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Assignment required to consider sustainability-related issues to reflect on how these issues intersect with business

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Triple Bottom Line

Sustainability in business has become one of the prime goals of several organizations and businesses have been recorded changing their ethics in order to make their functioning more sustainable. John Elkington framed this model in order to evaluate how sustainability work and increase performance in corporate firms. Triple bottom line is an accounting framework that focuses on comprehensive results of investment by interrelating different dimensions of people, planet and profit. From several other frameworks present it makes a difference by considering social and ecological measures while evaluating performance.(Schroeder & DeNoble, 2014)

There is no common unit to measure the 3 Ps where profit is measured in dollars, social measures are measured in welfares, and ecological measures are measured in environmental damage. Triple bottom line has a broad acceptance regarding measurement of the parameters for example wetlands would be evaluated as independent measure and this gives equal benefit to each and every social and ecological cause while following the path of sustainable business. These measures vary from businesses to businesses where each of the organization interacts with society and environment in a different manner and therefore they gauge different set of parameters and measures. For example, a dairy farm has more responsibility towards the environment as compared to a law firm. A dairy farm works in greater exposure to ecology and it also uses more natural resources that come from environment. On the other hand a legal firm uses air conditioners, paper, electricity, and few other resources that directly affect environment. The challenge regarding bringing triple bottom line to practice is variability in measuring the three Ps, recording of data that would clearly define the result. Irrespective of this challenge triple bottom line is an effective framework for incorporation of sustainable business propaganda among corporate and non-corporate houses.("AUSTRALIA’S SUSTAINABILITY SUCCESS STORIES 2014 BANKSIA SUSTAINABILITY AWARDS", 2018)

Six Forms of Capitals

Business organizations depend on different types of capitals as input and they expect to obtain outputs that transform as the success and failure of the organization. Global environment has evolved with years and to sustain with the evolution organizations are compelled to acknowledge different types of capitals. Six different forms of capitals are internal economic capital, external economic capital, human capital, natural capital, social capital and constructed capital. Internal economic capital includes financial capitals like available funds, debt and equity, non-financial capitals like brand value. External economic capital upheld the effect that the organization has exhibited over in the business environment by their non-financial and financial entities. For example, a new construction plant set up by the company may increase or decrease the real estate prices surrounding the area.(Kline, 2018)

 They are often non tangible and they add market value to the company. Natural capital can be defined as the environmental resources that a company relies upon for functioning of the company. For example, a furniture manufacturing firm would rely on thermal power for electricity. Human capital can be defined as the human resource on which the company relies. It covers up the skills, knowledge, health, attitude and motivation of the human resource as it directly affects the organization. Social capital implies with different groups and network that are being used by the organization to perform the task of sourcing. Sourcing would cover both collection of raw materials as well as mutual sharing of business frameworks in order to bring collaborative benefits to both organizations. Constructed capital involves all the material objects that are either constructed or cultivated by using natural resources. It covers all the office supplies, manufacturing supplies, packaging and storage supplies. It is relevant to acknowledge these different forms of capitals because they help to develop financial and non-financial understanding of business.

Six Phases of Business Approaches to Sustainability

Sustainability stands for social and ecological usefulness of an organization while doing business operations. It should be noted that the load of sustainability relies upon individual organizations because it cannot be put in action by government, and its authorities. At first, it is important to note that sustainability is a process which has several stages that a business should go through in order to become sustainable. These stages are rejection, non-responsiveness, compliance, efficiency, strategic proactivity and sustaining corporation. In the initial two phases an organization experiences isolation from its contemporaries and various networks with whom they have been working. It is not of much relevance because it happens due to initial shift that company makes with respect to resourcing.(Grob& McGregor, 2005)

The real sustainability protocol comes with compliance phase. In this phase the company addresses its functioning and makes sure that it recognizes the law and orders that have been made for social and ecological welfare. The company also frames a potential risk management system that is committed to compliance. This helps the company to develop positive reputation in the market. In efficiency phase, the company focuses on eliminating the waste and dedicate themselves in increasing the efficient usage of materials that are being used for operation. These materials mainly include energy source, water supply, stationary supplies, and catering supplies. This phase potential helps the business in cutting down the operational cost and it has strong impact on input and output difference. The strategic proactivity phase provides space to organization to explore different opportunities that can contribute to sustainability. In this phase the company concentrates on investing into innovative models that provide long term benefits. The sustaining corporation phase involves brining revolution in the business environment of the organization and this involves use of models that company has made to achieve leadership in sustainable business movement.

Example of Sustainable Business

Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa is one of the best examples of sustainable business organization. It is a resort that acknowledges the conservation of environment and its ecosystem. They have a 7000 acre of reserve and that has zero carbon emission and they also have a wildlife reserve in Greater Blue Mountains region of Australia. The resort is built by using sustainable materials that have been locally sourced and they also have incorporated as many sustainable designs as they can in order to maintain compliance and growth.(Slaper& Hall, 2011)

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