Corporate sustainability, management, growth, profitability, investment, Unilever, Mars, Wendy Woods, margins, Coca-Cola, risk management, water sustainability, nonprofit agencies, corporate social responsibility
Corporate sustainability refers to a new way of management, it is an alternative to the traditional growth and profit-maximization model. Corporate sustainability focuses on both growth and profitability as much as the social and environmental impact and goals toward sustainable development. Modern day businesses need to focus their management through sustainability to deal with a brew of social, environmental, market, and technological trends. Focusing on sustainability has been proven, thanks to academic research and business experience, to have benefits that outweigh the cost which proves to be beneficial for the company. But executives often think the contrary; they believe that the costs outweigh the benefits and that those costs prevent them from investing in sustainability.
[...] Polman's new objectives were reducing the environmental footprint and to increase its positive social impact. To achieve this, they launched Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP), a plan with three major goals that were to help a billion people to improve their health and well-being, to halve the environmental footprint of making and using Unilever products, and to enhance the livelihoods of those in its value chain. In this part, the business case for sustainability is shown as a long-term idea and benefit, because Unilever is a company known and implemented in the market for such a long time and a part of their growth is due to the implication and investment they put on sustainability. [...]
[...] is the sixth-largest private company in the United States. In contrast to its competitors, the company isn't worried about the availability of cocoa in the long term. In fact, Mars is confident in its stable and robust supply. The explanation behind that is that "the company partners with nonprofit agencies that certify small-scale cocoa farmers around the world. These agencies ensure that farmers get healthy crop yields, that they receive a premium price on their cocoa, and that human rights are upheld, and that the environment is protected" (Woods p. [...]
[...] The Coca-Cola Co. (2016, August 26) Water in India [Video]. Youtube. TED. (2018, February 15) The business benefit of doing well [Video]. Youtube. [...]
[...] Companies need to focus on TSI, social, and environmental issues happening around the world to protect the environment and society. Making these investments will provide them with a higher level of income, profit, and margin, as proven and explained earlier all companies that indeed invest in TSI find themselves having higher profitability in the long term. References Whelan, T & Fink, C. (2016) The comprehensive business case for sustainability. Harvard Business Review. Woods, W. (2018) The business opportunity in solving the world's big problem. The Boston Consulting Group. [...]
[...] The answer is TSI, "TSI means total societal impact and refers to the sum of all the ways a company influences society, communities, and the environment through its business strategy, its core assets, capabilities, and operations." When companies start focusing on the TSI, they begin integrating social and environmental consideration into the real work of business. This means in the supply chain, the product design, and manufacturing processes as much as the distribution channels. A company that stand out and has been focused on making these changes is Mars Inc. [...]
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