MPM 732: Sustainability in Management Report - College Name

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of sustainability in management, exploring its origins, principles, and impact on businesses. It delves into the evolution of sustainability, driven by environmental concerns and the need for responsible resource management. The report highlights key principles such as social justice, holistic approaches, and resource management. It provides examples of sustainable companies like Dassult Systemes and Siemens, and discusses various sustainability initiatives and regulations, including ISO standards and the Global Reporting Initiative. The benefits of sustainability are discussed including attracting employees, boosting innovation, reducing costs, attracting customers, and mitigating risks. The report emphasizes the positive societal impacts of sustainable practices, such as reduced pollution and the development of renewable energy sources. References to academic sources are also included to support the arguments presented. This report is a useful guide for students studying management and sustainability.

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SUSTAINABILLITY IN MANAGEMENT
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Introduction

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According to Benn, Edwards, and Williams (2014), sustainability requires the current generation
to exploit resources in a way that will not interfere with the way the future generation will as
well exploit the resources they require. Besides, sustainability has three basic concerns,
environmental protection, economic growth, and needs of the posterity (Clayton & Radcliffe,
2018). Furthermore, it requires that investments’ direction, changes in the institution, resource
utilization, and advancement in technology should be in harmony. Wesselink, Blok, van Leur,
Lans, and Dentoni (2015), define sustainable management an intersection between sustainability
and business. Businesses of today have become challenging and competitive that managers are
puzzled daily on the best practices they should put into practice in order for their firms to be
economically and environmentally sustainable so that the firm will boast of sustainable
competitive advantage (Clayton & Radcliffe, 2018). As a result, the paper does a comprehensive
informative and persuasive discussion on sustainable management paying attention to key issues
such as its impacts, examples of sustainable firms of today, trends, principles, factors that led to
sustainability awareness, regulatory bodies and organizations among other issues.
Origin of Sustainability in management
Although industrial revolution is responsible for the current state of the global development, it
also led to devastating effects on the environment in the form of toxins and carbon emissions
subsequently resulting in changes in the climate and global warming. Researchers, scholars, and
scientists realized that the state of the environment had reached a level whereby if no initiatives
were taken, then the lives of living things was at risk. As a result, the need for environmental
conservation dawned on people facilitating the origin of global bodies such as United Nations
Environmental Programme. Other regional and international organizations for managing the
environment include World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Environmental Defence Fund (EDF),

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Global Environment Centre (GEC), and Friends of the Earth International (United Nations
Environmental Programme, 2018). Together, these bodies have been at the fore front in
protecting the environment from excessive pollution by ensuring that companies do not exceed
the optimum limit.
Recent trends and future directions
Organizations are increasingly becoming interested in managing sustainability and corporate
social responsibility in their operations not only due to prevailing conditions but also to gain
competitive advantage over their rivals. As such, their strategies must be in line with the
sustainability demands. The response is brought about by environmental concerns, workers’
well-being, climate change as well as other social demands. Furthermore, sustainability in
management entails design of products in a manner that it conforms to the social as well
environmental standards, logistics, supply chain management, and lean operations (Walker,
Seuring, Sarkis & Klassen, 2014). Debates about sustainability initiatives increases with the
world wide concern for humanitarian well-being. Besides, the understanding of sustainability is
expected to further increase with the regulatory bodies becoming sterner on the need for
adequate utilization of resources. Also, global awareness among consumers compels
manufacturers to produce only those goods that are sustainable.
Principles of sustainability management

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Sustainability in management has different basic principles significant in harmonizing horizontal
strategy with various developmental and sectoral strategies. Besides, the principles help in
guiding the determination of priorities for any strategy outlining frameworks, tasks, goals as well
as the modes of implementation (Broman & Robèrt, 2017). Examples of the principles are, the
principle of social justice, holistic approach, sustainable management of resources, inter and
intra-generational solidarity. Other principles include the principle of polluter pays, principle of
prevention and precaution, principle of resource utilization, principle of social responsibility, as
well as the principle of public participation. Together, these principles ensure that a company
works and adheres to the requirements of sustainable management (Broman & Robèrt, 2017).
Examples of world’s most sustainable companies are Dassult Systemes, Valeo, Ucb, Outotec,
Cisco systems, Siemens, and Samsung (Strauss, 2018).
Sustainability Initiatives and Regulations
Since its inception, sustainability has gained special attention with both governments and
international bodies making it a basic requirement for any company that yearns to increase its
productivity (Wesselink, Blok, van Leur, Lans, & Dentoni, 2015). Notably initiatives of
sustainability are spelt out by ISO such as ISO 14000 and 14001 for environmental protection
and the ISO AA1000 for corporate accountability. To ensure that the initiatives are adhered to,
the companies are compelled to report on their commitment to environmental protection through
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) (Fernandez-Feijoo, Romero, & Ruiz, 2014.).
Benefits of sustainability to an organization
Sustainability attracts exceptional employees as well as boosting the innovations and morale of a
company’s workforce. Being a collaborative effort, employees work in unison in implementing

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and identifying sustainable initiatives thus promoting teamwork and continued improvement.
Research shows that a holistic approach to decision making motivates employees to work harder
in an organization (Broman & Robèrt, 2017). Besides, the sense of pride engages culture of
appreciation within the environment of the company which positively increases corporate
culture. Furthermore, when managers communicate freely with employees regarding the
anticipated changes towards sustainability, he cultivates a corporate culture. Also, sustainability
initiatives ignite innovation in a company. For example, when engineers are challenged to design
a way for reducing waste from the manufacturing process, they often come up with new
improvements on the operations (Ortiz‐de‐Mandoana & Bansal, 2016).
Moreover, potential employees are today attracted to companies with corporate culture which is
in line with their goals and aspirations. Besides, employees would not like their efforts go into
waste and are thus inclined to certain job incentives which go hand in hand with decent pay. As a
consequence, the passion created by sustainability initiatives by a company leads to high
productivity, reduction in employee attrition hence more profit. Also, sustainability reduces costs
to any organization. For a company to produce, it must make use of materials, consume energy,
and water. According to Ortiz‐de‐Mandoana and Bansal (2016), sustainable use of these
resources alongside innovation means that waste disposal will be reduced through recycling and
efficient energy use hence increased profit. A business which manages her cost of production
will enjoy competitive advantage, economies of scale thus recording profit increment.
Furthermore, a business which sells quality products at a cheaper price will attract a pool of
consumers thus making more money.
In addition, sustainability has been credited with the attraction of customers. Customers of today
have learned of the power and importance of their money and use it for whichever purpose they

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deem beneficial. Coupled with the increased awareness and concern for the environment, they
will therefore switch to those products that are environmentally less hazardous. By so doing, they
build on a company’s reputation hence competitive edge. Also, sustainability reduces risks.
When a manager uses sustainable practices in managing their business, it comes to their
realization of the various practices that go against the norms of management. For example
wastage of energy through obsolete machines which results to higher production costs. The
manager can then act promptly before the situation goes out of hand. This again lowers
production costs (Lagas, 2015).
Other than improving a company’s profits, sustainability also impacts positively in the society.
Sustainable initiatives have been essential in reducing the amount of toxins and carbon footprint
released into the atmosphere benefiting the future generations as it improves on the quality of
water and air. Also, the initiative is vital for the innovation of renewable energy sources.
Furthermore, adoption of sustainable exploitation of resources by a company acts as a tax
initiatives in some countries. For example, the US government has several tax rebates and credits
to companies who proactively register more sustainable increment in their manufacturing.

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References
Benn, S., Edwards, M. and Williams, T., 2014. Organizational change for corporate
sustainability. Routledge: doi.org/10.4324/9781315819181
Broman, G.I. and Robèrt, K.H., 2017. A framework for strategic sustainable
development. Journal of Cleaner Production, 140, pp.17-31:
doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.10.121
Clayton, T. and Radcliffe, N., 2018. Sustainability: a systems approach. Routledge:
doi.org/10.4324/9781315070711
Fernandez-Feijoo, B., Romero, S. and Ruiz, S., 2014. Commitment to corporate social
responsibility measured through global reporting initiative reporting: Factors affecting the
behavior of companies. Journal of Cleaner Production, 81, pp.244-254:
doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.06.034
Lagas, B., 2015. Five Benefits of Embracing Sustainability and Green Manufacturing. Available
at: https://www.nist.gov/blogs/manufacturing-innovation-blog/five-benefits-embracing-
sustainability-and-green-manufacturing
Ortiz‐de‐Mandojana, N. and Bansal, P., 2016. The long‐term benefits of organizational resilience
through sustainable business practices. Strategic Management Journal, 37(8), pp.1615-1631:
doi.org/10.1002/smj.2410
Strauss, K. (2018). The World's Most Sustainable Companies, 2018. [Online] Forbes.com.
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2018/01/23/the-worlds-most-
sustainable-companies-2018/#3a72f42432b0 [Accessed 20 May 2019].

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United Nations Environmental Programme (2018). List of accredited organizations. [online] UN
Environment. Available at:
https://www.unenvironment.org/civil-society-engagement/accreditation/list-accredited-
organizations [Accessed 20 May 2019].
Walker, P.H., Seuring, P.S., Sarkis, P.J. and Klassen, P.R., 2014. Sustainable operations
management: recent trends and future directions. International Journal of Operations &
Production Management, 34(5): doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-12-2013-0557
Wesselink, R., Blok, V., van Leur, S., Lans, T. and Dentoni, D., 2015. Individual competencies
for managers engaged in corporate sustainable management practices. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 106, pp.497-506: doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-12-2013-0557