Sustainable Business Management Case Study: Amazon's Sustainable Progress

This case study on sustainable business management focuses on Amazon's sustainable progress. It covers the Waste Hierarchy Framework and the initiatives taken by Amazon to achieve zero carbon. The report also discusses the challenges of climate change, poverty, and energy consumption, and how Amazon is addressing them using the Triple Bottom Line framework.

Sustainable Business
Management case
study Amazon
sustainable progress

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
TASK...............................................................................................................................................4
Waste Hierarchy Framework.......................................................................................................4
Initiative taken by Amazon..........................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Sustainable business management may be referred as the process of operating business in a way
which recognise that resources are limited in quantity and valuable to society (Van Kleef, and
Roome, 2019). It is imperative for business to optimally use resources that it yields high
profitability. Business activities are negatively impacting environment and it needs to be taken
care for future generation. This project report is based on Amazon, an American multinational
technology based company that emphasise on cloud computing, e-commerce and digital
streaming. The main aim of company is to be earth’s customer centric company. This project
report will cover Waste Hierarchy framework along with key sustainable challenges in terms of
social, environmental and economic issues by using triple bottom line theory.
TASK
Apart from profit making, companies have to frame effective strategies which contributes in
keeping business sustainable. Many business activities are negatively impact on environment and
leads to pollution. Manufacturing firms contributes higher in air pollution and release toxic and
harmful gases which causes many lungs diseases (Goni and et al.,2021). In order to minimise its
impact on environment, company is driving towards zero carbon future in which people support
value chain with respect and dignity. In order to better understand sustainable business
management, Waste Hierarchy Framework is used.
Waste Hierarchy Framework
This framework facilitates in ranking of waste management options in accordance to what best
for environment. By implementing this model, Amazon can prevent waste in first place and gives
priority in reusing so as to recycle, recover and disposal (Comin and et al., 2019). This
framework replaces traditional waste management system of 3Rs and expands to five step
process in which most preferred actions are at top and least preferred at bottom in inverted
pyramid. Following are elements of WHF that Amazon can opt so as to reach its objective of
zero carbon.
 Reduce- In this waste hierarchy, company places top priority on preventing or reducing
waste as much as possible. This will help company in reducing unwanted cost and leads
to higher efficiency and also prevents unnecessary consumption of resources. By
minimising waste, company can save its cost and time. In addition to that, it can procure

raw material which comes with least packaging or can avoid single use goods. Company
can optimise inventory ton prevent perishable goods from going to waste.
 Reuse- Making materials for reuse in their original form can be best approach to waste
management. Amazon can reuse its products and can prevent on avoiding on virgin or
new goods. It can use durable glass instead of single use plastic glass and can reuse its
packaging material and boxes.
 Recycling- This phase involves processing of materials that would be sent to landfills and
turning them into new products. It is third step of waste management and extra resources
and energy is needed for purpose of creation of new product. Amazon can recycle scrapb
paper but process requires involvement of electricity and water in order to transform into
paper product. In order to maximise recycling opportunities, Amazon should have
adequate recycling infrastructure at which there should have proper recycling facility.
With this, company can reduce its carbon footprints which are damaging environment.
 Recovery- In some instance, where recycling is not possible, companies can recover
material or energy from waste by opting various processes such as gasification, pyrolysis,
anaerobic digestion and incineration (Yakubu and Zhou, 2019).
 Disposable- When all above processes fail and materials cannot be reused, recycled or
recovered then it would be incinerated or landfilled. This is an unsustainable waste
management as water waste which sits in landfills can continuously damages
environment. For example, one ton of landfilled food waste produces 450 kg carbon
emission and also leaks toxic liquids which contaminate groundwater and soil.
Initiative taken by Amazon
 Amazon has launched Climate Pledge Fund of $2 billion so as to support development of
sustainable and decarbonising technologies.
 Company have successfully secured naming rights to Climate Pledge Arena and
submitted registration to become world’s first zero carbon certified arena.
 Amazon have successfully delivered more than 20 million packages in order to reduce
carbon effluents. It will positively impact on company’s brand equity.
 Amazon have become world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy.
Challenges

Climate change- The warming climate system is expected to impact on the availability of
basic necessities such as food security, energy and freshwater (Ghazvinei and et
al.,2017). It is one of the most significant challenge of sustainable development and it is
needed to address this issue by framing of strategies in order to mitigate its negative
impact on environment. Developing and poor countries adversely affect with this
challenge. Amazon have taken initiative to replace traditional delivery vehicle with
electric vans. It will mitigate carbon emission and not negatively impact environment.
Increase in global temperature, ocean acidification and sea level rise are some significant
challenge to sustainable development. By minimising its negative impact, company can
achieve its objective or zero carbon arena.
Poverty and inequality- It is also one of the crucial challenge that need to be taken into
account. This could be due to change in various factors of economy such as fluctuation in
interest and inflation rate. In addition to that, unemployment also create obstacle in way
of company’s success. Many people have relevant set of skills but due to lack of
employment they cannot showcase their skills in order to contribute in sustainable
development. There can be seen inequality which dis-balance sustainability in business
and company may face challenge in way to achieve sustainability. By reducing poverty
and eliminating inequality, company can attain sustainability.
Energy consumption- Amazon consumes high energy which may create challenge in its
operations. To address this issue, company can opt for solar panels by which it can
reduce dependency on power grids.
Triple Bottom line
It is a framework used by Amazon so as to measure social and environmental impact
along with financial performance. It consists of three elements and are discussed below.
Profit- In terms of profit, Amazon should keep an eye on its profit and how above
mentioned challenges can impact on company’s profitability. In addition to that, if they
adversely impact then it is needed to take corrective action.
People- This component emphasises on business societal impact and on its commitment
to people. Company’s internal as well as external stakeholders are highly engages in
making company sustainable and contributes their valuable efforts to attain sustainable
position in market.

Planet- Company tries to reduce its carbon emission by replacing conventional delivery
vehicles by electric vans. This will reduce cost as well as positively impacts on planet. As
companies are contributing in pollution to environment and by taking initiative, company
can keep planet safe and clean.

CONCLUSION
From the above project report, it was concluded that bringing sustainably in business operations
is crucial to planet. It is important for company to frame effective strategies which contributes in
achieving sustainable position in company. In addition to that, Amazon has launched Climate
Pledge Fund of $2 billion so as to develop zero carbon arena. The concepts of 3Rs is replaced by
Waste Hierarchy management and can be considered as extended form of traditional waste
management framework. There are various issues such as climate change, poverty and reliability
of supplier paid are discussed in this report.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Comin and et al., 2019. Sustainable business models: a literature review. Benchmarking: An
International Journal.
Ghazvinei and et al.,2017. University campus solid waste management: combining life cycle
assessment and analytical hierarchy process. Springer.
Goni and et al.,2021. Sustainable business model: A review and framework development. Clean
Technologies and Environmental Policy, 23(3), pp.889-897.
Van Kleef, J.A. and Roome, N.J., 2019. Developing capabilities and competence for sustainable
business management as innovation: a research agenda. Journal of cleaner production, 15(1),
pp.38-51.
Yakubu, Y. and Zhou, J., 2019. Novel approach to quantify municipal solid waste management
hierarchy based on analytical hierarchy process. International Journal of Environmental Science
and Technology, 16(4), pp.1897-1908.