Building A Sustainable Organisation

This report discusses the importance of sustainable innovation and its benefits, with a focus on UK-based green energy company Ecotricity. It also analyzes current lifestyle practices and suggests sustainable ideas for a better future.

BUILDING A
SUSTAINABLE
ORGANISATION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
PART A...........................................................................................................................................3
CRITICALLY ANALYSING THE IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION.....3
PART B............................................................................................................................................6
1. ANALYSIS OF CURRENT LIFESTYLE..............................................................................6
2. SUSTAINABLE IDEAS.........................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
This report of building a sustainable organization will comprehensively illustrate the
sustainable approaches available as a substitute to the regular approaches in day to day life. In
the beginning of the report a critical study of importance of sustainable innovations have been
mentioned. Sustainable approaches are the ability to conserve natural resources for future
generations to come without exploiting the resources. The real life example taken for this
purpose is “Ecotricity”. Ecotricity has over the years revolutionized the sustainable approach in
the industry, as it is the world's first green energy company.
Further, in the next part of the report a critical evaluation of current lifestyle and daily practices
that needs to be changed in order to have an environmental friendly approach of living will be
mentioned, at last developing and considering sustainable approaches we can adapt in our
lifestyle for the better preservation of the natural resources will be discussed.
MAIN BODY
PART A
CRITICALLY ANALYSING THE IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION
In today's era, Innovation is vital for any company to survive and fight against
competition. Sustainable approaches adapted by the organizations are a way of letting the society
know that company's care for environment, and they would do best in their capacities to bring
betterment. Innovation is implementing the creativity into action to generate more profit and high
productivity. Sustainable Innovation is all about adding sustainability to innovation. This means
producing goods and services that not only gives more economy to organisation but takes into
consideration the long term benefit towards the social and environmental dimensions (Kusi-
Sarpong, Gupta and Sarkis, 2019.). British based Ecotricity company is selling green electricity
which is made with the help of sun, water and air. The vision and mission of the company is to
build a healthy environment. Importance of Sustainable Development are:
Improved brand image: For the company, its reputation and brand name is really
important. To create a value in the market, major role is played by the fact that what is the
company doing for the social, economical and environmental issues. It also becomes the part of
corporate social responsibility of the company to work towards the environment .Ecotricity's
vision is to end the use of fossil fuel to generate electricity so that the environment is not getting

polluted. In less than few years, it has gain immense appreciation in Britain for the renewable
electricity. Ecotricity is now the known name in producing Green Electricity.
The company is expanding on higher scale with new wind and sun parks all over the
country. Eecotricity is being awarded for sustainable energy in 2007. It took a lot of time and
money to research and come up with the idea of green electricity. The company has gone
through many failures to build a successful plan and build the brand image.
Low cost production: Sustainable innovation include minimizing the cost of production
by reducing the amount of waste and effectively using the material to create value to the
company. It's important to carefully use the resources in most efficient way so that the future
generation doesn't face crises.
Ecotricity produce green electricity with the help of sun, water and wind mills. These
resources are sustainable with zero negative impact on the environment (Grabara, Hussain and
Szajt, 2020). Low cost of production is a direct benefit to the consumers that attracts more
customers.
Attracting talented employees: Research indicates that the crucial reason for a job switch
is the search for an innovative environment. Hiring at the top-level of hierarchy can be easy if
company has such attractive sustainable approach. Sustainable innovation is the outcome of
thinking out of the box. Creative and talented employees lead to better innovations and think
differently to solve a problem. An innovative work culture attract the talented people towards the
company where the employees feel empowered in contributing to make a better world to live in.
Acknowledgement and appreciation helps in motivating the employees to be more
productive and innovative (Lüdeke‐Freund, 2020). Talented and skilful employees have the
capabilities to take the company to new level with more customers and high productivity.
Ecotricity is a cost effective sustainable company, generally earns less profit then the non
sustainable company that leads to low salary to the employees.
Develop new market: it involves making Sustainable innovation leads to the develop the
new market for the product. People who are incline towards the socio, economic and
environmental perspective of the company gets attracted to use the product and services offered.
Environment friendly: Ecotricity believes that burning of fossil fuel badly impact the
environment and pollute the surroundings. Sustainable innovation are environment friendly with
no or minimum impact on the environment. The company is saving around 40,000 tonnes of

carbon dioxide in a year and providing green electricity to almost 55,000 houses. Renewable
electricity is comparatively expensive from the fossil fuel (Sustainable innovation practices and
their relationship with the performance of industrial companies. 2022.). This will increase the
prices for industry and household use of the green electricity.
New Customers: The number of people increasing day by day who are worried about the
climatic condition. According to a research it is found that people are more likely to buy from a
company that focuses on their social responsibility and are less harmful to the environment
around them (Cillo and et.al., 2019). Customers are attracted to the organisation who share the
same value. According to a study, customers are ready to pay approx 22% more to the company
who believes in sustainability.
Competitive advantage: Competition is faced by all the business. Creating a sustainable
product which is one of a kind can turn into a no competition situation because of the uniqueness
of the product or services. Sustainable innovation gives the power to stand out of the
competition. It encourages a different thinking. Low competition level is observed by Ecotricity
because of there environment friendly way of generating electricity. It place the company in the
market through favourable condition. As the concept of sustainable innovation is expanding
widely, have attracted to many new start ups.
Customer satisfaction: High customer satisfaction is the outcome of focusing on the
sustainable innovation. Innovation creates the opportunity of satisfy the old customer and create
new market. The customers who value the environment and understands the importance of
maintaining it, usually feels immense satisfaction from buying products and services from such
companies (Abbas and et.al., 2020). Ecotricty have many such proud customers.
Government support: Government of many countries have extend their support to the
companies involved in sustainable innovation. Growing concern about the public health due to
polluted water, wastage of raw material have emphasized on the sustainable innovation. Many
schemes like tax reduction, easy availability of loan, easy acquisition of raw material, etc. are
started by the authorities to encourage more of sustainable business.
Develop Awareness: Most of the world is still not aware about the use and development
of sustainable product. These are the long term benefits for the business as well as for the
environment. Innovation of sustainable product will improve the substantiality of the company.

Every year a large number of animals and birds get distinct because of the climate change and
global warming. It is important to recognize the importance of sustainable innovation.
Preventing over exploitation of resources: Having such sustainable innovative approach
leads to the preservation of the natural resources and this could in turn lead to the longevity of
the company as they can use the resources over the longer period and this is the greatest
advantage. Many companies run out of resources such as raw materials etc. because of overusing
resources and therefore business does not last longer (Qureshi, 2020).
Strong networks in industry: Adaptation of such sustainable approaches leads to
building strong networks in the industry. As everyone wants to keep good relation with a
respected company. Every organization needs strong networks or relations in the industry for the
longevity of the business as such relations bring company's brand value higher. And in times of
difficulty or need these relationships are of utmost use.
Therefore, it can be said that sustainable innovations are of utmost importance in the industry.
PART B
1. ANALYSIS OF CURRENT LIFESTYLE
Sustainability is not a single task but a series of actions taken in a day to day life for the
preservation of natural resources. If we look closely towards our lifestyle, we can find out many
habits or practices that we can change in order to adapt a sustainable approach of living. Starting
from water, an average household in UK uses 349 litres of water every day. As climate change is
affecting the rain cycle and causing draughts around the world, it is of utmost importance to save
water. Choice of mode of transportation in daily life while going to work, leisure, school etc.
every household in UK has an average of 1.2 cars (Hsu and Chen, 2021). And an individual
chooses own vehicle to commute every day and such choice of commute highly impacts the
environment as it leads to pollution as well as exploitation of natural resource which is fuel.
Habit of reuse and recycle, we tend to use so many things in our day to day life without giving a
thought about each item's capability to be reused. Like for instance, clothing, clothing industry is
booming because people believe in buying trendy things and trends are changing rapidly. English
people buy so many clothing and it is glutting the landfills. Another such thing is plastic, we use
plastic in almost everything, use of plastic in day to life include, bottles, containers, single use
plastic, packaging etc. and plastic is not at all environmental friendly as it can't be bio degraded
easily. It is harmful to marinlife and wildlife. Habit of using toxic chemicals in so many things at

home such as floor cleaner, other cleaning products, beauty products, washing powder,
fragrances, body care etc (Thøgersen, 2018).
2. SUSTAINABLE IDEAS
As I analysed the lifestyle, I came up with so many lifestyle habits that could be changed
to have a sustainable approach of living. Very first thing is changing the habit of ruthless use of
water by practising small things such as close the tap while brushing, rain water harvesting,
fixing the leaks in faucets, use bucket to clean the floors etc. (Mataracı and Kurtuluş, 2020). We
should use more of public transportation or car pool methods for commuting daily as this saves
fuel. And try to use energy efficient resources at home. Adapt electricity saving approaches in
lifestyle as electricity needs natural gases and coal for production e.g. don't buy more than one
electronic gadgets like phone laptop etc. Further, mindful clothing habits, first buying only if
needed, that too organic environmental friendly clothes, second try to reuse them, third donate
clothes. Cut-down the single use plastic totally, try to reuse plastic as much as possible and
replace it with sustainable products, such as wooden toothbrush, metal bottles, bags made of
cloth etc. buying products from companies who believe in having sustainable approach of
working and providing sustainable environmental friendly products. As, this could promote
environmental friendly businesses in UK. Overall develop an eco friendly and a sustainable habit
of living which lead to preservation of resources and making world a better place (Hole and
Hole, 2019).
CONCLUSION
In the above report of “building a sustainable organization”, a detailed discussion of
importance of sustainable innovation has been mentioned such as cost-cutting, improved brand
image, strong industry networks, longevity of company, developing awareness etc. The above
discussion also includes 'Ecotricity' as the source of organization, based in UK having
sustainable and eco friendly approach of working. This company is the oldest in sustainable
business world, providing green energy to the consumers. Further, introduction of substantiality
has been illustrated. A detailed analysis of current lifestyle highlighting resources that should be
saved such as fuel, water, energy, electricity etc. and potential habits that could be incorporated
are explained. The Sustainable ideas and practices that I came up with such as commuting,
shopping, preservation etc. and which can also be complied in daily life for the eco friendly
approach of living has been brought to light.

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.
Cillo, V. and et.al., 2019. Understanding sustainable innovation: A systematic literature
review. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management. 26(5).
pp.1012-1025.
Grabara, J., Hussain, H. I. and Szajt, M., 2020. Sustainable university development through
sustainable human resources and corporate entrepreneurship: The role of sustainable
innovation and work environment. Amfiteatru Economic. 22(54). pp.480-495.
Hole, G. and Hole, A. S., 2019. Recycling as the way to greener production: A mini review.
Journal of Cleaner Production. 212. pp.910-915.
Hsu, C. L. and Chen, M. C., 2021. Advocating recycling and encouraging environmentally
friendly habits through gamification: An empirical investigation. Technology in Society.
66 p.101621.
Kusi-Sarpong, S., Gupta, H. and Sarkis, J., 2019. A supply chain sustainability innovation
framework and evaluation methodology. International Journal of Production Research.
57(7). pp.1990-2008.
Lüdeke‐Freund, F., 2020. Sustainable entrepreneurship, innovation, and business models:
Integrative framework and propositions for future research. Business Strategy and the
Environment. 29(2). pp.665-681.
Mataracı, P. and Kurtuluş, S., 2020. Sustainable marketing: The effects of environmental
consciousness, lifestyle and involvement degree on environmentally friendly purchasing
behavior. Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science. 30(3). pp.304-318.
Qureshi, S. M. Q., 2020. Learning by sustainable living to improve sustainability literacy.
International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. 21(1). pp.161-178.
Thøgersen, J., 2018. Transport-related lifestyle and environmentally-friendly travel mode
choices: A multi-level approach. Transportation research part A: policy and practice.
107. pp.166-186.
Online references
Sustainable innovation practices and their relationship with the performance of industrial
companies. 2022. (Online). Available through:
<https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/REGE-01-2018-0005/full/html>
<https://www.greenamerica.org/green-living/10-habits-highly-sustainable-people>