MGMT8420 - Siemens: A Business Case Study on Sustainable Development

This case study delves into Siemens Limited's approach to sustainable development, highlighting its significance within the business community and its role in achieving a competitive edge, increasing market share, and boosting shareholder value. The study outlines Siemens' commitment to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, including health, clean energy, and sustainable communities. It examines Siemens' sustainable programs and policies in Germany, India, and South Africa, focusing on initiatives like the Green City Index, vocational education programs, and water management strategies. The analysis also covers Siemens' future climate change initiatives, its implementation of sustainable approaches such as green building initiatives, and its dedication to reducing carbon emissions. The case study concludes by emphasizing Siemens' commitment to responsible water management and its broader efforts to minimize environmental impact and promote sustainable practices across its global operations.

Running head: SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
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Business Sustainability
Case Study of Siemens Limited
For a business community, sustainability is
more significant in comparison to any mere
window-dressing. Achievable sustainable
resources can facilitate companies to attain
greater degree of competitive edge and
further amplify level of market share and
boost shareholder value.
Sustainability
Currently Siemens constitute of around 17
sustainable development goals that include
good health and welfare, reasonable and
inexpensive and clean energy along with
sustainable cities and communities which are
systemically arranged to foster sustainable
development and growth in wide ranging
areas of life.
Structure of the paper
Current Sustainable
Programs and
Policies
International
Business Operation
Future Scopes
Good health and welfare, reasonable and inexpensive and clean
energy along with sustainable cities and communities which are
systemically arranged to foster sustainable development and
growth in wide ranging areas of life.
Goals
Executive Summary

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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................3
Siemens’ Company Overview.................................................................................................3
Discussion......................................................................................................................................4
Concept of sustainability and Siemens’ Sustainable Development..................................4
Siemens Germany Implementation of Sustainable Approach to Business.....................5
Siemens’ Current Sustainable Programs and Policies.......................................................6
Siemens’ Germany Future Climate Change Initiative.........................................................8
Siemens Business Operations in India..................................................................................9
Siemens India’s Current Sustainable Programs and Policies.........................................10
Siemens India’s Upcoming Sustainable Program- Smart City Planning........................11
Siemens Business Operations in South Africa..........................................................................12
Siemens South Africa’s operation of Sustainable Approach to Business.................................12
Siemens South Africa’s Recent Sustainable Programs.............................................................13
Siemens South Africa’s Future Sustainable Initiative...............................................................14
Conclusion....................................................................................................................................15
References...................................................................................................................................17

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Introduction
Sustainability has been emerging as a vital determinant for all global
organizations across all industries. Reports by Kolk (2016) reveal that over 75% of
business executives identify a sustainability strategy fundamental to be competitive in
recent times. Sustainability is regarded as a business approach in creating enduring
value by considering ways in which organizations function in the environmental, social
and economic environment. The following paper will evaluate the way Siemens; one of
the renowned global powerhouses in the field of industrial, energy as well as healthcare
and for infrastructure solutions maintains sustainability to foster the longevity of the
company.
Siemens’ Company Overview
Siemens Limited is a holding company operating its business operations in
conglomerate industry. The company is recognized as a global powerhouse focusing on
areas of electrification, automation as well as digitization (Siemens, 2018). Being one of
the largest producers of energy-efficient and resource-consumption technologies in the
world, Siemens has received substantial rate of recognition as a leading supplier of
systems for producing power generation as well as transmission along with medical
diagnosis. Siemens constitutes an intriguing story to articulate with its almost 170 years
of successful journey starting from a establishing a back building workshop to setting up
a multinational business enterprise (Siemens, 2018). Byrch et al. (2015) reveal that
during the 1950’s Siemens entered into the manufacturing sector and efficiently
manufactured computers, semi-conductor devices alongside washing machines and
other electronic pacemakers. In the later phase of 1990’s Siemens financial services

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was founded by expanding its services into the financial sector (Siemens.com, 2018).
Furthermore, in 2000 Siemens Medical Solutions started when Shared Medical Systems
Corporations had been attained by Siemens’ Medical Engineering Group. However
starting during the 2000’s, the multinational organization significantly diversified to other
industrial process optimization along with consultancy and other engineering services
and engaged in several successful merger and acquisition (M&A) endeavours (Kılkış,
2016). However, among all these business endeavours the recognized one is Nokia
Siemens network in 2007 and it was in the year 2010, Siemens decided to sell its IT
Solution as well as services subsidiary to Atos- one of the international leaders in the
domain of digital transformation with an annual revenue of almost € 13.2 billion (França
et al., 2017).
Discussion
Concept of sustainability and Siemens’ Sustainable Development
Sustainability is typically defined as supervising the triple bottom line that is a
development through which global corporations manage their monetary, social as well
as environmental risks, threats and opportunities. However according to Tang and Lee
(2016), such an approach primarily depends on an accounting based perspective and
does not wholly capture time factors which is inherent within business sustainability.
With sustainability identified as an intriguing subject, during the past few years,
corporations across the world have been experiencing stirring rate of demands from
varied types of stakeholders to successfully develop sustainability plans that illustrate
assertive offerings towards environmental and communal aspects and to enhance
intelligibility in corresponding these endeavours. Siemens has received immense

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prominence for its sustainability approach and performance, specifically in the
ecological domain that is industrial conglomerate Siemens (Siemens.com, 2018). At
Siemens, sustainable development is rooted into the corporate strategy as well as
culture, a characteristic highlighted in the course of the central position it embraces
within the company, as sustainability efforts are regarded as a vital part of effectively
implementing the Siemens Vision 2020 strategy program. Siemens has been efficiently
generating its cent percent Renewable energy distribution in energy and electricity that
has been purchased with around 50% of the company’s German locations by employing
100% green energy (Sustainability Report - Home – Siemens, 2018). Klopp and
Petretta (2017) have revealed that Siemens show great dedication to enhance its power
and reserve efficiency and to acquire the increasing global requests related to
environmental safety. Furthermore, the company has a comprehensive Environmental
Protection along with Health Management and Safety (EHS) management mechanism
in position for all its significant business centres and invention facilities. This
management system has followed the demands of the ISO 14001 standard (Svensson
& Høgevold, 2017).
Siemens Germany Implementation of Sustainable Approach to Business
Digital technologies play a decisive role in the energy sector which acts as a vital
determinant for Siemens to adopt an inclusive sustainable approach to its business.
However according to Issa and Al Abbar (2015), in order to utilize them to amplify
efficiency level in the generation, transmission as well as supply of energy, Siemens
has implemented a business case sustainability in their pilot project strategy in
Germany and has been aiding small producers of solar energy develop an energy

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platform based on block-chain technology that enables both producers as well as
consumers to trade power resourcefully (Siemens.com, 2018). Furthermore, Bonou,
Laurent and Olsen (2016) has stated that the increasing rate of corruption and crime is
another vital factor that has led the company embrace a reliable sustainable approach
for the welfare of the company. Siemens has recently adopted a Zero Tolerance Policy
(ZTP) for misconduct and disobedience if applicable laws from its employee base. The
company however, methodically secure integrity as well as compliance in its cultural
pattern (Stewart, 2015). Thus strict compliance training is obligatory for all employees
and employees are supported to report unlawful conduct. In addition to this, Siemens’
Environmental Portfolio is a significant factor for the company to implement
decarbonisation efforts. Reports by Goldin (2015) have revealed that in fiscal 2017,
technologies of Siemens’ Environmental Portfolio has facilitated customers across the
world to lessen their carbon dioxide emissions by around 572 million metric tons. This
quantity however has been equivalent to around 70% of Germany’s gross revenue rate
and comprises technologies related to smart grids, industrial automation as well as
energy-efficient mechanisms along with renewable power technologies (Issa & Al
Abbar, 2015).
Siemens’ Current Sustainable Programs and Policies
Planet-The Green City Index- This program is identified as a research project that has
been executed by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and aided by Siemens
(Siemens.com, 2018). This sustainability approach aims to emphasize on the important
areas of concerns related to urban environmental sustainability by proficiently creating
an exceptional mechanism that facilitates cities yardstick their effort and share most

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efficient practices (Siemens AG - AnnualReports.com, 2018). This sustainable agenda
in 2009 and entails over 120 cities in parts of the European region, Asia and Africa.
The Green City Index
Source: (Siemens, 2018)
Goldin (2015) has noted that environmental problems in the U.S and Canadian
cities are comprehensive which shows those GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions are
high by any standard and urban collapse tends to remain as a challenge. However
Rainey (2015) is of the opinion that US and Canadian cities surpass in several areas.
For example, water infrastructure, recycling levels along with environmental regulation
systems correspond to the most efficient cities in which the Green City Indexes have
assessed across the world.
People- Dual Vocational Education Program- Siemens through its Dual Vocational
Education Program has been offering access to proper education in various ways such
as learning and education opportunities for all of its employees and VET (vocational
education and training) delivered in association with educational institutes (Stewart,
2015). Current reports of Siemens.com (2018) reveal that Siemens offer around 11,450

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apprentices and learners with around 6750 for Siemens and over 2400 for third party
agencies in Germany and another almost 2300 for Siemens in almost 20 more nations
enabling the company to be one of the largest as well as most innovative contributor of
professional education and training for secondary-school graduates in the world
(Sendler, 2017).
Profit- Pearl Initiative-The Integrity sustainable initiative developed by Siemens
proficiently encourages the Pearl program to exert lucrative trade practices in the Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) (Wang & Buckeridge, 2015). This initiative introduced in
2015 has been investing over US$880,000 in three years to the Pearl Initiative for a
mutual action program in order to increase awareness and further acknowledge the
implementation of partnership practices in business across the GCC (Messner, 2015).
Siemens’ Germany Future Climate Change Initiative
Messner (2015) has revealed that Siemens is highly committed to responsible
water management and emphasizes on water management in present as well as for
future climatic benefits. As according to Klopp and Petretta (2017), climate change
necessitates a management of water resources turned towards the future, millions of
people on earth are impacted by floods and shortage of primary resource. The company
consequentially for all its sites have guaranteed that climate protection programs pose
least impact on local water resources.

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Siemens plan for carbon neutral by 2030
Source: (Siemens, 2018)
Siemens Business Operations in India
Dietz (2018) has revealed that Siemens comprises over 20 factories across India
with 8 Centres of proficiency and around 12 R&D Centres with a nation-wide sales and
service network. The company is endorsing skill development initiatives by the means of
Corporate Citizenship initiatives namely ITI up gradation, along with Technical Skills
Development Center and faculty development. Cooke (2015) has revealed that
according to the Indian Ministry for Commerce and Industry, the Indian government is
highly eager to develop exports and resourcefully offer greater number of job
opportunities for youths and semi-skilled as well as unskilled labour force of India.
Furthermore, India’s foreign exchange reserves have been estimated to be around US $
401 billion in 2018 thus implying a dynamic future of the country as global trade is
anticipated to expect a rise of around 4% in 2018 from 2.5% in 2016.

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Siemens India’s Implementation of Sustainable Approach to Business
Siemens India has primarily focused on Green Building initiative equivalent to the
sustainable approaches of Siemens Germany (Sendler, 2017). For Siemens India,
digitalization tends to serve a vital role that would help the company increase its energy
productivity and proper power distribution in various sectors of the country
(Siemens.co.in, 2018). Issa and Al Abbar (2015) claimed high energy deficiency in
various regions of India results declined economic growth. India is experiencing
difficulties in obtaining coal whereby other sources of domestic gas has been shrinking
Siemens believe that conventional energy sectors can attain India’s power demands
(Siemens.com, 2018). Waste water treatment is identified as a varied sustainable
approach which Siemens India has efficiently started to offer high-tech water treatment
solutions for agricultural as well as industrial implementations and adequate safe
drinking water (Goldin, 2015). In addition to this, as per reports by Dietz (2018) Siemens
India is concerned about the impact of climate change Thus with ecology emerging as a
vital factor in strategizing for a better world, the company has introduced diverse
initiatives and have illustrated when it comes in safeguarding the environment.
Siemens India’s Current Sustainable Programs and Policies
People- Green+ Hospitals- Similar to Siemens’ HQ, Siemens India believes that the
benefits of Green + Hospitals extend beyond the environment and further offer
important cost savings as well as higher excellence (Siemens.com, 2018). Siemens
India proficiently offers flexible and inclusive solutions for healthcare providers which
aids in reducing expenses and improve clinical results and improve the patient
experience (Siemens.co.in, 2018). Siemens India’s Green + Hospitals is identified as a

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modular program which health services of all sizes can utilize to successfully attain their
environmental efficiency as well as excellence objectives both simultaneously and
rapidly. This approach however is contradictory to Siemens Germany Green City
initiatives.
Planet- Energy efficiency program- The current Siemens Energy Efficiency
Program helps modify the existing infrastructures related to production plants. This
program results to a greater level of energy productivity with fewer Co2 emissions with
lower operating expenses. Reports by Economictimes (2015) have revealed that once
the measures have been applied, continual energy monitoring executed by Siemens
India’s Advantage Operation Centre (AOC) guarantees that mechanisms are accessible
and continuously optimized.
Profit- Disaster relief sustainable program- Siemens has joined with non-
governmental organization (NGO) Oxfam India to successfully offer emergency supplies
of water, hygiene, sanitation along with healthcare provisions to the people living in
regions of Rudraprayag and Uttarkashi districts in India (Siemens AG -
AnnualReports.com, 2018). Siemens, in affiliation with a renowned NGO called
Srinivasan Services Trust, operates on a holistic progress initiative for the affected
communities of the Indian Ocean Tsunami that had its occurrence in 2004.
Siemens India’s Upcoming Sustainable Program- Smart City Planning
. Siemens India’s proficient public transportation, unlimited access to drinking
water aligns with a consistent energy supply is recognized as vital elements for
Siemens India’s sustainable urban growth. Stewart (2015) has noted that mobility in
India’s urban areas specifically regarding air quality and congestion tend to have a