Costa Coffee: CSR and Sustainability Challenges Analysis

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the challenges Costa Coffee faces concerning corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability within the food sector. It explores the shrinking role of government, demands for greater disclosure, increased customer interest, growing investor pressure, a competitive labor market, and supplier relations as key challenges. The report then details various CSR practices that can be implemented, including setting measurable goals, involving stakeholders, sustainable issue mapping, sustainability management systems, life cycle assessments, and corporate social responsibility reporting. The analysis emphasizes the importance of ethical considerations and sustainable practices in the business operations of Costa Coffee, offering recommendations for improvements and overall enhancing of the organization's CSR performance. The report concludes with a summary of findings and recommendations, highlighting the need for a comprehensive approach to address the identified challenges and implement effective CSR strategies.

Business Ethics Responsibility and
Sustainability

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Challenges that are Faces by organization in Sustainability and Corporate Social
Responsibilities............................................................................................................................1
CSR Practices for Organization...................................................................................................3
Recommendations........................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Sustainability can be considered as the practices that are designed by business
organization to ensure the coexistence of nature or environment along with various operations
that are performed by them to earn profit (Crane, Matten and Spence, eds., 2019). This is all
about saving the environment and natural resource for future generation. Ethics and
responsibilities in sustainability can be consider as the moral duties that are needs to be followed
by business organization to maintain sustainability of environment. These responsibilities and
ethics are all about preventing the major impact of business activities on environment. This
report will be evaluating Costa Coffee which was established in 1971 by Bruno Costa and sergio
Costa. This restaurant chain is operation on 3883 locations around the world. This report will be
analysing challenges that are faced by the organization which are related to corporate
responsibilities and sustainability in food sector organization. Best practices that could be used
by organization to maintain sustainability and corporate responsibilities will be explained in the
report. Various recommendations will be made to improve practices of organization to
implement corporate responsibilities and sustainability within organization.
MAIN BODY
Challenges that are Faces by organization in Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibilities
There are various challenges faced by the food sector organization in order to maintain
corporate social responsibilities and sustainability with in business practices. This is important
for the organization to maintain all sustainability measures in order to cause minimum possible
impact of organizational practices on nature and natural resource reservoirs. Some of the main
challenges that are faced by organization related to sustainability are-
Shrinking Role of Government
the governments are relied on the various legislations and laws that are important to
deliver the social and environmental objectives I business sector. The resources of government
are shrinking and this is not possible for the business organization to manage their business
without violating this legislations that are related to environment and sustainable business
processes. This also force the business organization to take different actions in order to meet
their business requirements with high effectiveness using new techniques and business processes
to maintain sustainability without hampering their performance in the target market (Schrempf-
Stirling, Palazzo and Phillips, 2016). For example changes in food and safety low of government
1

can highly affect the activities of organization that are related to the Corporate Social
Responsibility policy of Costa Coffee. This is how shrinking resources can affect the business
procedure of company.
Demands for Greater Disclosure
There are different people are associated with the organization and this is important for
the company to full fill all the requirements of these stake holders in order to keep them loyal to
organization. This satisfaction can be only be provided to the employees by earning high profit
or revenue. By earning high revenue organization will be able to meet demands of stakeholders
that are related to greater disclosure. With this growing demand organization can not perform
their business actions with high business efficiency along with maintaining the operations that
are related to the corporate social responsibility (Jamali,
Lund-Thomsen and Jeppesen, 2017). The practices that are used by organization for maintaining
sustainability and ethical consideration in business process cause high expenses and it is not
possible for Costa Coffee to meet demands of stakeholders along with performing these
activities.
Increased Customer Interest
To full fill all standards related to corporate social responsibility organization have to
make various challenges in their products and service. This is not possible for them to maintain
CSR policy without making changes in product or services. This changes can affect the interest
of the consumer in the product and services of the company. The main purpose of the Costa
Coffee to meet all demands and requirement of customers which are related to their products. If
organization is not able to meet these requirements then it can affect their sales and performance
in the target market. For example, the changes that are implemented by company to meet ethical
and corporate social responsibilities are not good enough to maintain the taste and quality of
their food products then it can reduce the interest of consumer in the company products. This is
how this is big challenge for organization to meet CSR requirements along with maintaining
consumer interest in their products.
Growing Investor Pressure
There are different investors are connected to Costa Coffee who provide financial and
other resources that are important for the business of the company in the target market. To meet
the requirements of corporate social responsibilities organization have to make different
2

investments as financial capital to maintain operations of organization sustainable. Investors
require better output from company to earn greater profit from company. These need of investors
put organization under pressure and force them to perform even better to earn more profit. This
is not possible for the organization to work under tremendous pressure. This can prevent the
organization to perform good in the market place.
Competitive Labour Market
Costa Coffee is working on global locations these important for the organization to
provide better satisfaction to their employees in order to keep them highly satisfy with in
organization. The process that are related to sustainability and CSR are highly costly and time
taking. With this complex processes of sustainability organization can found more trouble in
provide better benefits to the employees (Ali, Frynas and Mahmood, 2017). This challenges can
affect the loyalty of employees towards the company. So implementation of the sustainability
processes can affect the performance of organization in the target market.
Supplier Relation
In the business process there are many companies are associated with the organization.
This is important for them to make effective relation with the stakeholders holders that are
important for their business. To maintain sustainability in business organization this is important
for the company to select the suppliers that are following the sustainability guidelines in order to
produce raw material. This can improve the sustainability and ethical practice of company
related to the CSR. So it is difficult for the company to find this kind of supplier to get better and
sustainable raw material to make their products sustainable and good for health of people.
These are some challenges that are faced by Costa Coffee in maintaining CSR policies in
the operations process of restaurants.
CSR Practices for Organization
There are different practices can be used by the organization to meet sustainability and
ethical demands of the company (Rahman, Rodríguez-Serrano and Lambkin, 2017). These
processes and practices are designed by the company to achieve their goals related to serve
people with products and services that are developed with sustainable processes.
Set Measurable Goals
There are different changes are implemented by organization in order to achieve the
sustainable production. This is important for the organization to set the sustainable goals that can
3

be measure later to evaluate the performance of company with sustainable and ethical processes.
The investments that are made by the organization are focused on reducing issues in the product
and services of the Costa Coffee restaurant. With effective measurable goals organization can
perform frequent evaluation of their practices to make relevant changes in their performance.
The CSR policies force the organization to implement different small changes in the organization
in order to implement effective CSR policies in organization (Wang, Hsieh and Sarkis, 2018).
These measurable goals can be evaluated after completion to make further improvements that
can help the Costa Coffee restaurant to achieve their targets that are related to sustainability of
business,
Involvement of Stakeholders in Business
This is important for the organization to involve all the stake holders in the business
process to maintain transparency. There are different decisions and initiatives are implemented
by organization in the business practices in order to meet their business goals. This is important
for them to keep all the stakeholders aware of the decisions that are made by them in business
process. Costa Coffee can involve all the stake holder in business practice to keep them aware of
changes and implementation of innovative practices in operations (Cui, Jo and Na, 2018). This
process can help them to develop better relationship with their business partners and suppliers to
avoid conflicts. This is how this CSR practice can help them to keep stakeholders loyal to the
organization.
Sustainable Issue Mapping
A business organization like Costa Coffee Face various type of issues that are related to
the sustainability and CSR policies in the implementation and business processes. It is important
for them to provide high priority to these issues and problems to find better solution. This high
priority measure can help the organization to understand the issues that are related to
sustainability and CSR more effectively. Issue mapping process also can help them to avoid
major or minor operational failure in organization to generate maximum profit from restaurant
business (Lins, Servaes and Tamayo, 2017). The process of problem mapping also help the
management of the company to understand sustainability challenges and issues more effectively
in order to make right changes in corporate social responsibility policy in order to gain success
with this sustainable business practices.
Sustainability Management System
4

In the decision making process all the issues that are related to environment, society and
organizational economy are considered equally in sustainability measures. To address all these
issues that are faced by organization in sustainability organization form a system that is known
as sustainability management system. This system help them to more efficiently to find solutions
for the specific problems that are concerned with performance and operations of restaurant in the
target market. In this system management of Costa Coffee can prepare the list and mapping of all
issues in order to arrange in top to bottom approach. The issues with critical high impact are
aligned on top and respectively all issues are listed on basis of their impact on the performance
and operations of restaurant. This is how listing process can help management and leadership of
the organization to address these issues in the right way to make the business process highly
sustainable with ethical business practices.
Life Cycle Assessment
There are different type of food products are sold by Costa Coffee in their restaurant.
There is a specific process is followed in order to prepare complete product for customers. To
maintain sustainability practices in organization this is important for them to assess the complete
life cycle of the product in order to found he loopholes and gaps in product life cycle. In the life
cycle assessment process this is important for the company to measure all the process efficiently
to minimise the issues that can reduce the sustainability of the production process (Albuquerque,
Koskinen and Zhang, 2019). By learning and evaluating complete life cycle of product people
will be able to find issues in product development process. By making certain changes in the
product development process organization can improve the sustainability of company operations.
For example in the process of preparing coffee there is a specific process is followed by the
kitchen staff. In this process organization can change the sources of energy in order to prevent
the extensive use of natural gas in cooking process. This use of the natural gas can be prevented
by using small bio gas plant in restaurant to cook food without consuming natural resources. This
can help the organization to save cost of fuel and help them to manage kitchen waste. This is
how waste management can be done with this process.
Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting
This is one the most trending activity that is performed by the organization in current
time. In business organization there are various sustainable practices are used which are effective
for the business of company. In this process management of the company perform an
5

organization analysis to find the benefits of CSR policies for restaurant of costa coffee. After the
evaluation process a report is formed by the managers of restaurant which is posted on the
company website by organization to make people aware of the initiatives that are made by
company to reduce the negative impact of their business process on environment and society
(Edinger-Schons and et al., 2019). That is how the corporate social responsibility report is used
by the company to get positive response from the consumers.
Sustainable Branding
There are different processes are used by the organization to make their business
practices sustainable for environment and society. By following the process of sustainable
branding organization can promote various new processes that are sustainable and good for
environment. On the initial time this was not possible to perform branding with sustainable ways
cause people were not concerned about the sustainability measures but now people are more
concerned about the sustainability (Save, Bettadpur and Tapley, 2016). This awareness of people
can be utilised by the organization to implement and promote business practices that are good to
maintain sustainability within operations.
This is how Costa Coffee can use various processes that are effective and efficient in
order to maintain high sustainability standards within restaurants. These processes are also
efficient to implement various sustainable practices in organization.
Recommendations
This is important for the business organization to maintain sustainability measured in
organizational practices get better result in the end. Costa coffee can make different changes in
their business process and operations to reduce issues that can affect the environment and society
in different manner. The process of implementing sustainable practices starts with setting targets
for organization which are based on the concept of sustainability and ethical way. Ethical and
sustainable targets can help organization to keep actions of organization focused on
sustainability (Janssen, Blazevic and Lauche, 2018). The role of the organization mission and
vision is very important for the company. All the operations and functions of people in
organization are based on the goals that are setted by leaders of organization. Leaders and
managers of company can develop vision and mission that can help them to implement various
practices that can improve the sustainability of various processes. Vision provided by leader can
lead the whole organization to implement effective sustainable and ethical practices in
6

organization. This how vision statement and mission statement of company provide the
opportunity to the employees in order to make innovative and creative decisions in cooking and
other operation process to develop environment friendly processes that can reduce the negative
impact of the business practice on environment and society.
There are some other processes also can be used by the organization to manage the
sustainability measure in company. There are different type of raw material are used in the costa
coffee restaurant to manage sustainable practices. Waste management is one of the best process
to reduce the negative impact of kitchen waste on environment. The process of waste
management can help the organization in different manner. Some of the main benefits of waste
management are – this process help the organization to save time that is needed for process of
waste management process. There is a long process is required to manage the waste that is
produced from the restaurant operations. This process also help the organization to manage
health and safety standards in restaurant to keep people healthy and safe from issues that are
cause by contaminated food products (Aksak, Ferguson and Duman, 2016). The waste that is
produced from restaurant can cause different trouble to people. Waste management also can help
them to avoid consequences that are caused by wast products. The waste that is produced in the
processing of food also can be used in the small size bio gas plant in order to produce fuel to
cook food. This can help the costa coffee to reduce the use of conventional fuel in food
processing. There are some other changes also can be implemented in the process of restaurant to
maintain sustainability. Costa Coffee also can use the sustainable products in their restaurant to
reduce the use of plastic to zero level (de Jong and van der Meer, 2017). Some other products
also can be prevented in the organizational operations in order to minimise impact of restaurant
operations on environment and people who are associated to the company.
Measurements and certification is a process that can be used by the organization to make
their business operations sustainable and effective enough to develop positive impact on
environment. By considering suggestion of government authorities regarding environmental
protection and sustainability Costa coffee can meet requirements and goals that are associated to
sustainability and environment safety (Gond and et al., 2017). By performing various
sustainability tests frequently in organization to evaluate the sustainability and health measures
good for customers and employees.
7

CONCLUSION
From the above Assignment it has been summarized that there are various challenges that
can be faced by a food sector organization related to corporate responsibility and sustainability.
These challenges can affect overall operational process of an organization. It has been analysed
that there are various kinds of practises or processes that can help an organization to achieve
their main aim, goals and objectives. It is important for organizations to develop these processes
in sustainable manner. these processes help an organization to meet their ethical and sustainable
demands in a much better manner. it has also been analysed that in order to bring improvement
within organizational practises as well as improve their corporate responsibilities and
sustainability, food sector organizations are required to take few recommended measures. These
measures can help an organization to face and resolve all the challenges that are faced by them
related to CSR.
8

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Aksak, E.O., Ferguson, M.A. and Duman, S.A., 2016. Corporate social responsibility and CSR
fit as predictors of corporate reputation: A global perspective. Public Relations Review.
42(1). pp.79-81.
Albuquerque, R., Koskinen, Y. and Zhang, C., 2019. Corporate social responsibility and firm
risk: Theory and empirical evidence. Management Science. 65(10). pp.4451-4469.
Ali, W., Frynas, J.G. and Mahmood, Z., 2017. Determinants of corporate social responsibility
(CSR) disclosure in developed and developing countries: A literature review. Corporate
Social Responsibility and Environmental Management. 24(4). pp.273-294.
Crane, A., Matten, D. and Spence, L. eds., 2019. Corporate social responsibility: Readings and
cases in a global context. Routledge.
Cui, J., Jo, H. and Na, H., 2018. Does corporate social responsibility affect information
asymmetry?. Journal of Business Ethics. 148(3). pp.549-572.
de Jong, M.D. and van der Meer, M., 2017. How does it fit? Exploring the congruence between
organizations and their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Journal of
business ethics. 143(1). pp.71-83.
Edinger-Schons, L.M., and et al., 2019. Frontline employees as corporate social responsibility
(CSR) ambassadors: A quasi-field experiment. Journal of Business Ethics. 157(2).
pp.359-373.
Gond, J.P., El and et al., 2017. The psychological microfoundations of corporate social
responsibility: A person‐centric systematic review. Journal of Organizational Behavior.
38(2). pp.225-246.
Jamali, D., Lund-Thomsen, P. and Jeppesen, S., 2017. SMEs and CSR in developing countries.
Business & Society. 56(1). pp.11-22.
Janssen, K.L., Blazevic, V. and Lauche, K., 2018. Integrating CSR in Innovation Value
Networks. In Innovation Management and Corporate Social Responsibility (pp. 75-97).
Springer, Cham.
Lins, K.V., Servaes, H. and Tamayo, A., 2017. Social capital, trust, and firm performance: The
value of corporate social responsibility during the financial crisis. The Journal of
Finance. 72(4). pp.1785-1824.
Rahman, M., Rodríguez-Serrano, M.Á. and Lambkin, M., 2017. Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) and Marketing Performance: Role of Commitment to the Customer Relationship.
In Creating Marketing Magic and Innovative Future Marketing Trends (pp. 667-671).
Springer, Cham.
Save, H., Bettadpur, S. and Tapley, B.D., 2016. High‐resolution CSR GRACE RL05 mascons.
Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 121(10). pp.7547-7569.
Schrempf-Stirling, J., Palazzo, G. and Phillips, R.A., 2016. Historic corporate social
responsibility. Academy of Management Review. 41(4). pp.700-719.
Wang, Z., Hsieh, T.S. and Sarkis, J., 2018. CSR performance and the readability of CSR reports:
too good to be true?. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management.
25(1). pp.66-79.
9