Environmental Sustainability Practices of Brittany Ferries

This report evaluates the environmental sustainability practices of Brittany Ferries, a French shipping corporation. It discusses the implementation of three core concepts, i.e. environmental standards, corporate social responsibility, and solid waste management in the business practices of Brittany Ferries. The report includes a theoretical review of environmental sustainability, evaluation of Brittany Ferries' sustainability practices, and recommendations for the organization. The subject is environmental sustainability and the course code is not mentioned. The college/university is not mentioned.

Running Head: BUSINESS ISSUES 1
Contemporary Business Issues

BUSINESS ISSUES 2
Part 1:
Executive Summary
Environmental sustainability is essential to enhance the presence of business all over the world.
It includes various processes and components, which provide benefits to the society and
environment. It includes establishing eco-system integrity, developing biodiversity and capacity.
The major objective of this report is to describe environmental sustainability practices of
Brittany Ferries. It includes the application of three core concepts, i.e. environmental standards,
corporate social responsibility and solid waste management in the business practices of Brittany
Ferries. The company has successfully implemented these concepts in its businesses processes
that assisted the organization in establishing an effective brand image in several countries. To
understand the theoretical concepts, various examples from real business world are taken into
consideration.

BUSINESS ISSUES 3
Table of Contents
Part 1:...............................................................................................................................................2
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Environmental Sustainability Theoretical Review..........................................................................4
Environmental Standards.............................................................................................................4
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).......................................................................................5
Solid Waste Management............................................................................................................6
Evaluation of organisation’s Environmental Sustainability practices.............................................6
Conclusions and Recommendations................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

BUSINESS ISSUES 4
Introduction
Environmental sustainability can be defined as a responsible interface with the environment for
avoiding the deprivation of natural and environmental resources. In today’s business world, most
of the organizations use these practices to avoid the negative impact of business processes and
activities on environment and its different components. By developing these practices,
organizations are becoming able to make effective decisions and capture opportunities, which are
in the interest of environment. This report is prepared by considering Brittany Ferries that is a
French shipping organization and operates its business in United Kingdom, France, Spain and
Ireland. This report includes different concepts of environmental sustainability and their critical
evaluation in relation to Brittany Ferries Organization. To collect the relevant data, qualitative
methodology is used and data is collected from organization’s websites. Environmental practices
are evaluated by using three course concepts. In order to evaluate these practices, some examples
are taken from real business world. Furthermore, some environmental practices are identified by
linking them to the theoretical concepts and review.
Environmental Sustainability Theoretical Review
The requirement for environmental sustainability is progressively recognized in the policy areas
through the developing and developed world. These policy areas include various core concepts
of environmental sustainability, which assists the organizations in practical implementation of
these sustainability practices. Societal need theory of environmental sustainability can assist in
understanding this concept. It states that organizations should consider the needs and
requirements of society and its people. The organization should manufacture nothing, which will
need future generations to sustain vigilance. It needs to design the products and services, which
make contribution to more sustainable environment and economy. There are several concepts,
which can be considered to analyze the environmental sustainability practices. The three
concepts, which are used to understand and evaluate the sustainability practices of Brittany
Ferries, are environmental standards, Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) and Solid Waste
Management (Marshall, McCarthy, Heavey, and McGrath, 2015). These are the concepts, which
ensure the organization that it operates its business processes by implementing the practices in

BUSINESS ISSUES 5
interest of environment and natural resources. The concepts of environmental sustainability state
that natural resources should be considered and maintained as an economic input resource.
Environmental Standards
Environmental standards are the policies and guidelines, which regulates the impact of human
and business activities on environment and its different components. It includes various quality
conditions, which are followed or sustained for environmental and natural resources. These
standards assist in controlling the pollution in environment (Yuan, Zhang, Wang, Wang and Zuo,
2017). It focuses on minimizing different types of pollutants such as; air pollutants, water
pollutants, noise pollutants and land pollutants. To understand this concept, Maga Construction
is a real world example, which has adopted effective environmental policies and guidelines. The
organization has identified as an award winner for implementing environment integration
activities. As it is a construction company in Sri Lanka, so it is developing environmentally
sustainable premises and buildings. It is engaged in reducing the adverse impact on
environmental components by maximizing the efficiency of resources and using renewable
properties (McKinnon, Browne, Whiteing and Piecyk, 2015). This organization has applied
various environmental standards and completed green building missions in 2017. There are some
environmental sustainability projects of Maga Constructions such as Clearpoint Residencies,
Green University Town etc.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Corporate Social Responsibility is a kind of self-regulated policies of a company, through which
the organization monitors and make it sure that it is complying with ethical standards, laws and
international regulations (Song, Li, and Zeng, 2015). In an organization, the major objective of
CSR practices is to hold the responsibility for the actions of company and enhance the positive
effect through its business processes on environment, employees, customers, stakeholders,
communities and other components of public domain, which can be considered as its
stakeholders. This is the most effective way through which an organization can generate the
returns by developing value for the environment and society. However, it is beneficial for the
organization, but they need to shift from profit making objective and they invest their funds on
community welfare. For example, BP is implementing CSR activities by incorporating five

BUSINESS ISSUES 6
components like; employees, ethical conduct, relationships with suppliers and customers, safety
and environmental performance and control (Clapp and Rowlands, 2014).
Solid Waste Management
Solid waste management is a process, which is used to collect and treat the solid wastes. It
provides the solutions for recycling the products, which do not belong to the category of thrash
and garbage. The people, who are living in residential and settlements areas, solid waste and
garbage has become a major issue. This mechanism is related to controlling the generation and
storage of solid waste materials in an effective manner, which addresses the environmental and
health considerations (Morelli, 2013). There are so many organizations, which implement the
process of solid waste management with objective to minimize and eliminate the negative effects
of waste materials on quality and economic development off life. The World Bank is the best
example from real business world that is providing finances and capital investments for waste
management. This organization is advising on solid waste management projects by using
different products and services, financing, loans and technical advisory (The World Bank, 2017).
Evaluation of organisation’s Environmental Sustainability practices
Brittany Ferries is a French shipping corporation, which runs a fleet of cruiseferries and ferries
beetween United Kingdom and France, Spain and Ireland and Spain and United Kingdom. It is a
leading shipping organization in the country by implementing effective strategies and tactics.
The organization has an insightful respect towards environment and focus on the need to
preserve the natural resources. This is the major reason, why the organization is able to reduce
the adverse effect of its business processes on environment. In addittion to this, it also assists the
people, who work for energy conservation. By doing this, the firm has gained an identification
for its efforts for environmental protection (Brittany Ferries, 2018). The organization is able to
gain a better and sustaianble competitive advantage in the shipping industry. With a strong
maritime history, the organization focuses on need of protecting the marine environment and the
living things, which live there. Britanny Ferries is working with several marine charities to
protect and emphasize the seas and their life. Moreover, it is conducting programs to educate the
customers about requirement of environment protection and marine conservation. These
sustainability practices of organizations have a positive impact on its brand name and
competitive position in the industry (Lun, Lai, Wong, and Cheng, 2016).

BUSINESS ISSUES 7
Brittany Ferries is using different processes and utilities which are organized to control and
monitor emission for improving the air quality in atmosphere. This organization has been
successfully implementing above mentioned concepts of environmental sustainability. At
Brittany Ferries, one of the major sustainability practices is solid waste management process.
Solid waste of all the ships such as; cardboard and glasses are fixed and crushed on board. After
that, they have been disposed or recycled by an authorized contactor. It manages its own
provision for the disposal of waste materials. In addition to this, the operations of Brittany
Ferries are planned to reduce the fuel usage and causing the emissions of CO2 by minimizing the
speed on immediate overpasses (Brittany Ferries, 2018).
Furthermore, the company is using effective environmental standards, which assisted the
organization in gaining better competitive advantage in the industry. Under this, one of the major
steps, which are taken by the organization, is the introduction of ships driven by Liquefied
Natural Gas (LNG). When it is burnt, it creates a lower level of air pollutants and CO2.
Honfleuer is the first ship with LNG that is resulting in reduction of pollution through its
shipping business activities. Additionally, all the ships of the company are manufactured with
water treatment components, which release only uncontaminated water in sea (Brittany Ferries,
2016). The water that is polluted by oil and chemicals is disposed by authorized waste disposal
contractors. It checks out its contractors regularly for ensuring that they adhere with domestic
and government environmental regulations.
For Brittany Ferries Organization, Corporate Social Responsibility has worked as most profitable
environmental sustainability practice. Under corporate social responsibility practices, the
organization is engaged in the practices, which are beneficial for both the environment and its
people as well. The mission statement of the company states that it always makes efforts to
understand the impact of business processes on environment, economy and society. Brittany
Ferries does not consider CSR as extra burden. It is an important part of staying competitive as
responsible organization (Liang and Renneboog, 2017). CSR practices at Brittany Ferries assist
in developing green ships, encouraging health and security of stakeholders and managing supply
chain in ethical and responsible way. By doing this, the company is able to establish its brand
image as “quality shipping organization”.

BUSINESS ISSUES 8
Conclusions and Recommendations
From this analysis, it has been concluded that environmental sustainability is significant for the
development of organization as it is not point of distraction or additional practice but it is a
necessity and responsibility of organization. This report includes the environmental sustainability
practices in relation to Brittany Ferries. The company is implementing various practices, which
are in the benefit and interest of environment and society. Three concepts, solid waste
management, corporate social responsibility and environmental standards have been discussed to
define the environmental sustainability practices of Brittany Ferries. These practices are assisting
the company in reducing the adverse impact of business processes on environment and society.
It is hereby recommended that organization should conduct a training program and encourage its
internal and external stakeholders to become eco-friendly. They should work for developing
environmental friendly practices. It should conduct a policy and ethical conduct, which may have
positive impact on the company’s brand image. As it is a shipping company, so it should make
focus on marine environmental protection. It should try to become more energy efficient by
using recycled materials. By considering these recommendations, the organization will be able to
gain more competitive advantage and sustain its competitive position in the shipping industry.

BUSINESS ISSUES 9
References
Brittany Ferries, 2016, Brittany Ferries orders new LNG powered ship, Retrieved from
https://www.green4sea.com/brittany-ferries-orders-new-lng-powered-ship/. (Accessed on 14
February 2018).
Brittany Ferries, 2018, Reducing emissions, Retrieved from
http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/information/environment/reducing-emissions. (Accessed on 14
February 2018).
Brittany Ferries, 2018, Sustainability - on board, retrieved from http://www.brittany-
ferries.co.uk/information/environment/sustainability. (Accessed on 14 February 2018).
Clapp, J. and Rowlands, I.H., 2014. Corporate social responsibility. The Essential Guide to
Global Environmental Governance. London, Routledge.
Liang, H. and Renneboog, L., 2017. On the foundations of corporate social responsibility. The
Journal of Finance, 72(2), pp.853-910.
Lun, Y.V., Lai, K.H., Wong, C.W. and Cheng, T.C.E., 2016. Adoption of Green Shipping
Practices. In Green Shipping Management (pp. 17-29). Springer, Cham.
Marshall, D., McCarthy, L., Heavey, C. and McGrath, P., 2015. Environmental and social supply
chain management sustainability practices: construct development and measurement. Production
Planning & Control, 26(8), pp.673-690.
McKinnon, A., Browne, M., Whiteing, A. and Piecyk, M. eds., 2015. Green logistics: Improving
the environmental sustainability of logistics. Kogan Page Publishers.
Morelli, J., 2013. Environmental sustainability: A definition for environmental
professionals. Journal of environmental sustainability, 1(1), p.2.
Song, Q., Li, J. and Zeng, X., 2015. Minimizing the increasing solid waste through zero waste
strategy. Journal of Cleaner Production, 104, pp.199-210.

BUSINESS ISSUES 10
The World Bank, 2017, Solid Waste Management, Retrieved from
http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/urbandevelopment/brief/solid-waste-management. (Accessed
on 14 February 2018).
Yuan, X., Zhang, M., Wang, Q., Wang, Y. and Zuo, J., 2017. Evolution analysis of
environmental standards: Effectiveness on air pollutant emissions reduction. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 149, pp.511-520.