Sustainable Business Management

SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

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Table of content
Introduction 2
What is sustainability 2
Environment management systems and KPIs of University of Bedfordshire 3
Current practices in the University regarding sustainability 3
Comparison with other educational institutions having higher ranks in sustainable index 4
Aspects and impacts of sustainability practices 5
Aspect Impact table 5
Opportunities and challenges in terms of sustainability for University of Bedfordshire 12
Recommendations 13
Conclusion 14
References 15

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Introduction
The current report discusses the aspect of sustainability management in context of University of
Bedfordshire. This report will take into consideration the initiatives that are related to
sustainability and complemented by outreach activities in aspects of academics, operations and
stakeholders. The report will discuss the elements of sustainability, management systems and
key performance indicators of the University of Bedfordshire. Discussions will be meet regarding
current practices and compare it with other organisations having better rank in sustainability
index. The impact as well as aspect of sustainability practices will be discussed in order to
identify the opportunities as well as challenges that University of Bedfordshire faces.
Recommendations will be suggested by taking into account the different aspects of
sustainability management in University of Bedfordshire.
What is sustainability
The most potential catalyst for implementing sustainable development ideologies for the
upcoming generations is higher education. The importance of sustainability has begin to emerge
as a commercialized entity as people believe that higher education institutions and Universities
are the key to bringing a sustainable future (Figueiró and Raufflet, 2015). In order to bring about
the pace for the increasing and exponential magnitude of Technology growth and
development,The human beings have interacted with a number of factors which in turn has
resulted in threatening the sustainability of the societies. The current generation of human
beings uses half of the freshwater available in the world and the activities have affected weather
as well as climate. Major natural system existing in earth have a touch of human activity.
Over the last several decades, International initiatives as empathetically emphasised on the fact
that education is critical and vital for societies trying to become sustainable. According to
Hoover and Harder (2015). this change in perception has affected universities as well as other
Institutions in Higher Education. These institutions have align their principles and practices with
the concept of sustainability. The universities Have a very significant impact in the
transformation of the society towards sustainable practices. As the natural system of the planet
weakens due to the increasing human activity due to the inability of the existing institutions
available to meet the challenges to do long term planning as they are dominated by individual
interests and the Bureaucracy is fragmented by authority as well as responsibility which is much
more suitable for allocating resources when in abundance but not when in scarcity.
The four primary dilemmas that the society faces today can be essentially considered as moral
choices. These dilemmas are to alleviate poverty, to remove and the gap between the rich and
the poor by controlling the use of political violence and manipulation and to change the existing

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pattern of consumption as well as production in order to achieve transition to sustainable model
(Stough et al. 2018). The current generation is an prepared both philosophically as well as
institutionally to respond to the above mentioned challenges which in turn will affect the world
for the future generations. The need of the hour for educational institutions such as University of
Bedford is to prepare the students to live in a world as it will be in future by encouraging the
individual students to embrace the responsibilities of a sustainable future.
Environment management systems and KPIs of University of Bedfordshire
In order to systematically as well as comprehensively document the impact of an organisation
on the environment, environment management systems and KPIs are used. According to
Viegas et al. (2016), the primary and most important function of environmental management
systems are to reduce the impact of the activities of Organisation on the environment. University
of Bedfordshire cited the same reason for implementing search management systems across all
the campuses of the Institution. Previously The university was chosen for implementing a
management system which was aligned with the environmental management systems of British
Standard and this means that the institution has been certified to the above mentioned standard
in the year 2013. Recently the institution has transition from the British Standard to Eco campus
environmental management system which is one of the more recognised systems operating in
the sector of Higher Education.
The Eco campus has been selected as a national management system which makes use of
award schemes for supporting sustainability development and implementation in the sector of
Higher Education. This scheme allows University of Bedfordshire to be responsible for
addressing the key issues pertaining to environmental sustainability which also includes carbon
reduction. The institution has received the external certification for Eco-campus in the year
(2018) and has continuously strived to obtain better certification. In order to benchmark the
implementation of Sustainable ideas it is necessary to keep track of the key indicators of
performance that will help in defining the result in a physical as well as numerical fashion. Few
necessary key performance indicators that are tracked by University of Bedfordshire
consumption of utility, flow, waste, water, education, transportation and lastly energy and
changing climates (Dlouhá et al. 2017).
Current practices in the University regarding sustainability
University of Bedfordshire has extensively undertaken numerous initiatives that helps the
institution to follow a plan of sustainability. The University has a dedicated waste disposal
system that collects renewable and nonrenewable waste generated from the campus and keeps
it for further segregation. The institution also takes part in recycling activities and makes use of