Business and Sustainable Development

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Running head: BUSINESS AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Business and Sustainable Development
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BUSINESS AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
How responsible is corporate social responsibility in the real world?
The concept of corporate social responsibility has proved vital for the reputational
management of a company. CSR or corporate social responsibility is a mechanism through
which a company manages its social and environmental responsibilities. CSR is an evolving
practice in the sustainable development of an organisation. The objective of the CSR policy
of a company does not only restricted itself in environmental and social welfare; this is now a
medium of revenue building. The consumers and investors show their interested more in the
companies that have a high CSR impact. CSR enhances employee retention, customer trust,
brand equity and company reputation. The prime intention and aim of any profitable
organisation are to gain financial advantages. CSR helps the company achieve that target with
social and environmental outputs. If a company is successful in building an environment-
friendly image to its consumers gets competitive advantages in the market. It improves the
brand sentiment and motivates the business owner as well. Another aspect of CSR is that it
reduces the negative impact of scandals. In this essay, the relevancy and importance of CSR
practices will be discussed with the example of real-world companies.
CSR requires the company to give importance to the social and environmental aspects
than the financial numbers. There is no doubt that reputed companies have understood the
importance of CSR in the current business scenario. It could be seen with minimal effort that
most of the renowned companies have worked on their CSR policies for sustainable business
development (Jamali, Karam and Blowfield 2017). Some companies have gone beyond the
expected CSR process to prove their sincerity towards environmental and social welfare.
CSR policies are made regarding the internal and external environment safety and well-being.
There could be several dimensions for the companies to practice their CSR policies, like-
legal, ethical, social and environmental dimensions (Amaeshi et al. 2016). The relationship

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between the greater society and business is the focal concern of CSR. The real-world
companies are taking their CSR seriously for a better company and world future.
The companies have realised some pressure from the consumers as well to practice
their CSR. The market is highly competitive in any sector of business. The experts consider
CSR an effective strategy to avail customer trust and loyalty (Dowling et al. 2016).
Environmental degradation is an issue of utmost importance in present times. CSR is
enabling companies to merge their profit-driven objective with the practice of improved
employee condition and cleaner environment. As opined by de Jong and der Meer (2017),
some of the common examples of CSR policies and regulations are improving employee
policies, fair trade, reducing Carbon footprint impact, engaging in charitable efforts,
volunteering in community development, adapting strategies to benefit the environment,
making investments that are socially and environmentally conscious. Most of the companies
use one or more than one policies of these to develop their CSR.
Examples from reputed companies could be drawn to understand how enterprises are
using this reputation tool in their business. Companies like Google, Bosch, Amazon, BMW,
Levi Strauss & Co., Starbucks, SurveyMonkey, Ben & Jerry's, Netflix, Spotify and many
others have incorporated the CSR in their operations and gain the support of the consumers,
employees and stakeholders.
Google is the company that has earned the reputation of being the most
environmentally friendly company in 2018. This company has invested in research and
development to reduce energy consumptions. Right now, this company has been able to
reduce its power consumption by 50% in comparison to any other data centers. This company
has invested more than $1 billion in the projects that include GHG reduction and production
of renewable energy. With the help of Gmail, this company has decreased its environmental

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impact in a few years (McLean 2019). The recent venture of Adidas is commendable in
reducing plastic wastes. This company has always worked for ecological sustainability
through their product design. Recently, in 2019, this company has announced that they are
launching a new line of shoes that is made using the waste plastic bottles collected from the
ocean. This project of Adidas is directed to their responsibility of reducing the impact of
plastics on the sea-life. This range of shoe has already intrigued interest among the
consumers of Adidas before its launch (Bice et al. 2017). The company is setting a
benchmark in CSR practices.
Along with these two companies, the retail industry is also showing their part of
environmental responsibility by designing eco-friendly fabrics and delivery methods.
Amazon is known for its customer friendly services and quick delivery (Giuliani et al. 2016).
Recently, the company has announced that they are targeting to reduce its carbon footprint by
making some changes in the delivery method. CEO Jeff Bezos said that they are reducing the
number of fast delivery to reduce carbon emission from the delivery trucks they are using.
Urgent deliveries increase the number of delivery trucks at a time. They might offer one
critical delivery option in a month so that they could take care of the issue concerning
environmental sustainability. They are reducing paper waste in the packaging in another
target of the company in its CSR program. Levi Strauss has started its "Water<Less"
campaign. In this project, they are trying to use less amount of water in their manufacturing.
Thus, they are taking a foot ahead in saving water. This company report states that in 2019,
they have been able to save about one billion litres of water.
Companies like BMW and MonkeySurvey has responded to their social
responsibilities by donating money to mitigate the need of society. BMW stands high in CSR
impact by its programs like “The School Environmental Education Development Project”.
Another company, Survey Monkey, donates 50 cents after completing each survey. This