Reflective Journal on Sustainability Challenges and Strategies

This reflective journal delves into various aspects of business sustainability, offering insights into the challenges and opportunities faced by businesses like Woolworths. It examines threats such as lack of commitment to environmental improvement and opportunities like utilizing resources effectively. The journal further analyzes the role of business enterprises in policy development, emphasizing the need for collaboration with national governments. Sustainability initiatives of companies like Interface are explored, highlighting their focus on reducing environmental impact. The journal also covers strategic sustainability, using Fuji Xerox as a case study, and discusses sustainability reporting indicators, referencing the ANZ bank's practices. Additionally, it addresses carbon emissions and their environmental impacts, as well as barriers to food sustainability and potential social marketing campaigns to promote healthy eating habits. This comprehensive reflection provides a detailed overview of sustainability issues and strategies in the business world.

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1REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Blog 1: Threats and Opportunities related to Sustainability
The retail chain Woolworths Groups is an important enterprise of the nation of
Australia and every year makes a valuable contribution towards the national economy of the
concerned nation. The five important threats that the concerned enterprise faces related to the
attainment of sustainability are listed below-
 The lack of commitment of Woolworths towards the improvement of the condition of
the planet is one of the major threats that the concerned enterprise faces for the
attainment of sustainability.
 The limited amount of resources or capital that the concerned enterprise spends on its
corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices or towards the improvement of the
condition is another important threat that the enterprise faces for the attainment of
sustainability
 The inadequate training programs which are being offered to the employees and also
the aggressive sales target that are being given to them is another important threat
 The lack of integration of the indigenous or the aboriginal people of Australia within
its workforce is another major threat faced by the enterprise
 The over-reliance of the enterprise on the ‘brick and mortar’ business model as well
as the retail sector is another major threat
The five important opportunities that the concerned enterprise faces related to the
attainment of sustainability are listed below-
 Effective utilisation of resources of Australia for the attainment of sustainability is an
important opportunity that the enterprise Woolworths has presently
 The usage of different kinds of CSR practices for creating value for the stakeholders
and the planet is another important opportunity for the enterprise

2REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
 Offering different kinds of training programs to the employees for the enhancement of
their performance is another major opportunity that the enterprise has
 Integration of the aboriginals and indigenous people within the workforce of the
enterprise for the enhancement of its diversity is another opportunity that the
enterprise has
 Another important opportunity that the enterprise Woolworths has for the attainment
of sustainability is the usage of the e-retail model of business which in the present
times had been appreciated by the customers

3REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Blog 2: Business Enterprises and Policy Development
I personally believe that the business enterprises need to play a pivotal role within the
process of developing public policy. This can be explained on the basis of the fact that the
majority of the public policies formulated by the business enterprises directly affect the
business enterprises and the common people. However, the problem arises because of the fact
that the national governments often fail to take into account the perspective of the business
enterprises within the policies that they have formulated (Roness 2017). Thus, it is likely that
an effective collaboration between the national government and the business enterprises for
the formulation of public policies would help in the creation of the kind of policies which will
take into account the perspectives of both the business enterprises and the common people.
This becomes even more important from the perspective of the developing nations wherein it
is seen that the different bodies of the national government are not being developed in an
effective manner and also no proper measures are being taken for the formulation of relevant
policies (Blackburn 2016). In these scenarios, the role that the business enterprises can play
for the formulation of relevant public policies would be an important one since it will help the
national government to overcome its deficiencies and thereby create the kind of public
policies that would be helpful for the people.
References
Blackburn, R.A., 2016. Government, SMEs and entrepreneurship development: Policy,
practice and challenges. Routledge.
Roness, P.G., 2017. Types of state organizations: Arguments, doctrines and changes beyond
new public management. In Transcending new public management (pp. 77-100). Routledge.

4REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Blog 3: Sustainability Initiatives
I personally believe that the key factor which is driving the sustainability initiatives of
the enterprise Interface is its concern towards the damage that the business enterprises on the
score of over-exploitation of the natural resources of the planet and also the high amount of
pollutants that they are releasing. The resultant effect of this is that the concerned enterprise
had completely redesigned its operations process so as to completely eliminate the waste
released by it by promoting the effective utilisation of the waste and thereby reducing its
operations cost and also by contributing in a meaningful manner to mitigate the adverse
effects of the problems faced by the planet (Lyles 2019). This as a matter of fact is in
complete contrast to the operations or the business process followed by the enterprise
Woolworths wherein it is seen that the enterprise simply takes the help of the process of
“Take-Make-Dispose” which in turn is adversely affecting the environment and had also
reduced the profitability of the enterprise through the enhancement of its operations cost.
More importantly, the manner in which the enterprise Interface had been able to save more
than $436,000 through the complete elimination of waste and also by taking into account the
factor of environment and thereby enhanced its profitability clearly shows the way in which
the business enterprises can integrate natural capitalism into the aspects of people, processes
and culture for the attainment of success (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2019).
References
Lyles, K. 2019. Ray Anderson on Sustainability. [video] Available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2LOUBme8rw. [Accessed 16 May 2019].
Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2019. Business Case Study 1: Interface Flor. [video] Available
at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPQ9x_Y2of4. [Accessed 16 May 2019].

5REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Blog 5: Strategic Sustainability
In the light of the case study, it becomes apparent that Fuji Xerox is a sustaining
corporation because of the fact that the strategy used by the concerned enterprise clearly
complies with Baumgartner’s view on efficiency strategy”. For example, the strategy of the
concerned enterprise to remanufacture defective machine parts rather than merely dump them
had not only reduced the operations cost of the enterprise but at the same time enhanced its
profitability as well (Sustainability.edu.au. 2019). More importantly, this had at the same
time reduced the amount of environmental damage caused by it and also contribute towards
its development in a meaningful manner along with the social and the economic contributions
that it makes towards the nation of Australia (Sustainability.edu.au. 2019). Furthermore, the
effectiveness with which the concerned enterprise is contributing towards the environment,
society and the economy of the region of its operation while attaining its business objectives
through the usage of adequate business strategies is indeed an important business lesson for
the other business enterprises of the world. Moreover, the case study also reveals in a
succinct manner the benefits that the business enterprise can derive through the usage of
effective strategies which will help them to fulfil both their objectives and obligations as
business enterprises towards the planet.
References
Sustainability.edu.au. 2019. Fuji Xerox Australia Eco manufacturing Centre: A case study in
strategic sustainability | Learning and Teaching Sustainability. [online] Available at:
http://sustainability.edu.au/material/teaching-materials/fuji-xerox-australia-eco-
manufacturing-centre-case-study-strategic-sustainability/ [Accessed 16 May 2019].

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Blog 6: Sustainability Reporting Indicators
The annual sustainability report of the ANZ bank states that the major sustainability
indicators against which the concerned bank against are social, economic and the
environmental indicators (Anz.com.au. 2019). In addition to these, it is seen that the
concerned bank had created various sub-indicators like employee engagement, ethical and
responsible banking, stakeholder engagement and others for the purpose of sustainability
reporting (Anz.com.au. 2019). The major determining factor which the concerned bank used
for the identification of these indicators was the impact that its business actions or activities
was having on these entities. It is pertinent to note that the actions of the bank directly
affected the entities related to these indicators and this in turn became the guideline which
was being used for the selection or the determination of these indicators or sub-indicators. I
personally believing by the term “responsible banking”, the bank means ethical banking
which will seek to offer the maximum amount of benefit to the stakeholders who are
associated with the bank. Moreover, by way of the ‘responsible banking’ the bank also
intends to highlight the idea that it seeks to contribute in a responsible manner towards the
societal, environmental and economic growth of Australia (Anz.com.au. 2019). This is not
only important from the perspective of the different stakeholders who are associated with the
concerned bank also from the perspective of the long-term growth of ANZ itself.
References
Anz.com.au. 2019. Corporate Sustainability | ANZ. [online] Available at:
https://www.anz.com.au/about-us/sustainability/ [Accessed 16 May 2019].

7REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Blog 9: Carbon emission and its environmental impacts
As per the Australian Greenhouse Calculator (AGC), I found that my household
carbon emission is 25.67 tonnes per year whereas the carbon emission caused by the average
households of Australia is roughly around 30 tonnes per year. This result is actually
indicative of the fact that the carbon emission caused by our household and thereby the
damage that my household is causing to the environment is far lesser than that of the other
households of the same nation. In this regard, I would like to say that there are various factors
which have contributed towards the low amount of carbon emission caused by our household.
For example, every-day rather than diving our own cars, each of the members of my family
takes the public transport and also car-pools so as to save fuel and also reduce the amount of
pollution that we are causing. Another important reason for the same is the fact that out
household also tries to limit the amount of electricity that we use so as to reduce the amount
of greenhouse emission caused by us. More importantly, we believe in the idea of using our
old goods for various purposes rather than merely throwing them away and thereby add to the
damage faced by the environment. Lastly, we also try to avoid the purchase of heavily
packaged products since they require more energy for manufacturing and transportation and
thereby greatly contribute towards the problems faced by the environment.

8REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Blog 10: Food Sustainability
I would say that one of the major barriers which exists in our area for the consumption
of healthy food which had been sustainably produced is the fact that the majority of the
supermarket outlets in our area like Woolworths, Coles and others promote unhealthy food
products because of the large profit that they earn from the same. Another major barrier for
the same is the fact that the healthy food products are often priced higher than the unhealthy
ones because of the sustainable practices that are being followed for the manufacture of the
same through which the enterprises manufacturing them often incur a higher operations cost.
In the social marketing campaign for the promotion of the healthy food I would like to
include the health benefits that the customers would be able to derive through the
consumption of the same. Furthermore, I would also like to emphasis on the environmentally
sustainable measures that the enterprises using them take the help of for the manufacture of
the same. Another important aspect that I would like to include in the concerned campaign
would be the manner in which the customers through the consumption of these healthy food
products would be able to make a difference towards the world.