Importance of Sustainable Innovation for Building a Sustainable Organisation

This report discusses the importance of sustainable innovation for building a sustainable organisation. It covers the benefits of sustainable innovation, such as growth, competitive advantage, appropriate usage of resources, waste management, attracting government attention and new talents, and high brand image. It also explains the current lifestyle related to complying with sustainability ideals, such as using public transport, carrying cloth or paper bags, reusing products, boycotting products that endanger wildlife, and paying bills digitally. The report uses Bio-bean as an example of a company that uses sustainable innovation to produce eco-friendly fuel from coffee waste.

Building A Sustainable
Organisation

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Main body........................................................................................................................................1
Part A ..............................................................................................................................................1
Importance of sustainable innovation..........................................................................................1
PART B............................................................................................................................................4
Explanation of current lifestyle related to comply with sustainability ideals..............................4
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Innovation is the key success factor of any company. It will help a company to grow well
by offering some unique and different kinds of products and services within the market. Today
most of the customers are searching for those products and services which can fulfil their needs
appropriately (Cillo and at. al., 2019). Innovation is important for those industry where the
companies sell similar kinds of products. Here, companies can innovate and introduce any new
kind of services which can help them to make their company and offerings attractive and unique
from others. Bio-bean is a British company which is founded in the year 2013 and it is involved
in developing eco-friendly fuel from coffee waste to power London buses. The following report
covers the importance of sustainable innovation within corporate sector by using examples and
reflection upon current lifestyle to determine how to comply with sustainable ideals.
Main body
Part A
Importance of sustainable innovation
Sustainable innovation is the concept which include to make those changes within an
product, services or organisational processes which will help the company to achieve their
organisational goal appropriately as well as focusing to provide benefit to environment and
social community. With the increasing area of corporate sector the environment get damaged for
example most of the factories are releasing their harmful gasses in air and they release their
chemical waste in water bodies (Afeltra, Alerasoul and Strozzi, 2021). Hence, the local
community get dissatisfied and harming natural environment will also decline the brand
reputation of a company. Hence, today most of the companies are working to adapt sustainable
processes and techniques within their company to achieve their aim. There are various kinds of
benefits for a company to adapt sustainable innovation. Hence, few of the importance of
sustainable innovation for a business like Bio-bean is mentioned below-
Growth for company- There is a good scope for a company to grow with sustainable
innovation because today most of the customers are attracted toward those brands which are
helping them to solve their problems by not harming any aspect of environment.
Chance of gaining competitive advantage- The companies are having more chance to
earn competitive advantage with sustainable innovation (Potkány, Gejdoš and Debnár, 2018).
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The companies can gain more customers and with the increase in total number of customers a
company can lead the industry in which they are working.
Appropriate usage of resources- One of the most essential benefit for adapting
sustainable innovation is that it will help the companies to use their available resources in such a
manner which will help to gain their organisational resources on time without any conflict. It will
also help to save resources from getting waste in the process of manufacturing products.
Waste management- Most of the companies focus upon innovating sustainable with the
main aim to manage their waste appropriately for organisational benefit (Gottardo and et. al.,
2021). Here, companies will use their waste material for productive activities which will fu8rther
help them to enhance their productivity and profitability.
Attract the attention of government and other community groups- When an
organisation like Bio-bean perform the sustainable innovation then they gain the attention of
government and other communities of society which is a positive factor for a business.
Attracting new talents and retention of existing talents- Adopting sustainable
innovation will help a company to gain new talented employees because they have gain a high
brand recognition with the help of their growth through innovation. Secondly, their existing
employees also get influence to stay for longer period of time within the company.
High brand image- The companies who adapt sustainable innovation will gain high
brand image within the market where they serve (Widya-Hasuti and et. al., 2018).
Bio- bean is the company which processes the recycling waste coffee grounds into
advanced bio-fuel, biomass pellets and, in the near future biodiesel. Therefore, they use waste
material to produce their main product and this will help them to save their cost as they are
required to use waste coffee beans which are thrown by general public. The only expenditure
they have to make is upon high and advance technology to convert the wastage into useful
products which is beneficial for environment (Kneipp and et. al., 2019). The Bio-bean is helping
to protect environment in two ways first to manage the waste of coffee beans and second to
produce the bio-fuels for vehicles and machines which will reduce carbon emissions. Hence, it is
very important for the chosen organisation that they will utilize their tools and machines
appropriately to achieve their organisational goal. This innovation will help them to attract more
customers because nowadays government of most of the countries are switching to bio-fuel for
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their vehicles. Hence, the company have the opportunity to gain government support from their
sustainable innovation.
On the other hand, they are having few disadvantages of adopting sustainable innovation
such to hire skilled and talented employees who can understand the concept of innovation
adopted by the company and work accordingly (Ciasullo and et. al., 2020). The main feature of
innovation is that it is new and did not popular much at its initial stage. Hence, due to non-
popularity normal employees are not aware about the techniques and ways of performing task
within Bio-bean company. Therefore, it is tough for the company to attract talented employees.
Secondly, it is also tough for the organisation to influence their customers that their products are
effective and useful (Guo and et. al., 2020). In context of Bio-bean, their product like bio-fuel
and bio-diesel are made up of used coffee beans. Hence, most of the customers doubt on the
quality of such products which are made up of waste materials. Therefore, gaining the trust of
employees takes longer time for such companies who are involved in sustainable innovation.
They are also required to adopt high quality of tools and machines to make their bio-fuels
effectively. Beside all these minor disadvantages, the company are having various benefits of
adopting suitable innovation. Hence, linking the business activities with environmental benefit
will help the company to maintain a good balance between corporate sector and environmental
factors. Adopting sustainable innovation will also help a business to gain good habit to perform
their business task in innovative ways which further help the employees to learn various
innovative and productive ways to complete their organisational task on time. Secondly,
adopting sustainable innovative will help the company like Bio-beans to influence and motivate
their employees to perform their task even at challenging environment (Aka, 2019). This will
make their employees more better to face business challenges. When any organisation adopt any
kind of unique product or process then they set target appropriately and then they communicate
this target to their existing employees. Hence, sustainable innovation will also help a company to
minimize the communication gap within an organisation which further helps to maintain good
relationship between management team and employees.
Hence, from the above discussion it is critically evaluated that adopting sustainable
innovation is very important for any organisation to grow well within their industry. It will help
them to gain customers attention, develop their brand image and many others (Abbas and et. al.,
2020). The main advantage of adopting sustainable innovation at organisation is that it will help
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to minimise resource wastage and minimize cost to produce product. The main focus of such
companies should be upon process and technology because it is essential for a company to have
advance and updated technology for converting waste material into useful products without
compromising quality.
PART B
Explanation of current lifestyle related to comply with sustainability ideals
From the above information I have understood that adopting those habits is beneficial
which will provide benefit to environment. In my daily routine, I make sure that I will perform
sustainable activities like switching off the lights while coming out of room to save electricity,
throwing household waste in dustbins only and avoid it to throw in open place. I also make sure
that whenever I went to market to buy any household product then I must carry a cloth bad or
paper bag with me. If I saw any shopkeeper giving me any product in plastic bag then I avoid to
use that and ask him to put the things inside the bag which I carry with me. I make sure that I
will travel short distances through bicycle and avoid to use motor vehicles. I also supposed to use
public transport instead of using my own vehicle daily. I also try to influence other people to use
the same and avoid travelling individually if the destination is same. For example, I ask my 2
other friends to use one car if we are going at same place and avoid to travel separately. This will
help to produce less carbon emissions within the environment. I also make sure that whenever I
stop my vehicle at traffic light then I will turn off the vehicle so save petrol. The basic concept of
sustainability is to protect the resources for future use. I also make sure that I will reuse the
products it is capable of reusing. I am also planning to buy new vehicle where my priority is to
buy electric vehicle. I am also focused to save water by reusing it like the water which is used to
wash vegetables and fruits are used to watering the plants. I boycott products which that
endanger wildlife which means I make always focus upon labelling of products before
purchasing it and if I have noticed that the product is tested on animals or endanger the life of
wildlife in any ways then I will avoid to buy them. Digitalization is one of the most important
factor to protect the environment. I used to pay digital payment mode to pay my bills. I am also
planning to plant a tree every month and make the area greener as much as possible. I believe the
the concept of sustainability is required to spread as much as possible. Hence, I also aware my
surrounded and well known people about the benefits of performing sustainable activities in day
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to day routines. I make them aware that using plastic bags are not only harmful for environment
but if environment get impacted badly then human life will also get impacted negative. I am also
planning LED lights and CFL bulbs instead of incandescent lights at my home. I also make sure
that whenever I supposed to travel out of my home I will carry my own water bottle with me to
avoid purchasing water from outside which is packed in low quality of plastic.
CONCLUSION
From the above information it is concluded that adopting sustainability is one of the most
important aspect for most of the businesses. Adopting innovation in sustainability will help the
company to gain high brand image, attract customers, greater opportunity to gain competitive
advantage and many others. The companies are required to focus on effective usage of
technology for producing a useful product out of wastage. If there are various benefits and
advantages of adopting sustainable innovation then there are also few of the disadvantages like
influencing customers to purchase the products made by waste material because they doubt on
the quality of products. It is also concluded that there are various kinds of activities which can be
done by a individual in his/her day to day life like turning off the lights while coming out of
room, using public transport, using paper or cloth bags instead of plastic bags and many others.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Abbas, J. and et. al., 2020. Sustainable innovation in small medium enterprises: the impact of
knowledge management on organizational innovation through a mediation analysis by
using SEM approach. Sustainability, 12(6), p.2407.
Afeltra, G., Alerasoul, S.A. and Strozzi, F., 2021. The evolution of sustainable innovation: from
the past to the future. European journal of innovation management.
Aka, K.G., 2019. Actor-network theory to understand, track and succeed in a sustainable
innovation development process. Journal of cleaner production, 225, pp.524-540.
Ciasullo, M.V. and et. al., 2020. Multi-level governance for sustainable innovation in smart
communities: an ecosystems approach. International Entrepreneurship and Management
Journal, 16(4), pp.1167-1195.
Cillo, V. and at. al., 2019. Understanding sustainable innovation: A systematic literature
review. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 26(5),
pp.1012-1025.
Gottardo, S. and et. al., 2021. Towards safe and sustainable innovation in nanotechnology: State-
of-play for smart nanomaterials. NanoImpact, 21, p.100297.
Guo, R. and et. al., 2020. Classifying green technologies for sustainable innovation and
investment. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 153, p.104580.
Kneipp, J.M. and et. al., 2019. Sustainable innovation practices and their relationship with the
performance of industrial companies. Revista de Gestão.
Potkány, M., Gejdoš, M. and Debnár, M., 2018. Sustainable innovation approach for wood
quality evaluation in green business. Sustainability, 10(9), p.2984.
Widya-Hasuti, A. and et. al., 2018. The role of process innovation between firm-specific
capabilities and sustainable innovation in SMEs: Empirical evidence from
Indonesia. Sustainability, 10(7), p.2244.
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