The Importance of Sustainability in a Dynamic Business Environment

This essay examines the critical role of sustainability in modern business practices, emphasizing its impact on both individual companies and the broader global environment. The introduction defines sustainability as a balance between societal needs and future generations, highlighting its importance in managing people, profit, and the planet. The essay then delves into the dynamic and changing nature of business, exploring how global forces such as technological advancements, globalization, and evolving customer demands influence business operations. It analyzes the drivers of change, including the rise of mobile technology, increased competition, and the need for businesses to adapt and remain agile. Furthermore, the essay discusses the necessity for organizations to manage sustainability and behave ethically, addressing social, economic, cultural, and environmental issues. It provides examples of companies like BMW and Unilever to illustrate the practical application of sustainable practices and the consequences of unethical behavior. The essay concludes by underscoring the importance of government policies and the role of businesses in creating a sustainable and competitive global environment. The essay references several academic sources, including research from Muzellec, Ronteau, Lambkin, Teece, Peteraf, Leih, Abdelkafi, Täuscher, Mechler, Bouwer, Steger, Crane, Matten, and Milanovic.

Individual essay

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
Understand the dynamic and changing nature of business & consideration of the future of
organisation within the global business environment.................................................................1
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................5
The need for individuals and organisations to manage sustainability and to behave ethically
for social, economic, cultural and environmental issues.............................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Sustainability refers the concept of meeting the demands and needs of people of the
society and present without having a great influence & compromising the ability of future
generation in order to meet their own. It is all about managing and maintaining people, profit &
planet. This present study and essay will show about the importance of managing sustainability
for individual as well as for businesses as they help them in understanding their customers in an
effective manner. They can also increase their sales by satisfying social, environmental, ethical
and cultural sustainability (Muzellec, Ronteau and Lambkin, 2015). Dynamic and changing
nature of businesses also have impacts on their activities and performance to a great extent.
Within the global business environment there is an importance for businesses to understand and
consider the future of their organisation. They have to face various problems due to the changing
nature of business so they require to focus on managing and developing sustainability.
LO 1
Understand the dynamic and changing nature of business & consideration of the future of
organisation within the global business environment
There are various global forces that are affecting the performance and activities of
businesses around the world. It affects the business's raw materials availability, labour supply,
workers expectations, wages, customers' demands, government regulations etc. all factors are
being affected and influenced by global factors at work. In today's modern world, the content,
structure and processes of work have been changed now the work and nature of businesses has
become more cognitively complex, it has become more team based and collaborative, most of
the works of companies are dependent on technological competencies, more time pressured.
Due to globalization and increasing competition it has been found that employees and
people are feeling difficult to work because of increasing competitive pressure 7 technological
breakthroughs. There are some drivers of changing the nature of business and work within the
global business environment such as increasing pressure on companies to become more
competitive, customer focused and agile. Other main key drive of changing the nature of

businesses is mobile technology an communication that make able to people and businesses to
work to be separated from time & space (Teece, Peteraf and Leih, 2016).
Globalization can be defined as a process and a concept to the growth of
interdependencies between national markets and industries on a world wide scale. An
understanding of the global forces assist and lead a company for identifying the critical success
factors in a global market and industry. There are some market drivers that lead to the changes in
the nature of businesses and also consideration of the future of company within the global
business environment including similar customers' tastes and needs, existence of global
customers etc. On the other hand there are some competitive drivers also such as competitor's
global strategies, country interdependence. Cost drivers include favourable logistics, specific
differences between different countries. Whereas, governmental drivers include trade policies,
local content requirements & marketing regulations.
It can be seen that globalization is on the rise it have slowed some international
expansion by companies. Technological changes are based on the development in information
technology and also fall in the cost ad prices of computer processing has been vital in pushing
globalization. Development of IT and information technology allows organisations to produce
new and unique products and reduce production costs via advances in CAD and robotics. With
the help of search engine, innovation has provided access to informations to huge number of
peoples for development and being able in research and development (Abdelkafi and Täuscher,
2016). For example, South Korea that has 100 % internet access and various fastest broadband
networks in the world.
There are various other reasons and drivers that lead to the changes in the nature if
businesses like socio cultural developments as there are increasing amount of travel by people
and citizens of various nations with low cost flights and fewer restrictions are increasing
awareness & the desire to experience foreign cultures. So it can be said that there are both
advantages and disadvantages in the process of globalization or global business environment.
There are some consequences of globalization and some issues such as the size and
scope of multinational companies that have significant influences over policy making of
governments. There are some countries and businesses that find difficulties to keep up variety of

international laws & standards that are increasing. Governmental issues also cause problems for
some countries that do not have well developed legal frameworks. It also impacts on the workers
who live in the less developed countries as they are being paid with poor and lower wages. They
also force workers to work in a sweatshop conditions. Some employees also have been accused
with employing child labour. The meaning of child labour is they are missing out from getting
education (Mechler and Bouwer, 2015). There is a pressure on global companies such as Nike,
next, Gap to enforce rigid standards throughout their supply chains. On the other hand it seems
that there are some countries in which conditions are improving like wages have increased in
recent 5 years. Some developing countries such as China, India and Bangladesh have benefited
from global production.
For international competitiveness many individuals and organisations from different
countries says that government should take part and contribute in maintaining and improving
their national competitiveness. The main aim of doing this is to take advantages and facilitate the
achievement of comfortable economic growth rates, they can also provide secure & better
employment opportunities to people for improving standards of living. Now most governments
are taking active part in making and pursuing policies by which they can enhance the
competitiveness of their particular country & their organisations. Some examples and actions
which are being done by government are they provide training, they directly invest in industries,
facilitate international trade etc. Emerging trends like mobile platform for performing business
activities and doing business, advanced technology, cloud computing in order to handle a large
volume of data. These technologies and platform give them various opportunities for businesses
for driving business strategic advantages and to stay ahead of the competition.
Technological changes also have a significant impact and influence over economic
growth. There are some actions which are being taken by the government in the development of
the conditions of a country that are suitable for advanced technologies that need to be made and
transformed into economic wealth creating opportunities. For example, Government invest
amount and revenues which are being collected from taxation in research and development
within industries. Competition play an important role for any type of business as without
competition it is not possible for companies to grow and analyse their development level. Every

business operates and perform in a dynamic environment and consumers are the king of any type
of business. According to the changes, business changes itself towards consumer oriented. For
example, shopping malls are the best place and example where consumer enjoys many things at
one place that saves a lot of money as well as time of consumers (Steger, 2017). They also help
hem in avoiding unnecessary travelling. It is called a dynamic business environment.
There are some characteristics also of a dynamic environment and changing nature of
business in strategic management in the context of political, economic, technology, social and
market. There are some models that help in analysing and determining all the environmental
factors such as PEST model and analysis. It scans economic, social, political elements that affect
the business. In the context of economy, falling and decreasing interest rates allow businesses
and their competitors to expand their business that change and impact on its growth rates. New
players in the same industry and market place can become change agents if these new players
and competitors are aggressive. It is important for the business owner to consider direct as well
as indirect effects on their business and performance.
There are various other factors that affects employees hours work that become the reason
of the changing nature of business such as flexible working like home working, over time, part
time working, teleworking, zero hours contracts, job sharing, annual hours contract etc. These
flexible working practices find out their ultimate focus in the concept of a virtual business, The
main example of virtual business is Amazon.com. They compete with traditional high street
bookseller without making a physical presence and depend on internet interactions with their
customers. Amazon has expanded its business and now also is operating without a physical
presence and a shop presence. It is a biggest example of technological changes or advanced
technologies that hinder and help businesses (Crane and Matten, 2016).

LO 2
The need for individuals and organisations to manage sustainability and to behave ethically for
social, economic, cultural and environmental issues
Sustainability can be defined as a process of people and business of maintaining change
in a balanced manner and to adapt such processes that helps businesses in depletion of natural
resources for managing and maintaining an ecological balance. It is very important for
businesses to manage sustainability as it allows greater understanding to businesses about
customers needs. It also improves engagement as well as trust among all its customers,
stakeholders, staff and investors, with the help of management systems it also contributes to
environmental efficiency, corporate sustainability or proper sustainability management attracts
skilled and knowledgable employees and retain them for the long run within an organisation
(Milanovic, 2016).
There are various examples of different companies that shows the importance of
sustainability and reason of more focusing on maintaining sustainable business. For example,
BMW that is an iconic German manufacturer of great and high performance luxury autos that is
more focusing in sustainability as it is making a huge bet on green and wired cars for those
people who reside in cities. It has various characteristics such as weight saving cars, carbon fiber
body of its cars that is layered with electronic services. It also recognized the importance of
sustainability hence it added some products that can and would meet up the challenges of the
changing world. So it can be said that BMW is becoming more sustainable in context of
social,economic and environmental.
For organisations it is also important to behave and treat ethically in order to know the
difference between the right and the wrong within an organisation at workplace. There are
various type of problems have to face to the companies due to unethical behaviours and due to
not following ethics and policies. It is important in context of social, economic, culture and
environmental issues. In the context of environmental, behaving ethically and ethics play a
significant role as it protects environment from polluting. Environment is a key element and
everything for people as all are dependent on the environment for fulfilling their basic needs.
Government also focusing on behaving ethically for protecting environment as most of the

businesses produce wastes and chemicals that become the reason of green gases that caused
various human diseases.
There are various companies that are now more focusing on environmental sustainability
and making decisions in the interest of protecting the natural world. Environmental sustainable
business are more likely to take a competitive advantages by attracting more customers and
investors towards them. Modern customers are now becoming more aware about environmental
issues so they want to keep themselves away from It (Crane and Matten, 2016). For that they
make sure and identify that which business and organisation are socially sustainable and
ethically. The great example of a company that follow and focus on social sustainability is
Unilever. It has done more than make green investments. It has also made sustainable living
plans for supply chain and production on everything from water & energy use in order to
treatment of societies and suppliers where they operate. This company has also made amazing
strides as 3 quarters of its non hazardous wastes do not go to the land fill & its agricultural
suppliers shares use sustainable practices.
In the context of social, ethics and sustainability also play a vital role as they help
businesses and individuals to improve relationship with them. Improving and string relation
directly impact on the sales and profitability of organisations. There are some acts and
legislations that helps in social sustainability such and safe drinking water act 1974 and clean
water act in 1972. These acts positively promote the health and well being of people in UK. All
these laws and acts lead to the overall betterment of society. Social sustainability and ethics
shows and consider that how people, societies ad communities live and treat with each other. For
example, norms and standard which are being used by the society and businesses in order to
assign relative values for some things such as economic activities, technological change,
scientific inquiry all affects and impacts on the decisions and give them opportunities they can
allow to the future generation. Social sustainability and ethics ensures and motivate employees
towards achieving the common goals and see that all the goals and norms are maintained.
There are some examples of socially responsible companies or those companies who
focus on social sustainability and behave ethically. Google is the first and foremost example who
is socially sustainable. It is the world's most popular search engine that has achieved its 100%

renewable energy target in the year of 2017. Now it is counted in the largest renewable energy
purchaser on the planet. By making policies it contributes in improving the lives of the people
they affect by offering them opportunities of decent jobs which help them in meeting their basis
needs that promote social sustainability.
Economic sustainability refers those activities and performances that create economic
values. In the context of economic sustainability, most of the business try to focus on making
decisions with most equitable & fiscally sound way. Economic sustainability has become the
main fiscal point of many businesses. Good business practices that are being followed and used
by different companies help them in achieving their pre determined goals that are combined with
the environmental & social aspects of sustainability. Government is also taking initiative in
making and developing economy more sustainable as they provide strong financial support to
companies, universities, research and development programmes etc. They know that good
sustainability practices are crucial and key element for their long term success. Without
economic sustainability, an organisation can not be successful in the social and environmental
part of sustainability. So it is very important for individuals and businesses to more focus on
economic sustainability for taking competitive advantages and also for improving strong
relationship with customers (Clayton and Radcliffe, 2018).
There are various examples who lead and contribute in developing economic condition
and in economic sustainability. By building their assets like improving their quality of staff, by
building reputation of their products & business with customers and stakeholders. They also
make the plan about their finances as how much amount they need to borrow, the structure of
their debts and dividends for shareholders they contribute in economy. The nature of the business
and work is changing rapidly in context of rising economy, advanced technology and
demographics. It has been stated that Google has committed $50 million in grants for
understanding better the changing nature of work and also for supporting solution that help
people thrive. Walmart who is a retail giant that is committed to doubling its truck fleet
efficiency. For achieving this goal it focuses on replacing its fleet with more fuel efficient trucks
that includes hybrids. This company is now more focusing on collaboration with truck and
component manufacturers in order to build energy efficient prototype tractors.

Cultural sustainability and ethics are related to the sustainable development to do all the
activities and behave ethically. It is very important to manage sustainability in the context of
culture because it helps businesses to motivate and satisfy their employees and customers. Those
companies who focus on cultural sustainability like UNESCO they include providing quality
education, sustainable cities, gender equality, peaceful societies and food security. Culture is an
enabler and driver of social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable
development. The actions and work of UNESCO promoting cultural diversity (Ma, 2017).
It can be said that culture is of equal importance as economic, social and environmental
concerns in a sustainable society. By preventing cultural heritage and by promoting cultural
vitality can be identify as key to make able businesses for cultural sustainability. Kit has been
identified that there are around 2500 museums in the UK. In order to maintain culture and
cultural sustainability, many universities museums maintain collections related to specific area of
academic interest. UNESCO ensures that the main role of culture is recognized through a
majority of the sustainable development growth as it focuses on quality education, sustainable
consumptions and production patterns.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been concluded that ethics and sustainability played a vital
role in any type of organisation. There are various importance of behaving ethically in the
context of social, economic, culture and environmental. It helped businesses in understanding the
needs, demands and attitudes of their customers with effectively. It also supported businesses
and individuals in protecting natural resources and to protect the environment from polluting
them. It has also shown that government also has focused on protecting environment as it made
policies and programmes in order to ban the use of hazardous products such as plastic carry bags
with the main aim of protecting environment. Dynamic and changing nature of businesses also
played an important role as it affected and influenced the businesses performance and activities
within the global business environment.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Abdelkafi, N. and Täuscher, K., 2016. Business models for sustainability from a system
dynamics perspective. Organization & Environment. 29(1). pp.74-96.
Clayton, T. and Radcliffe, N., 2018. Sustainability: a systems approach. Routledge.
Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and
sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and
sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Ma, U., 2017. No waste: managing sustainability in construction. Routledge.
Mechler, R. and Bouwer, L.M., 2015. Understanding trends and projections of disaster losses
and climate change: is vulnerability the missing link?. Climatic Change. 133(1). pp.23-
35.
Milanovic, B., 2016. Global inequality: A new approach for the age of globalization. Harvard
University Press.
Muzellec, L., Ronteau, S. and Lambkin, M., 2015. Two-sided Internet platforms: A business
model lifecycle perspective. Industrial Marketing Management. 45. pp.139-150.
Steger, M.B., 2017. Globalization: A very short introduction(Vol. 86). Oxford University Press.
Teece, D., Peteraf, M. and Leih, S., 2016. Dynamic capabilities and organizational agility: Risk,
uncertainty, and strategy in the innovation economy. California Management
Review. 58(4). pp.13-35.