Leading Change For Sustainability

Running head: LEADING CHANGE FOR SUSTAINABILITY
Leading Change for Sustainability
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1LEADING CHANGE FOR SUSTAINABILITY
One of the most significant pro-environmental behavior is reducing the carbon
footprint that corporations all over the world are responsible for. With the growing
importance of behaving responsibly in business operations, corporations all over the world
are taking measures to reduce their impact on the environment. The businesses in USA, like
Google, Apple, Walmart and Intel use renewable or alternative sources of energy to reduce
their carbon footprint. All of these companies have been conducting their businesses in the
main cities of USA and over the world. Thus, their business operations have much impact on
the environment (Abts et al., 2010).
Businesses in the USA have taken much initiative to include corporate social
responsibility into their business goals. Companies like Google has built energy efficient data
centers and has created provisions for employees to share commutes and cycle to work. There
are also energy producing companies like Siemens that are shifting towards alternative
energy sources to reduce the footprint further. The significance of the behavior’s impact is
that it can effectively reduce the threats regarding climate change and global warming. In this
essay, the businesses in USA that use efficient energy and its implications on the
environment are explored.
The issue Classification rationale
Reducing carbon footprint
has positive impact on the
environment. It reduces the
emission of greenhouse gases
to the environment, reduces
traffic and fuel consumption.
The issue has direct impact
on the environment. It
protects the planet from the
threats of climate change.
This falls under the
accountability of
environmentally significant
behavior. People who think
The reason for choosing this
behavior is the current threat
of climate change and the
role of corporations for their
impact on the environment.

2LEADING CHANGE FOR SUSTAINABILITY
that they are accountable for
the changes in environment
take measures to reduce the
impact they are having.
Table 1: Summery of the issue
Source: Created by the author
Corporations, because of their business and profit making undertake many activities.
They have several numbers of offices all over the world. They also have supply chain and
distribution system to support their business system. All of these has negative impacts on the
environment. The multiple locations and offices, their data centers, their supply chain and
distribution channels consume large amount of fuel and energy. Reducing the impact by
using alternative energy sources has become important (Goulding, Goldman & Winslow,
2010). Alternative energy sources like wind energy, solar energy and tidal energy are
effective sources as these protect the non-renewable sources of fuel. The reduction of mass
use of traditional sources of energy will reduce the demand of thermal energy which will help
the thermal power plants to shift to green energy production. Siemens is one such company
that produces green energy and has become a pioneer in this regard.
The most important reason that companies engage in environmentally responsible
behavior such as using alternative energy resources is their sense of responsibility to the
environment. Their behavior is motivated by their accountability and honesty element (Stern
2000). Many of the businesses are converting their businesses in cloud in order to become
more energy efficient. Businesses like Google are investing in their own source of alternative
power (Abdelsalam et al. 2009). There are several benefits to this as this ensures that their
investments for energy is reducing. They are able to extract more profit from the market.