Learning Journal: Sustainability, Ethics, and Business Models

This learning journal explores various facets of sustainability and its implications for businesses. The journal begins with an introduction to sustainability and sustainable development, identifying both threats and opportunities for organizations. It delves into ethics, governance, and corporate social responsibility, examining how companies navigate public policy and balance their own interests with societal needs. The journal then analyzes business models for sustainability, including the shift towards environmentally conscious practices and the reduction of environmental footprints. The role of sustainability in strategy and competitive advantage is discussed, along with accounting and reporting for sustainability, using ANZ as a case study. The journal further examines sustainability's relationship with the natural environment, providing a personal analysis of greenhouse gas emissions and exploring sustainability in the marketplace, including barriers to sustainable food consumption and elements of effective social marketing campaigns. The final sections delve into supply chain sustainability and reference relevant sources.

Running head: SUSTAINABILITY
SUSTAINABILITY
Name of student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Week 1: Introduction to sustainability and Sustainable development.............................................2
Week 3: Ethics, Governance and Corporate social responsibility...................................................3
Week 4: Business models for sustainability....................................................................................3
Week 5: Sustainability, strategy and competitive advantage..........................................................4
Week 6: Accounting and Reporting for Sustainability....................................................................5
Week 7: Sustainability and natural environment.............................................................................6
Week 8: Sustainability in market place...........................................................................................7
Week 9: Sustainability supply chains..............................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Week 1: Introduction to sustainability and Sustainable development
Sustainable development refers to the ability to meet the needs of the present generation
without compromising the needs of the future generations. Sustainability refers to carrying out
all activities without creating a pressure on the environmental resources and understanding the
responsibility towards the society in which they are operating. Some of the major sustainable
organizations opportunities are that they are capable of gaining goodwill and reputation in front
of the customers, there can be chances of increasing revenue, there can be chances of easy
acceptability of organizational products (Clayton & Radcliffe, 2018). There can be chances of
obtaining various advantages from the government or government support and the engagement
of employees can be achieved. Therefore if I am working for an organization that understands its
responsibility towards the organization then my or will be able to create a better image in front of
the customers as they will feel that they are a part of the sustainable organizations. The
employees will be motivated to work because they will; also feel that they are a part of
something good. Similarly there are a few organizational sustainability threats that are faced by
organization such as rejection by the society, downfall in sales and therefore revenue of the
organization. Employee dissatisfaction, lack of governments support and there can be
unemployment as a result of scarcity of energy resources. For instance if my organization fails to
comply with the society’s expectation or fails to understand its responsibility towards the society
and environment , there are various threats that can be faced by the company.

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Week 3: Ethics, Governance and Corporate social responsibility
All the companies face a problem related to the public policy implementation because
companies across the globe are engaged in carrying out detailed regulations and other
legislations in order to protect the interest of different groups of people engaged with
organizations and these regulations determine the scope of the business (Constantinescu &
Kaptein, 2018). Moreover the role of these corporations in shaping the policy is not trusted by all
because it is thought that if these corporations are left to look after the creation of public policy
then it will be affected by money, elite’s interest and will basically be concerned with the interest
of the provider sector and not the public. Public policy is created by the government as actions
that is to be taken by the states for all the issues introduced before it and the actions will be
consistent will all the rules and regulations. It is necessary to keep this activity to the government
such that public policies are created without any bias, and it is not based on tradition, intuition or
other factors. The government creates these policies after considering various facts and
evidences. Unlike the companies which may be driven by their own motives in creation of the
policies. Very few organizations are capable of thinking about the interests of the society and
they are e in only thinking about their personal benefits. The government uses evidence based
approach to prepare the public policy that is dependent upon the scientific interests of the people.
Week 4: Business models for sustainability
Most business rely upon others in to fulfill the environmental requirements, it was the
case with the company under study also, who suddenly had no answer to the questions of
customers regarding the company’s vision of environment and the leader did not have any vision
(www.youtube.com, 2019). The company was unable to make its products sustainably and the
company understood that the way the company had been running its activities it was carrying out

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plundering of all the resources which belonged to all the species and not just organizations. An
industrial revolution was needed that focused on the sustainability activities of the company. The
company under study decided to carry out its activities in order to reduce the impact upon
environment and doing no harm to the earth for the raw material already extracted and carrying
various recycling activities. The company reduced its environmental footprint from that was in
the year 1995-1996, sales increased with the same amount of environmental resource extraction.
1.32 billion Pounds of resources without any additional cost to earth. Their present goals is to
achieve zero footprint by 2020 through various sustainable frameworks. The civilization is
similar to the craft which would be crashed someday. Every living system is a part of the
biosphere and it supports the life of all the people on the environment and the balance is being
disturbed by the waste dumps.
Week 5: Sustainability, strategy and competitive advantage
Response to question 1:
The firm strongly believes in becoming one of the major sustainable organizations
through its activities and that is why it is engaged in reducing its environment impacts since its
inception and they have made changes in their work activities also in order to achieve the same.
A sustainable Efficiency strategy includes improving organizational performance by reducing its
environmental impact. The center so established by the organization has been able to look after
all the spare parts material requirement of the company which would otherwise have gone to
landfills. The center has become successful due to culture of the organizations and its
adaptability to the changing technology (Sustainability.edu.au, 2019).

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Response to question 2:
Fuji Xerox is a sustaining organization because it replaced its system of dumping the
equipment’s of the organization into the landfill and replacing the same with important
equipment’s and it followed the same system before 1993. The company decided to replace this
system with the system of making use of technological capabilities in order to carry out
remanufacturing with the help of its manufacturing center in Australia.
Response to question 3:
The system adopted by the company can become successful with the help of the
workplace culture and taking advantage of technological advancements. Therefore this concept
of having a supportive workplace culture in order to carry out major changes can be used by me
for my organization because without the support of people organizations cannot be successful
and therefore it is necessary to create a culture supporting any changes taking place in
organization without resistance.
Week 6: Accounting and Reporting for Sustainability
Sustainability indicators refer to measuring the performance of the organization and
continuously recording the same for future purpose. The three main areas that these indicators
look after are social, economic and environmental (Anz.com.au., 2019). ANZ tries to look after
all these indicators by undertaking risks and opportunities related to the three indicators and the
company believes in growing responsibly. The company creates value for its stakeholders
depending upon the same and it undertakes various sustainability activities that are presented to
the public through the sustainability report and various other interim reports. The company uses
a sustainability framework to look after their sustainability activities and the framework provides

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standards of code of conduct and this helps in improving the outcome of the customers. The
company establishes a consequence management framework to look after all those employees
who have done a breach of code of conduct. The company understands their responsibility
towards the society, towards the economy and environment and therefore undertakes activities of
customer remediation with the resources of the company as soon as possible and other activities.
The company ensures environmental sustainability by supporting all those people and
organizations that are engaged in carrying out environmental sustainability activities and it also
provides for housing and financial wellbeing activities in order to improve the standards of living
of the people. The company also believes in providing for cultural diversity and supports
participation of the employees. Their approach towards work is determined by the sustainability
framework and as a result these indicators of environment, society and economy are determined.
Week 7: Sustainability and natural environment
An average Australian Greenhouse gas activities is about 7.303 tons of CO2 whereas I
spend about 2.801 tons, 2.766 is the green range for transportation. For heating and cooling I
carry out greenhouse gas impact of about 2.175 Tons of CO2, whereas an average Australian
impacts about 2.07 tons of CO2 and the green range of heating and cooling or the sustainable
range should be 0.843. As far as the use of hot water is concerned, I use about 1.982 tons of
CO2, whereas an average Australian spends about 4.841 tons of CO2 and the sustainable range
should be 0.881. For clothes dryer the carbon dioxide emission of our household is that of 0
whereas that of an average Australian household is 0.258 and the sustainable range is 0.084. This
shows that our household is within the sustainable level and therefore we should continue at the
same to reduce the impact of greenhouse gases. For lighting, the range of carbon dioxide
emission is about 2.027 and that of an average Australian household is 1.109 tons of carbon

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dioxide and the green range or sustainable range is 0.424. In case of use of refrigerator, carbon
dioxide emission of our household is that of 1.904 whereas that of an average Australian
household is 1.258 and the permissible level to reduce the impact on the earth is that of 0.457. In
case of cooking, our household emission is 0.476 whereas that of an average Australian
household is 0.858 and the permissible range is 0.621. By taking the test, it can be known that in
which all areas the greenhouse gases can be controlled. For instance the highest emission of
carbon dioxide is food and shopping and so it needs to be reduced to make the level within 8.27
tons of emissions (Apps.epa.vic.gov.au., 2019).
Week 8: Sustainability in market place
What are the barriers that exist in my region to consuming healthy food that have been
sustainably produced?
Supermarkets play an important role in all our lives and it also has an impact on the
choice of food to some extent (Lifehacker Australia, 2019). They are famous for selling
everything and selling cheap products. About two third of pour groceries is purchased from these
supermarkets and therefore it can also be said that they are one of the major reasons for
promoting the big junk that is chocolate, soft drinks, chips and others. This is because every 4
out of 10 display at the end of the aisle is done for these junk foods and therefore it can be said
that these stores are the ones that promote the junk foods. In fact the promotion of the junk food
is mostly done in the suburban areas of the Australian region by these supermarkets. It has also
been found put by a survey that the Australian Supermarkets promote junk food. These
supermarkets act as a barrier to the consumption of sustainable food in Australia that is produced
by WWF Australia. It is engaged in sustainable production of food that is certified and others.

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What are the key elements that should be included in the social marketing campaign that
supports the adoption of the sustainable food options?
The key elements that should be included in the social marketing campaign that supports
the adoption of the sustainable food options is that spreading a message that how the
consumption of sustainable food cam be helpful not only the human beings and will have a good
impact on them but it will also have a good impact on the environment. Further advertisements
can be made by the companies that are engaged in production of sustainable food about the
benefits of consumption of sustainable food and the way in which saving the environment would
ultimately save the living beings.
Week 9: Sustainability supply chains
How would I respond to the accusations of impropriety in my supply chain?
According to the survey conducted by the Working on right shoes, five companies had
received a negative score and these companies were- Gabor, Wolky, Lotto sport, Marks and
Spencer and Schonenenreus. These companies scored negative marks because of lack of
transparency and poor CSR scores. Wolky and Gobor did not respond to steps taken by them in
the previous year and it was Wolky which had not been cooperative as per the reports during the
campaign. In response to these views, we decided to provide transparency about their process to
the general public (Netherlands, 2019). We have code of conduct regarding child labour in place
to remove child labour from our practices and to shoe that are shoes are child labour free
products. In fact we have also provided a report that about 85% of our production is done in-
house. CSR activities are also supported by us and therefore it can be seen from our website. We

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ensure that our production is done without any form of child labour and that can be seen from
our CSR activities.
What actions can be taken by me internally and externally to address these issues?
Actions such as strict code of conduct and policies need to be there in place such that
such actions can be controlled internally and there needs to transparency of these activities
externally in form of various external audits. Therefore our company should focus on conducting
external audits.

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References
Anz.com.au. (2019). ANZ Personal Banking | Accounts, credit cards, loans, insurance | ANZ.
Retrieved 18 September 2019, from https://www.anz.com.au/personal/
Apps.epa.vic.gov.au. (2019). Australian Greenhouse Calculator. Retrieved 18 September 2019,
from http://apps.epa.vic.gov.au/AGC/home.html
Clayton, T., & Radcliffe, N. (2018). Sustainability: a systems approach. Routledge.
Constantinescu, M. I. H. A. E. L. A., & Kaptein, M. U. E. L. (2018). Virtue Ethics and CSR: the
two sides of Sustainable Organizational Performance. Wermayer, W., Looser, S. & Del
Baldo, M. Intrinsic CSR in Competitive Companies: The Categorical Imperative of Doing
Well (1-17). London: Palgrave.
Lifehacker Australia. (2019). How Supermarkets Flog You Junk Food To Maximise Profits.
Retrieved 18 September 2019, from http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2014/01/how-
supermarkets-flog-you-junk-food-to-maximise-profits/
Netherlands, S. (2019). Working on the Right Shoes. Retrieved 18 September 2019, from
http://www.indianet.nl/WorkingOnTheRightShoes.html
Sustainability.edu.au. (2019). Fuji Xerox Australia Eco manufacturing Centre: A case study in
strategic sustainability | Learning and Teaching Sustainability. Retrieved 18 September
2019, from http://sustainability.edu.au/material/teaching-materials/fuji-xerox-australia-
eco-manufacturing-centre-case-study-strategic-sustainability/