Sustainable Practices and Corporate Social Responsibility

This assignment delves into the crucial relationship between sustainable practices and corporate social responsibility (CSR). It highlights the global issue of food waste and hunger, emphasizing the need for responsible resource consumption. The text defines CSR as corporate initiatives aimed at mitigating negative environmental and societal impacts. It explains how businesses engage in social development projects and eco-friendly initiatives to reduce their footprint and contribute to a more sustainable world.

Running head: SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS AND DESTINATIONS
Sustainable Operations and Destinations
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS AND DESTINATIONS
Answer 1
In the video ‘Uganda: Sustainable tourism’, it is seen that Michael Campbell is talking
about his experiences in Uganda while wrapping up a 6 years CITA project to improve the way
of living of the local rural people through sustainable tourism (YouTube, 2013). He pointed out
that, after agriculture, the major revenue earning industry is the tourism. According to Michael,
there are two biggest challenges in sustainability. Firstly, he pointed out that, significant
deforestation is happening in Uganda. As the population has been increasing, the level of
deforestation of the rainforest has been increasing too. Within 6 years, the level of deforestation
of the rainforest has increased in a massive way. The lands are turned into agricultural crop
lands. This is having a major impact on the sustainability. The weather and climate have
changed, the rainy season have changed its time. It has affected people’s livelihood also.
Moreover, the wildlife of these forests are mostly affected. Much wildlife has disappeared and
many have become endangered. Their area of habitat is getting smaller. They cannot escape their
small island of habitat, because if they do, they come into the croplands and are getting killed
like pests. Hence, local people must understand the significance of the wildlife and the benefits
generated by them. The awareness of the people should be increased regarding the wildlife and
the benefit generated by them.
The second issue highlighted by Campbell was the opportunities of the community
projects. He mentioned about the immense opportunity of the Ruhija Gorilla Friends Group
project’s rented camps. Initially, the locals were unfamiliar with the international standard tourist
facilities, and used to build concrete blocks as hotels. They needed to be educated about the
international standard accommodations and facilities. However, the people expected immediate

2SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS AND DESTINATIONS
returns, which was not possible and they became pessimistic about the outcomes and future.
Once they got involved in the project, the notion changed as the number of tourists increased
since the rented camps opened in 2008, and the money generated were utilized to fund other
developments in the community. There is collaboration with an orphan children group of Ruhija.
According to Campbell, a lot of children in Africa is orphan. Many of their parents died of HIV
and accidents, many are children of single parent and some children come from the extremely
poor families, who cannot look after them (YouTube, 2013). Thus, there exist a very inequitable
income, costs and benefit distribution in the society. These groups earn money by entertaining
the tourists, and through gift and souvenir shops. Hence, if the tourist footfalls do not increase,
the tented camps of Ruhija Gorilla Friends group and the orphan children group will not earn
substantial amount of money, which can be reinvested in further developments of other areas in
the society. Since, outside groups do not enter into the local community, thus, the benefits can be
enjoyed by themselves only. The principles of domain of life and the social domain can be
applicable in this matter.

3SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS AND DESTINATIONS
Answer 2
Ruhija is a community in Uganda, which is popular for its gorilla tourism. In November
2008, Ruhija opened up for this tourism. This is a collaborative project with Uganda wildlife
Authority. People were excited to pay money to see the gorillas because they are extremely rare,
one for 10 million people on earth. That made this a great opportunity for the local community to
get the benefit from the wildlife. Earlier, Ruhija did not have much tourists, except for few
birders, who did not stay there. Hence, when this tourism project was opening up, the local
communities had to be convinced about the benefits. Ruhija Gorilla Friends group was formed.
The Ruhija Gorilla Friends group contributed a lot for the development of the local economy,
people and environment. Through number of community meetings and group workshops, the
authority and the CITA project came to the decision to fund the community-tented camps,
among which the Ruhija Gorilla Friends Community Rest camp is the largest, and the first one to
be funded (Rothman et al., 2014). The funding includes the condition that 20% of the ownership
of the camps belongs to the local community, and the earning would be used to help other
developmental initiatives of the society. When the gorilla tourism was opened for tourists, the
first thing that was needed to develop was the accommodation facility. The locals had no
knowledge of the standard of hotels and they needed to be educated on how to build
accommodation with proper amenities. This way, the local people became more aware about the
tourism initiatives. On the other hand, since the returns to the society were not coming
immediately, people were apprehensive about such a project. But, as the project rolled on and
number of tourists started to increase, the amount of revenue started to increase too. It has
boosted the economy. With an average annual income of Uganda is USD 200 per year, the
accommodation generates $50 per person per night at the camps, and for 300 nights per year, the

4SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS AND DESTINATIONS
money is quite substantial for the poor economy of Uganda (YouTube, 2013). The Ruhija Gorilla
Friends Group started to give the 20% of the revenue back to the community initiatives to
improve the quality of life of the local people, which encouraged more people to come forward
with many new business ideas. They group encourages sustainable way of business, such as,
handcrafted gifts, souvenirs, jewelries, clothes, made in a sustainable way. As the first
installment of 20% of the revenue was reinvested, many new developments were made by the
people, which promote sustainable tourism. The supply chain of food and other things were
benefitted as well. People, who are not directly engaged with the camps, are providing the food
for all the people staying in the camps. This way, Ruhija Gorilla Friends Group has been helping
the economy, people and environment of Uganda.

5SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS AND DESTINATIONS
Answer 3
Sustainability is a big issue in today’s business world. As the climate has been changing
rapidly, global warming is prevailing; the environment in which we are living has become
extremely vulnerable. Thus, people have become aware about the sustainability and committed
to make the future better by taking responsible measures (Shove & Spurling, 2013). The answer
focuses on three key points, namely, sustainable practices, responsible consumptions and
corporate social responsibility. Those are explained below.
Sustainable practices
Sustainable practices are mostly adopted by the industrial world, which has been
contributing a lot in the global warming. These practices are characterized by the environment
friendly actions and measures, initiated by the organizations or the government of a nation for
the purpose of becoming a sustainable organization or a nation promoting sustainability (Sancha,
Longoni & Giménez, 2015). Almost all the industries now a days perform sustainable business
practices. The organizations aim to reduce their environmental damage through the initiatives of
cutting down wastages, unethical environmental practices, and pollution generating activities,
which results in lower level of sustainability. These corrective actions would lead to more
sustainable practices by the companies. However, the practices differ among the industries and
mostly specific to the type of the organization and its products.
It has become very important to implement the sustainable practices to reduce the
environmental damages done by the organizations. Reducing the carbon footprint has become a
primary agenda of the industries. The practices can include many different types of eco-friendly
measures. Not only in the industries, people can practice sustainability in their daily living also.

6SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS AND DESTINATIONS
For example, souring the locally and organically grown products, saving water and energy,
reducing and recycling wastes, using environment friendly products, shifting towards renewable
energy sources, reducing carbon emitting activities, growing more plants etc. (Wang, 2014). If
every one contributes their share in reducing the environmental footprints, sustainability would
increase.
Responsible consumption
Responsible consumption is a part of the sustainability movement, and also known as
sustainable consumption. This influences the behavior of the producers, distributors, retailers and
consumers to take adoptive measures to protect and conserve the environment and promote the
right of better living for the future generation (Neesham & Freeman, 2016). The primary focus of
responsible consumption is to consume the products responsibly keeping in mind the need of the
future. This practice would help to reduce the wastages also. The main components for the
consumption are water, energy and food (Valor & Carrero, 2014). According to a report by
un.org, the rate of polluting water is more than the recycling rate of the nature. Over 1 billion
people still do not have access to the fresh water. Hence, excessive usage of water is creating
global water stress. Similarly, as technology is advancing, the consumption of energy has
increased significantly in the past century. Households consume almost 29% of the global energy
and give back 21% carbon in the environment. The increase in the number of vehicles and
number of industries has created excessive pressures on the energy sources. Only one fifth of the
energy is generated from renewable sources. The food sector is also affected by the wastes. It is
found that 1.3billion tonnes of food are wasted every year, 1 billion people stay hungry and
another 1 billion is malnourished (un.org, 2017). One part of the world is having excess food,

7SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS AND DESTINATIONS
while the other is not getting any. Thus, it is very important to consume water, food and energy
in a responsible manner to increase the sustainable practices.
Corporate social responsibility
Corporate social responsibility, commonly called CSR, is the initiatives by the corporate
houses to take the responsibility of the actions that have impacts on the society and on the
environment (Tai & Chuang, 2014). The business of the corporate houses includes operations
that have negative impacts on the environment as well as on the human well being. Thus, the
organizations take the responsibility of the damages and takes actions to return something back
to the nature and to the society. Hence, they get involved in social development projects, such as,
projects for underprivileged children and community, helping and supporting eco-friendly
initiatives by local poor people, environmental development projects, etc. This way, the
companies try to reduce their environmental footprints. They try to give back something to the
society in exchange of what they take from them (Clapp & Rowlands, 2014).

8SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS AND DESTINATIONS
References
Clapp, J., & Rowlands, I. H. (2014). Corporate social responsibility. The Essential Guide to
Global Environmental Governance. Routledge: London, 42-44.
Neesham, C., & Freeman, S. (2016). Value Creation as Business Commitment to Responsible
Consumption. In The Contribution of Love, and Hate, to Organizational Ethics (pp. 207-
229). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Rothman, J. M., Nkurunungi, J. B., Shannon, B. F., & Bryer, M. A. (2014). High altitude diets:
implications for the feeding and nutritional ecology of mountain gorillas. In High altitude
primates(pp. 247-264). Springer New York.
Sancha, C., Longoni, A., & Giménez, C. (2015). Sustainable supplier development practices:
drivers and enablers in a global context. Journal of Purchasing and Supply
Management, 21(2), 95-102.
Shove, E., & Spurling, N. (Eds.). (2013). Sustainable practices: Social theory and climate
change (Vol. 95). Routledge.
Tai, F. M., & Chuang, S. H. (2014). Corporate social responsibility. Ibusiness, 6(03), 117.
un.org. (2017). Sustainable consumption and production. United Nations Sustainable
Development. Retrieved 10 October 2017, from
http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-consumption-production/
Valor, C., & Carrero, I. (2014). Viewing responsible consumption as a personal
project. Psychology & Marketing, 31(12), 1110-1121.

9SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS AND DESTINATIONS
Wang, C. J. (2014). Do ethical and sustainable practices matter? Effects of corporate citizenship
on business performance in the hospitality industry. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management, 26(6), 930-947.
YouTube. (2013). Uganda; Sustainable Tourism. YouTube. Retrieved 10 October 2017, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HSIzOdca4w&t=2s