Literature Review

The Triple Bottom Line

The primary goal of a business is to make more profit, but that's not all that managers consider. Corporate managers realize that they must consider the impact of social responsibility and reputation on long-term profits. High pollution is not only harmful to the environment but also exacerbates social crises and inequality. Through the adjustment of industrial structure, developed countries can transfer high-polluting industries to developing countries and low-income countries.  Developed countries enjoy high profits upstream of the production chain, while low-income countries get a small profit while destroying the environment. Social issues are as important as economic and environmental ones. Wealth tends to go to a few places or a few people, and poor countries like Kiribati and Bangladesh don't even have the resources to withstand floods. To measure the balance between people, planet and profits, researchers and management use the Triple Bottom line to discuss sustainability issues.

The term triple bottom line (Elkington, 1997) is used to consider social and ecological factors in addition to economic ones, to better measure progress. They are basically a way to hold companies to the standards that they should’ve been held to from the start. This idea of a triple bottom line incorporates the use of social, ecological and economic factors within the business practices. Social, economic, and environmental issues should all play a role in the decision making for a firm's future goals. In today’s world, it isn’t good enough to just complete your task and walk away with a bigger wallet, we all need to be held accountable, especially the ones whose pockets have been getting bigger the entire time. The pro’s heavily outweighed the cons when it comes to striving toward TBL practices in everyday business decision making. A large incentive for businesses to stay aligned with remaining sustainable is that the younger generation pays attention to their environmental impact and the health of the planet. Many of the younger individuals (millennials, gen z), have that in the back of their minds when searching for career opportunities, and they are aware of how just “pretending” to care about the environment can lead to long term problems. Especially corporations who hope to one day follow the lines of corporations like Nike and others in their pursuit of eco-efficiency. Ecosystem services are also another major focal point when discussing the combination of awareness and strategy that should be pushed forward in every corporation. Many of these large companies rely on natural services and reap the benefits without giving back anything at all, as was explained that trees absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, yet deforestation is a problem, and insects pollinate agriculture which provides crops that seek profits, but environmental impacts are on the lower side of the majority of the list when it comes to a big corporation. Farmers are also the ones who barely benefit from the crops they grow. Many of these crops come from third world countries in the first place. Environmental issues show a full circle incentive in an ironical manner, yet there is push back when deciding on how sustainable is too sustainable. The list goes on for reasons why each company should focus on their environmental impact and ways to benefit ecological issues.

The part of the triple bottom line that affects the People, can bring easier solutions to the issues at hand. Bringing a change to a company’s global impact socially, although not as easy as it looks, can be started by changing an image. This can be costly and time-sensitive but worth it in the long run.  Brand awareness could help with trust from the consumers. For example, Toms shoes donated a pair of shoes to countries without the resources to purchase shoes. Promoting a “give back” mentality actually is what draws in many consumers to buy from Tom’s shoes specifically so they could feel as though they are helping because they are. Innovation and creativity can lead to a redesign of a corporation's global image.

Sustainable development is driving innovation and providing new ways to solve social and environmental problems.  Ecosystem services (ES) can help governments and businesses align business and environmental goals. Companies cannot ignore the impact their business has on other people around the world. Creating positive social impact is something managers must consider.

 

Shared value

Shared value and value creation are more important than shareholder value. Not only making a profit but helping the world become a better place is the standard by which corporations should be held today and in the future. Value creation can be obtained through the reconceive products that involve examples like Tesla, Interface carpets (companies that recycle carpeting), and just the innovation from new ideas. Creativity breeds innovation, innovation is good for business. The profits will come as long as the process is trusted and understood. Shared value is the mixture of creating profits while also creating value. Rethinking what works throughout the education system and playing a pivotal part in the renovation of certain housing inequalities in locations near the corporation can also be a way to boost an image in the eye of a consumer. Doing something is always better than doing nothing when it comes to these types of issues. “Less Talk and more action” is starting to be the page everyone is on, so now the phrase “talk is cheap” can actually be switched to “talk is expensive” when taking into the consideration that you are putting your corporation at risk when you talk more than you act, especially when involving next-generation talent who you intend to recruit.

In the article, “Creating Shared Value” the article begins with society’s capitalist market under attack having businesses at the helm of triple bottom issues in today's world. Having businesses pitted against one another in the climb to the top to make the most amount of profit, in the long run can have a negative effect. “The solution lies in the principle of shared value, which involves creating economic value in a way that also creates for society by addressing its needs and challenges.” (Porter, n.d.) Shared value then is not about personal value but rather creating more value among the communities it resides in and creating more competitiveness among the internals of companies. Addressing both social and economic progress using value principles, which can be anything from innovation to respect and integrity. This leaves it up to companies and their ‘corporate responsibilities’ to make improvements and assist in the community along with improvement for a business reputation and a necessary expense. Shared value can be broken into 3 keys to creating shared value, 1. By reconceiving products and markets. Considered the greatest unmet needs of the global economy, this has openings to creating greater opportunities. 2. By redefining productivity in the value chain. And finally, 3. By enabling local cluster development.

While in the past this article goes on to explain that companies longing for economic growth does not align with shared value, previously companies such as Google and Intel did not use this way of thinking, a shared value way, but rather more stubborn. Companies such as these have started making the adjustment to reconnecting society and company values and performance to better enhance the world and its effects we have had in the past to future generations.

Potor then goes on to explain that Societal needs also contribute to defining a market not alone conventional economic needs. Referring back to growth of local communities for where companies may reside in this article goes on to explain the damage/ weakening of the connection between businesses and communities they’ve grown from, using offshoring and outsourcing to dapen the strength of what once was as society now tries to rekindle that once flame. While most companies now have adopted a global companies/home and nowhere is home but earth due to this type of action. Its created the society survival response as its taken an effect on communities these said companies have grown from. Encouraging the move to a more shared value economic society. Although this may not be the grandest idea for corporations as it may slow economic growth as the article explains but for society purposes shared value is the solution to bringing back the green to communities and strengthening the connection between businesses and societal outlook. With younger generations responding to the health of the planet and how business interaction with society, Competitive advantage and societal issues among businesses and whom they hire has been taken a significant upswing as more and more hires are paying attention to how businesses interact with communities and what if any shared value they bring to the table.

Lawrence Fink, founder and CEO of BlackRock, believes that environmental sustainability will be a core objective of investment decisions. BlackRock will avoid investing in companies "with high sustainability-related risks." (Sorkin, 2020). Climate change will affect financial markets. Businesses with sustainable capabilities are likely to be trusted by investors and receive financing. Fink said he would change BlackRock's investment strategy after coming under pressure from environmentalists and MPs. It could spark a national dialogue between financiers and policymakers. In addition, BlackRock's strategic shift may affect other fund managers and financial firms such as Vanguard, T. Rowe Price and JPMorgan Chase.  Fink urged companies to pursue sustainable innovations such as promoting renewable energy.

With the expansion of production scale and globalization, the business of enterprises will affect more stakeholders. Stakeholders can defend their interests through political and electoral means. In Germany, the Green Party's entry into the ruling party is a sign that Germans can use their power to protect themselves and the next generation. The ruling party will listen to the views of more stakeholders to secure enough votes. Companies must think about their reputation. Stakeholders may refuse to buy products from companies with a bad reputation.

 

SDGs & COP 26

The United Nations global impact is the representation of the governments of over 170 countries. This group covers 10 core principles. The first two principles are targeted to human rights practices, 1.) businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights. 2.) Make sure they are not complicit in human rights abuses. The next couple of principals are tied to supporting fair labor, 3.) Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining. 4) The elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labor. 5.) The effective abolition of child labor. 6.) The elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. The next few are a result of the progression of reducing the environmental impact, 7.) Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges. 8.) Undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility. 9.) Encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies. The last principle involves standing against corruption, 10.) Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery. These principles are the deciding factors 13,000 corporations have volunteered their services to hold themselves accountable for. I believe that more corporations and countries need to join the conversation. I also believe that many of these corporations and countries should be in competition with each other when it comes to holding themselves to the standards.

 

The “PRME” is short for Principles for Responsible Management Education, this is another initiative. The concept is empowerment and enabling education to students in sustainability. We are studying what we are today in a figurative and literal sense. This is a “start them young” mentality implements a unique variety of 6 principles. 1.) development of “purpose”. This principle will­ mold a student’s capabilities toward the becoming the model employee in a sustainable economy. The second principle involves values, which is basically a way of incorporating the practices of global social responsibility when put into perspective of international initiatives through the UN global compact standards. The 3rd principle involves the method, this involves the frameworks, materials, processes, the actual way to enable the learning experiences should be considered. The 4th principle involves research, which is the research and analytical portion that puts the understanding into play, and comparing that to a corporation's sustainable, social, environmental, and economic value. The 5th and 6thprinciples involved partnership and dialog, which are basically how each member will interact with managers and business corporations, and the dialogue brings in the supporting debates amongst other educators, students, governments, etc. I find this interesting because we are applying these in our classroom daily. Both the UN Global Compact and the PRME are both critical strategies that are used from a student’s understanding all the way to the CEO of a major corporation. The advantages that we are currently receiving the information through educational support that we will be applying to our real life. This is where the personal experience can be shown, the entire curriculum that we are exposed to now are formulated through the PRME structure. Each core principle depicts an example of what exactly we are striving for. I personally am applying my purpose and values that I am learning from the everyday educational instructions and practices, with the hope to one day be able to apply these principles on a global scale and for a corporation that will help be a part of the sustainability initiative. I also have noticed that most universities that accept and drive towards implementing the PRME structure are providing a blueprint for younger generations for recruitment and alumni’s willingness to maintain a valuable connection with the university.

The SDGs or Sustainable development goals are a set of 17 rules of objectives created and adopted by the United Nations member states, it is a blueprint for the planet and people to adopt peace and prosper. The first 10 goals are for the people goals which include the following. 1) No Poverty, ending poverty in all forms, 2) Ending global hunger, ability to achieve food sustainability, improve nutrition and sustainable agriculture. 3) Good health and well being, ensuring healthy living and well being of all ages. 4) Quality education, ensure quality education and learning opportunities for all. 5) Gender Equality, achieve gender equality and empower all men, women and children. 6) Clean water and sanitation, ensure clean and sustainable drinking water for all. 7) Affordable and clean energy, ensure access to clean, affordable, reliable and sustainable modern energy for all. 8) Decent work and economic growth, promote sustainable and economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. 9) Industry, innovation and infrastructure, build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation. 10) Reduce inequalities, reduction of inequalities within and among countries. The goal for the initial 10 of 17 goals for SDG is for the optimization of the people and those who make up our planet. Ensuring a positive and long lasting growth of humanity. Goals 11-15 are built upon that of the world and the environment. These include the following, 11) Sustainable cities and communities, make cities and peoples homes resilient, sustainable and safe. 12) Responsible consumption and production, ensure sustainable consumptions and  production patterns. 13) Climate action, take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. 14) Life below water, conserve and sustainably use the oceans/seas and marine resources for sustainable development. 15) Life on land, protect, restore and sustainable use of ecosystems, manage forests, combat deforestation and halt land degradation and biodiversity loss. Goals 11-15 state reforestation of the already taken forests, taking care of the oceans and marine life and anything that is used for ourselves. These next 5 goals are on the ecological level of the SDG pyramid with combating climate change, taking care of our oceans/seas and saving the little of our forests that remain. The final 2 goals are spiritual goals consisting of 16) Peace, justice and strong institutions, promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development. 17) Partnerships for the goals, strengthen the means of implementation and bring back global partnership for sustainable development. Bringing together the people to make the most sustainable and progressive race, while using resources at a respectable use for sustainability.

The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as COP26, is the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, taking place at the SEC Centre in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, from October 31 to November 13, 2021. At the conference, leaders or delegates at the conference further discussed climate issues and reached a number of agreements. The New York Times (2021) summarized the results of the conference into six takeways.

Time for action is runnin

Although some countries have already taken steps to prevent global temperature increases, the conference concluded that countries should do more. U.N. The measures that have been taken are far from sufficient to mitigate climate change. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world has warmed by 1.1 degrees Celsius and that countries must do all they can to limit global temperature increases to just 1.5 degrees Celsius or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels. Exceeding this temperature threshold will trigger more meteorological disasters. As Shauna Aminath, Minister of Environment of the Maldives, said about the urgency for vulnerable countries, the world should take more concrete steps such as reducing global carbon emissions and curbing methane emissions.

Who needs to cut and how much

The conference wants to clarify how much and how fast each country should reduce its emissions over the next decade. Wealthy countries emit a large amount of greenhouse gases as a small percentage of their population. The United States, Canada, Japan and much of Western Europe emitted 50 percent of the greenhouse gases for 12 percent of the global population over the past 170 years.  Biden wants some countries, such as India, to take more responsibility for climate protection, such as accelerating fuel switching, but these countries accuse rich countries of not giving enough support. Rich countries are falling short of their pledge to raise $100 billion a year in climate finance for poorer countries by 2020. The conference noted that there are still many developing countries that do not have sufficient funds to address climate change and rising temperatures.

The call for disaster aid and regulation increases

Wealthy countries emit large amounts of greenhouse gases, which harm the ecology of those poor and vulnerable countries. The conference called on rich countries to set up "loss and damage" funds to compensate poor countries for the damage they have suffered. In addition, the conference emphasized the effective regulation of the global carbon offset market. Vulnerable countries, such as Solomon Islands, also want to get part of the funds from the market to counteract the effects of climate change. But the US and EU oppose this.

Other international agreements came out of the summit

Mitigating climate change and global temperature rise requires the participation and contribution of major countries like the United States, China, India and others. China and the United States have reached an agreement to work together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. More than 100 countries, including China, have committed to reducing methane emissions. Furthermore, a commitment to reduce deforestation was reached. India, one of the world's largest consumers of coal, also gave additional commitments such as stopping greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere by 2070.

The different faces of climate action

Conflicts erupt in Gender and Generation. It is mostly young people and women who are calling for the protection of the environment, but they do not have the power to decide on climate change that older men have. The leaders involved in signing the agreement may not live to 2070, but that is the target time they have committed to zero emissions. There seems to be a lack of public confidence in agreements reached by older people compared to younger people who will live longer.

Just holding the talks during the pandemic posed a challenge

The difficulty of holding an international conference during the New Crown pandemic. The climate summit has been postponed due to the epidemic. Leaders from many countries with important environmental impacts have also been unable to participate due to the epidemic.

 

 

Sustainable Report

Sustainability reporting focuses on the interests of stakeholders, whereas most previous reports focused on the interests of shareholders. 1970s social reporting emphasized the value provided by various stakeholders, such as employees and local communities, and it eventually evolved into sustainability reporting. Since the mid-1990s, sustainability reporting has encompassed all aspects of social and environmental reporting. More and more companies are focusing on developing the triple bottom line concept of people, planet, and profit.

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) provide guidance on sustainability reporting.

The current version of the GRI is G4, which defines the principles of content (what to include) and quality (setting standards). The content guidelines include stakeholder inclusiveness, sustainability context, materiality, and completeness. The quality guidelines include balance, comparability, accuracy, timeliness, clarity and reliability. GRI requires companies to consider the right stakeholders. Companies must identify their stakeholders and work to meet their information needs. Then explain its sustainability performance in the context of its overall strategy and the needs of its local and global communities. GRI's quality guidelines relate to the criteria for reporting. Balance means avoiding biased reporting that emphasizes only positive impacts. Comparability is a standard that allows stakeholders to compare results over time and across companies. Accuracy means that the company explains how the data was collected. Timeliness means the data is up to date. Clarity means that stakeholders can easily access and understand the information, rather than using technical jargon that makes the report difficult to read and process. Reliability means that an independent auditor is allowed to examine the information and provide a statement of assurance.

IIRC emphasizes the link between strategy, governance, policy and performance and how it leads to value creation. Capital is the stock of value that is added, subtracted, or transformed through the activities and outputs of the organization. They are categorized in this framework as financial, manufactured, intellectual, human, social and relationship, and natural capital.

Sustainability reports have been criticized for legitimizing business. Companies can use these reports to build a positive view of their social and environmental impact. Reporting is biased. Companies promote areas where they are doing well and avoid areas where they are not doing well.

A shadow report may be more reliable. It relies not only on the company's sustainability report but also includes data from external sources such as other stakeholders and the media. It will help researchers and society get a more accurate picture of all aspects of the company.

Sustainable reporting starts off speaking about the original social reports back in the 1970s in europe. A trend that would soon move across the globe, these reports identified company stakeholders of the following, company’s activities, products and services, and related positive and negative social impacts. As time progressed toward the end of the 1970s these social reports began a decline yet during some significant environmental catastrophes during the 1980s and 1990s companies became under fire for these environmental accidents. Once again bringing in a new kind of report for companies and businesses to adhere to, environmental reports were newly introduced. With these it was the goal to explain to stakeholders how the organizational activities impacted on the natural environment and how to manage these impacts.

Although not always positive, did bring a new light to social media and how businesses appeared to execute their business strategies and plans. Over time since the 1990s more attention has been given to sustainability reports, in these reports the goal is to reflect companies’ claims to depict an overall picture of their ecological, social and economic sus- tainability activities and performance, and to inform stakeholders as to how and to what extent these corporations contribute to sustainable development (Herzig). Compared to 1970s social reports mainly targeted to employee-related issues and value creation for stakeholders the reports of companies sustainability reports nowadays are more globally accounted for using the reports for more moral and ethical concerned manner and sustainable development.

As a growing international interest and national guidance of documents of sustainable development and reports has grown an evolution of sustainability reports and framework shows to a new and accepted reporting framework. The GRI or Global Reporting Initiative, developed by multinational stakeholders the GRI now in its 4th edition G4, is a basic checklist or guidelines for GRI reporting. Focusing on 2 main aspects of reporting 1. Content of the sustainability report and 2. Standard quality for sustainability reporting. While focusing on these 2 aspects IR reporting or Integrated reporting has also been made an initiative to enhance reports. With a larger need for these reports the internet has taken its role as the base for these reports holding increasing information accessibility and comprehension. Allowing for less printing of paper as the main reasoning behind storing these reports via the internet. “Finally, the range of communication possibilities through stakeholder engagement and dialogue in online sustainability reporting extends much further than in printed sustainability reports” the internet allows for better communication and explanation of these reports for stakeholders.  While the transition to reporting and reports via the internet Chapter 6 concludes with having an issue of shadow reporting or falsifying data in these reports leaving the global/ stakeholders in a precautions position for actions to take and movement of business strategies aline with ethical and moral value.

The banking pledge describes how big banks play a key role in the oil and gas industry that are destroying our planet and are one of the leading causes of the climate change. The article “the third act” asks the younger generation to use its leverage to demand listeners and readers to make a pledge, and to stop holding accounts for the big banks including Citibank, chase, wells Fargo, and bank of America. The big banks are the key to the destruction, they are the ones funding these large projects that are doing the exact opposite of what they are portraying when it comes to climate change. Talk is cheap, and these big banks use their pockets to cover their voices and actions. The concept of “there is power in numbers” will be behind the strategy and there will be an organized effort to act together and move as one unit to cutting ties with the big banks. I personally think this is a great idea, there aren’t many large movements that can make a difference especially when it comes to bigger banks that are almost “too big to fail”. There have been many situations involving a bank or groups of banks being bailed out, and there are the reasons for customers and citizens to be upset. We demand change to empower more young people to participate in climate decision-making. We can change bank accounts to local banks and credit unions that invest less in climate damage, or even online banks that emphasize environmental awareness. We want to act now until the end of 2022 when banks can decide whether they meet our requirements. Next year we will redouble our efforts until our demands are accepted.

A CSR is a corporate social responsibility report or also known as a sustainability report. Sustainability reports are periodically published by companies with the goal of sharing their corporate social responsibility actions and results. The report communicates the corporations’ commitments and actions in social and environmental areas. The goal is to improve transparency by communicating with stakeholders and allowing the outsiders such as the investors and media to gain a better understanding of the short term and long-term goals of the company. There are also other goals of the sustainability reports that are to discuss the impacts of decisions made that align with the triple bottom line. According to the global reporting initiative website, “The Global Reporting Initiative contains over 10,000 reporters in over 100 countries, and there’s determination on proper reporting to deliver the highest level of transparency for impacts on the economy, environment and people.” The idea behind sustainability reports also puts a focus on how corporations can prioritize their internal data so that they can engage their external parties. Increasing stakeholders' value.

 

The Base Of Pyramid

The base of the pyramid focuses on how companies can achieve sustainable development goals through poverty reduction.

C.K. Prahalad believes that half of the world's population is poor, and they constitute a huge undeveloped market which is ignored by many companies. From an economic perspective, this undeveloped market can help companies achieve economies of scale and thus reduce costs and prices. Emerging markets can provide a new class of consumers. Besides, from a social perspective, doing business with the poor can help companies create social value and help achieve sustainable development goals such as gender issues, education, clean air, and water. However, the company itself cannot solve social problems. It requires the collaboration of all stakeholders.

The proposition, capturing, network and communication are the four pillars of value creation. New business models can be created by adapting or redefining existing pillars.

●     Value proposition refers to considering the economic background of the user. Companies can adapt by scaling down or redefining by decoupling depending on different backgrounds.

●     Value capture refers to how the customer will pay for the product or service. Traditionally, value is captured by the customer who pays the price of the product. However, when your customers are poor, you can sell a miniature version of your product or service. In addition, companies can redefine value capture through non-ownership concepts such as sharing or leasing.

●     Value network is a network of partners including supply chains, NGOs and governments. The adaptation strategy is that some parts of the grid are subsidized by another part of the grid. In BoP, the government or non-government organizations or private donors can subsidize the service.

●     Value communication relies on social capital and personal relationships. Engaging customers to create community-based purchases is a way to redefine value communication.

Stakeholder relationships are important in BOP. Companies that focus only on the economic side of the BoP may cause significant harm to the community. The system-centered approach, global action networks, and the human-centered approach can help companies rethink stakeholder relationships.

●     The systems-centric approach makes the company one of many stakeholders, and managers must respect the listener and be deeply sympathetic to the needs of the BoP. Companies must be culturally sensitive and consider the impact of products and services on the entire system.

●     The Global Action Networks build partnerships with NGOs and governments to address specific issues. Managers should enable each participant to study the behavior of other participants. They must identify the public interest, design opportunities for learning and reflection, and share decision-making and leadership.

●     The human-centered approach to stakeholder relations does not view customers as the target market but as individuals with their own stories. Managers must tailor their solutions to these local communities.

GrameenPhone, a mobile networking company out of Bangladesh aided men and women in a local rural community to escape poverty. Enabling them to reshape and aid those less fortunate a program was started there called ‘Village Phone'. This program helped women start selling mobile services, granting them financial freedom and the ability to help their communities. Creating a new entrepreneurial space in mobile networking GrameenPhone used/using micro-enterprising which in turn has more reach at a cost effective price, building on existing communities and networks of cellular networks. teaching the women of local existing rural communities GrameenPhone was able to become a major role in growing the market in Bangladesh and India.

Cemex, a Mexican cement making company created a community based scheme called ‘Patrimonio hoy’. This system allowed those at BoP to come together and purchase materials for their homes. Community based purchasing has created an opportunity for BoP communities to have more stable homes making for safer, urban areas cleaner and stronger communities. Redefining the value of communication in communities brings those living in the community together and making better living conditions in the lowest/unsafe of rural areas and building stronger communities.

M-Pesa story was very interesting about the mobile phone being used as a repayment system. of mobile phones. The purpose of this was to deepen the financial penetration into the banking industry. Nick Hughes came up with the idea that micro-loans could be repaid through mobile phones but through the trial held in Kenya, they realized the mobile devices were being used to send money to each other. after the committee approved the initiation. In 2006 the e-commerce and e-business system launched with little idea of how relevant and important the idea originated from a smaller idea. Those who were involved in the infrastructure launching in 2007 hit their designated peak in customers by 1.2 million customers in December of that year despite the problems with combating fraud and agent training. Today they have over 15 million active customers. The ability to charge way less than competitors and banks almost gives this a decentralized feeling. M-Pesa is a global initiative that unknowingly disrupted the banking industry by offering lower fees and bringing customers to customers.

Leaf shoes are an example of how non-government organizations can make better efforts to expand the awareness of helping poorer communities. Leaf Shoes provides fashion quality footwear with recycled materials. They focus on developing products and protecting the environment. Leaf is a social-minded apparel company. High fashion and for every pair sold TECHO receives the primary financial benefit. Each customer will be supporting a noble cause. These are what can draw younger people to the cause. They work locally instead of using large corporations whose labor tactics aren’t good. This I feel is how the world needs to change step by step working with local factories, developing soles from used tires, and using recycled carton boxes. Closed loop systems are drawing them in, and they are building houses in slums to reduce poverty.

In New York, a discussion about whether homeless people should be moved from hotels back to shelters has received a lot of attention.

To reduce the spread of coronavirus during the COVID-19 pandemic, the New York City government moved 10,000 adults (more than half of the non-family homeless population) from group shelters (where an average of 10 to 12 people shared a room) to hotel rooms (Iverac, 2020). The de Blasio administration believes this would help protect homeless people from the new coronavirus. There were 104 homeless New Yorkers who died after being infected with COVID-19. However, the infection rate is gradually decreasing after these individuals are housed in hotels (Iverac, 2020).

Placing homeless people in hotels has sparked some criticism and concern. Residents of the Upper West Side complain of homeless people engaging in public drug use, loitering, and indecent behavior. Mayor Bill de Blasio met the demands of UWS residents and said the city would move homeless people out of the nearby Lucerne Hotel, which has drawn the most complaints (Iverac, 2020).

However, there are many professionals and experts oppose the transfer of homeless people from hotels to shelters. They believe this would put homeless people in danger. Isaac McGinn, a spokesman for the Department of Social Services, states it is not safe for individuals to return to congregate shelters and that the government will continue to evaluate all factors/facts (Iverac, 2020).

The settlement contract between the city and hotels may be extended. The original contract value was close to $300 million. The city government will pay an average of $120 per room (Iverac, 2020). The president and CEO of the Hotel Association, Vijay Dandapani, said the contract extension benefits his members as well as the homeless because the hotels were largely vacant during the pandemic. These hotels do little business in tourism or business travel during a pandemic.

 

ESG Issues

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria are a set of standards for a company’s operations that socially conscious investors use to screen potential investments.

It considers how a company manages its relationships with employees, suppliers, customers and the communities in which it operates.ESG issues governance involves a company's leadership, executive compensation, audit, internal controls and shareholder rights.

The Environmental standards may address how a company deals with pollutants, conserves energy makes and protects the environment. The standard may also help assess the environmental risks to which the company is exposed and how the company manages those risks.

The Social Standard looks at a company's business relationships and stakeholders. Companies need to work with suppliers who hold the same values. Sustainable companies may donate a percentage of their profits to the local community or encourage employees to volunteer there. In addition to this, a company's working conditions should place a high priority on the health and safety of its employees and take into account the interests of other stakeholders.

The Governance standards relate to how a company uses accurate and transparent accounting methods to disclose appropriate financial information to shareholders and stakeholders and whether the company allows shareholders to vote on important issues. Investors may want to ensure that the company avoids conflicts of interest when selecting board members, does not use political contributions to obtain improper preferential treatment, and certainly does not engage in illegal practices.

The environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues that are most relevant or material to shareholder value can improve themselves financially and performance (ESG) wise. The 4 stages to becoming a part of this performance frontier is to identify which ESG issues directly affect their business. 2nd stage is to quantify the financial impact that improvements on those issues would have. The 3rd is to Undertake major innovation in products, processes, and business models to achieve the improvements. The 3rd is to communicate with stakeholders about those innovations. Integrated reporting. Also, one must undertake innovation in products, processes, and business models, and lastly one must communicate with stakeholders about the innovations. This is the way for barriers to be broken and innovation possesses a path to lead itself.

 

Sustainability strategy

Sustainability strategy refers to how a company can focus on environmental and social achievements while still maintaining its primary goal of increasing shareholder value. A good sustainability strategy can lead to innovation and higher profits.  There are five stages that lead to full sustainability. The first stage is being the regulation compliance. The second stage incorporates how companies make “value chains sustainable", they do this by working with suppliers and retailers to improve practices. Stage 3 involves the recognition of consumer segments who prefer sustainable products and services. Stage 4 explains how firms can develop new business models by rethinking the process and products. Adidas uses this stage well in their product development. Adidas strives for a closed-loop fully lean system when it comes to operations. Stage 5 includes the process of how companies constantly need to create next-practice platforms and consistently question their current business practices to find if they could be optimized.

In the article sustainability Is the new driver of innovation they explain their research based off of 30 corporations, and they find out that sustainability is the mother lode of organizational and technological innovations yielding both bottom-line and top-line returns. Ram Nidumolu explains that becoming environmentally friendly lowers costs because companies eventually reduces their inputs used, and simultaneously this process generates additional revenues from better products and can enable companies to create new businesses. This is why they explain that they’ve come to a realization that smart companies treat sustainability as a new frontier. They go further to explain how this is almost a first come first serve situation, and the quicker the companies are to become more sustainable the harder the competitors will be too late to the party essentially. They explain that only companies that make sustainability a goal will achieve competitive advantages, and this leads to the rethinking of products, processes, and tech. The stages as explained in the notes are 1.) Viewing compliance as opportunity, the laws and standards. The example they use is how in 2007 San Francisco banned supermarkets from using plastic bags at checkouts. I personally think that all supermarkets should implement the same idea. Plastic bags rarely see a recycled garbage bag, and the cost of producing them could go elsewhere. The Laws and pressure from competitors and consumers could all help these situations. They explain how Hewlett-Packard realized the lead came at a cost, and created an alternative in compliance with the European Union’s restriction of hazardous substances. In 2007 the HP platform created for recycling worked with more than 1,000 companies in 30 countries and recycled 20% of the equipment. This platform created for sustainability saved the company $100 million and increased awareness for the brand. Stage 2.) Making Value Chains Sustainable, this includes the constant need to reduce nonrenewable resources such as gas, coal, and petroleum, while also reducing their usage of renewable resources like water and timber. This is the stage where corporations work with suppliers and retailers to develop eco-friendly raw materials and components to reduce waste. This is where the supply chain comes to be so important, and where Walmart is so highly regarded. They explain how in 2008, CEO Lee Scott managed to reduce waste and emissions, cut packaging costs by 5%, and increase energy efficiently of products supplied in stores by 25%. In this stages tools such as enterprise carbon management, carbon and energy footprint, and life cycle assessments help companies identify the source and cut the slack. The life cycle assessment captures the environment-related inputs and outputs of entire value chains, from raw-materials supply through product use to returns. Stage 3 is the designing sustainable products and services stage. This is focused on developing sustainable offerings and redesigning existing ones. This is where companies need the skills to know which products environmentally friendly and which ones are not, how to avoid greenwashing and implement real change, and scale management through green products and materials. The 4th stage is developing new business models, and this is where a corporation needs to capture value and find new ways to continue doing so. This takes understanding what consumers need and want and meeting demands, and also this involves understanding how partners can enhance the value of offerings. The fifth stage is creating Next-Practice Platforms, and this is achieved by questioning the sustainability process by putting it through a microscope and comparing it to the sustainable practices of today's world. A benefit of this stage could be designing technologies that will allow industries to use energy produced as a by-product.

Companies that focus on sustainability issues are known as "walkers" and have placed sustainability on their highest management agendas and developed sustainability business cases. In an MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group report (Kiron et al., 2013), about two-thirds of the 1,000 senior corporate officials surveyed thought sustainability issues were important. But the reality is that only 10% of companies have solved the relevant problems.

Nidumolu et al. (2009) state that companies with sustainability as a core value or mission can foster and drive innovation, thereby providing them with a competitive advantage. They identified five stages in an organizational pathway to sustainability:

   In Stage 1, companies view compliance as an opportunity and comply with the most stringent regulations.

   In Stage 2, companies make value chains sustainable by working with suppliers and retailers to develop more sustainable practices and products.

   In Stage 3, companies recognize consumer segments that prefer sustainable products and services and begin to design or redesign products for them.

   In Stage 4, firms develop new business models by rethinking both process and product.

   In Stage 5, companies must create next-practice platforms by questioning the assumptions underlying their current business practices.

There is a large and growing body of research and case studies that support the idea that sustainability drives innovation. Eccles et al. (2014) state that over the 18-year period from 1993 to 2010, companies with a high commitment to sustainability outperformed "low sustainability" companies in financial terms such as stock performance and profitability. Eccles & Serafeim (2013) also state that high commitment involves a strategic focus on the most critical environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues and the ability to generate significant innovation in the products, processes and business models that address these issues. Companies that prioritize the most important ESG issues through innovative products, processes, and business models can help them achieve significant financial success.

 

Sustainable Operation

There are many opportunities for competitive advantages and increased profits by engaging in sustainable operation management initiatives, this reasoning reflects a shift from viewing business expenditures in an aesthetic world to viewing them in a dynamic one based on innovation. There are three distinct approaches to improving performance objectives. The first approach is the “Trade-Off” frontier uses the operations between existing assets and lets management policies decide on the relative importance of the performance objective. The second approach is called the “Technology” approach, which invests in new assets (tech) that shifts the asset frontier to the right and influences the operating frontier with no change to current policies. The third approach is called the systems approach, which changes the policies and practices associated with the operating frontier and improves the overall performance that is associated with lean thinking. This final approach involves cultural change.

It is important to align delivery systems to meet the needs of different customer priorities. In trade-offs, green competition can cause a company to race to launch sustainable products to gain the first-mover advantage. The technology approach can come with its competition because corporations are finding ways to develop and use new technology that improves multiple performances and objectives simultaneously. Things such as solar panels, battery technology and LED light bulbs. The third approach the Systems Approach can catch in competition when designing products and delivery systems that better embrace a wider systems perspective encompassing the overall life-cycle, an example of this can be using materials more efficiently to meet environmental standards. Adidas uses this to its advantage because it is consistently looking for innovative ways to improve its sustainable impact within its product design.

Lean systems focus on just-in-time, waste elimination, value stream and continuous improvement. They go further to explain that companies that adopt the lean manufacturing philosophy are benefiting the environment through energy efficiency, waste reduction, recycling opportunities, etc. Lean focuses on reducing non-value-added activities and producing only the amount of a product that is needed, and this provides the sustainable operating system with systemic improvements. Minimization of waste and pollution can only help a company in the long run. The Life Cycle Assessment is an environmental tool that can be graded through a company's lean productivity. The reason why lean and green companies could benefit each other is because as they explain, what company would not welcome a reduction in waste (be it time, energy or resources) that leads to increased profits, as well as developing the maturity to embed environmental responsibility within its processes? This will increase competitive and environmentally friendly practices and can contribute to a company's sustainable development goal, and improve a company's climate action awareness.

The life cycle assessment is a process to evaluate the environmental burdens associated with a product, process, or activity by identifying and quantifying energy and materials used and wastes released to the environment. The LCA assesses the impact of those energy and materials used and released into the environment to identify and evaluate opportunities to affect environmental improvements. The assessment assesses the entire life cycle of the process, product, activity or service system, and this encompasses extracting and processing raw materials, manufacturing, transportation and distribution, use, reuse, everything. Often referred to as the “cradle to grave” assessment. Standardized by ISO, 14040. Assesses inputs such as processing of raw materials, use of energy, water, and fuels. And outputs such as consumer products, waste to landfill, CO2 emissions, heat and energy loss. I didn’t know that one pair of Levi's consumed over 4,000 liters of water during its lifetime and 49% during the early stages of turning the cotton into denim. This caused a light bulb to go off and innovation to take place, and now Levis is teaching the concept to its farmers of using less water. The information provided by LCA’s can be valuable because they provide alternative ways of cutting costs and waste, raising profits, while at the same time reducing environmental impact.

Sustainable product design is an approach where the design stage of a product is intended to be more sustainable. This causes an equilibrium between the demands of the environment, social responsibility and economic needs while still demonstrating the traditional product requirements. The way toward sustainability will not happen overnight, but a step by step gradual integration of environmental requirements into the product development process at every stage will do the trick quicker than a full out sustainability change. Companies that legislate for sustainable product design are able to reduce their environmental impact at the design phase and experience fewer disruptions in disposal later on. Some strategies for a more sustainable product design or, economic use of materials, involves using less material or the reuse of recycling of natural resources as a material input for product design. Another strategy is designed for ease of repair/disposal, this involves a focus on design for dismantling, reuse and recycling. Another strategy is lifecycle design, and this technique enables firms to understand the process from the beginning of production to the end of consumption. another strategy is innovative environmental product design, this is a sustainability-driven design that balances both customers' expectations as well as the needs of the environment

The adoption of systems such as TQM, Lean and TOC has enabled the operating frontier to move closer to an asset frontier thereby improving overall performance. Adopting a sustainability perspective extends this system's view to consider the material and energy lifecycle as well as opportunities for sustainable product design. Many organizations have strived to improve efficiency and productivity through sustainable operations management, such as life cycle assessment, sustainable product design, and lean and green manufacturing practices.

The potential for supply chain management to contribute to the companies is reflected in the specialist advisory group on supply chain sustainability established by the UN global compact. Supply change management is the management of upstream and downstream relationships with suppliers and customers to deliver superior customer value at less cost to the supply chain. The upstream to downstream represents the flow of materials from their source to finish goods or services at the point of distribution. The discipline of supply change management incorporates numerous business functions ranging from product design, facilities management, production, logistics, marketing, finance, and distribution. There is rapid growth and outsourcing world organizations get a third-party supplier to carry out a specific activity. Another common use is offshoring which is where activities are undertaken in a different country from the sourcing organization. And the final portion is global sourcing which is where supply chains span different countries. Companies that work closely with their suppliers and impose controls throughout the whole supply chain and add suppliers’ facilities can help to prevent human rights and environmental violations and improve environmental and social conditions. They can avoid the risk of bad publicity, enhance their brand, reduce cost, ensure product quality and innovation, and attract new markets. There are two broad aspects, social and environmental sustainability within the supply chain. Social sustainability relates to international Labor Standards such as minimum wage, reasonable working hours, and overtime, right to collective bargaining, freedom of association, health, and safety. environmental codes include managing productive stewardship production and logistics throughout the supply chain to minimize the negative impacts of using energy, materials, water, and other harmful substances.

Social sustainability in the supply chain focuses on the social aspects of sustainable supply chain management, this is where the question comes of how the working conditions of those laboring and supplier factories in developing countries improve over time. To maintain ethics and protect brand value, western importers started developing corporate codes of conduct, these were ethical guidelines that specified the social and environmental conditions under which goods and services are to be produced at supplier factories in developing countries. Most of these codes of ethics were borrowed by the international labor organization. This code of ethics basically forced large corporations to be more honest about their workers’ rights and labor laws. Modern slavery was the focus, this is the exploitation of a person who is deprived of individual liberty anywhere along the supply chain, from raw materials extraction to the final customer.

Environmentally sustainable supply chain management, often referred to as green supply chain management is integrating environmental thinking into supply chain management. This entails saving energy and reducing carbon emissions in production, service delivery and logistics, achieving economies of scale, using alternative energy sources and efficient equipment, and adopting waste reduction strategies. This relates to the environment in the long term, the economy and infrastructure, as well as water and energy security through productivity improvements. The green supply chain management involves reducing energy in products, they use and after use with the intent to hopefully reduce marine and land ecosystem impact. Implementing a successful sustainable supply chain requires marketing and purchasing functions working together. Achieving a sustainable supply chain involves multidisciplinary tasks, encompassing relationships, networks, channels, and partnerships throughout the sourcing and product processing stages. This is where logistics come into play, they use the example of built-to-order about reducing food miles and lowering the distance travelled when it comes to sharing local suppliers and consumers. logistics involves the planning, control, and implementation of moving goods and exchanging information throughout the supply chain and this also involves getting the right product to the right place at the right time. Logistics could also come into play when it comes to the mode of transport, whether Rd, rail, air, or freight. Vehicle designs, reducing vehicle emissions, can play a big factor in the environmental impact. West production when it comes to over-ordering of materials or overproduction all falls on logistics in the supply change management. Organizations are starting to reclaim and recycle materials within their supply chains. Adidas has teamed up with the campaign platform “Parley for the Oceans” to launch a range of shoes made from plastic debris reclaimed from the sea, with souls made from 3D printed fibre recycled from fishing nets. The reverse supply chain is a growing phenomenon not having to worry about cost and shortages because it uses materials from recycled items back into the supply chain, known as cradle to cradle design.

The supply chain has traceability and transparency. Traceability is the ability to identify and trace the history, distribution, location and application of products, parts and materials, to ensure the reliability of sustainability claims, in the areas of human rights. The usage of data systems enables businesses to maintain knowledge of each step of the supply chain to underpin claims of sustainability, quality and authenticity. Implementation of traceability involves a high level of collaboration and organization and the usage of internal teams and suppliers to identify issues, collect data and implement improvements. Transparency in the supply chain involves making details about the products and materials available to customers and stakeholders by tracking technology such as RFID, radio frequency identification devices and the Internet.

The video “The life cycle of a t-shirt” by Angel Chang discusses the impact t-shirts have on society, the planet and the wealth/health of those producing t-shirts. The video begins explaining how the average t-shirt takes 2,700 liters of water to produce. Followed by the impact of chemicals such as pesticides and insecticides spread over cotton to produce t-shirts. Cotton uses the most pesticides and insecticides in the world among any crop in the world. Which lead to pollinates entering farmers and underpaid workers' lungs, impacting workers' health, as well as the atmosphere, damaging the surrounding ecosystems. After this process they are sent to factories to be turned into yarn and produce sheets of cotton, finally they are sent to human labor where underpaid workers spend long hours producing t-shirts of all colors. This system lays claim to 10% of global carbon emissions, while still escalating, turning t-shirt production into the second largest polluting industry in the world after oil. The video goes on to explain how thrifting and reducing, reusing and recycling t-shirts can better the environment that's already taken so much damage. With the potential to slow down the t-shirt industry.

The video “Explaining the Circular Economy and How Society Can Re-think Progress” begins to explain the life process of natural global ecosystems and how the world itself before humans has done this millions of years before, an established process. Whilst in the human era people have gone for a more direct approach, making, taking and disposing of. It follows to question how society can make less waste and more healthy decomposition of materials to help regrow things and be more efficient. With businesses adopting a licensing system business can be more efficient and make more sustainable profits reusing old materials to create new products. While transportation of these new materials and refurbished products via electronic vehicles save on pollutants entering the environment. Explaining that a circular economy is better for people the planet and profits, opening the eye to new and innovative possibilities.

 

Information System

Information systems refer to the hardware, software, data, people, and procedures that collect and process data into information. Firms use information systems to support their sustainability strategy. Firms can use energy-efficient and non-toxic information technology products or “green IT”. They can use “green information systems” to help them track and reduce their carbon footprint and waste in their operations.

At its core information systems are a collection of related elements that interact to achieve a common goal. An information system consists of a collection of processing elements that transform data into information. The elements included are hardware, software, data, people, and procedures. Systems thinking implies that information systems can broaden the scope and expand a firm, pulling it away from a silo mindset of an information system within a department not shared to other departments.

Firms buying computers that are energy efficient and focusing on reducing their energy usage of technology can be a depiction of green IT. Some companies collect used and recycled electronic components for reuse or repurposing. Dell’s agreement with Goodwill allows them to collect old computers, fix them and donate them. Green data centers have hundreds of powerful computers called servers which use huge amounts of energy. Managers have begun to focus on ways to make these data centers energy efficient. Virtualization allows multiple applications to run on a single server, and this reduces the number of servers needed. With the start of cloud computing, data centers could be located in remote locations, often with access to renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and geothermal. Some companies go as far to implement Data Center Infrastructure Management software or DCIM. These systems combine facilities management and data center management information to allow for the right decisions to be made in considering the needs of both departments. DCIM monitors ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) aspects of the data center, and provides reports on metrics such as Power Usage Efficiency (PUE).

The usage of information systems to reduce and monitor the social & environmental impacts of the whole firm and not just the I.S. The department is called Green Information Systems. There are a variety of different types of Green information systems that can monitor and reduce environmental impact outside of the I.S departments.

sustainability systems can also be used to drive innovation, and the usage of information systems can complement sustainable progression. The systems can benefit everyday situations especially through times of crisis, the example used explains how blackboard is a learning management system that changed the way universities can conduct their education services. The sharing economy enables a large number of innovations through the use of smartphones and apps, and this alternately reduces consumption and waste by sharing resources. Having sex with zoom, Zipcar, Uber, are all usages of sharing resources, but the cars are located through a smartphone app and this app can quickly handle payment electronically and provides convenient access to transportation. Before he left Air-bnb, Verbo are examples of how resources can be better for officials. These companies and they work from vision technology to elevate the world. They also invented a new concept of trust through the usage of information systems. Without star ratings nobody will enter an uber because of the likelihood of something bad to happen. However, obviously everything that glitters is not gold. Many of the benefits that workers and unions have fought for are being dismantled. There have been incidents where Uber drivers have been accused of rape and other crimes. AirBnB is also controversial. There are also many other uses of this technology such as 3D printing, self-driving cars, energy efficient homes, smart grids called mom innovative and product designs through crowdsourcing, and the Internet of Things. Crowdsourcing is a type of open innovation using large numbers of people from outside organizations and connecting all of them via the Internet. There are six types of crowdsourcing: labor, funding, creativity, innovations, wisdom, and governance. It uses its platforms and social media to reach millions of people.

In the paper, From Green IT to Sustainable Innovation, Wietske van Osch, and Michel Avital explain the main focal points are to discuss two primary approaches to save ability. One focuses on how to reduce the negative ecological impact of information technologies, and the other focuses on how to leverage information technologies for solving our environmental problems. The first approach is called green information technology, and that focuses on how information technologies can better themselves come on then we do stare at ecological footprint CO2 emissions, energy consumption, and waste. The other approach is better in green information systems, which are the information technologies or information systems and utilizing their analysis in helping organizations to manage their environmental footprint better. I agree with the notion that as explained in the text, green information technology has been driven by regulation, while green information systems are driven by the desire to reduce costs. This disregards the potential added value and disregards the potential added value to sustainable innovation. The overall end goal is to implement information technology and information systems towards sustainable innovation as a source of social, environmental, and economic value for all stakeholders involved. As explained in the text they focus on the sustainable innovation lens, which builds on conceptions of green information technology and information systems and the designing and implementing sustainable organizational processes and practices to generate social, environmental, and economic worth for stakeholders. Applying the sustainable innovation lens offers reforming the underlying issues within an approach to sustainability that addresses environmental, social, and economic values in context information technology. It also brings attention to the importance of innovation and addressing the challenges and opportunities of sustainability. The goal of the paper yesterday addressed the issue by stimulating firms to take on social and environmental challenges as business opportunities, sustainable innovation serves as a source of creativity and innovation that enables firms to aim for generating bigger wins for business, environment to, and societal issues overall. The sustainable innovation lens broadens the green information technology and information systems, and in the text, they explain that the need for radical innovation is necessary. They highlight the three perspectives of sustainable information technology. The first perspective is to highlight the fact that most corporations focus on greening all stages of their information technology lifecycle including manufacturing use and disposal, but they overlooked the importance of creating social value. There's also an explanation that the greatest driver of green information technology is regulation. Another approach in the paper explains how great information systems need a greater role. There needs to be greater information systems rather than information technology when dealing with environmental management. The most prominent driver of green information systems is it designed to reduce the cost energy and carbon emissions companies need to integrate an environmental management system and allow it to focus on their environmental performance. Sustainability is a business approach to creating long-term shareholder and stakeholder value by embracing opportunities and risks derived from economic, environmental and social developments. As explained in the paper the focal point is generating environmental, social, and economic sustainability and not allowing that to be a burden for businesses, but an innovation challenge, and a potential source for competitive advantage.

The paper also focuses on how adopting a sustainable innovation perspective can provide a great foundation by redirecting the attention to all facets of sustainability and by highlighting the need for multi stakeholder innovation. This is better than the green information technology approach and the green information system approach which only focuses on environmental sustainability and overlooks social sustainability which centers on regulatory compliance, cost reduction, mitigating negative environmental impacts, managing environmental footprints, and other things of that nature.

The paper focuses on Hewlett Packard and its ability to adapt and become one of the key drivers of several industry initiatives for green information technology and information systems and sustainable innovation. From 1994 until now “HP” has been the most prominent and leading sustainable innovator. The data was taken from the Financial Times in the New York Times. They explain how in 1990 Hewlett-Packard innovative its green information technology system by integrating a wide recycling scheme in response to German recycling laws, they utilized free recycling programs in response to California State legislation, and they eliminated hazardous waste in response to the EU directive and this led to energy efficiency in products to earn their EPA Energy Star label. In 2000, Hewlett Packard integrated this green information system and gained certification of environmental management system the ISO40001 award. In 2003 Hewlett Packard utilized its sustainable innovation by collaborating with key stakeholders through organizing recycling events for informing consumers, stimulating university research and education on social responsibility, and setting up digital inclusion projects. This led to a radical rethinking and redesign of electronic products and manufacturing processes, and eventually shaped legislation and initiating industry initiatives. They also assessed their managing stick will the impacts along with their supply chain, and they're committed to a multi stakeholder production innovation.

They then explain how green information technology, green information system, and sustainable innovation phases in a step model explain the progression of sustainability efforts a company chooses as it moves from a reactive green approach to a proactive sustainable innovation approach. When HP engaged in sustainable related challenges they acted in a reactive approach, greening information technology. And then the greening efforts became more difficult, and Hewlett-Packard adopted the environmental management system green information system, which spurred innovation rather than regulation allowing Hewlett Packard to engage in sustainable innovation efforts. This expanded the sustainability efforts of their entire supply chain, and helped them organize community projects, and improve their radical product and process innovation.

As explained in the paper, it is believed that adopting the sustainable innovation lens could provide researchers with leverage necessary to transcend beyond the study of environmental sustainability and jump into a wider context of innovation. By studying how companies move through their information technology efforts, corporations can contribute to sustainability, diversity, human rights, and play relations, safe and clean products, and good governance structures. The approaches to sustainability are as stands, one sustainable innovation, two green information systems, three green information technology. Sustainable innovation provides multi stakeholder innovation which can contribute to community and opening new markets, and this can also shape legislation which in turn will shape stakeholder impact and sustainable value. Green information systems focus on environmental management and reducing processed costs as sustainable value. Green information technology focuses on responding to regulations and reducing energy waste as sustainable value. They explained that in order for new information technologies and systems to generate environmental and social value for stakeholders the ideas need to be reinforced, and current efforts need to be focused on incremental and reactive innovation. This all needs to be related to the reduction of energy consumption and waste disposal, with more radical technology innovations used to reshape current practices. Only responding to social and economic factors and assuming that this will trigger a need for more sustainable technologies isn't as efficient. Corporations need to apply sustainable innovation, in adopt A leading role in shaping radical new technologies that provide environmental, social, and economic value to stakeholders. This sustainable innovation approach can serve as a foundation for understanding the opportunities associated with sustainability related challenges.

Using GRI of 6 individual companies with investments in IS (information systems) this article, "A longitudinal exploratory investigation of innovation systems and sustainability maturity using case studies in three industries",  articulates the effect at each stage of sustainability maturity and their specific role to each company and growth. The article then uses green IT, green SI and sustainable IS to look deeper into how each method is applied to the triple bottom line. Finally this article presents a method to using and finding data from companies GRI reports for IS scholars with an interest in sustainability. The article explains that sustainability drives innovation using 5 stages in any organization's path to sustainability maturity. The article presents six companies (Biogen, Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, General Mills, Volvo group, and Caterpillar) to make comparisons within and outside the industry. The authors coded the different information systems as automation, informatization, transformation or infrastructure assets and categorized them in different stages (S1-S5). The research focuses on IS can influence social and environmental sustainability at the same time.

Businesses, open innovation and crowdsourcing can provide a number of advantages over traditional approaches, all of which impact the bottom line:

1. Improved discovery and development of new technologies, approaches and creative solutions, enhanced by greater diversity of problem-solvers and a wider pool of intellect addressing the issue.

2. Accelerated time-to-market and opportunities for first-to-market advantages, which also mean competitive advantage and a more agile organization able to adapt to changing customer needs and business environments.

3. Higher hit rate of new product development (and new solution development) from greater breadth of ideas considered, more knowledge and know-how brought to bear, and a high level of

experimentation, testing and consumer/user feedback throughout the design process (this also reduces the risk of innovation and enables faster abandonment of, and greater learning from, failed ideas).

 Reductions in both intensity of and total energy use, carbon footprint and water use and the circular economy: for example, the Ellen MacArthur FounDation is building partnerships to accelerate the transition to a circular economy, and cost reduction from faster time-to-discovery, participating teams willing to donate or invest time (often incentivised by the chance they might win prizes), or external sources willing to work for no or reduced fees. Participation and engagement increasing the likelihood of behavior change, which is important given that ‘innovation’ refers to the entire innovation process from ideation and invention through design, engineering, production, go-to-market strategy, sales and distribution, to market adoption 2 While no company is truly sustainable, and all these companies still have significant negative environmental and social impacts, many of them are genuinely working to find sustainability-focused improvements and innovations. more participatory, more decentralized approach to innovation, based on the observed fact that useful knowledge today is widely distributed, and no company, no matter how capable or how big, could innovate effectively on its own. ... For example,Michael Katz defines innovation as: The successful generation, development and implementation of new and novel ideas, which introduce new products, processes and/or strategies to a company or enhance current products, processes and/or strategies leading to commercial success and possible market leadership and creating value for stakeholders, driving economic growth and improving standards of living. Academics, consulting firms and business magazines distinguish between different forms or application areas of innovation (such as product/service, technology, production process), types or levels of innovation (such as incremental, breakthrough, transformational), and steps in the innovation process (such as idea generation and mobilization, advocacy and screening, experimentation and testing, commercialisation, diffusion and implementation) The full range of potential alternatives

− ‘Ground-truth’ information and data

− Collective insights drawn from prototyping and experimentation

There are parallel advantages for non-profits, foundations and mission driven businesses, such as gaining new, more innovative approaches, a deeper understanding of the context in which their planned services are being delivered/received, and insights about the most effective design

and approach. This includes citizen science, soliciting public input on scientific processes—data collection, analysis and interpretation, technology and app development, problem-solving and finding scientific discoveries; crowd mapping, obtaining geographic information to produce meaningful collaborative maps such as Ushahidi and customer crowdsourcing, gathering customer needs, preferences, opinions, input, feedback and testing, such as My Starbucks Idea (http://mystarbucksidea.force.com). There are improvements, for example, in: Impact assessment, disclosure and reporting (as of 2015 over 5,000 companies are reporting their carbon-related impacts and risks to CDP (www.cdp.net) and, in 2013, 93% of the global 250 largest companies reported on their sustainability impact, performance and plans) 2016), found that those Interbrand ‘Best Global Brands’ already using crowdsourcing in a significant way between 2004 and 2014 increased their usage by over 30% from 2014 to 2015, that the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector is leading the application of creative crowdsourcing (followed by consumer electronics), and that the fastest-growing application is ideation (crowdsourcing for ideas).Corporations have traditionally looked to their research and development(R&D) departments for new technologies and product development, and to manufacturing engineers and process improvement experts for operational improvement. Crowd innovation: Generate ideas or develop solutions to a problem or part of a problem; for example, the Ansari XPRIZE offered $10 million to the team best able to build a reusable manned vehicle capable of carrying three people 100 km above the surface of the Earth and back twice in the span of two weeks, effectively launching the commercial private space industry. The chapter found the 20 leading major brand consumer products companies using crowdsourcing, in order of most use, are: Coca-Cola, Danone, Nestlé, Pepsi, Samsung, Hewlett-Packard, Ford, Nokia, Toyota, General Electric, Microsoft, Google, J&J, Budweiser, Chevrolet, Shell, Intel, Phillips, Santander and Nescafé. This is explained further in Target 17.16, which calls for action to ‘Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals in all countries, in particular developing countries. Open innovation stimulates more transformative solutions and business models because it engages the broader business/organizational ecosystem in better understanding.

 

System Thinking

Systems thinking refers to big picture analysis and relating to how they affect the overall environment. The perspective of what we do and how it affects the world on a larger scale. System thinking enables critical analytical thinking to be used to reduce larger problems in the smaller problems, and tackling each problem one by one. From our information systems course, we've compared silo thinking, two systems thinking. Silo thinking is when an information system cannot be used in different departments of the company. A system is a set of components that work together towards a common goal, a company creates value for its stakeholders by turning raw materials into useful products, the company turns inputs into outputs and all the information is connected. Each system has a boundary that decides what elements should be included in the system. For example, a narrow scope will lead to silo thinking, in a broad scope includes too many variables and making decisions too complex. Long term decisions need they're broad scope, while short term decisions are in our scope. Unfortunately, high paid executives in these companies have a short term profit mentality towards many of these situations. close systems, or systems that do not interact with the environment while open systems do. everything is connected in the world around us, and that theory named the butterfly effect backs that. The point of the theory is that we should consider that there could be a bigger picture, and we should be more open to understanding that we are all connected. As explained the changes in the air due to climate change kind of felt the water cycles and that can affect the land. Another concept that is explained is called the feedback loop, which explains the output of the system can be either negative or positive, negative meaning stabilizing and positive meaning reinforcing. Text apple that they use as if a student does well exam, the student receives reinforcing feedback that motivates the student to study more and do even better on the next exam (virtuous cycle), , but another student who does poor in the exam reinforces their study habits and does even worse on the next exam creating a (vicious cycle). The question comes into play, imagine if the student who received the poor grade fed his motivation instead of reducing it, he will prove his teacher wrong and possibly relax and take it easy for the next exam and do poorly again. And negative feedback loop stabilizes the grade, and rides the mentality of never get too high on win, and never too low on a loss. Mainly, there are multiple ways to show how systems thinking can be visualized. There are system diagrams that show inputs, outputs, processes, boundaries, etc. And there are spray diagrams which are mind maps that show the same exact thing in a more interactive way. The major idea behind the concept is to imagine if at one point all systems can be connected the way we are actually all connected. Homeowners with solar panels, electric vehicles, smart grids and wind turbines, all sharing resources and information to make the world a better place. All people, especially large corporations should recognize that the decisions have major impacts. Decisions can impact employees, other departments, and societies. It is imperative that we as innovative thinkers utilize system thinking so that we are not wasting the natural resources that we were given.

G.M. stock jumped after its announcement and closed up 3.5 percent, reflecting a growing consensus among investors that electric cars represent the future, and that Tesla and other electric carmakers will eventually dominate the auto industry, while businesses that do not make the transition to electric vehicles will do poorly. General Motors said Thursday that it would phase out petroleum-powered cars and trucks and sell only vehicles that have zero tailpipe emissions by 2035, a seismic shift by one of the world’s largest automakers that makes billions of dollars today from gas-guzzling pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles.

G.M.’s announcement comes just one week after Mr. Biden signed an executive order directing the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department to quickly reinstate tough auto fuel economy rules put in place during the Obama administration, and one day after he signed a follow-up order directing the federal government to purchase all-electric vehicles. “This move by G.M. is a big deal,” said Margo Oge, a former Obama administration official who played a lead role in developing the tough fuel economy standards and now informally advises the Biden administration and auto companies. A spokesman for Ford Motor declined to directly comment on G.M.’s move but said his company was “committed to leading the electric vehicle revolution in the areas where we are strong.” The Obama-era standards had required automakers to achieve an average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, which would have eliminated about six billion tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide pollution over the lifetime of the vehicles, and required a large-scale transition to hybrid and electric vehicles. The company plans to spend $27 billion over the next five years to introduce 30 electric vehicles, including an electric Hummer pickup truck that it expects to start delivering to customers this year. The chief executive of Audi, the luxury car company owned by Volkswagen, said customers would ultimately determine the speed of the transition to electric cars. Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, a veteran industry analyst, said that even if European carmakers had not put a date on internal combustion’s demise, there was a consensus that electric cars would dominate within 10 or 15 years. That history continues to dog G.M., and some experts said they were not convinced that the company would make the transition to electric cars as quickly as it had promised, in part because Ms. Barra or her successors could simply change their minds. “To borrow a phrase from Thomas Edison, what consumers and the climate need are commitments that are 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration,” said David Friedman, a vice president of Consumer Reports. Of course, even if G.M. and other automakers are able to move to an all-electric fleet by 2035 or 2040, combustion engine cars and trucks are likely to be on the roads for at least several decades to come in the absence of a huge government program designed to encourage people to replace them more quickly. The vision of an all-electric future represents a dramatic shift in thinking of G.M. Just over 20 years ago, it developed an experimental electric car called the EV1 and leased it to a select group of customers. “This is a guardedly bold move,” said Erik Gordon, a business professor at the University of Michigan who follows the auto industry. G.M. said its decision to switch to electric cars was part of a broader plan to become carbon neutral by 2040. Daimler, which makes Mercedes-Benz cars, has said it would have an electric or hybrid version of each of its models by 2022, and Volkswagen has promised an electric version for each of its models by 2030. It even went so far as to take cars back from customers and destroy them, an episode chronicled in the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” Electric cars today are the fastest-growing segment of the auto industry, but they still make up a small proportion of new car sales: about 3 percent of the global total, according to the International Energy Agency. “Ten years ago, nobody would have been able to foresee the enormous speed of change,” Markus Duesmann, the chief executive, who is also head of technology for Volkswagen, said in a statement. But the group’s senior vice president, Frank Macchiarola, said policymakers ought to protect the right of consumers “to choose what kind of car they want to drive.” He is also pushing for a new economic recovery package to include funding to build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations, and to create a system of rebates and incentives for purchasing electric vehicles.

Sustainability study on Adidas

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