Environmental Sustainability

Concerns for the Planet & how this affects Organizations

By: Vikki Dorsey, Paula Lee, Kristina

Petro, Sarah Rowe, Alice Tang

Objectives
The Journey we would like to take you on is
How we got here
Where are we now
How can we move forward

How we
got here

Where we
are now

How we
can move
forward

What is Environmental
Sustainability?

Sustainable development focuses on

improving the quality of life for all of the
Earths citizens without increasing the use of
natural resources beyond the capacity of the
environment to supply them indefinitely.
Source: sdgateway.net
How we
got here

Why Should I care?

FROM

TO

Addicted to and
dependent on Oil

Building scalable clean energy

alternatives

Outsourcing of all
manufacturing jobs
overseas

Focus on jobs using

technology & expertise to rebuild a smarter energy grid

Urban sprawl, cities

grow outward, mass
traffic jams

Cities grow upward with mass

transit systems
How we
got here

How did we get here?

1. Our natural resources and the pursuit of

More (Affluenza)
2. Energy Crisis: As the price of oil goes up,
the pace of freedom goes down.
3. Climate change, the frog is the water.
How we
got here

Areas of business most impacted by &

influential in developing strategies for
sustainability:
Operations: Responsible for the impacts of sustainable efforts throughout
organization/products life-cycle
Marketing: Designs and promotes sustainable options/opportunities for organization
Finance: Manages responsible impacts of company on environmental arenas
Entrepreneurship: Develops new business solutions inside and outside organization
Economics: Addresses the larger environment in which the business works and
influences; enables companies to optimize contributions to sustainable development
Ethics: Addresses good management, corporate governance, ethical behavior
Organizational Behavior: Embeds sustainability into organizations culture & actions
Accounting: Establishes targets & systems for sustainable practices and initiatives

How can organizations adopt & improve

sustainability strategies?
Sustainable efforts become mainstreamed into the
organization
Absolute buy-in from CEO
Development environmental assessments
Prepare for Audits
Develop environmental management systems
Use sustainability standards to help guide efforts

Advantages of Adopting
Sustainability Practices
Reduced costs
Preserve companys resource base
Environmental legislation
Positive reputation = increased advantage
Satisfy demands and expectations of customers to meet
green standards
Increase competitive advantage within a growing global
market of environmentally-minded consumers and
systems

Blocks to Adopting
Sustainability Practices
Concerns for up-front costs
Misinformation about impacts of efforts towards sustainability
Customers & Competitors
Determining tradeoffs
Insufficient technology, training, expertise and capital
Greenwashing
Gap between shareholders and customers proclaimed values & expectations
Misalignment between organizations and their suppliers
Challenges in communication, engagement and implementation at HR level
Difficulty in bringing sustainability strategies into a coordinated org effort

orporate Social Responsibility and sustainability in

he workplace

What is CSR?
Why is it important?
Gen Y impact
Beyond recycling

Consumers demand for CSR

Sustainability initiatives in action

Industry leaders sustainability initiatives in
action
Deloitte
External/client impact
Internal impact

Microsoft
Awards
Carbon footprint reduction

Globalization & Sustainability

Globalization
Impact:
Environment
Culture
Economic Development

UN Global Compact
International Labour Organization (ILO)

LEED
Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design

Green Building Program

Certification
International participation with 32 partner coun
tries

SEER
Socially, Environmentally and Ethically Responsible

Strategy to embed four macro-values into

companies
Corporate social responsibility
Environmental stewardship
Financial strength
Product/service quality

Systems Approach
Encourage corporate social responsibility
http://www.michaelcrooke.com/about-seer/

 Key takeaways
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

A
B
C
D
E

one
tw
o
thre
e

References