Sustainable Business Practices: A Reflective Journal

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REFLECTIVE JOURNAL- SUSTAINABLE
BUSINESS
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Contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 3
DISCUSSION................................................................................................................................... 3
SUSTAINABILITY, THE TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE & BUSINESS..........................................................3
THE SIX FORMS OF CAPITAL USED BY BUSINESSES....................................................................3
THE SIX PHASES OF BUSINESS APPROACHES TO SUSTAINABILITY.............................................4
EXAMPLES OF BUSINESSES SUCCESSFULLY ENGAGING IN SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS..................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................. 6
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................6
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INTRODUCTION
Business is an organization or enterprise engaged in commercial, professional or industrial
activities. Sustainable business is an enterprise whose operation does not affect the
environment, society, stakeholders as well as community. But the two main categories of the
sustainable environment are the impact of business on the environment and the second one is
the impact of business on society (Witjes and Lozano, 2016).
DISCUSSION
SUSTAINABILITY, THE TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE & BUSINESS
With the help of the Triple Bottom Line (TBL), I understand the concerns about society and the
environment. The TBL theory pays major attention to these three bottom lines:
People: People include employees, customers of the business. The bottom line of my
business can be increased by treating the employees fairly by applying proper labor
practices. It can be also said that if my business is not able to maintain a positive
relationship with the society or people the business client base as well as employee pool
will shrink. Therefore, I used several approaches to maintain a relationship with people.
Profit: The primary objective of my business is to earn maximum profit but my business
plan does not oppose the people and planet. Profit as a bottom line of the TBL is
measured how much the business contributes or affect the economic environment.
Planet: Planet in the TBL means the practices used by my business for a sustainable
environment. The practices used by my business are monitoring, managing and reporting
the consumption and the emission of the waste and its treatment. Although it is a time-
consuming and complex procedure to maintain the strong image of the business and
corporate social responsibility I follow the practices to control the negative impact of the
business on the environment (McWilliams et al., 2016).
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THE SIX FORMS OF CAPITAL USED BY BUSINESSES
As a part of this reflective journal, I came to know about the six types of capital necessary
for the business operation. For the extensive and deep research, I found that my business
needs six capitals and these are as follows:
1. Intellectual capital: Intellectual capital means knowledge assets. Or in simple
words intangible assets like a trademark, patent, copyright, etc. This capital is
inspired by social and relationship capital. Therefore this concept helps me to
understand the importance of intellectual capital when I talented and competent
personnel in my business.
2. Manufactured capital: The business cannot produce the final product without
having the raw material. From the deep analysis, I come to know that
manufactured capital is an important integral part of the business. It includes
tools, equipment as well as machines.
3. Financial capital: Financial capital for my business can be generated through
equity finance, shares, debentures, money, and securities.
4. Human capital: With the help of the study, I understand the importance of
employee for the employer. Even I cannot individually operate my own business. I
also found that the growth of the business depends on the motivating and
encouraging the employees to contribute more in business growth.
5. Natural capital: The natural capital includes natural sources such as ecosystem,
climatic conditions, etc. This capital affects all kinds of businesses. A sustainable
business identifies several alternatives such as the alternative source of energy,
environment-friendly building, etc. to minimize the impact of natural sources on
the business (Robison and Ritchie, 2016).
6. Relationship and social capital: Social or relationship capital means the individual
or team who work together to achieve the aim of my business. From the analysis, I
learned that people are the main source that affects management decisions as
well as helps in increasing the profit.
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THE SIX PHASES OF BUSINESS APPROACHES TO SUSTAINABILITY
Here I used the Dunphy Phase Model to categorize business approach to sustainability. The six
phases of this model are:
Rejection: In this phase, the main aim of my business is to earn maximum profit ignoring
the people and planet. The society or community shows the exploitative view towards
the business.
Non-responsiveness: Due to ignorance or lack of awareness the business faces the
situation of non-acceptance in society. In this phase, the businessman ignores
environmental and community issues.
Compliance: This phase focuses on minimizing the risk of not meeting the required
standards. The business has to change its structure according to the legal standards.
Efficiency: Efficiency means increasing awareness related to sustainable business. The
aim of this phase is to reduce the operation cost and to increase the business’s
profitability. In this stage, the saved cost is capitalized and reinvested in the benefits of
the employees for gaining long-term benefits from them (Hart et al., 2017).
Strategic proactivity: In this phase, the business becomes habitual with sustainable
practices and makes it as a core strategy of the business. The business uses this for
competitive advantage and increasing profitability in the long run.
Sustaining corporation: The values of the sustainable are integrated with the internal
environment. The business follows just, fair and democratic social practices in the
business.
EXAMPLES OF BUSINESSES SUCCESSFULLY ENGAGING IN SUSTAINABLE
BUSINESS
The best example of the business engages in sustainable business is Apple. Majority of the U.S.
data centers of the company are LEED certified. The company makes efforts to save the planet.
In the year 2016, the company announces that the majority of the electricity say 93 percent
energy comes from the renewable sources. Such practices encourage big giants such as Google
and Facebook to use renewable energy rather than power facilities (University of Wisconsin,
2019).
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The second big giant company engages in sustainable business is IBM. The company decided to
adopt a sustainable and eco-friendly business since 1960. In fact, sustainability and corporate
social responsibility is part of the company's mission (Prause, 2015). The efforts of the company
towards sustainability are smart and eco-friendly building, wastewater management, etc.
CONCLUSION
Therefore, from this reflective journal I understand the importance of sustainable business in
the competitive world. This journal includes the Triple Bottom Line approach to understand the
impact of business on the environment and society. Further, it includes six types of capital and
six approaches to bringing sustainability.
REFERENCES
 Hart, T.A., Fox, C.J., Korstad, J. and Nill, E.E., 2017. Sustainable MBAs: A phase model
development of sustainability in MBA education. In Handbook of Sustainability in
Management Education. Edward Elgar Publishing.
 McWilliams, A., Parhankangas, A., Coupet, J., Welch, E., and Barnum, D.T., 2016.
Strategic decision making for the triple bottom line. Business Strategy and the
Environment, 25(3), pp.193-204.
 Prause, G., 2015. Sustainable business models and structures for Industry 4.0. Journal of
Security & Sustainability Issues, 5(2).
 Robison, L.J., and Ritchie, B.K., 2016. Relationship economics: The social capital
paradigm and its application to business, politics and other transactions. Routledge.
 University of Wisconsin, 2019. The Triple Bottom Line online available at
https://sustain.wisconsin.edu/sustainability/triple-bottom-line/ (last accessed on 20th
May 2019).
 Witjes, S. and Lozano, R., 2016. Towards a more Circular Economy: Proposing a
framework linking sustainable public procurement and sustainable business models.
Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 112, pp.37-44.
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