Building a Sustainable Organisation: Innovation and Reflection

This report explores the concept of sustainable innovation, defining it as the development of new products, processes, and services that contribute to social, economic, and environmental well-being. The report uses Bio-Bean, a UK-based recycling company that converts coffee waste into eco-friendly fuel, as a case study. It highlights the importance of sustainable innovation for businesses, focusing on operational optimization, organizational transformation, system thinking, and contribution to sustainable businesses. Furthermore, the report includes a personal reflection on adopting sustainability ideals in daily life, demonstrating the importance of individual contributions to environmental conservation and the overall well-being of the ecosystem. The report emphasizes the significance of sustainable practices for both businesses and individuals to ensure a positive impact on the environment and future generations.

Building A
Sustainable
Organisation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................3
Importance of Sustainable Innovation........................................................................................3
Personal Reflection on adoption of Sustainability ideals in current lifestyle.............................7
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Sustainability can be defined as fulfilment of the own needs of individuals by the
utilisation of natural resources but without compromising with the needs of future generations to
satisfy their own needs (Ayoub and Achkouty, 2021). With reference to any business
organisation, sustainability refers to an approach towards creation of a long-term value for the
businesses by taking into consideration the responsibility to have concerns about the social,
economic and ecological environments. Sustainable innovation includes the activities of
introduction of new ideas, practices and products that hold a potential to make contributions to
the social cohesion, economic viability and economic environments (Moons and et. al., 2022).
This report is based on the case study of a recycling company Bio-Bean that is engaged in
developing eco-friendly fuel from coffee waste to power London buses. It is a UK based
company engaging in recycling and manufacturing and dealing in the products like recycled
coffee raw materials, coffee biomass pellets etc. The report will describe the importance of
sustainable innovation with reference to sustainable organisations like Bio-Bean and it will also
cover a personal reflection on adoption of sustainability ideals in existing lifestyle of people.
TASK
Importance of Sustainable Innovation
Sustainable innovation includes the development of innovative or new products,
processes, services or technologies, so as to facilitate their contribution to the development,
welfare or well being of the needs of businesses as well as individuals while taking into
consideration the preservation or conservation of natural resources and regenerative capacity.
Sustainable innovation takes into consideration the introduction of changes into products or
processes of organisation in order to give long-term environmental and social benefits while
considering economic advantages as well. It is imperative to introduce changes in the
organisation process or products so as to keep stable in the competitive environment of target
market while considering sustainable practices. The businesses must adopt sustainability by
complying with their Corporate social responsibility and responsible innovation.
Sustainable innovation facilitates the business organisations in adapting with social and
environmental impacts. By adopting sustainable innovation practices, the businesses put efforts
in producing those products and services that are beneficial to the mankind and do not cause any

harm for the organisations as well as society on a long-term basis. For instance, Bio-Bean, is a
private and world's first waste coffee recycling factory of London that has operations in the
Recycling industry that also includes manufacturing , renewables, solid fuels, etc. The company
has industrialised the process of recycling waste coffee grounds in the advanced biofuels,
biomass pellets and most probably the future biodiesel that are regarded as sustainable products.
The company is engaged in dealing with the products like recycled coffee raw material, coffee
logs, natural coffee flavoured ingredient and coffee biomass pellets etc. By engaging in the
production of these products, the company is ensuring to leave a positive impact of its business
operations on the society as well as environment.
The concept of sustainable innovation has been introduced to make the businesses not
adopt the traditional forms of innovation that cause harm to the natural resources (Sehnem and
et. al., 2022). For instance, by using the innovative coffee capsule machines , a cafe-quality
coffee can be enjoyed at home but it leads to the dump of around 23000 plastic capsules in the
landfills. The main elements to consider for introducing innovation in the business are products
and processes. Sustainable innovation can be achieved by the businesses through following ways
-
 Introduction or Development of novel products or services – By introducing sustainable
innovation, organisations are able to invent and provide novel products and services that
facilitate them in achieving sustainable practices. For instance, the company, Bio-Bean
that was founded in the year 2013 is a certified B Corp , has developed an innovative
product i.e. an eco-friendly biofuel that is made from the coffee waste to assist Power
London's double-decker buses. As part of sustainable innovation, it also recycles the
coffee grounds into eco-friendly products like coffee pellets , coffee logs etc. to provide
substitutive options for carbon-heavy fuels like imported wood logs, coal briquettes etc.
And currently, the company is taking steps for introducing an innovative product i.e.
biodiesel by recycling of waste coffee grounds while ensuring sustainable innovation.
 Transformation of Operational processes – Sustainable innovation also involves
introducing changes or transformation in the existing products or processes by way of
innovation apart from introduction of novel products or services (Chindasombatcharoen
and et. al., 2021). For instance, in context with an electronic manufacturing private
company Fairphone that designs and produces smartphones with the goal of leaving a

low environmental footprint and social impact as compared to other operators in the
Telecom equipments industry, it offers consumer sourced-smartphones that do not
consider introduction of novel products like Bio-Bean. The company Fairphone puts
emphasis on bringing transformation in the production process of smartphones to
facilitate sustainability and responsibility in terms of innovative products.
Fairphone uses recycled materials in its production process. As part of its transformation,
it has introduced a modular design for its smartphones that assists in convenient repairs and up-
gradations that facilitates in reducing the e-waste thereby ensuring a successful sustainable
innovation on part of company as well as society. Through this, the company is able to face the
competition in respective industry. Sustainable innovation helps the company in providing
competitive advantage in terms of increased brand value due to their concerns for social and
environmental well being. It facilitates the business in operational optimisation, organisational
transformation and systems building. It holds a huge importance in context with sustainable
business that has been described as under -
 Operational Optimisation – Sustainable innovation facilitates the businesses in enhancing
the operational processes without any compromise with their business model. To ensure
sustainable innovation, businesses adopt sustainable practices like reduced packaging and
renewable energy etc. due to which they are able to leave a positive social and
environmental impact (Anser and et. al., 2021). This is due to involvement of social and
environmental concerns to their business or operational processes. With reference to Bio-
Bean, the company is engaging in burning of waste coffee grounds in biomass boilers as
a sustainable renewable heat substitute that is facilitating the company in terms of
operational optimisation.
 Organisational Transformation – It involves bringing transformation in the organisation
by creating attentive new products or services that will facilitate the societal or
environmental needs. It mainly puts emphasis on introducing new things in the form of
transformation in organisation. Sustainable innovation through organisational
transformation can be seen in Fair-phone company i.e. introduction of modular designs
of smartphones that facilitated in reducing e-waste and in case of Bio-bean, the
production of biofuel from the coffee waste that includes metastability concerns of both
the companies.

 Requires system thinking – The businesses considering the sustainable innovation also
have to consider the entire system that comprises of society, environment, stakeholders
and communities etc. apart from considering the needs of own business or society. They
need to develop an understanding of impact of their actions or operations on other
organisations as well (Gupta, Singh and Mangla, 2021). In context with Bio-Bean, the
company engages in research and development of biodiesel, biochemicals through waste
coffee grounds and some organic waste streams to facilitate sustainable impact of its
operations on other organisations and environment as well.
 Contribution to Sustainable businesses – Sustainable innovation wants the organisations
to consider the issues such as climate change , human rights etc. as part of their
innovation processes. It facilitates the businesses in long-term sustainable growth by the
use of different technologies and human resources in their innovation processes in a
sustainable way (Kamalakkannan and Kulatunga, 2021). With reference to Bio-Bean
company, it uses a patented technology for producing the materials from the waste of
coffee grounds such as biomass pellets, biofuels etc.
 Systems Building – Through sustainable innovation, businesses are considered as a part
of an ecosystem. Sustainability is not a concept relating to a single organisation, it takes
into consideration an entire system or ecosystem consisting of environment, society,
organisations etc. Businesses are required to raise concerns beyond the needs of their own
organisation and to execute partnership with other companies, groups or businesses to
achieve the goals of sustainable innovation (Wan and et. al., 2021). For example, Bio-
Bean is in partnership with Cawleyes i.e. a waste management and recycling company in
the East Anglia of England. The company provides the services of waste collection,
coffee recycling, glass recycling, food recycling etc. and has been in partnership with
Bio-Bean to facilitate the company in recycling and waste management that help Bio-
Bean to achieve sustainability goals.
Apart from the sustainable practices of Bio-Bean , it also provides the services to restaurants and
food businesses like collecting waste coffee grounds from the coffee shops and restaurants etc.
The company is contributing to the company by producing the sustainable products like biofuel
and as part of its sustainable innovation process, the company is also introducing Biodiesel in the
near future from the conversion of waste coffee grounds.

Personal Reflection on adoption of Sustainability ideals in current lifestyle
Sustainability holds an equal importance in the daily lifestyle of individuals as it holds in
case of business organisations (Khan, Weili and Khan, 2022). It is not only the responsibility of
business organisations to raise concerns regarding the sustainability or recycling practices but it
is the responsibility of general individuals as well to take into consideration the sustainable
practices to contribute to the environment and ensuring well being of entire ecosystem (Castro,
Fernandez and Colsa, 2021). They must follow these practices to facilitate conservation of
natural resources and energy to be utilised by upcoming future generations. By this , they can
also contribute to the economic advantage as well. I always try to follow the sustainability
practices in my daily lifestyle by using the sustainable products such as I use green products like
bamboo tooth brushes and recycled cutlery in my routine use to avoid the use of plastic tooth
brushes that could be the reason of waste to be dumped into the landfill sites. Apart from this,
mostly, I try to purchase the food products or other essentials from the local farmer markets and
eco-friendly stores.
To avoid the use of plastic bags to ensure environment sustainability, I carry the jute bags
to hold the purchased products. As part of my sustainability ideals, I have also concerns for
energy conservation that I follow by using less energy that also facilitates in low carbon
emissions. Whenever I purchase the products that are contained by plastic products like bottles
or containers, I wash the containers after use and crush them to store apart from wet waste. It is
my practice to transfer the plastic waste to the plastic agents. I am known with the fact that the
sustainable actions help the individuals in experiencing a real difference in the society. For a
sustainable lifestyle, I have changed my personal behaviours regarding the food, transportation
and energy choices. In the leisure time, apart from my studies, I deliver my services to a
sustainability organisation that is engaged in spreading awareness about sustainability and also
has partnership with some recycling companies.
As regards purchasing of products, I buy those products that are made of recycled
materials and have been designed to be zero waste. As part of my sustainability practices, I do
not throw the unused clothes to be sent to the landfills, rather I donate them to charity for their
further use. Apart from this, I follow the home made compost of the food waste that facilitates in

minimising the waste to be disposed of and eliminates its bad environmental affect. The
conversion of organic waste into compost helps me in contributing to minimise the impact of air
and soil pollution as well. So, all the above sustainability ideals help in complying with the
sustainability practices in the existing lifestyle.
CONCLUSION
The above report has highlighted the concept of sustainable innovation in context with
recycling and manufacturing companies, particularly, the world's first waste coffee recycling
factory i.e. Bio-Bean. The importance of sustainable innovation in context with Bio-Bean and
FairPhone has been discussed that have also included the transformation in organisation and
operational processes by way of sustainable innovation. It has been observed that the concept of
sustainable innovation is not only related with a particular organisation, rather it consists of an
entire system i.e. stakeholders, environment, communities and other organisations as well. The
report has also discussed the ways to achieve sustainable innovation that is through development
of novel products and transformation of operational processes by providing the examples of
different recycling companies. A reflective document has also been provided in the end that
reflected on personal lifestyle of individuals regarding the adoption of sustainability practices.

REFERENCES
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