Analysis of Sustainable Business Approaches and CSR Strategies Report

This report examines sustainable business practices and corporate social responsibility (CSR). It begins with an introduction to sustainability in business, emphasizing its importance due to environmental degradation and the need for organizations to balance ecological factors. The report explores the triple bottom line (TBL) strategy, encompassing social, environmental, and financial factors, and how businesses can implement these for sustainable development. It further discusses ethical business practices, providing examples of companies like Microsoft, Ben & Jerry's, Tesla, Google, Coca-Cola, and Ford Motors and their CSR initiatives. The report also differentiates CSR approaches for micro, SME, and corporate businesses, highlighting how different company sizes approach and measure CSR success. The report is a comprehensive analysis of sustainable business strategies and CSR, offering valuable insights into how organizations can achieve growth while being socially and environmentally responsible.

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Foundation of Business Communication 1
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Sustainable approach to business strategy and management...........................................................2
Examples of strategies that businesses use to operate in an ethical and sustainable way...............4
Different approaches to CSR of Micro, SME and Corporate Business and measurement of
success in their CSR strategies........................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The objective of the paper is to enlighten the reader with the information about the sustainable
business practices implemented by organizations to achieve growth in the environment.
Nowadays, it has become important for the organization to make effective use of corporate social
responsibility in the business environment with an objective to achieve success for the business.
Corporate social responsibility refers to the responsibility of an organization towards the
environment and the society. Through CSR activities, the organizations focuses on increasing the
benefits for the environment while equating harms they received through the business actions
conducted in the worldwide environment (Lim, and Greenwood 2017). It should be noted that
the paper highlight the information about the sustainable approaches to the business strategies
and management conducted in the environment along with the examples of the business
strategies that the organization in response to ethical and sustainable conduct of the business.
The latter part of the report conducts the explanation in difference of CSR strategies
implemented by different organizations along with the ways to measure their success. More
details about the CSR concept is mentioned below:
Sustainable approach to business strategy and management
Sustainability refers to the approach the maintaining a balance of the ecological factors in the
environment. Sustainability has become important in the society because of the increasing
environmental degradation. The business activities are making wildlife difficult to sustain for the
longer period of time. Therefore, implementation of sustainable approach to business strategy
and management would help the organizations analyse the areas that are important for the
business and work on them. It should be noted that implementation of sustainable activities in
business strategies helps the organisations in sustaining the organizational productivity as well.
The organizations should implement the sustainable business development activities in the
external environment while considering the interest of stakeholders in the external environment
(Svensson, et. al., 2016).
Also, it should be noted that sustainability is difficult to achieve for the organizations because to
some extent it increases the costing of the companies and make them focus on other areas apart

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from profitability. The triggering volatility of natural resources, the companies have started
considering the sustainable factors in business actions. For instance, the companies that initially
used old plants that increased carbon content in the society have now started making use of new
techniques in the environment to improve the negative aspects laid by the organziation
(Shnayder, Van Rijnsoever, and Hekkert 2015).
The organizations in the business environment make use of triple bottom line business strategy
with an objective to implement sustainable business practices in the external environment. The
triple bottom line is an accounting framework of three parts that include social, environmental
and financial factors. Sustainable business practices have become an important factor for the
growth of the organization due to which the triple bottom line strategy helps in implementing the
sustainable business development strategies in the external environment (Żak 2015). The three
dimensions defined are the three focus areas where the organizations need to work in order to
attain sustainability for the business. It should be noted that these three areas are people, planet
and profits. Under the people aspect, it is important for the organization needs to measure that
how socially responsible an organization is in order to implement its operations in the business
environment. People are the most important resource for the organization therefore, it is crucial
for the organization to entertain the employees and provide them adequate their satisfaction
through their business practice. Like, the organization should remunerate the employees properly
and should provide them other facilities accordingly (Høgevold, et. al., 2015).
This will satisfy the employees and would make them to work in better ways for the
organization. Apart from the employees, stakeholders and other people (customers) also form a
part of the organization. Therefore, the organization need to implement such practices in the
environment while considering their interest in the organization. The second aspect of TBL is
profit which means that it is important for the organization. The fact is understandable by all that
an organization works to attain success and high degree of profitability in the environment.
However, the organization should make use of positive means to initiate profitability for the
business. They should not use any sort of illegal or wrong activity in the business environment so
as to satisfy the profitability interest of the business (Deodhar 2016).
The organization should implement such activities in the environment that help them to attain
profitability in the international environment in a positive way. The third aspect of triple bottom

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line sustainable business strategy is the planet. It should be noted that companies like Coca Cola,
Pepsi, Tesco etc. make use of several resources in the business environment so as to increase the
productivity of the business. Many times while consuming the resources for the business, they
start to exploit it resulting in which the resources become extinct in the environment. Resulting
in which, the planet is a crucial factor that is important for the organization to consider and take
care of it properly. It should be noted that this measures the responsibility of the organization to
take care of the environment (Biswas, Raj, and Srivastava 2018).
For instance, an organization is polluting the air excessively, then as per their corporate social
responsibility, the business should plant more and more trees so that they can compensate its
effects in the worldwide environment. It should be noted that all these activities all together helps
the organization to initiate effective sustainable business development strategies in the external
environment and satisfy the stakeholders at the same time (Gaurangkumar 2015).
Further, it should be noted that the organization should consider the ethical, economic,
philanthropic aspects in the environment in order to consider the sustainable development
activities for the organization. It should be noted that people, planet, profits are the three pillars
for the organization that helps them to attain sustainability practices in the environment. Direct
philanthropic giving refers to the process of donating time, resources and money to the society in
the form of charity in the environment. The companies initiate this type of donations in the
environment with an objective to secure problem of natural disaster, fight for human rights;
provide education etc. positive activities in the environment (Svensson, et. al., 2018). This aspect
promotes the name of the organization in the worldwide environment and makes them increase
their level of profitability as well. Second aspect is the ethical business practice that the business
needs to comply with in order to achieve sustainable practices in the worldwide environment.
The primary focus of the ethical activities is to conduct actions that do not harm any person in
the business and comply with all the laws and regulations formed as well (von Schnurbein,
Seele, and Lock 2016).

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Examples of strategies that businesses use to operate in an ethical and
sustainable way
Considering the importance of CSR practices in the business environment, it should be noted that
many organizations have started using such ethical practices in the worldwide environment as
these strategies help them in improving their brand image and little charity does not hurt
anybody. For instance, the company Microsoft organization initiated donation to Melinda Gates
Foundation with an objective to promote education in the worldwide environment. It should be
noted that the Melinda Gates foundation support the environment for several causes like
eradicating malaria, providing help to farmers etc. It should be also be noted that Bill Gates of
Microsoft was the largest donator in the world (Hunt 2017).
Thus, it can be said that the organization Microsoft efficiently focuses on their ethical and
sustainable practices in the business environment with an objective to serve people a share of
their earnings. Further, it should also be noted that the main objective of ethical practices in the
environment should be provide far labor activities to the employees in the workplace
environment. The organization should treat all levels of employees equally and it should initiate
activities to provide them satisfaction. Considering the case of Ben and Jerry Ice Cream
company, it should be noted that the organization effectively make use of Fair Trade practices in
the environment. The organization makes use of certified ingredients in the factory that do not
affect the health of the labor in negative ways (Kim 2019). Also, considering the example of the
company Tesla, it should be noted that the organization also successfully implement actions that
involve the employees in the decision making process (De Pin 2015).
The employee benefit scheme of the company helps the organization to provide sustainable
benefits to the employees of the company. The organization provide incentive to the employees
for the work conducted by them in the business environment. Analysing the CSR activities
conducted by Google in the business environment, it should be noted that the company make use
of environment friendly actions in the society. The CEO of the company stand in favour to
support the environment through their activities in response to which, the organization
committed towards $1 billon renewable energy project in the business environment. The
organization also support and enlighten other organizations and support them to initiate

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sustainable business practices in the international environment (de Jong, and van der Meer
2017).
Coca-Cola is seen affecting the environment and resources of the nature in several ways, in
response to which, the organization has implemented several activities to emit less green house
gases in the environment. The company has changed the supply chain activities due to which
they have aimed to reduce the carbon emission by 25% in the year 2020. Lastly, it should be
noted that Ford Motors has introduce electric vehicles in the environment so as to secure the
scarce resources in the environment. This would help the society to make use of electric cars
over fuelled and diesel cars that would increase the level of petroleum resource in the world.
Thus, it should be noted that these are the ethical and sustainable actions that the organization
initiate in the external environment so as to compensate with the cause of its unethical actions
(Ghosh, D., Gouda, and Awasthy 2018). All small and medium organizations to should inspire
each other to implement such strategies if they want to sustain the future and live.
Different approaches to CSR of Micro, SME and Corporate Business and
measurement of success in their CSR strategies
Corporate social responsibility is generally found to be associated with large companies due to
legal obligation. However, evidence suggests that CSR has also been considered relevant and
significant to be adopted by small and medium sized enterprises in the competitive market today.
Nevertheless, the approach towards CSR could be different for micro, SME and large corporates.
One of the major reason is larger the company, the media attention will be more towards the
company which gains more attention of the company towards acknowledging their social
responsibility. The reason being this is found to be directly associated with reputational risk for
large corporates (Belen, and Nuria 2017).
Moreover the level of CSR and the obligation towards the social responsibility depends on the
profits of the company, which is generally higher for large corporates when compared to SME
and Micro business, which reflect different approaches to be adopted by the company. For
example Coca cola, one of the popular beverages brand serving across the globe is being
exploited to the resources in large quantity and obliged towards CSR. For this, the company
consider water sustainability plan consumed in water plants and bottling plants so as to reduce

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the quantity of water used. Moreover large corporates consider this approach on larger picture
like disseminating awareness among suppliers across the globe so as to address environmental
obligations (forbes, 2019). Thus, it should be noted that different organizations based on their
structure initiate CSR activities accordingly. For instance, activities implemented by Coca-Cola
cannot be implemented by any micro level organization. Thus, there is difference in
sustainability practices of every organization. Lastly, success of their CSR strategies can be
measured by the satisfaction of the stakeholders in the business environment.
For Micro or SME’s, the CSR purpose is more towards intrinsic motivation for entrepreneur. The
reason being SME’s are generally manager by the entrepreneurs or the owners which reflect their
personality in the business. Some entrepreneurs are initiating the business with the only purpose
of making money; on the other hand some may initiated to serve the society while making
money. Thus, this character reflects the difference in CSR approaches for SME’s. Thus the plan
towards society and environment by such owners may not be said as CSR but found to be more
socially responsible. Many such companies have gone beyond their CSR as part of commitment
towards environment and society. With SME, CSR approach is more as a personal relationship
with internal employees, which could also be taken as a family and may be treating their
employees better that the large corporates. Another difference reflects through the resources
available with SME’s in order to invest in environment and societal sustainability plan. Thus, the
major difference is funds and resources available to micro; SME’s and are corporates, which
reflect that SME’s and micro business may carry less weight towards CSR consideration when
compared to large corporates (Pathak, 2014).
Conclusion
Thus, in the limelight of above mentioned events, the fact should be noted that the paper
highlighted information about the sustainable business practices in an organization. The above
mentioned report evaluated the importance of implementation of strategic sustainable activities
for the development of the business. Various strategies that the business should use and example
of strategies implemented by the organizations is also reported in the paper. Lastly, it should be
noted that the report also evaluate the change in sustainable business development strategies of
the organization on the basis of their organizational structure. It should be noted that the

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sustainable strategies should be implemented by different organization differently on the basis of
their business structure and the activities that they follow in the environment to succeed. Lastly,
it should be noted that the implementation CSR activities in the business environment helps the
organization to build their brand image and attract more and more customers for the sales.

Foundation of Business Communication 9
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