BSO2003 - Operations Management: Management Briefing on Sustainability

This report provides a management briefing on sustainability within operations management, addressing a skeptical Managing Director. It discusses the concept of sustainability, highlighting good practices and exemplary practitioners, justifying the adoption of a sustainability strategy with its importance to both the environment and organizations, and outlining the potential benefits and consequences of adoption or non-adoption. The report then focuses on Amazon, suggesting the implementation of a green supply chain initiative to reduce environmental pollution, wastage, and transportation costs, while enhancing the company's reputation. It investigates the benefits, such as reduced production costs and increased profitability, along with the associated costs of implementation. Finally, the report forecasts the development of waste-to-energy initiatives, emphasizing the role of technology in converting waste into usable energy.

Operations
Management

Table of Contents
Literature Review........................................................................................................................................3
A)Discuss the concept of sustainability by describing initiatives of good practices and name the people
who are known as exemplary practitioners..............................................................................................3
B)Justification for adopting a sustainability strategy. Discuss its importance to the environment and to
organizations...........................................................................................................................................3
C) Potential benefits of adoption and its effect in case of not adopting...................................................4
Overview of organization........................................................................................................................5
Select the sustainability initiative that you would suggest to chosen organization. Discuss the reason
why the organization should adopt the respective initiative.....................................................................5
Discuss the benefit of adopting the initiative and also investigate the type of costs the organization will
incur to meet the respective initiative......................................................................................................6
Choose a suitable sustainable initiative and also give a forecast of how it might develop in future........7

Literature Review
A)Discuss the concept of sustainability by describing initiatives of good practices and name the
people who are known as exemplary practitioners
Accordi Qian, Gaoqiang and Haimin, 2018, Sustainability refers to meet with the own
requirements without compromising the benefit of future generation. In other words,
sustainability is about protecting environment. In order to ensure long-term sustainability, it is
imperative to use efficient resources. For this purpose, entities adopt practices such as recycling,
reusing and more. In addition, they also use eco-friendly resources. Use of the efficient resources
helps the business entities in minimizing the negative influence of organization activities on the
environment. For this purpose, companies also adopt appropriate waste management techniques.
They install efficient operational tools in the business in order to minimize the environmental
impact. There are some good practices such as supporting the employees, water and electricity
conservation, chemical management and more. In addition to this, there are some other practices
such as efficient supply chain management, developing sustainable work policies and more can
be followed in order to facilitate sustainability in the business. It is analyzed that renewal clean
energy is the most suitable and effective example of sustainability. Additionally, solar energy is
also considered as one of best practices of sustainability. It is based on using the sunlight as a
source of energy. In current era, each and every company is likely to contribute towards
sustainability. In this context, Amazon also makes a significant contribution towards
sustainability. For this purpose, they have aim to reach at zero emission issues. In addition, they
also offer better facilities in the cities across the globe in order to serve customers and local
communities in an efficient manner. Apart from this, the entity is also working towards
minimizing the use of plastic and other such hazardous ingredients to minimize the
environmental impact in an efficient manner.
B)Justification for adopting a sustainability strategy. Discuss its importance to the environment
and to organizations
Sustainability strategies are adopted in order to make efficient use of available resources.
It helps in improving the efficient of the business entity. In addition, following sustainability
practices also increase the market reputation of the organization in an efficient manner. If a

company follows sustainability practices, it helps in protecting the environment. In addition,
sustainability approaches minimize the use of hazardous chemicals and other ingredients which
is crucial for influencing the environment positively. Sustainability strategy involves a set of
actions and provide framework to drive performance and focus investment. It includes engage
external and internal stakeholders and strategies to focus on various issues (Maniora, 2018).
Sustainability strategy helps a company to make long term based investments. With countries
and world moving toward a circular based economy, the organizations are now focusing on
creating a work environment with ecological boundaries. Nowadays consumers are demanding
for more sustainable services and products and are making sustainability as their top priority.
Ignorance of environment responsibility can create a negative image of business in the mind of
consumers. In order to adopt a sustainable strategy there are various steps that a business need to
adopt which involves establishing a environmental policy, making employees act as
environmental ambassadors and business partners complying with policies. The sustainability
strategy plays a very important role in business and environment as it helps in reducing cost and
can also impact operating costs. It also helps in lowering water intake and energy consumption
(Rendtorff, 2019). Sustainability benefits both the business and environment as it contributes to
the health culture within which these businesses are operating therefore helping to construct a
better environment. The major goal of sustainability business strategy is to create positive image
on at least one of those areas.
Various small and large organizations are playing a negative role in polluting the
environment and participating in activities which are not sustainable resulting in creating a
negative impact on society. Environmental sustainability allows businesses to look forward at
the impact these practices can create on the environment.
C) Potential benefits of adoption and its effect in case of not adopting
With changes in environment, more and more companies and customers are adopting
more and more sustainable practices and are taking decisions relating to environment.
Adopting sustainability will help in reducing the amount of generated waste which can
result in reducing overall impact on environment. Some organizations are using less water and
utilizing 100% renewable energy. Moreover some businesses are lacking in adopting
sustainability which can result in long term effects on public perception. Putting sustainability at

front foot helps businesses to plan and execute sustainability objectives. Various executives
understand the importance of sustainable initiatives and are fully committed to improve
environment (Cavaleri and Shabana, 2018). Adopting sustainability helps in enhancing brand
reputation, trust and credibility with achievement of cost savings. Sustainability helps in
meeting customer needs and raising market standards which also helps in improving employee
engagement and talent acquisition and helps in building a sense of community among
employees. By choosing environment practices, it can help business to get prepared for facing
legal regulations and helps in reducing risks, communication with public decisions-makers and
improved discussion. If an organization does not adopt sustainability strategy it can result in
harming the environment and can lead to producing more waste and increase usage of energy
with creating a negative impact on society and its consumers (Gatto, 2020). This will also harm
the environment as it will affect people's health due to high level of pollution and increasing
operating costs. Sustainability not always involves going green, it also involves how employees
are feeling in the environment they are working. On the part of organization, they should develop
a healthy work environment for their employees.
Overview of organization
Amazon is a well-known ecommerce company that offers range of products at one
platform. The company was founded by Jeff Bezos in the year of 1994. It offers varieties of
products like home appliances, electronics, beauty products, cloths, mobiles and more. Now, the
company has also been diversified the business in different areas such as entertainment, financial
services and more. In present time, Amazon is working in nearly 13 countries across the globe.
The company adopts suitable sustainability strategies in order to run the business in the
competitive market for longer period of time.
Select the sustainability initiative that you would suggest to chosen organization. Discuss the
reason why the organization should adopt the respective initiative
Nowadays, the companies are highly concern regarding the sustainability. Hence, they
took initiatives to embark sustainability in the business. These initiatives are carried for the
betterment of the society and the entire economy at large. Ample of sustainable practice can be
followed by the business entities. But, they are also required to assess their resources,
requirements and other such factors while adopting the sustainable practice. In context of

Amazon, they are following sustainable practices for the betterment of the society. However,
there is suggestion of adopting green supply chain practices to protect the environment while
supplying the necessary products to the customers (Zijm and et. al., 2019). Here, green supply
chain management is related to incorporating environmental consideration while managing the
supply chain activities. This concept is based on making optimum use of available resources in
terms of protecting the environment. In other words, it is about tracking and controlling the
manufacturing process right from the beginning of procuring the raw material to supply it to the
end users. In addition, the green supply chain is related to follow the environmental protection
laws in design and development stage in order to reduce the environment damage. Here, the
reasons of adopting green supply chain practices are briefly explained below:
Reduce environmental pollution: Using green supply chain management plays an
important role in minimizing the environmental pollution in an efficient manner. It minimizes the
issue of gas emission that further reduce down the carbon footprints (Medini, 2018). While
following the green supply chain management practices, Amazon is likely to keep control over
emission that minimizes the negative impact of organizational activities on the environment.
Reduce Wastage: During the production, huge wastage is generated. By following the
practices of green supply chain management, it is possible to reduce down the wastage that is the
major issues of environment in current time.
Lower transportation cost: While reducing the green house gas emission, companies
put efforts to reduce down the time of transportation. As a result of transportation issue of fuel
emission is increased (Wang and et. al., 2018).
Enhance the reputation: Most of the customers agree that the companies which follow
sustainable practices are the better organizations. This believe also affect the buying decision of
the customers. Therefore, following green supply chain management practices will directly affect
the prestige of Amazon.
Discuss the benefit of adopting the initiative and also investigate the type of costs the
organization will incur to meet the respective initiative
It is suggested that the entity needs to adopt green supply chain management initiative.
The respective initiative will prove beneficial for the business entity in terms of enhancing the

market reputation, increasing profitability, reduce down the production cost and more. The
potential benefit for Amazon of adopting green supply chain management practices are
mentioned below:
Reduce down production cost: Each and every company aims to reduce down the
production cost. Here, following green supply chain management will increase the efficiency of
supply chain that will further minimize the cost of production (Younis, Sundarakani and
O'Mahony, 2020). In context of Amazon, they can also reduce down the production cost by
following the practices of green supply chain management.
Increase profitability: In context of Amazon, customers will rely on the company if they
will follow suitable sustainable practices. Increasing number of customers will significantly
contribute towards the profitability of the business entity (Choudhary and Sangwan, 2021).
During implementation of the respective initiative, the organization will incur certain
expenses. They need to purchase efficient equipments, tools and other resources. In addition,
they will also require to arrange training sessions for the employees. Hence, the entity will incur
different type of cost while implementing the green supply chain management practices in
business.
Choose a suitable sustainable initiative and also give a forecast of how it might develop in future
By looking at the increasing environmental issues, it seems highly crucial to adopt
sustainability initiatives. Here, sustainability initiatives are crucial for future betterment. It helps
in efficient use of resources and create a foundation for future growth. In the current scenario,
there is a suggestion of using waste to energy initiative. This initiative is based on using waste
material to produce energy (Mojumder and Singh, 2021). In this, technology is used in order to
produce energy by waste material. Here, technology uses waste material that is generally used
for landfills, to produce electricity, heat or other types fuels. In many countries, technology is
constantly evolving and now has been developed into a fully sustainable business models.
In current era, use of technology is enhancing that is creating opportunities for the
development of the respective initiative. By using efficient technology, companies can easily
convert the wastage into energy (Green and et. al., 2019). Here, the energy can be further utilized
in business. Development in the field of technology will help in using wastage in an efficient

manner. By installing suitable techniques, companies can easily use the wastage to produce the
energy. It will help the entity in contributing towards sustainability in an efficient manner.

References
Books and Journals
Cavaleri, S. and Shabana, K., 2018. Rethinking sustainability strategies. Journal of Strategy and
Management.
Choudhary, K. and Sangwan, K.S., 2021. Green supply chain management pressures, practices
and performance: a critical literature review. Benchmarking: An International Journal.
Gatto, A., 2020. A pluralistic approach to economic and business sustainability: A critical meta‐
synthesis of foundations, metrics, and evidence of human and local
development. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 27(4),
pp.1525-1539.
Green and et. al., 2019. Impact of JIT, TQM and green supply chain practices on environmental
sustainability. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management.
Maniora, J., 2018. Mismanagement of sustainability: What business strategy makes the
difference? Empirical evidence from the USA. Journal of Business Ethics, 152(4),
pp.931-947.
Medini, K., 2018. Teaching customer-centric operations management–evidence from an
experiential learning-oriented mass customisation class. European Journal of
Engineering Education, 43(1), pp.65-78.
Mojumder, A. and Singh, A., 2021. An exploratory study of the adaptation of green supply chain
management in construction industry: The case of Indian Construction
Companies. Journal of Cleaner Production, 295, p.126400.
Qian, L., Gaoqiang, X. and Haimin, W., 2018. Research on the operations management system
of utility tunnel based on BIM. Chinese Journal of Underground Space and
Engineering, 14(2), pp.287-292.

Rendtorff, J.D., 2019. Philosophy of management and sustainability: Rethinking business ethics
and social responsibility in sustainable development. Emerald Group Publishing.
Wang and et. al., 2018. Effects of customer and cost drivers on green supply chain management
practices and environmental performance. Journal of Cleaner Production, 189, pp.673-
682.
Younis, H., Sundarakani, B. and O'Mahony, G.B., 2020. Green supply chain management and
corporate performance: Developing a roadmap for future research using a mixed method
approach.
Zijm and et. al., 2019. Perspectives on operations management developments and research.
In Operations, logistics and supply chain management (pp. 15-25). Springer, Cham.