MPM732, Trimester 1: Speech Transcript on Sustainability in Management

This document presents a speech transcript focusing on sustainability in management. The speech defines sustainability, emphasizing its multifaceted meanings across different contexts, from elementary education to corporate leadership. It outlines the core principles of sustainability, including environmental protection, economic growth, and intergenerational equity. The speech highlights the historical context of environmental concerns, tracing the impact of the industrial revolution and the emergence of global environmental bodies like the United Nations Environmental Programme. It discusses the increasing interest of organizations in managing sustainability and corporate social responsibility, driven by environmental concerns, worker well-being, and climate change. The speech also explores the benefits of sustainability for companies, such as attracting employees, boosting innovation, reducing costs, and attracting customers. It references key principles like social justice and resource management, and cites examples of sustainable companies and relevant ISO standards. The speech concludes by emphasizing the positive societal impacts of sustainability, including reducing toxins and promoting renewable energy, and the role of government incentives in supporting sustainable practices.

Speech Transcript
Transcription details:
Date:
Input sound file: Sustainability in Management | Your Name | University/Collage
Transcription results:
S1 00:05 Today, I want to talk to you about a concept many managers have been talking about
for a long time, and the concept is sustainability in management. Sustainability has
various meaning to different people. And what sustainability might mean to me is
different from what it may mean to you. And what it might mean to you is different from
what it means to a learner in the elementary stage of education who is beginning to grasp
the basic concepts about education, or maybe even a chief executive officer in another
organization. According to Benn, Edwards, and Williams (2014), sustainability requires
the current generation to exploit resources in a way that will not interfere with the way
the future generation will as well exploit the resources they require. Besides,
sustainability has three basic concerns, environmental protection, economic growth, and
needs of the posterity (Clayton & Radcliffe, 2018). Furthermore, it requires that
investments’ direction, changes in the institution, resource utilization, and advancement
in technology should be in harmony. Wesselink, Blok, van Leur, Lans, and Dentoni
(2015), define sustainable management an intersection between sustainability and
business. Businesses of today have become challenging and competitive that managers
are puzzled daily on the best practices they should put into practice in order for their
firms to be economically and environmentally sustainable so that the firm will boast of
sustainable competitive advantage (Clayton & Radcliffe, 2018).
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S1 01:20 Although industrial revolution is responsible for the current state of the global
development, it also led to devastating effects on the environment in the form of toxins
and carbon emissions subsequently resulting in changes in the climate and global
warming. Researchers, scholars, and scientists realized that the state of the environment
had reached a level whereby if no initiatives were taken, then the lives of living things
was at risk. As a result, the need for environmental conservation dawned on people
facilitating the origin of global bodies such as United Nations Environmental Programme.
Other regional and international organizations for managing the environment include
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Environmental Defence Fund (EDF), Global
Environment Centre (GEC), and Friends of the Earth International (United Nations
Environmental Programme, 2018). Together, these bodies have been at the fore front in
protecting the environment from excessive pollution by ensuring that companies do not
exceed the optimum limit.
S1 02:30 Organizations are increasingly becoming interested in managing sustainability and
corporate social responsibility in their operations not only due to prevailing conditions
but also to gain competitive advantage over their rivals. As such, their strategies must be
in line with the sustainability demands. The response is brought about by environmental
concerns, workers’ well-being, climate change as well as other social demands.
Furthermore, sustainability in management entails design of products in a manner that it
conforms to the social as well environmental standards, logistics, supply chain
management, and lean operations (Walker, Seuring, Sarkis & Klassen, 2014). Debates
about sustainability initiatives increases with the world wide concern for humanitarian
well-being. Besides, the understanding of sustainability is expected to further increase
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with the regulatory bodies becoming sterner on the need for adequate utilization of
resources. Also, global awareness among consumers compels manufacturers to produce
only those goods that are sustainable.
S1 03:20 Sustainability in management has different basic principles significant in harmonizing
horizontal strategy with various developmental and sectoral strategies. Besides, the
principles help in guiding the determination of priorities for any strategy outlining
frameworks, tasks, goals as well as the modes of implementation (Broman & Robèrt,
2017). Examples of the principles are, the principle of social justice, holistic approach,
sustainable management of resources, inter and intra-generational solidarity. Other
principles include the principle of polluter pays, principle of prevention and precaution,
principle of resource utilization, principle of social responsibility, as well as the principle
of public participation. Together, these principles ensure that a company works and
adheres to the requirements of sustainable management (Broman & Robèrt, 2017).
Examples of world’s most sustainable companies are Dassult Systemes, Valeo, Ucb,
Outotec, Cisco systems, Siemens, and Samsung (Strauss, 2018).
S1 04:30 Since its inception, sustainability has gained special attention with both governments
and international bodies making it a basic requirement for any company that yearns to
increase its productivity (Wesselink, Blok, van Leur, Lans, & Dentoni, 2015). Notably
initiatives of sustainability are spelt out by ISO such as ISO 14000 and 14001 for
environmental protection and the ISO AA1000 for corporate accountability. To ensure
that the initiatives are adhered to, the companies are compelled to report on their
commitment to environmental protection through Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
(Fernandez-Feijoo, Romero, & Ruiz, 2014).
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S1 06:20 Sustainability has several benefits to a company. To begin, it attracts exceptional
employees as well as boosting the innovations and morale of a company’s workforce.
Being a collaborative effort, employees work in unison in implementing and identifying
sustainable initiatives thus promoting teamwork and continued improvement. Research
shows that a holistic approach to decision making motivates employees to work harder in
an organization (Broman & Robèrt, 2017). Besides, the sense of pride engages culture of
appreciation within the environment of the company which positively increases corporate
culture. Furthermore, when managers communicate freely with employees regarding the
anticipated changes towards sustainability, he cultivates a corporate culture. Also,
sustainability initiatives ignite innovation in a company. For example, when engineers are
challenged to design a way for reducing waste from the manufacturing process, they
often come up with new improvements on the operations (Ortiz‐de‐Mandoana & Bansal,
2016).
S1 07:50 Moreover, potential employees are today attracted to companies with corporate culture
which is in line with their goals and aspirations. Besides, employees would not like their
efforts go into waste and are thus inclined to certain job incentives which go hand in hand
with decent pay. As a consequence, the passion created by sustainability initiatives by a
company leads to high productivity, reduction in employee attrition hence more profit.
Also, sustainability reduces costs to any organization. For a company to produce, it must
make use of materials, consume energy, and water. According to Ortiz‐de‐Mandoana and
Bansal (2016), sustainable use of these resources alongside innovation means that waste
disposal will be reduced through recycling and efficient energy use hence increased
profit. A business which manages her cost of production will enjoy competitive
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advantage, economies of scale thus recording profit increment. Furthermore, a business
which sells quality products at a cheaper price will attract a pool of consumers thus
making more money. In addition, sustainability has been credited with the attraction of
customers. Customers of today have learned of the power and importance of their money
and use it for whichever purpose they deem beneficial. Coupled with the increased
awareness and concern for the environment, they will therefore switch to those products
that are environmentally less hazardous. By so doing, they build on a company’s
reputation hence competitive edge. Also, sustainability reduces risks. When a manager
uses sustainable practices in managing their business, it comes to their realization of the
various practices that go against the norms of management. For example wastage of
energy through obsolete machines which results to higher production costs. The manager
can then act promptly before the situation goes out of hand. This again lowers production
costs (Lagas, 2015). Other than improving a company’s profits, sustainability also
impacts positively in the society. Sustainable initiatives have been essential in reducing
the amount of toxins and carbon footprint released into the atmosphere benefiting the
future generations as it improves on the quality of water and air. Also, the initiative is
vital for the innovation of renewable energy sources. Furthermore, adoption of
sustainable exploitation of resources by a company acts as a tax initiatives in some
countries. For example, the US government has several tax rebates and credits to
companies who proactively register more sustainable increment in their manufacturing
(Lagas, 2015).
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References
Benn, S., Edwards, M. and Williams, T., 2014. Organizational change for corporate
sustainability. Routledge: doi.org/10.4324/9781315819181
Broman, G.I. and Robèrt, K.H., 2017. A framework for strategic sustainable
development. Journal of Cleaner Production, 140, pp.17-31:
doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.10.121
Clayton, T. and Radcliffe, N., 2018. Sustainability: a systems approach. Routledge:
doi.org/10.4324/9781315070711
Fernandez-Feijoo, B., Romero, S. and Ruiz, S., 2014. Commitment to corporate social
responsibility measured through global reporting initiative reporting: Factors affecting the
behavior of companies. Journal of Cleaner Production, 81, pp.244-254:
doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.06.034
Lagas, B., 2015. Five Benefits of Embracing Sustainability and Green Manufacturing. Available
at: https://www.nist.gov/blogs/manufacturing-innovation-blog/five-benefits-embracing-
sustainability-and-green-manufacturing
Ortiz‐de‐Mandojana, N. and Bansal, P., 2016. The long‐term benefits of organizational resilience
through sustainable business practices. Strategic Management Journal, 37(8), pp.1615-1631:
doi.org/10.1002/smj.2410
Strauss, K. (2018). The World's Most Sustainable Companies, 2018. [Online] Forbes.com.
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2018/01/23/the-worlds-most-
sustainable-companies-2018/#3a72f42432b0 [Accessed 20 May 2019].
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United Nations Environmental Programme (2018). List of accredited organizations. [online] UN
Environment. Available at:
https://www.unenvironment.org/civil-society-engagement/accreditation/list-accredited-
organizations [Accessed 20 May 2019].
Walker, P.H., Seuring, P.S., Sarkis, P.J. and Klassen, P.R., 2014. Sustainable operations
management: recent trends and future directions. International Journal of Operations &
Production Management, 34(5): doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-12-2013-0557
Wesselink, R., Blok, V., van Leur, S., Lans, T. and Dentoni, D., 2015. Individual competencies
for managers engaged in corporate sustainable management practices. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 106, pp.497-506: doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-12-2013-0557
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