BUGEN 5930 Reflective Journal: Exploring Sustainable Business Concepts

This reflective journal delves into the concept of sustainable business development, emphasizing its increasing importance and integration into business operations. It highlights the shift towards incorporating sustainability principles, driven by concerns about environmental reputation and the pursuit of targets such as green products and energy conservation. The journal underscores the significance of addressing environmental problems with caution, viewing them as potential opportunities for businesses. It further discusses various forms of socially and environmentally sustainable development, emphasizing the benefits of aligning social well-being, economic development, and environmental protection. The author advocates for business leaders to set sustainable development policies, distribute these values among the workforce, and integrate stakeholder expectations, ultimately leading to competitive advantage and global recognition. The journal concludes by urging business leaders to contribute to sustainable global development through remedial ideas and proactive engagement.

Running head: SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS
Sustainable Business
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Introduction
The notion of sustainable development of the business organization has been receiving
increased recognition in contemporary times though for many business leaders it is a new
concept. In general, the majority of the concepts are theoretical and abstract. Many business
organizations nowadays are integrating sustainability principles into their operations of business
in active manner and they are doing so by chasing the targets to get rid of the concerns regarding
their reputation in the global market regarding environmental sustainability (Day, 2016). These
targets or goals include developing green products, saving energy, retaining and motivating the
existing workforce of the business organization and many more (Welford, 2016). I believe that
all these activities will help the managements of the business organizations to capture value
through growth and to return on capital. In this regard, I believe it can be said that various
sustainability programs which were conducted within last five years, made a significant
contribution to satisfy various business organization’s long and short time targets regarding
sustainability.
Discussion
I strongly believe that environmental problems are substantial in nature, it has become a
cliché phrase and the managements of various business organizations should look at it with
necessary caution, otherwise opportunities for various businesses may be refrained (Kolk, 2016).
In this context it should be mentioned that ecological footprint measures the demand of human
on nature, for an example, it can be said that ecological foot print is the quantity of nature it takes
to support the humankind. It can be best defined as biologically productive area required for
providing everything that is used by the humankind.

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There are a range of forms of development which are socially and environmentally
sustainable. These forms of development do not lead to a trade off but it leads the organization to
the path of improved environment, and along with the environment which does not draw down to
the environmental capital. I have observed that the societies and business organizations may find
various approaches that can effectively shift towards all the three goals which are social well
being, economic development and environmental protection. Sustainable improvement is good
business in itself as it invokes various opportunities for the individuals who supply for green
consumers, business organizations that invest in eco-efficiency, developers of safe material for
environment and processes and also for those individuals who engage themselves in social well
being. It is a matter of fact that these organizations who follow sustainable development will
soon gain a competitive advantage in the market of their operation by earning the local
community’s good will and also by looking at their efforts in the bottom line.
Following sustainable ways of development of the business organization has various
positive aspects. It is seen that in the last decade, the there have been ample of surveys and polls
to confirm the importance of sustainable development in business sector and it is seen that only if
a business organization has an irresponsible board of directors, then they will not choose
sustainable ways of development for the company by not recognizing the requirement to
incorporate various environmental considerations into different stages of the business. When the
business leaders introduce environmental considerations in the stages of their business
operations, it will bring in various opportunities for the leaders to develop their business (Huckle
& Wals, 2015). I have seen that nowadays numerous business leaders nowadays are exhibiting
that pursuing sustainable development strategies would make good business decision and for an
example it can be said that a 3M manufacturing company have scaled down the wastewater

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treatment operation by half and they did that by running cool water through the factories while
not discharging it after single use (Caneque & Hart, 2017). In this regard it is worthwhile to
mention that McDonald has made a publicized move from plastics to paper as a contribution
towards the sustainable environment and the management of Pacific Gas and Electric has made
sure that energy conversion was more profitable than investing in nuclear power (Jolink &
Niesten, 2015).
In this scenario the first and foremost duties of the business leaders would be setting
various policies for sustainable development of the businesses and to distribute the values of
sustainable development among the workforce of the company so that the views of all the
stakeholders are aligned for the cause of sustainable development of the company. The
managerial board should be responsible for generating sustainable developmental policies for the
business organizations and also to establish some objectives. It can be said that making policies
in the favor of environmental sustainability is an effective first step towards the widened
concerns related to sustainable development (Charles Jr, Schmidheiny & Watts, 2017). Thus, the
managements of the business organizations should integrate the expectations of the stakeholders
with respect to the sustainable development of the organization (Singla, Ahuja & Sethi, 2017).
Thus, it can be said that drafting policy statements will have the capability to influence the
behavior and are inspirational too. Thus it can be said that the benefits that the organizations will
get from preparing policies for sustainable development will be justified while comparing the
benefits with the effort put in.

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Conclusion
Thus to conclude, I believe that it can be said that in contemporary times the business
leaders should come forward integrating the sustainable developmental policies in the business
organizations. They should promote sustainable development as the organization’s contribution
towards the environment will earn the company a global recognition and that will help the
organization to gain a competitive advantage in the market of operation. Apart from that in
contemporary times, I believe the environmental issues have become so concerning that the
business leaders should come forward with remedial ideas and contribute to experience a
sustainable global development.

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References
Caneque, F. C., & Hart, S. L. (Eds.). (2017). Base of the Pyramid 3.0: Sustainable development
through innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Charles Jr, O. H., Schmidheiny, S., & Watts, P. (2017). Walking the talk: The business case for
sustainable development. Routledge.
Day, K. A. (2016). China's environment and the challenge of sustainable development.
Routledge.
Huckle, J., & Wals, A. E. (2015). The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development:
business as usual in the end. Environmental Education Research, 21(3), 491-505.
Jolink, A., & Niesten, E. (2015). Sustainable development and business models of entrepreneurs
in the organic food industry. Business Strategy and the Environment, 24(6), 386-401.
Kolk, A. (2016). The social responsibility of international business: From ethics and the
environment to CSR and sustainable development. Journal of World Business, 51(1), 23-
34.
Singla, A., Ahuja, I. P. S., & Sethi, A. P. S. (2017). The effects of demand pull strategies on
sustainable development in manufacturing industries. International Journal of
Innovations in Engineering and Technology, 8(2), 27-34.
Welford, R. (2016). Corporate environmental management 3: Towards sustainable development.
Routledge.