MMM279 Social Enterprise: Emission Reduction Through Production Report

This report focuses on Words with Heart, an Australian social enterprise, and its initiative to reduce environmental pollution through eco-friendly production methods. The report begins with an executive summary and a table of contents, followed by an introduction that defines social enterprises and their role in maximizing social and environmental well-being alongside financial gains. The report analyzes the context and scope of environmental challenges in Australia, including the impact of climate change, deforestation, and greenhouse gas emissions. It explores prior attempts to address these issues by businesses, governments, finance providers, aid organizations, academia, media, and localized community groups. The report highlights the successes and failures of these efforts, identifying gaps in awareness and policy. It then discusses new opportunities for improvement, such as raising awareness, adopting new technologies, and implementing sustainable practices. The report concludes with recommendations for further action and includes a self-reflection section detailing the student's engagement with the project. References are included to support the analysis.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Social Enterprise Restricting Emission of Poisonous Gas through Eco-Friendly Production
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Executive Summary:
The aim of the report is to provide an overview of the Social Enterprise based in Australia. The
company under consideration is Words with Heart. This report portrays how the Social
Enterprise helped in reducing the environmental pollution through adoption of the eco friendly
production means. The report also puts across insight into the context and scope of the
mentioned challenge along with the prior attempts. Further, the report mentions context or scope
of the newer opportunities along with a mention of the recommendations.

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Table of Contents
Section I...........................................................................................................................................3
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Context or Scope of the Problem:....................................................................................................3
Prior Attempts of Addressing the Problem:.....................................................................................5
Context or Scope for New Opportunities:.......................................................................................8
Recommendations:........................................................................................................................10
Section 2........................................................................................................................................11
Self Reflection:..............................................................................................................................11
Things that drove me in Addressing the Challenge:......................................................................11
Skills for Addressing the Challenge:.............................................................................................11
Areas that Needs Development for Solving the Problem:.............................................................12
References:....................................................................................................................................14

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Section I
Introduction:
The report provides an insight into an Australian based social enterprise, Words with
Heart that had undertaken initiative of reducing poisonous gas emissions thereby reducing
environmental pollution by adopting eco friendly means of production. A social enterprise
represents an organization that apply to the commercial strategies for maximizing improvements
in the financial, social and the environmental well being that included maximization of the
social impact along with determining profits for the external shareholders(Smith, Gonin, and
Besharov, 2013). The report provides an insight into the scope or context of the problem and
prior attempts in addressing the problem. It also mentions the scope or context of the new
opportunities along with recommendations.
Context or Scope of the Problem:
Environmental issues present themselves as permanent or temporary change to
atmosphere, land and water due to the human activities that results in either irreversible or
reversible change (Moran 2016). The Australian environment is torn apart by the radical changes
brought about by the climate change and the introduced animals and plants (Roberts, Atkins and
Simmons 2014). There has been a dramatic decline in the abundance and distribution of various
species due to scarcity in natural resources like water. Land clearing represents a vital source in
the emission of greenhouse gas of Australia and contributes to 12 percent of the total emissions
of Australia in the year 1998. The consequences of the land clearing include soil erosion and
salinity of the dry land. This called for the need of conservation of the environment. There are

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various environmental issues that impact the Australian environment. Australia had a range of
issues, some concerned with the conservation of Australia while the others concerning
deteriorating state of the Murray- Darling Basin that have a serious and direct impact on the land
use by humans and the economy. There are various human activities including use of the natural
resources which have direct impact on the environment of Australia. In the last two decades,
environmental pollution has led to climate changes in Australia that resulted in continuous
draught and water restriction.
In terms of the emission of greenhouse gas, Australia ranks at the top (Blaikie and
Brookfield 2015). The present state and the federal government have publicly stated the belief
where the change in climate has primarily been caused by the emissions of the greenhouse gas.
It has found the vocal minority group of Australia has opposed the schemes of the wind energy
in spite of becoming carbon neutral on grounds of the noise and the visual impact. Australia has
also been impacted by deforestation which involves cutting down forest that in turn increases soil
salinity (Wardell‐Johnson et al. 2016). Hence, the saline water from these areas affects the
downstream quality of water. It has thus been estimated that closer to 7 percent of agricultural
area in the Western Australia suffers from problem related to deforestation. Various studies of
the wet tropics of Australia show how the soils possess limited capacity in order to recover from
deforestation. It was estimated that the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organization (CSIRO) estimated the degradation cost of the land to be $1 billion. These issues
have raised a primary concern for undertaking an environmental movement in Australia (Dovers
2013).
Social Enterprise like Words with Heart undertook measures for reducing environmental
pollution in Australia by shifting to the eco-friendly means of production. The company has thus

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adopted sustainable means of production by using 100 percent recycled papers, green electricity
and eco inks. The company also recycles paper off cut and makes use of the recycled packaging.
In other words, the company makes eco friendly stuffs in stationary that have measurable and
real impact.
Prior Attempts of Addressing the Problem:
Efforts Undertaken by:
1. Business: The environmental agencies in the territories and states have been responsible
for controlling the emissions of pollutant from the large industries like the refineries, power
stations, smelters, cement works, manufacturing plants, cement works and abattoirs (Mehndiratta
et al. 2013). These businesses have undertaken various measures of regulation in combination
with the emissions of modeling, monitoring and the enforcement program for preventing
emissions from the individual point sources that affected the health at local level. The regulatory
measures also prevented the sources from causing pollution beyond the national standards on a
large scale.
2. Government: As far as the Government is concerned, it has undertaken the following
measures for preventing environmental pollution (Craig and Roberts 2015):
1. The Australian Government, territory and the state government jointly administered
the protection of the environment
2. The legislation of the Australian government helped in governing the process of
assessments and the approval from the national environment that included the cultural
concern

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3. The environmental protection related to the state and the territory applied to the
specific activities of the business
3. Finance Providers: They ensure whether a business remain committed towards reducing
the environmental impact by ensuring commitment towards the reduction of the environmental
impact right from the development, design, procurement, logistics and packaging to recycling
thereby placing priority on the maintaining compliance with the legal regulations that leads to
prevention of the environmental pollution(Schaltegger and Burritt 2017).
4. Aid Organizations: The aid organizations have been dedicated towards the reduction of
the air pollution along with enhancing the quality if air. Through efficient public policy, business
solutions and advocacy they emphasize on the innovation and collaboration (Xia et al. 2015).
These organizations not only look forward towards decreasing the vehicular air pollution but also
in educating the school children about the air quality. Further they also put forward the concept
of monitoring the air quality that helps in educating next generation. .
5. Academia: The role of academia in the control of pollution is as follows:
 Help in the conservation of energy by turning the lights off, electric appliances and
computers whenever not in the use
 Ensuring the use of energy efficient appliance and light bulbs
 Encourage participation in the utility programs related to the conservation.
6. Media: Media played a vital role in making the people aware regarding the environmental
issues and undertake actions for protecting the environment (Schaltegger and Burritt 2017).
Closer to 2600 globalized media channels operated with 3000 satellites thereby reaching close to

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1.5 million people across the globe. It can be argued that majority of the global citizens learns
about the environmental issues beyond immediate surroundings via the global media. Issues like
water pollution, global warming, air and water pollution, negative implications of the use of
polythene and plastic have been topics for debate. Magazines and newspapers have become
increasingly environment conscious compared to before. In this regard, radio and television also
does a good job in providing coverage to the environmental issue.
7. Localized Community Groups: These groups have played a key role in improving the air
quality by encouraging employees or people within the community to adopt means for reducing
the air pollution. Besides, these groups also supported the new development for preventions of
environmental pollution (Benson, Jordan and Smith 2013). They also encourage the adoption of
alternative means for reduction of poisonous emissions. Further, they also restrict open burning
that helps in reducing further pollution.
Things that Worked:
Australia implemented national environment protection measures (NEPM) for prevention
of environmental pollution. They are formulated by the National Environmental Protection
Council as authorized by National Environment Protection Council as authorized by National
Environmental Protection Council (NEPC) Act of the year 1994 along with the territory
legislation and the complementary state where each jurisdiction have been responsible for
implementing them through own regulations and laws. The NEPC promulgated close to four
NEPM till date that has been related to the aspects of the air pollution, being on the ambient
quality of air, air toxics and the emissions of the diesel vehicles.
Things that Failed:

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In spite of the major gain in the air quality acquired through the cleaner and improved
forms of the pollution control, cleaner types of production, emission from the larger industrial
point and vehicles sources results in release of harmful emission into the air thereby causing
environmental pollution.
Gaps:
The lack of awareness standards has been the key reason for Australia to lag behind rest
of world in terms of policies for reducing the air pollution. For instance, the rules related to the
Sulphur in fuels have acted as damaging component for the vehicular emissions. In this regard,
Australia has been one of the most lenient in terms of the Sulphur standards for the petrol which
is close to 150 parts / million. This measure is however 15 times higher compared to the limits
allowed in European Union, US and Japan.
The air quality standards of Australia will improve only when there are stricter measures
for reducing the vehicle emission. The Australian government also did not do much for
enhancing the fuel efficiency and the vehicle emissions after reviewing the levels of ozone, nitric
oxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon in the air.
Context or Scope for New Opportunities:
There have been quite a number of regulatory bodies and legislative instruments that
governs the environmental regulation of Australia. Australia has federal legal system with the
environmental matters that regulates at the state and the territory level. This regime however
varies between territory and the state government (McCann 2013).

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The decisions made in the present year on the efficiency of fuel in Australia along with
the emission policies helps in improving the health of the urban air (Hinkley et al. 2013). This
also represented a greater chance for simultaneously improving the fuel efficiency, demanding
higher fuel quality and implementation of the emission test for the vehicles for improving the air
in the cities.
Australians should raise awareness for using lesser cars when they are not in use. Raising
the awareness helps in not only saving on fuel cost but also acts as a protective measure for
emission of harmful gas. Besides, vehicles having idle stop technology will help in cutting the
vehicular emissions. This technology is quite well known in the European car modes since it the
capability to automatically switch the engine off when still and allows driver in restarting car
once his/her foot presses accelerator. In order to achieve population benefit from the technology,
the policy makers needed to include the Australian Design Rules, national standards for the
vehicle safety, emissions and the antitheft measures. Australia also needed to follow a
sustainable approach towards preventing air pollution that would also help in upgrading the
Australian refineries for supplying a fuel containing lower sulphur. Besides, Australia also
required independent national agency for safeguarding environment and delivering an efficient
climate policy.
Social Enterprise like Words with Heart helped in unlocking the future enterprise by
adopting eco friendly means of production of stationary (wordswithheart.com, 2019). This
helped in funding educational projects for the woman and girls. The social enterprise had been
known for the production of every kind of event, business and the personal stationeries that
included invitations, business cards and notebooks. Every purchase made from the company
helped in funding the education for the female. The company derives its products are sustainably

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made using 100 percent recycled paper and the sustainable stocks, green electricity and eco links.
The company in order to reduce further environmental pollution recycled the paper cut offs and
made use of recycled packaging. To reduce the emissions of harmful gas, the company has used
100 percent recycled papers for the notebook and journal pages and covers. The paper products
are printed with the vegetable based inks and the green electricity thereby making it eco friendly.
In comparison to tons of the virgin wood, the company makes use of 63 percent less energy, 82
percent lesser solid waste and 58 percent lesser water thereby adding positivity to the
environment.
Recommendations:
The vision of the company lay in adopting eco friendly means of producing all kinds of
products including invitations, business cards and notebooks. This helped in reducing emission
of harmful gas known to be produced from the industrial emissions. This in a way aided the
protection of the environment from the pollution caused by the harmful gases.

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Section 2
Self Reflection:
Things that drove me in Addressing the Challenge:
Environmental awareness is something that drove me towards addressing the challenge.
Environmental awareness helps in fostering connection to natural world, promote the sustainable
development and encourage the conservation of the irreplaceable natural resources and the
animal and the plant species. It also serves as the educational tool for helping the people across
the world in understanding the aesthetic, economic and the biological importance for the
preservation of the resources and the reduction or the elimination of harmful impacts that led to
manmade alternations. The awareness also helps people in understanding consequences of the
human activities on the various lands thereby identifying the remedial solutions. It also helps in
understanding that usage of the reusable bags and investment in cleaner energy helps in
environmental improvement.
Skills for Addressing the Challenge:
The skill set that I have in addressing the challenge are as follows:
1. Creativity: This skill helps me in solving the problem intuitively or systematically. In
fact, complex problems like environmental challenge would require logical and systematic
approach for solving which would also require creative thinking.