Analyzing Patagonia's Sustainable Strategies in Business Management

This report examines Patagonia's sustainable business management practices, addressing environmental, social, and economic challenges. It identifies risks and opportunities for Patagonia, focusing on strategies like environmental sustainability through ecological modernization, social sustainability via the principle of social value, and economic sustainability using the circular economy theory. The analysis includes recommendations for waste reduction, resource reuse, and stakeholder engagement, emphasizing the importance of aligning business practices with environmental and social values. The report concludes that adopting these strategies is crucial for long-term success and positive societal impact. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and resources for students.

Sustainable Business
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................3
Risk and opportunities for the case company.............................................................................3
Sustainable strategies ......................................................................................................................4
Environmental sustainability.......................................................................................................4
Social Sustainability....................................................................................................................5
3. Economic Sustainability..........................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERNCES:..................................................................................................................................9
Books and Journals:....................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The report aims to ascertain many strategies in order to resolve the challenges faced by
the company in sustainability. A business is required to work on sustainable strategies to create
its positive impact on the company. Sustainable refers to the act of kindness, value and concern
towards the society and its people. A business leads to perform many diversified operation which
requires to look ahead on the environment protection such as pollution control, waste
management, recycling and reusing (Nosratabadi, and.et.al 2019). Therefore, this report is going
to provide some recommendation over the sustainable challenges faced by Patagonia. The
challenges faced by company which are identified shows social, economical and environmental
risks. Due to the change in taste and preferences of the customers, the company could not work
upon the strategy of product replacement due to changing needs. Also, other challenges of
employee termination and environmental challenge faced company through not focusing on
production activities which leads to cause carbon emissions. The report will work on the relevant
theories to drive sustainable operations in the company.
MAIN BODY
TASK
Risk and opportunities for the case company
The Patagonia is the leading clothing firm which has sets its values and mission towards
the great quality and innovation. Risk and opportunities are everywhere in the organisation
which creates impact on the profitability and success of the company. The Patagonia is involved
in many operation of quality management, waste reduction, reusing their products and employees
welfare. They find every responsible way to restore and reuse their resources to be a better
contributor in the economy (Reyes-Menendez, and.et.al., 2020). The risk involves in the
company is of changing modern trends and preferences of the customers which restore and
rebuild the whole management system. The company may get diverse from their strategies and
working criteria. Also, there are many risk of employment opportunities as company looks for
the talented, professional and skilful employees which shows that. They does not provide
opportunities to other freshers to explore in the market. Competition and customer demands are
become threats for the Patagonia. Whereas, the key opportunities are there due to having their
core value towards planet and protection. Therefore, the company needs to get ascertain about

core opportunities for diversification, technology, recycling and reusing of the product.
Therefore, the company could take opportunities of fresh talent to give employment. Use for
product reuse and recycling, reduction in carbon emission with used of advance technology and
get involve with the procedure of the talent management. Also, the company has opportunity to
create awareness among the customer in order to be concern towards environment. This could be
done through making good corporate relations, develop public interconnection and launch
campaigns for effectively work for the planet protection. As business only could not be able to
work on the sustainability by their own so that, people engagement is necessary to get effective
results.
Sustainable strategies
Environmental sustainability
It is seen that there are certain challenges related to environment that are being faced at
this point of time. The business organisations work to earn more and more revenue and do not
focus on environment. This is a major challenge that causes harm to environment. There are
certain initiates that must be taken by Patagonia in order to overcome this challenge. It is time to
work according to the principles of sustainability so that the overall work can be completed on
time. It is seen that rise in pollution cause hand there are various gases that also harm the
environment.
Doing business in such a manner will cause issue for the company in long run. It order to
work in proper manner they need to become sustainable. They must reduce the carbon footprints
so that they are able to minimise the harm being caused to the environment. It is necessary to use
quality product and carnage the process of designing the products so that there is no
environmental harm caused (Buffa, Franch, and Rizio, 2018). They must understand that
society is important and by taking care of sustainability they will be able to achieve good brand
image and support of government at the same time.
Ecological modernisation is the best theory that must be used by Patagonia in order to achieve
success and overcome the environmental challenge. This theory believes economy benefits from
moves towards environmentalism. This is important for all the business organisation that there
long term benefit lies in following the right strategy (Caldera, Desha, and Dawes, 2018). They
must think of long term benefit. A co0mpamy will be able to earn profit in long run of they

follow the principles of sustainability at the present time. It is time when all the people have
became conscious about the situation of environment. They prefer the company who is taking
proper care of environment. It is necessary to note that by following this theory the business
organisation will take prober care of environment (Lahti, Wincent, and Parida, 2018). Giving
attention to this is necessary for the success of company and all the international organisation
also focus on the same. The government will also support the business organisation if they will
be accelerating technical progress. All the regulations must be followed so that they are able to
overcommit the challenge of environment harm. This is important to understand that usage of the
strategy will help them to attain success.
Social Sustainability
Patagonia is found to be one of the most sustainable organisations but still they are facing
sustainable challenges. It is found that customers have continuously changing their tastes and
preferences so Patagonia has a challenge that their replacement products will be like or not by
customers (Al Breiki, and Nobanee, 2019). For that purpose, Patagonia should adopted
strategies so that they can overcome with the challenges of social sustainability. So there is a
strategy which is recommended to company and their justification is mentioned below:
The principle of social value

For the purpose of increasing equality, environmental sustainability and improving well-
being in the society then company should use this strategy (Geissdoerfer, Vladimirova, and
Evans, 2018). They need to follow of principles of social value so that they can able to increase
the value in the society. It is identified that this strategy have seven important principles and they
are focusing on building blocks for the person who want to make decision. The principles are
mentioned below:
Involve stakeholders: It is the first and foremost principle in which Patagonia should involving
stakeholders in the process of increasing social value. For that purpose, they need to inform
to the stakeholders that what gets measured and how it will be measured and valued by an
organisation.
Understand what changes: It is the second principle in which Patagonia should focus on
articulating how change is created. In addition to this, company needs to evaluate the change
with its negative and positive impact so that they can able to find the problems.
Value the outcomes that matter: After finding the requirement of changes, it is necessary for
Patagonia should take an appropriate decision for allocation of resources in order to
recognize the value of stakeholders.

Only include what is material: It is crucial for Patagonia that they have to determine that what
information and evidence should include in the accounts for providing a true and fair picture
to their stakeholders.
Do not over claim: Patagonia should try to claim the value which are responsible for creating
social values.
Be transparent: It is found that stakeholders should know all the relevant information about the
company's activities so that's why they have to be transparent.
Verify the result: The last principle is verifying the result so company can ensures that they are
dealing in fair practices or not.
The company is facing a challenge of customers' like or dislike to their products or
services. Customers are the important stakeholders of the company and that's why this strategy is
choosing. But it is found that it is the time taking process.
3. Economic Sustainability
Company was expanding their business but they faced a challenge of financial conditions
and due to this, they lay off their one fifth employees (Singh, 2018). It is very important for
Patagonia that they have to adopt strategy. So the suggested theory is mentioned below:
Circular economy theory
It is found to be one of the important theories which consists of three important principles
that are elimination of waste and pollution, keeping materials and products in use and regenerate
natural systems (Di Vaio, Syriopoulos,, Alvino, and Palladino, 2020). This strategy is adopted
because it focuses on building and rebuilding overall systems health. This concept is focusing on
importance of economy which should be work in an effective work for big and small
organisations. This is the reason that this theory is following three principles:
 Design out waste and pollution: It is the first and important principle which is focusing
on designing a system in the organisation so that company is able to reduce waste and
pollution in the environment. With the help of reducing waste by an organisation,
company is able to reduce the cost of production and it will lads to decline the products
price. This will assists in cutting and saving the unnecessary costs.
 Keep products and materials in use: In the circular economy theory, it focuses on
preserving the value in the form of labour, energy and materials. That means it is found

that company have to focus on reuse, durability, re-manufacture, and recycling of
products and services. This will helps in making the effective use of bio based materials.
 Regenerate natural systems: The last principle is circular economy avoids the use of
non renewable resources. In addition to this, company have also focusing on preserving
natural resources which are not able to renew (Wang, Xu, Qin, and Skare, 2021). It is
very important to note that these kind of actions will be very helpful for company as they
are able to cute the extra costs and effective use of available resources.
From this theory, it is found that company have to focus on circular theory so that they
are able to make the strong financial conditions (Cosenz, Rodrigues, nd Rosati, 2020). But it is
also found that this process requires a long period and it is not certain that the result will be
positive.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above discussion that it is very important for the
organisations that they have to take appropriate steps for the purpose of sustainability challenges.
It is found from this report organisations have faced many sustainable challenges in the
workplaces so that's why they need to take right actions. This can be possible with the help of
adopting right strategies. There are some important strategies which discussed in this report are
ecological modernization theory, the principles of social value and circular economy theory.

REFERNCES:
Books and Journals:
Nosratabadi, and.et.al 2019. Sustainable business models: A review. Sustainability, 11(6),
p.1663.
Reyes-Menendez, and.et.al., 2020. Understanding Online Consumer Behavior and eWOM
Strategies for Sustainable Business Management in the Tourism
Industry. Sustainability, 12(21), p.8972.
Buffa, F., Franch, M. and Rizio, D., 2018. Environmental management practices for sustainable
business models in small and medium sized hotel enterprises. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 194, pp.656-664.
Lahti, T., Wincent, J. and Parida, V., 2018. A definition and theoretical review of the circular
economy, value creation, and sustainable business models: where are we now and
where should research move in the future?. Sustainability, 10(8), p.2799.
Geissdoerfer, M., Vladimirova, D. and Evans, S., 2018. Sustainable business model innovation:
A review. Journal of cleaner production, 198, pp.401-416.
Cosenz, F., Rodrigues, V.P. and Rosati, F., 2020. Dynamic business modeling for sustainability:
Exploring a system dynamics perspective to develop sustainable business
models. Business Strategy and the Environment, 29(2), pp.651-664.
Singh, S.K., 2018. Sustainable business and environment management. Management of
Environmental Quality: An International Journal.
Wang, X., Xu, Z., Qin, Y. and Skare, M., 2021. Service networks for sustainable business: A
dynamic evolution analysis over half a century. Journal of Business Research, 136,
pp.543-557.
Di Vaio, A., Syriopoulos, T., Alvino, F. and Palladino, R., 2020. “Integrated thinking and
reporting” towards sustainable business models: a concise bibliometric
analysis. Meditari Accountancy Research.
Al Breiki, M. and Nobanee, H., 2019. The role of financial management in promoting
sustainable business practices and development. Available at SSRN 3472404.

Caldera, H.T.S., Desha, C. and Dawes, L., 2018. Exploring the characteristics of sustainable
business practice in small and medium-sized enterprises: Experiences from the
Australian manufacturing industry. Journal of Cleaner Production, 177, pp.338-349.