Climeworks: Sustainability Roles, Challenges and Management Tools

This report provides a critical analysis of Climeworks, a company focused on carbon capture, examining the roles and responsibilities of its strategic managers, Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher, in the context of sustainability. It explores the application of strategic business management tools, such as benchmarking, OKRs, and scenario planning, to address sustainability issues. The report further investigates the ethical and economic challenges faced by the company's leaders in balancing short-term and long-term goals, particularly concerning investment decisions and the prioritization of environmental impact versus profit margins. The challenges of employee motivation and the importance of business ethics in achieving sustainability goals are also discussed, highlighting the complexities of operating a sustainable business in a dynamic environment.

Building a sustainable
organisation

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Critical evaluation of the responsibilities and roles of Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher
being strategic managers of sustainability. Illustration of the tools and concepts of strategic
business management which are applied to the issues of sustainability......................................1
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................4
Demonstrate the ethical and economic challenges during the process of balancing short and
long-term goals faced by the strategic leaders.............................................................................4
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Sustainability is a social goal which widely aim for the safety of the humans to live in
peace on the earth for a long time (Asha'ari and Daud, 2019). It means an individual meeting
their own needs without depending upon future generation or compromising their ability to fulfil
their own demands. Along with environmentalism, people also needs economic and social
resources as a natural resource. It is the ability to support or sustain a continuous process with
time. Sustainability enhance the quality of lives of people, preserves future natural resources and
protects ecosystem. The objective of sustainability is to become a life support system of people
and maintain a healthy environment. Moreover, it also helps in providing the economic
wellbeing for the present and future creation.
The project report highlights the critical evaluation of the responsibilities and roles of
Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher being strategic managers of sustainability. It also talks
about the tools and concepts of management in strategic business which are applicable to issues
of sustainability. In the end, a discussion the ethical and economic challenges faced by the
strategic leaders during the process of short-term and long-term balancing of goals.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
Critical evaluation of the responsibilities and roles of Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher
being strategic managers of sustainability. Illustration of the tools and concepts of strategic
business management which are applied to the issues of sustainability
Role and responsibilities for strategic managers is the most essential part played by the
leaders in the organisation (Macqueen and Bolin, 2018). Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher
started a business enterprise namely “Climeworks”, it is the world's first company which
installed a plan to identify carbon dioxide from air. Which is harmful for the customers and
demotivate them not to buy that product, so the managers set their objectives of the company
according to the demand as well as satisfaction of the customers. Roles and responsibilities of a
manager is the most essential thing in the organisation as the whole firm works according to
them (Morledge, Smith and Appiah, 2021). The objectives, vision and mission of the company is
already decided in order to attain the goals on time as well as with all the demands and needs of
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people. Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher have some roles and responsibilities to follow as
a sustainable manager in the organisation which are discussed below:
Roles: The managers sets the directions to move on, which are required by the employees to
follow in the company. Goals and objectives which are required to follow in the near
future are already being set by them. Considering the health and safety of the employees
which is being looked after on priority basis. People should know the short- term goal on
which they need to work on, so managers guides them how to achieve those goals
successfully. The products are made according to the satisfaction of the customers which
is less harmful for them as well as for the environment.
 Effective communication between the leader and the subordinates is must which is also
being taken care off. They help the employees in converting the planned strategies into
actions to attain the target goals of future. Being sustainable managers it is important for
them to do an analysation of the present and future demand for their products. And
develop it according to the current satisfaction of the customers. Role of managers also
include the overseeing and organising a specific group, sector or project in a firm.
Responsibilities
 The leaders are responsible for the strategic decision-making of the firm (Preston, 2022).
Employees are allowed to give suggestions while deciding anything for the company.
Development of vision and mission of the firm is included in the responsibility of a
manager. They also set policies and regulations which are expected by everyone to
accompany while working on the targeted goals. Vision and mission of the company
gives a clear direction to the people that what exactly it aims on, proper training is
provided to reach the goals. Eco-friendly products are promoted by the managers which
are less damaging to the people and their surroundings as well. To divide the task within
the personnel is a basic thing done by a manager in the organisation.
 Evaluation of the performance of employees is important thing done by the managers, to
keep people motivated towards work in the firm (Chofreh, Goni and Klemeš, 2018). They
are also responsible for the establishing effective culture of the company, they create a
positive vibe for the subordinates to work effectively and efficiently. Furthermore, if an
employee is facing any issues while working, a manager is accountable to provide them
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with a solution, keeping the organisational rules in mind. Employees are performing well
in the firm without any issues related to the surrounding or the organisational goals, are
some authorities which are taken care off by the managers.
Tools and concepts of strategic business manager with reference to sustainability are
discussed below:
Benchmark:
Benchmarking is a process of regular comparing the business process within the other
organisation in order to identify the issues that are faced by them and find ways to overcome
with the situation (Roorda, 2020). Sustainability benchmarks are the way of evaluating
systematically the performance of voluntary standards, certificates, enterprise that focuses to
create positive influence and implement measures of sustainability. This tool can be applied by
Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher in their sustainable business enterprise. The managers can
keep continuous check on the performance of the company by measuring it with the past results.
Moreover, they can compare their business with the other firms to grab the strategies adopted by
them which can be useful for their entity. Most of the organisation use this tool to compare
themselves within their external and internal standards. It will be useful for them as it helps in
estimating the internal progress, performance opposed to competitors and how the business
processes its rank in the world-class organisations. It may create a problem for the managers
while dealing with the competitors. The risk and opportunities, positive and negative factors and
the mandatory standards of a potential business can be evaluated by the sustainability of
benchmarking. But competitive benchmarking might help them to meet the competitor's
performance, it is unexpected to let out practices for beating them.
Objective and Key Results (OKR):
It is a framework of performance management created to encourage organisations to set,
communicate and observe successful organisational results and goals. It guides the companies to
be transparent and to line up business, group and individual objectives in a measurable and
hierarchal way. The managers Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher can use this tool for their
sustainable business. As it is a collective goal-setting method which are used by the group and
individuals to set challenges goals with measurable results. They can also track the progress,
performance and create direction keeping the measurable goals in consideration. Implementation,
instability and governance are the three main dilemmas faced during sustainability.
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The lay out plans are prepared by the managers to implement the strategies within the
organisational goals (Hall, 2019). The objective can be fulfiled by setting objectives of collecting
a good amount of carbon dioxide from the surroundings and build a big profitable business
which also helps in keeping the environment safe and healthy. Through these variations the
company get benefited in their strategic management and future planning.
Scenario Planning:
Scenario planning is the way to maintain control over a dynamic world by recognising
the assumptions about the future and demonstrating how the company will respond to it (Sharma,
2018). It helps in identifying a particular set of uncertainties which might arise in the future and
affect the entity. Uncertainties can be in any form like economic trends, climate changes,
population and demographic changes, land markets fiscal health of local governments and many
more. Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher being sustainable strategic managers can opt
scenario planning in the business to get prepare for the future uncertainties so that backup plans
can give good conversions. The scenario planning helps a sustainable business to take decision
according to the tragedies which might the managers need to face in the near future. The risk
involved in the business can be identify by them before it occurs, so that they are aware and
come up with the solutions which can overcome with the issues. It also benefits the business to
forecast their future investments as well sales. For a business it is necessary to take risk which
can result into either way, this tool of sustainability guides them to recover with the current
situation going on.
Task 2
Demonstrate the ethical and economic challenges during the process of balancing short and long-
term goals faced by the strategic leaders
There are various challenges faced by the leaders while balancing the goals in the
organisation (Vandenbrande, 2021). It includes the motivation of an employee to hard for
achieving the set short and long-term goals. Business ethics encourages the law by aiming the
acceptable behaviours behind government control. Firms creates business ethics to highlight
integrity between their subordinates and gain trust from key stakeholders, like consumers and
investors. Quality of an ethical programs is necessary and became common these days. Strategic
leaders set varied short-term as well as long-term goals for attaining their organisational
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objectives in an effective manner. They also face differentiated ethical as well as economic
dilemmas which needs to be solved while making critical decisions in an exponential manner.
Ethical dilemmas faced by organisational managers when they have to make choice among
making profits or engage in sustainable practices for supporting biodiversity in an effective
manner.
Long term goals which is set by Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher is to enhance their
brand and make it more viable due to their breakthrough technology in an effective manner. A
huge brand value and brand loyalty of the company can be achieved only if the mangers focus on
the large scale marketing of the products to get a good customers base segment. Managers have
to keep the personnel motivated towards work in order to fulfil the individual and organisational
goals as well. Short term goals of Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher is to stop climatic
changes which is considered as harmful for sustainable practices as well as maintaining
biodiversity in a strategic manner. For fulfilling their goals in an effective manner, strategic
leaders like Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher have to face ethical dilemmas as to whether
invest in correcting the climatic changes or generate more profit margins. For attaining their
goals, strategic leaders such as Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher have to make huge
investment for varied scientific processes like special filtering, greenhouse test and many more.
Through this, they are working for being environmental friendly by capturing carbon dioxide
from air but less profit margins. The managers have also done plenty of research to avoid the
dynamic climate change that can affect the business. It is very important to know the people
working in the firm as managers are responsible for the survival of their employees. If any
personnel are facing issue regarding others attitude, with the goals or with anything, managers
have to look after this on priority basis (Verhelst, Vanhoof and Van Petegem, 2022). In an
enterprise long or short term goals are not possible without the subordinates working, they have a
huge contribution in achieving the set targets. Managers have to keep everything in mind so that
it can get the first mover advantage in the market as well as the sustainable competitive
advantage.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that sustainability is a global goal which mainly
focuses on the healthy and safe livelihood of the human on earth for a long time which directly
encourage people to live more as well as support eco-system. An employee motivation to work
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hard for the goals are also considered as an important thing, so that they can have high morale
while working. Customer and employee relation is very essential to be maintained in the entity to
attain the set long and short term goals. The roles and responsibilities of the managers in the
company are establishing business culture, setting strategic decision making and many more.
Concepts and tools like benchmark, objectives and key results and scenario planning are key
tools respect to sustainability in an enterprise. Economic and ethical dilemmas that are faced by
the strategic managers while processing for the long and short term goals includes brand value
and curb climatic changes.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Asha'ari, M.J. and Daud, S., 2019. Sustainable procurement and corporate sustainability
performance: the moderating role of organisation age. International Journal of
Environmental Technology and Management. 22(4-5). pp.330-351.
Chofreh, A.G., Goni, F.A. and Klemeš, J.J., 2018. A roadmap for Sustainable Enterprise
Resource Planning systems implementation (part III). Journal of cleaner
Production. 174. pp.1325-1337.
Hall, C.M., 2019. Constructing sustainable tourism development: The 2030 agenda and the
managerial ecology of sustainable tourism. Journal of Sustainable Tourism. 27(7).
pp.1044-1060.
Macqueen, D. and Bolin, A. eds., 2018. Forest business incubation: Towards sustainable forest
and farm producer organisation (FFPO) businesses that ensure climate resilient
landscapes. International Institute for Environment and Development.
Morledge, R., Smith, A.J. and Appiah, S.Y., 2021. Building procurement. John Wiley & Sons.
Preston, J., 2022. Regulation, Organisation and Governance for Sustainable
Railways. Sustainable Railway Engineering and Operations. 14. pp.265-279.
Roorda, N., 2020. Fundamentals of sustainable development. Routledge.
Sharma, M., 2018. Development of a ‘Green building sustainability model’for Green buildings in
India. Journal of cleaner production. 190. pp.538-551.
Vandenbrande, W.W., 2021. Quality for a sustainable future. Total Quality Management &
Business Excellence. 32(5-6). pp.467-475.
Verhelst, D., Vanhoof, J. and Van Petegem, P., 2022. Development and validation of the
education for sustainable development school organisation
questionnaire. Environmental Education Research. 28(2). pp.241-259.
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