LSC: Building A Sustainable Organisation - Bio-Bean Case Study

This case study examines Bio-Bean, a coffee ground recycling company, as an example of sustainable innovation. It discusses the positives of sustainable organizations, such as increased competitiveness, cost reduction, and waste reduction, while also addressing negatives like time-consuming processes, initial investment costs, and complexity issues. The analysis categorizes innovation types—architectural, radical, incremental, and disruptive—and highlights the significance of sustainable business in fostering green communities, creating opportunities, increasing productivity, saving the environment, generating employment, and attracting new customers. The reflection section details the author's planning process, feelings, and analysis of the project, emphasizing the benefits of structured task division and the potential of practical application for enhanced learning. The assignment is contributed by a student and available on Desklib, a platform offering study tools and resources.

Building Sustainable
Organisation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART – A........................................................................................................................................3
Positives of sustainable organisation......................................................................................3
Negatives of sustainable organisation....................................................................................4
Types of innovation................................................................................................................5
Significance of sustainable business......................................................................................6
PART – B.........................................................................................................................................7
Reflection...............................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
Books and journals.................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
A sustainable organisation can be defined as an organisation in which the employees of
that organisation have an aim to promote sustainability within the organisation. Promoting
sustainability comprises of utilizing the available resources to fulfil present needs in such a way
that the future needs are not compromised. As per the present trends the business organisations
are trying to incorporate the concept of sustainability in innovation. A lot of companies have
emerged that are getting themselves involved in such practices (Shakeel and et.al., 2020). One
such firm is the world's largest firm of coffee ground recyclers Bio-Bean. This company
incorporate sustainability into innovation by producing eco-friendly fuel from the waste
products of coffee. With a consumption of 98 million cups of coffee in a day, UK alone is
responsible for generation of tonnes of coffee waste. Bio-Beans is a private firm which was
founded by Arthur Kay and Benjamin Harriman in 2013 with its headquarters in
Cambridgeshire, England. This report Wil include the positive and negatives of a sustainable
organisation, types of innovations involved and their importance and contribution of sustainable
ideas in changing lifestyle (Nosratabadi and et,al., 2019).
PART – A
Positives of sustainable organisation
 Prevalence of competition – With a rapid increase in the number of firms linked with
same business results in an increase in the competition which leads to increased
availability of substitute products. This makes it compulsory for the company to maintain
the uniqueness of its products in order to take advantage of the prevalence of competition
and to attract the consumers more towards own brand rather than towards a product of
other brands. Introducing the concept of sustainability in their products is proving to be
an advantage for the companies to leave their competitors behind. This is because the fact
that the consumers are becoming more health and environment conscious due to which
they are being attracted by sustainable products. Due to this, Bio-Beans have became the
world's largest producer of fuel and supplies power source to the buses of London
(Lathabhavan, 2021).
 Cost reduction – The raw material used by these companies to manufacture the final
product is the waste material. The waste produced by the general people acts as raw

material for these companies. Therefore these companies do not have to make nay
expenses for the raw material. So the sustainable products manufacturing companies only
have to spend on the machinery involved in conversion of the waste product into a useful
product. In addition to cost saving, the issue of availability of raw material is also
eliminated because the waste generation is a continuous inevitable process (Haseeb and
et.al, 2019). Same strategy is adapted by Bio-Beans for reducing its manufacturing cost.
 Waste reduction- The idea of sustainable development is linked with the aim of
reduction of the generated waste. A new useful product is manufactured using the waste
material which is a two way beneficial process. Though, recycling is a best process to
reduce waste generation but this process is useful in management and reduction of the
generated waste. Using the generated waste also contributes to the conservation of the
environment (Hanaysha and et.al, 2022). Bio-Bean also utilises the waste products from
coffee and recycles it.
Negatives of sustainable organisation
 Time taking process- Setting up a sustainable business requires a huge amount of time
and also requires significant time for the business to start functioning smoothly. This is
because of the fact that the processes involved in manufacturing of sustainable goods is
different from manufacturing of other general products. Also in the manufacturing
procedure the separation of biodegradable and non biodegradable waste is also necessary
which makes it a bit tedious task for the employees to adapt to this change.
 Initial investment- Although, the raw material for this business is easily available and is
also very cheaply available but the techniques and technology involved in this process is
not basic. These techniques and technology involved are not easily available and are
expensive as well. This all contributes to high initial cost of setting up the business
 Complexity issues- Every organisation is set up with the prime aim of generating
revenue and profit. But generating and maintaining the generation of profit is a complex
task in a sustainable business. Also due to the fact that the customers are attracted
towards new innovations therefore companies need to keep on implementing new
innovative strategies for product manufacturing. Maintaining continuous innovation is a
bit difficult task for the companies linked with sustainable products.

Types of innovation
Innovations in sustainable business are categorised into four types, among which the low
market ideas are the ones that can be easily implemented and the high market ideas are difficult
from implementation point of view and are also costly to implement.
 Architectural innovation- This type of innovation in the sustainable business makes use
of the technology that is already existing in the company but the nature of the market they
are dealing with in is a new one. This kind of innovation involves introduction of some
necessary set of improvements in the product in order to maintain its prior position in the
market (Expósito, and Sanchis-Llopis, 2019.). The basic aim of introducing these new
features in the product is to gain a position in the new market and also to build an image
of the product which is a different from all other similar products to ace the competition.
 Radical innovation – In this type of innovation the technology that the company uses is
a new one as well as the market that the company is targetting is also a new one . The
company introduces complete changes in the technology for developing the product as
well as in the design of the product (Pimenov and et.al, 2022). The company generates a
complete new set of designs for the product and these new designs are then merged with
the new architecture.
 Incremental innovation- In incremental type of innovation the technology used by the
company for product manufacturing and the market the company is dealing in is the same
but the company keeps on making continuous changes in the product in order to maintain
continuous growth in the market (Geissdoerfer, Vladimirova, and Evans, 2018 ). For
instance, Spotify kept the target and the technology same but added a feature which
allowed customers to get access to ad free music by paying an amount, this allowed the
company to gain profit while maintaining its position in the market. Out of 26 million
active users of Spotify, about 6 million had the paid ad- free access.
 Disruptive innovation- This type of innovation is based on the idea of remodelling the
highly sophisticated products into less sophisticated ones so that their accessibility can be
expanded from the only to the higher end of the society to a broader population. This type
of innovation transform the high end products into ones which are affordable by a wide
population (Nosratabadi, and et. Al, 2019). An example of disruptive innovation is that

of Netflix which generated a cost effective product for an overlooked section of the
market which was also convenient in nature.
Significance of sustainable business
 Green community- Pertaining to the fact that the business of sustainable products is
based on the idea of utilising the generated waste to produce useful products, this
business contributes to the protection of the environment (Kluza, Ziolo, and Spoz, 2021).
This also promotes and encourages the setting up of even more green businesses in order
to save the environment.
 Opportunities- This type of business have high opportunities in relation to investment
and finance because of its high chances of generating high revenues and profits which
will result in better returns for the investors. This would motivate more and more
investors to invest their funds in this type businesses (Bocken, Boons, and Baldassarre,,
2019). These investments will then help sustainable business top grow and expand. The
success of Bio- beans also started to attract a lot many investors.
 Increased productivity - As this business utilizes the waste generated by the general
public as its raw material for production of new products, so the issue of cost of raw
material and its availability is eliminated. Due to this elimination the company saves a lot
of funds that are required for purchasing raw material which can then be utilised by the
company to purchase good machineries and in introduction of new technology.
 Saves environment- The sustainable business collects and utilizes the waste to
manufacture useful products from it rather than letting it destroy the nature. Therefore
this is the best possible way for saving and protecting the environment. Due to this the
government also support such initiatives by providing subsidiaries which attract even
more investors for the business.
 Employment opportunities- As this a business based on new and different ideas it
requires an lot of work force and hence generates a lot of employment opportunities for
people. Also being an emerging business there is scope for this business to grow on a
large scale which will again contribute in increased generation of employment
opportunities. The employees of the company will also be fairly paid as the revenue
generation and profit of such sort of businesses is high (Lopez-Cabrales, and Valle-

Cabrera, 2020). The satisfaction among the employees regarding the paying scale result
in their increased retention in the company.
 New customers- As this is a new kind of industry which focuses on protection of the
environment and the people are also becoming more environment and health conscious,
they are attracted towards this concept.
PART – B
Reflection
 Description- The work was pre handedly designed and planned by me during which I
divided the entire process into different sections and assigned them the time they were
required to be completed in. This assured effective and efficient completion of the work.
As I was successful in completing the work on time, I had plenty of time to check it and
make the necessary changes. As the work was already divided into section it became easy
for me to implement the changes made by me.
 Feelings- At the initial phase of designing the process, I was a bit bored while thinking
of a better way to implement my idea of sustainable products. But when I started to read
about the innovations and technologies used by various companies to achieve the target
of sustainable business, I was intrigued by the ideas.
 Evaluation- I was able to complete my work before the time I assigned to myself. This
made me feel like things were going good and were in my favour. This was possible due
to the guidance and help of my teachers. Initially this topic seemed to be boring for me
but as I continued to study about it I felt an increase in my interest and felt like I should
have read about it earlier only.
 Analysis – According to my think9ing the reason I was able to successfully complete the
task is because I divided it into sections pre handedly. This gave me an clear idea about
the process and the activities that were required for its successful completion. By this
report I got to learn about the topic of sustainable business in a more precise and detailed
manner. The idea of the waste lying in the dustbin being converted into something useful
intrigued me a lot.
 Conclusion- According to my thinking, if this project was practical based rather than
being a theoretical one then it would have been even more interesting. Although the

project being theoretical in nature provided me with a clear understanding of the topic but
practically performing the project would have made it interesting on another level.
 Action plan- I have decided that from now on I would never form a perception about
any topic assigned to me to be useless as this results in a lot of wastage of time. I could
have utilised that time to visit industries and to have live experience of sustainable
production and that would have been a lot more beneficial for me. So from now on I will
do proper research on the topic, jot down the important points and then visit relevant sites
and get my queries cleared as this will help me to complete the task smoothly.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above report that the sustainable business organisations can
be helpful in protecting and conserving the environment along with generation of significant
revenues and profit. This business is also capable of attracting investors which will be helpful in
providing high initial cost of setting up the business. This business requires constant innovation
and introduction of new features in product so as to maintain its position in market constant. This
concept uses four different types of innovations on the basis of the technology it uses and the
market it is targeting. This type of business is the most emerging business in the future in which
a lot investors are interested to invest in and a lot of new entrepreneurs are developing interest in
this field of manufacturing. As the customers now a days are becoming more and more conscious
about environment therefore, this business will have the support of customers.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Bocken, N., Boons, F. and Baldassarre, B., 2019. Sustainable business model experimentation by
understanding ecologies of business models. Journal of Cleaner Production, 208,
pp.1498-1512.
Expósito, A. and Sanchis-Llopis, J.A., 2019. The relationship between types of innovation and
SMEs’ performance: A multi-dimensional empirical assessment. Eurasian Business
Review, 9(2), pp.115-135.
Geissdoerfer, M., Vladimirova, D. and Evans, S., 2018. Sustainable business model innovation:
A review. Journal of cleaner production, 198, pp.401-416.
Hanaysha, J.R., Al-Shaikh, M.E., Joghee, S. and Alzoubi, H.M., 2022. Impact of innovation
capabilities on business sustainability in small and medium enterprises. FIIB Business
Review, 11(1), pp.67-78.
Haseeb, M., Hussain, H.I., Kot, S., Androniceanu, A. and Jermsittiparsert, K., 2019. Role of
social and technological challenges in achieving a sustainable competitive advantage
and sustainable business performance. Sustainability, 11(14), p.3811.
Kluza, K., Ziolo, M. and Spoz, A., 2021. Innovation and environmental, social, and governance
factors influencing sustainable business models-Meta-analysis. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 303, p.127015.
Lathabhavan, R., 2021. Sustainable business practices and challenges in Asia: a systematic
review. International Journal of Organizational Analysis.
Lopez-Cabrales, A. and Valle-Cabrera, R., 2020. Sustainable HRM strategies and employment
relationships as drivers of the triple bottom line. Human resource management
review, 30(3), p.100689.
Nosratabadi, S., Mosavi, A., Shamshirband, S., Zavadskas, E.K., Rakotonirainy, A. and Chau,
K.W., 2019. Sustainable business models: A review. Sustainability, 11(6), p.1663.
Nosratabadi, S., Mosavi, A., Shamshirband, S., Zavadskas, E.K., Rakotonirainy, A. and Chau,
K.W., 2019. Sustainable business models: A review. Sustainability, 11(6), p.1663.
Pimenov, D.Y., Mia, M., Gupta, M.K., Machado, Á.R., Pintaude, G., Unune, D.R., Khanna, N.,
Khan, A.M., Tomaz, Í., Wojciechowski, S. and Kuntoğlu, M., 2022. Resource saving by
optimization and machining environments for sustainable manufacturing: A review and
future prospects. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 166, p.112660.
Shakeel, J., Mardani, A., Chofreh, A.G., Goni, F.A. and Klemeš, J.J., 2020. Anatomy of
sustainable business model innovation. Journal of cleaner production, 261, p.121201.