Business, Society and Planet: Reflective Journal

Running head: REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Business, Society and Planet: Reflective Journal
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1REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Sustainability is a major concern in the modern world. As population in the world is
increasing rapidly, the industrial activities are increasing too and that is creating severe impact
on the earth. The ecosystems are getting damaged, the reserves of fossil fuel are depleting, the
accumulation of harmful greenhouse gases is increasing, and there is climate change and global
warming, which lead to increase in the need of sustainability. As stated by Moore et al. (2017),
sustainability refers to the process of maintaining the change to keep the environment balanced.
In other words, a sustainable earth is extremely necessary for better living of the future
generation and to achieve sustainability, the nature resources and ecosystems must be preserved.
The political powers and the industrial world are taking measures to achieve a sustainable
system. There are 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) designed by the United Nations,
which the companies are addressing through CSR policies and various other strategies. I have
learnt about the sustainability management system and Triple Bottom Line system. This system
is used by the businesses for assessing the profits that are made through the corporate
sustainability solutions (Elkington, 2013). The triple bottom line enables the businesses to think
beyond their traditional line of profits and measure how much the business is sustainable and
profitable. It includes social, environment and economic sustainability. I got to learn that the
social bottom line contradicts with the belief that for a profitable operating condition for the
business, they must pay less to its workforce. Rather, this bottom line ensures a better
sustainability for the workforce, that is, the business human capital, which in turn ensures the
long term sustainability for the business. Similarly, regarding environmental bottom line, it
enables the businesses to manage, monitor, control and report the consumption, wastes and
emissions. This bottom line ensures that the businesses are reducing the environmental footprint
by taking green policies and preserving the natural resources, that is, natural capital. And, lastly,

2REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
economic sustainability is practiced by the companies, which not only protects the traditional
financial capital but also measures how much impact the business has on the economic
environment. From the literature studies, I gathered that a business can only be economically
sustainable if it can operate in the long run and contribute in the development of economic health
of the community and the support networks (Hubbard, 2009).
Thus, I understood that for long term sustainability for the business world, it is essential
to implement the triple bottom line as it helps the businesses to increase its ability to survive in
the future and earn profit by not only protecting the natural capital but also protecting the human
and financial capital. Thus, the businesses now focus on designing effective CSR policies for a
larger benefit for the business and the environment and community as well. CSR policies and
practices include various activities, such as, community developmental activities, nature
conservation activities etc. However, there can be various challenges also while implementing
the CSR policies, such as, government failures, regulations, and democratic accountability.
Regional differences, such as, economic responsibility, legal responsibility, ethical and
philanthropic responsibility also creates challenges. While in the USA, the economic focus is on
shareholders and in France, it is on the employees, it is seen that in India the economic focus is
on the investment on the local community. The legal responsibility is prevalently found in
Europe. The ethical and philanthropic responsibility of businesses, as defined by Crane and
Matten (2016), are related to the social role of the corporations.
Six types of capital used by the corporations are human, natural, financial, intellectual,
manufactured and social and relationship capital. As stated by Dunphy, Griffiths & Benn (2003),
for achieving long term sustainability of the businesses, all the six capitals must be nurtured with
equal importance. The authors also stated the Phase Model, containing 6 phases of businesses,