Business Impacts on the SDGs

This report discusses the impact of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on businesses, focusing on the case study of Grovaz. It explores the relevance of SDGs to Grovaz and suggests actions to address issues and improve performance. Stakeholders impacted by these actions are also identified.

BUS30024
Advanced Innovative Business Practice
Business Impacts on the SDGs

Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction..........................................................................................................................3
2.0 What are the SDGs...............................................................................................................3
3.0 Impact on a business when achieving SDGs........................................................................3
4.0 SDG relevant to Grovaz.......................................................................................................4
5.0 Action Grovaz adopt to address the issue to improve performance.....................................5
6.0 Stakeholders that would be impacted by proposed action...................................................7
7.0 References............................................................................................................................8

1.0 Introduction
In this report, we will be discussing about the SDGs and the impact that SDGs brought to an
organisation when they are running a business. We will also deeply discuss about the
organisation, which is mentioned in this case study, Grovaz and related the SDGs to the
company and how to improve the company to achieve the SDGs.
2.0 What are the SDGs
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is established by the United Nation, not only
helping the individual and contrary to the economy, social and environmental issues. It is
aimed to protect our planet and ensure that all people in this planet can enjoy the peace and
glory environment by the year 2030. The reason why is having SDGs is to improve the health
and education system in the poor countries and to reduce the gap between the rich and poor
families. United Nation also hope to build a world that is no poverty, zero hunger, gender
equality, sustainable city, and community within the 17 sustainable development goals
(UNDESA, 2019). Although Malaysia is a wealthy country, but our government still working
hard to solve the challenges while achieving the SDG. For example, Malaysia had working
hard to achieve the goal of economic growth however this also led to another issue which is
the increasing in environmental degradation caused by the environmental resource’s
exploitation (Ismail, 2015). As a part of the country, we need to work hard together with
government to achieves these goals. United Nation hopes that these goals can improves the
quality of life for people and a more stable community so that every country can be more
sustainable and efficient. SDGs also working hard to protect the life on our planet, provide
the community with a better living quality with a clean and sustainable energy.
3.0 Impact on a business when achieving SDGs
SDGs is now a useful tool for a business as SDGs provide a very good chance and
possibilities for the business to develop new strategy and technology. SDGs will provide as a
guideline to help the organisation to determine the contribution of the organisation in the
development of sustainable society. It also helps the business in reducing the negative
consequences and increasing good effects for the peoples on the planet. As an example, if the
company chosen their business path to run their model become more efficient in the progress

of producing the goods and services, it could help their society to save a lot of resources and
reduce the issues of wasting and pollution. For example, SDGs will increase the awareness of
a business to design a more sustainable and eco-friendlier product in a more effective and
efficient way to reduce the issue of pollution and wastage.
SDGs had provide a huge opportunity to an organisation as it bring a huge profit to a business
in a long term as if the business able to fulfil the needs of the society, it will bring a brand-
new market value to the business. According to the UNDESA reports, there are advantages
for a business if they reached the goals on SDGs:
 Organisation could increase their ability in increasing their value within the long-term
development
 Ensure the latest business policy and maintain the relationship with their stakeholders
 Able to acquire a partner with similar targets and objectives when achieving the goals
4.0 SDG relevant to Grovaz
In this report we are looking at the company which is Grovaz that produce cookies with the
ingredients of corn that produced in their region which is Petunisia. Grovaz is aiming to
become a sustainable company to reach the SDGs however the country is still
underdeveloped and haven’t ready to have enough resources to produce the cookies. There
are many issues related to Petunisia and Grovaz that they need to implement the SDGs into it
to build up a sustainable country.
SDG that Grovaz can consider implementing into the business is the goal 12 in SDG of
responsible consumption and production. It is because according to the interview of the VP of
Grovaz we can observe that the organisation is not recycling any resources which mean many
of their resources are wasted in the process of production and they are not acting on the waste
that is recyclable. Besides of just dispose all the materials such as waste packaging, Grovaz
can address out the issue which how to recycle the wastage in a more efficient and effective
way.
The corn that they are using as the main ingredients of the cookies is harming the
environments as they need to clear out the forest and plants to establish the new corn farm,
which is the habitat of the Balkan Lynx. Balkan Lynx is a cat species animal that originated
in Petunisia. As the forest will be cutting down for the corn farm to make cookies,

environmental group believes that Balkan lynx will be extinct by the year 2030 due to their
loss of habitat. This is a big issue that Grovaz must concern that they are not only producing
the product that the society need, but they also must keep an eye at the way that they look for
the ingredients such as they cut down the forest to build up a corn farms are destroying the
natural habitat of the country. It will potentially causing the animal species to extinct, and this
is the issue that Grovaz must look after to perform better as a company in the country.
Besides that, Grovaz also need to address the issue of there packaging as they are using a
plastic packaging which will caused the plastic wastage and caused out the pollution problem.
Organisations need to figure out that after the consumer had finished the cookies, the plastic
package will harm the environment. Therefore, these are the issues that Petunisia and Grovaz
must address to achieve the SDGs 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.
5.0 Action Grovaz adopt to address the issue to improve
performance
If Grovaz want to improve their responsible consumption and production, they need to work
out the recycling part to their business model. There are many organisations in the worldwide
had already started their journey in recycling to bring competitive advantage for their
business. According to Dijkstra (2020), the competitive advantage and improving resource
per efficiency is the main chances for sustainable plastic. By going detailed for the
relationship between the SDGs and the action that Grovaz could be implemented to improve
performance, the issues that faced in Grovaz are deforestation, wastage, and plastic
packaging. These issues are seriously affecting the environment of the country Petunisia.
Instead of getting those resources from the forest which mean that they must remove parts of
the forest that caused animal extinction, Grovaz must think of a better way to produce corn.
As a reference, Grovaz can make improvement by taking the blueprint from Nestle, which is
a food company that work hard to create a sustainable supply chain to improve the lives of
farmers. Nestle had established a “Forest Positive Plan” to end the deforestation issue in their
supply chain. According to Nestle (2021), they aimed to support a forest positive future and
help to restore the world’s forests and natural ecosystems. How Nestle ensure the
sustainability of their supply chain is they will consider the farming methods which protects
the environment around them as well when they are resourcing those materials instead of just

pick up whatever ingredients they want in their business. If Grovaz could participate
themselves to stop deforestation and therefore get the corn from the places that having forest
management plan, it can potentially solve the issue of deforestation in Petunisia and save the
wildlife such as the Balkan Lynx and other animals living in the area. This will lead Grovaz
to become a responsible company and show how their sustainable in how the corn in
delivered to the society.
Besides that, Nestle had also working hard to tackle the plastic packaging waste. According
to Nestle, they had aimed to deliver a waste-free future. They aimed to reach 100% waste-
free company by the year 2025. Follow the words of Mark Schneider which is the CEP of
Nestle, “No plastic should end up in landfill or as litter”. Beside plastic, Grovaz could
consider other packaging method such as glass, metal, and paper. These materials mentioned
are recyclable and a common packaging method in our society. However, as we know that
plastic is a very common and ideal used in packaging as it had provide a benefit of
malleability, hygiene, and safety. Grovaz could also invest part of their cost to develop their
packaging into the food-graded recycled plastics to bring a functional, safe, and more
sustainable packaging solution to the society.
Instead of disposing all the wastage, some resources such as the milk cartons, cans or wasted
paper can recycle after Grovaz had use the ingredients to produce the cookies. Those
recyclable items can help the society potentially to the citizens under the poverty line. For
example, the empty cartons can donate to citizen to collect resources or those recyclable
items can be also donated to the schools to let them conducts some activities with the
children. If Grovaz hope to maximize their business profitability, they could also sell of their
recyclable wastage to the recycling company. With this method, Grovaz not only could
maximize their business profitability, contribute into an eco-friendly society, and build up a
good relationship with the recycling company that could help them in long term. Although
these might just a small step and not mean a lot for a business, but it is important for a
community because it may help the individuals in Petunisia to improve their life quality.
6.0 Stakeholders that would be impacted by proposed action
Stakeholders are groups or individuals that influence or can be affected by the achievement of
an organization's goals (Freeman, 1984). The two stakeholders that would be impacted by the

action proposed to Grovaz are the customers and the employees. Customer is an important
stakeholder in a business that they bring the value to the business that help the business
operate. If the customer observe that Grovaz have the issue on recycling they could
potentially stop purchasing the cookies as no one hope to see an organisation bringing
negative affect to the society and this will caused a business loss and bad consequences of
company image. Therefore, Grovaz need to be sustainable which they need to recycle the
products and use the ingredients that is environmentally friendly to show customers that they
are care about the environment which could help Grovaz to expand their business in the
cookies market.
Employees are also a major stakeholder that help a business run. If the business is not
sustainable and not caring about the environment will cause the employee to leave as no one
willing to work in an organisation that didn’t care about the environment. It could result in a
high employee turnover which will bring a bad image to the company and potentially caused
the company hard to hiring talents in the future. But if Grovaz working hard to achieve the
SDGs goals, they could attract new talent and help to expand business to the worldwide.
Therefore, having employees on your side bring a huge advantage to the company.
7.0 References
Deloitte. (2018). SDG 12: Responsible Consumption. A business perspective Sustainable
Development Goals. Retrieved 15th September 2022 from

https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/nl/Documents/risk/deloitte-nl-risk-
sdgs-from-a-business-perspective.pdf
Dijkstra, H. V. (2020). ‘Business models and sustainable plastic management: A systematic
review of the literature’. Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 258, pp. 1-14.
Freeman, R. E. (1984). Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Pitman.
Ismail, I. R. (2015, 15 November). Sustainable Development Challenges In Malaysia.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Issues & Challenges Associate In Malaysia, p. 3.
Nestle. (2020, 16 January). Nestlé creates market for food-grade recycled plastics, launches
fund to boost packaging innovation. Retrieved 14th September 2022 from
https://www.nestle.com/sites/default/files/2020-01/pr-nestle-food-grade-recycled-
plastics-launch-fund-packaging-innovation-en.pdf
Nestle. (2021, June). Towards A Forest Positive Future. Retrieved 15th September 2022 from
https://www.nestle.com/sites/default/files/2021-06/nestle-towards-forest-positive-
future-report.pdf
Nestle. (2022). What is Nestlé doing to tackle plastic packaging waste? Retrieved 14th
September 2022 from
https://www.nestle.com/ask-nestle/environment/answers/tackling-packaging-waste-
plastic-bottles
UNDESA. (2019). Sustainable Development Goals. Retrieved 16th September 2022 from
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs
UNDESA. (2022). Goals 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
Retrieved 14th September 2022 from https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal12