invest in accelerating industries which efforts to develop sustainable aviation fuel. Quanta’s encourage environmental wariness among people and take part in many sustainable investment indexes such as: a)DOD Jones Sustainability Index(DSSSL) which evaluates sustainability performance of world’s largest companies listed and Quanta’s is only one of two airlines listed since 2001. B) FETES Good c) Carbon disclosure project. D) Carbon offset program which ranked 4 globally.
Quanta’s also fund Centre of Sustainability leadership (SSL), a non profit organization, which works for influencing people who care about living in a sustainable world. Another successful and numerous award winning Belgian many that produces cleaning products using only plant and mineral based ingredients that are Upton 20 times less toxic than conventional cleaning product. In 1 992 the company has built first ecological factory ever in Male , Belgium. It’s 6000 square meter roof were made up of grass which keeps the factory cool in summer and warm in winter.
The company had built such kind of structure because of its commitment to preserving the environment long before sustainability had become established as a concept in the business sector. Not only organizations but also many Australian universities are also irking for sustainability; Monish University has set quite ambitious carbon reduction targets and they were successful at it by purchasing carbon offsets on an international market. Monish also has also undertaken installing solar panels which will supply approximately 1 00 000 kilowatts of electricity each year.
Other universities that are making considerable contribution to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions include the University of Queensland, The university of Melbourne and Australian National University (ANN.). From the $1. 5 million fund received by University of Queensland from its overspent, they will install Australia’s largest photo-volcanic panels which will provide electricity as well as becoming a living laboratory for the study of the production of ‘ green energy’.
Australian National University also has an ambitious goal to reduce its greenhouse gas by 35% by 2020 and its water usage by 30% by 2015. These are just few examples of universities in Australia that are making decisions to build sustainability into their operations at the same time as aspects of sustainability are rapidly becoming a central theme f many of the teaching and research projects being conducted in Australian universities. (Matter J. , ‘ Universities find targets tough’, Australian Financial Review, 3 May 2010, p. 9) Although, ecological and environment friendly structure made by Belgian based Cover company or billion dollar fuel efficient aircraft bought by Australia based Quanta’s company or 100% replacement of all the machineries done by Collar, it takes huge amount of investments and proper planning. Recycling, a process of re using a product, which is a step towards sustainability, usually increases the cost of ewe product formed. Companies have to compensate the additional cost incurred by recycling.
As almost all the large organizations in the world are concerned about sustainability, Top executives of those organizations have to think critically about environmental sustainability issues other than business plan. While developing new strategies for the entire organization and this issue might deviate the top executives’ core business plan and business would not be effective as planned. ‘ Sustainability’ in a word is meant to be sustaining in the world for a long term y minimizing the threats of global warming. We cannot stop carbon emission but we can reduce the emission into a minimum level through sustainable practices.
Many organizations from developed and developing countries around the world are working together to resist the adverse effects of global warming by going greener. In the meantime, organizations are achieving their expected success which resulting them to work on sustainability even further than ever imagined. Although the term ‘ Cost’ comes under consideration while contributing towards sustainability, only social awareness and encouragement can let all the organizations and even each individual to work on sustainability.
