Question

Answer the following questions based on your views of sustainability. There are three branches of Sustainability (Social, Environmental and Financial). The idea of addressing Sustainability through commerce is evolving, controversial, and complicated.

1. Why are businesses being tasked with resolving sustainability issues?

2. Are the environmental aspects of sustainability just media and political hype?

3. What are the risks for firms who are not embracing the idea that sustainability is their problem to resolve?

4. What role does collaboration play in the resolution of some of these complex issues?

5. Is it fair to ask developing nations to shoulder the same burden as developed nations in resolving carbon footprint issues?

There are many more angles to consider Sustainability from, so feel free to write about a topic that interests you.

Answer 1

1) Governments are by nature entities that always put the national interest above anything else. Therefore, such a predilection towards national interest acts as a major hurdle for solving global problems like climate change and environmental degradation which are transborder in nature. Businesses on the other hand, particularly, big businesses are increasingly expanding their footprint across the globe and becoming global entities, which makes them ideal for addressing transborder issues such as economic, social, and environmental sustainability problems. In addition to this, these big businesses have vast human and financial capital and state-of-the-art technologies which gives them the best chance to bring about a positive change in terms of sustainability.

2) No, environmental aspects of sustainability are not just media and political hype but real problems, that is threatening the existence of life on this planet in the near future. Science has not proved beyond doubt that climate change is real and the world is increasingly facing the wrath of the gradual increase in temperature.

3) The risks for firms who are not embracing the idea that sustainability is their problem to resolve are:

i) The risk of endangering the long term viability of their business.

ii) The risk of reputation loss due to the anti-eco-friendly stance.

iii) The risk of loss of revenue due to disruption of supply chain as a result of climate change.

4) Resolving complex environmental management problems and sustainability issues will require large scale cooperation and policy-making. As such, collaboration will play a significant role in the resolution of some of these complex issues. The application of large scale sustainability efforts and policies will need to keep in mind the population, size, problem significance, etc. Therefore, the collaboration of the stakeholders involved and the management in the implementation of these measures is imperative.

5) It is unfair to ask developing nations to shoulder the same burden as developed nations in resolving carbon footprint issues. This is because developing countries have a plethora of social problems to solve like basic human rights and poverty. Hence, for them to cut down the carbon footprint while maintaining a healthy economic growth rate is not possible.