Reducing Carbon Footprint: Steps for Sustainable Business Operations

This report discusses the impact of climate change on businesses and the problems they face due to changing demand for goods and regulations. It defines sustainability and carbon footprint and highlights steps that businesses can take to reduce their carbon footprint and become more sustainable.

Individual Report

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Weather is the air condition known with the factors wind, precipitation or temperature at
a specific time. Climate is the conditions of water at a particular region for a time period of
longer duration. Shifts in the weather determinant factors for long period is termed as climate
change. Climate change is a matter of great concern all over the world especially for the
businesses as the supply chains get affected and complexities relating to environmental laws
increases. The report will evaluate the reasons that are results of climate change and proves to be
problematic for the businesses across the world. The steps will be highlighted which on
implementation reduce the carbon footprint of the businesses.
MAIN BODY
The changes in the weather pattern over a period time in long run is called climate
change. The problems that the businesses face as a result of climate change are numerous.
Governments restricts the companies from emitting too much pollution into the environment by
laying down regulations. Businesses entities failing to comply with these regulations have face
consequences. Government or the regulatory authorities of the nation all over the world
mandates for the businesses to install system in order to have control over the emission that is a
resultant of the operations of the business (Povitkina, 2018). Thus it requires firm to incur capital
expenditures over such system.
Another problem that the businesses face is high price of goods and services. The high
price of goods and services that the business as as input for the goods or services that they
produce is the problem that is caused for the businesses because of the regulations for
environment protection. The regulations for protection of environment are mainly imposed on
the companies that operate in energy industry. Excess costs incurred by the energy firms over
such regulations makes them to sell their products at high price. This is correlated with the
increase in the transportation costs for the companies that operate in other sectors or industries.
The burden of increased transportation costs is further shifted to the end customers for the goods
and services.
Further constant changes in the weather patterns is threat for the companies that deals in
the business of shipping at international level. The shipment becomes dangerous. There is treat
for the insurance companies. In addition the demand or the goods changes as a consequence of
climate change (Swim and Zawadzki, 2018). As mentioned earlier climate change is liked with

the changes in thee prices, price becomes higher. These changing of prices and climate bring
about changes in the demand for certain products. Climate change makes the earth warmer, its
results in declining demands for the winter products. The way that helps businesses in combating
such situation is making the processes environmental - friendly. Seventh Generation and
Patagonia are two companies that have been successful in catering the needs of the consumers
that while shopping chooses the products that have been produced keeping environment in mind.
The other problem is faced by the businesses over the entire world is changing
perceptions of the public. The factor reputation holds supreme importance for the businesses.
Companies tends to build their reputation with the fulfillment of environmental responsibility by
them. Apple, Salesforce, Disney and Nike are the companies that have announced major
programs for environmental protection in recent.
In many parts of United Kingdom floods entail high risk. The transport infrastructure gets
affected and damages are caused by the extreme hot temperatures during summers and the
extreme cold environment in winters along with huge amount of rainfalls. Hence disrupts are
caused in t he supply chains (Andersson and Keskitalo, 2018). There is alarming possibility that
the water will become scarce in future as a result of climate changes. The impact will be in the
form of restrictions on usage of water in the future. Climate change hit the tourism industry
adversely as the tourist destinations are eventually getting destroyed by the increase in the
extreme level of temperatures.
Climate change provides opportunities for the businesses to improve the productivity, by
making their process efficient. Efficiency in the operations or processes helps the companies to
save costs. In the field of innovations companies can work for bring such products into the
market that reduce their carbon footprint. Further the companies have the opportunity for making
their business processes more resilient.
Steps that can help companies to reduce their carbon footprint are: firstly they can get
their material from the suppliers that are sustainable in their business processes (Sharma and
Goyal, 2018). This way companies can insure that they do not contribute to the businesses that
are not sustainable. Secondly, the resources that are mot in use can be recycled by the
companies. Third, they can purchase recycled resources rather than new ones (Buslaev and et.al.,
2021). In addition the use of public transport or sharing of vehicles to drive through the office or
at business trips will result in less carbon footprint creation. Investing in the green energy,

energy that is not generated from non renewable sources and green office equipment are two
other ways for reducing carbon footprint.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of the above report it has been concluded that the impact of climate changes
is seen over the the companies mostly. The varied problems that are faced by business like
changing demand for goods and regulations all over the world has been discussed in the report.
With this report the definition of sustainability and carbon footprint have been made clear.
Sustainability is utilizing the gifts of nature in thoughtful way, considering the needs of future
generation and the payment that the Earth bears with the extraction of natural resources. Carbon
footprint is the released quantity of green house gas namely carbon dioxide by the business entity
into the area that covers it. The report has discussed few steps that will assist companies that
aims to cut down their carbon footprint. It has been concluded that reducing carbon footprint is
important for businesses.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Andersson, E. and Keskitalo, E. C. H., 2018. Adaptation to climate change? Why business-as-
usual remains the logical choice in Swedish forestry. Global Environmental Change. 48.
pp.76-85.
Buslaev, G. and et.al., 2021. Reduction of carbon footprint of the production and field transport
of high-viscosity oils in the Arctic region. Chemical Engineering and Processing-Process
Intensification. 159. p.108189.
Povitkina, M., 2018. The limits of democracy in tackling climate change. Environmental
politics. 27(3). pp.411-432.
Sharma, D. and Goyal, S., 2018. Accelerated carbonation curing of cement mortars containing
cement kiln dust: An effective way of CO2 sequestration and carbon footprint
reduction. Journal of Cleaner Production. 192. pp.844-854.
Swim, J. K. and Zawadzki, S. J., 2018. Gendered discourse about climate change
policies. Global Environmental Change. 48. pp.216-225.
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