... • Introduction 1 • Reasons for sustainability report 1 • Key features of mining and metal sustainability report 3 • Evaluation of Onesteel’s sustainability report 5 • Conclusion 6 • Recommendation 6 • Reference 8 Executive summary The purpose of this paper was to explain the reasons for which companies started to produce non-financial report and figure out the key features of sustainability report, and then evaluate the sustainability report of Onesteel in relation of the key features. This essay is based on academic journals and professional business websites, as well as information sourced from company’s sustainability report for the year of 2011. The paper discussed the key features of sustainability report mainly by the global reporting initiative sustainability reporting guidelines, such as the six principles (balance, comparability, accuracy, timeliness, clarity and reliability) and the core indicators (environmental factors, human rights, labor practices and decent work, society, product responsibility and economic factors). In conclusion, the company of Onesteel is a leading one of mining industry, it had done well in sustainability report according to the key features of sustainability report. However, Onesteel should include the information about opportunities and predictions for future in order to make the sustainability report more completed, besides this, Onesteel should...
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...Business and Sustainability Write an essay on the following topic: Based on your personal definition of sustainability, how committed are organisations to sustainability practices? What changes in corporate strategy and policy are necessary in the journey to sustainable business? Illustrate your answer with examples. Introduction Conducting business in the global economy, enterprises are under more communities’ scrutiny on their operations (Dey & Sircar, 2012). Moreover, sustainability is considered as the focal point of enterprises in creating shareholder value, performing management practices (Epstein, 2008), instrumental to survival in an increased competitive environment (Eweje, 2011), and achieving competitive advantages (Galbreath, 2011). As a result, this issue draws much attention from a broad base of stakeholders, comprising of customers, communities, employees, governments, and shareholders (Hess & Warren, 2008; Eweje, 2011). However, how to employ sustainability has remained a challenge for business leaders (Epstein & Buhovac, 2010). Accordingly, sustainability is commonly executed “more coincidentally than with a clear strategy” (Baumgartner & Ebner, 2010, p. 77). To obtain a deeper understanding of the topic, this essay begins with exploring the definition of sustainability. Followed by which is the investigation of how committed organisations are. Thereafter, the way to incorporate sustainability in companies is examined. Finally...
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...Welcome to BioInspire, a monthly publication addressing the interface of human design, nature and technology. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------BioInspire.16 5.19.04 The following essay first appeared on CYSI ONLINE: http://cysionline.chattablogs.com Please post all comments and reflections on this essay at http://cysionline.chattablogs.com/archives/012868.html#comments CYSI Online is a monthly online publication that takes hope in the thousands of young people across the US engaged in creative initiatives for social progress. It features short articles by a broad range of social innovators, generally between 20-30 years old, and focuses on identifying creative solutions to old social problems; and building bridges and crossing barriers that divide our movements and the country. Join CYSI Online’s distribution list for free by emailing cysionline@hotmail.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Faith in Sustainability John Mlade Institute for the Built Environment Colorado State University johnm@biomimicry.net When someone asks me about who I am, or what I believe, I invariably draw upon my affinity for sustainability. Increasingly just a buzzword, and sometimes out of context, for me the word "sustainable" is a way to describe restorative human social systems and designs. These are systems and designs that create positive impacts on our environment and the well-being...
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...Is Fairtrade a form of sustainability marketing? Nowadays, Fairtrade is a new trend in the world’s market and become a powerful competitor toward mainstream brands. According to Belz and Peattie (2010, p29): “sustainability marketing may be defined as building and maintaining sustainable relationships with customers, the social environment and the natural environment.” Fairtrade is also author concept that it aims to provide fair price to farmer in developing country and help them to live better life. This essay considers 3 elements of sustainability marketing: social-ecological problems, sustainability marketing strategies and sustainability marketing mix. It argues that Fairtrade is a form of sustainability marketing. The rest of essay is organized as follows. The second paragraph explains what the elements of sustainability are. The third paragraph presents Fairtrade tends to solve social-ecological problems. The fourth paragraph discusses how Fairtrade makes sustainability marketing strategies. The fifth paragraph reports Fairtrade completes sustainability marketing mix. The sixth paragraph concludes. Belz and Peattie (2010, p29) consider that compared to transaction marketing sustainability marketing is a long-term market theory. They also maintain that sustainability marketing could be included in the macro economy. Belz and Peattie (2010, p29) believe that “It embraces the idea of sustainable development, which requires a change in the behaviour of virtually everyone...
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... | |Student Number: |201413996 | | | | |Unit Code No.: |HOS201 | | | | |Unit Title: |Operation and Environmental Management | | | | |Assessment No.: |Individual essay | | | | |Lecturer: |Ms.Trinidad Navarro | | |...
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...Discussion 2: Global environmental issues at a company level Environmental standards, rules and technical regulations are for some companies a challenge to meet – this often leads to market failure as they cannot meet the challenge. For other companies it provides a business opportunity – either because they can adopt better than others, or they are providers of environmental goods or services. Analyse the case of a company. The assignment We will discuss various topics in the seminars. The discussion will be prepared by student groups, who will prepare, introduce the discussion by a presentation, lead the discussion, and finally summarize the outcomes. Besides this, the student group will research the topic in details, and using the outcomes of the discussion the group will write a research paper (essay) on the topic. The assignment consists of four major pillars: 1. The preparation and delivery of a presentation that introduces and prepares the discussion 2. Leading the discussion 3. An oral summary of the of the topic and the outcomes 4. An essay on the topic (not just the discussion!). Assignment Description Detailed Assignment Description Discussions and topics will be prepared and led by a small group. Discussions will be introduced by a 15-20 minutes long presentation. The aim of the presentations is to introduce the topic, to give necessary and useful information (e.g. facts, figures)...
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...(a) Why are environmental problems considered to be an example of market failure? Environmental problems are considered to be an example of market failure because environmental problems not only compound poverty and low standards of living, but the problems of common access resources or weak regulations result in massive negative externalities and a significant threat to sustainability. Market failure is defined as when community surplus is not maximized due to problems preventing resources from being allocated in an optical manner. Negative externalities, also used in this essay, is defined as a decision or a product that leads to it having a larger society cost than private cost. This essay will be split into different parts to tackle this problem: 1) Examples of market failures and environmental problems 2) Explanation of environmental problems as negative externalities 3) Allocative inefficiency and overproduction at free market price due to marginal social cost being larger than marginal private cost There are different ways of market failures. Firstly, the lack of public goods is a market failure. Public goods are goods that would not be provided at all in a fee market. Since they are goods that are of benefit to the society, the lack of public goods in the free market is considered to be a market failure. (…) However, the main focus of this essay would be on the existence of externalities, which is a type of market failure as well as the negative externalities...
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...concept of ‘sustainability’ became a phenomenon that was widely embraced by many government agencies and corporations worldwide. The importance of sustainability has grown especially in the context of rising global competition and economic downturn with research indicating that 93 percent out of 800 global CEOs acknowledging the important role of sustainability in their companies’ success [Refer to Figure 1 and Appendix A]. (Gibson & Hassan 2005; Lacy & Hayward 2011) Figure 1 – Importance of Sustainability Issues to Business’s Future Success (Source: Lacy & Hayward 2011, pp. 350) Sustainability is a broad concept which can be defined as the long term ability of managing and maximizing practices to achieve positive outcomes while minimizing the negative impacts on future generations and their ability to achieve future needs. (Hitchcock & Willard 2009; White 2009; Crowther & Capaldi 2008; Henriques & Richardson 2004; Aras & Crowther 2008) The 1987’s Bruntland Report (Our Common Future), by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), identified economic, social and environmental aspects as dimensions present in the concept of sustainability. (Crowther & Capaldi 2008; UN Documents 2011; Filho 2000) [Refer to Figure 2] This TBL reporting standard has been established to expand transparency of corporate reporting. (Mueller, Klandt, McDonald & Finke-Schuermann 2007) Figure 2 – The Elements of Sustainability (Source: Crowther...
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...Sustainability Media Journal 111857253 Xuxu Miao The concept of sustainable development spread first into the mainstream in the 1980s. These years, driven by internal and external factors, many corporations are beginning to integrate sustainability into their business models to gain competitive advantage in today’s market. This essay will introduce what forces the corporation to become sustainable and what corporation can do to achieve sustainability while listing an example of an ideal corporation in this term. Both of the external and internal drivers accelerate transformation towards sustainability for corporation. The worsening environment in China is prominent power for moving to sustainability currently. The push to clean up the country's air, land and water has forced company to transform its developing model. Though China has become the world's second- largest economy, it is still in the lower part of the world's industry chain and has a lot of industries with excessive energy consumption and high pollution. Due to social and economic factors, Hebei provincial government in January this year has banned approvals of new steel, cement, glass and nonferrous metal plants-these industries are both environment killers and economic drivers in Hebin (Jin Haixing 2014). It can be seen that these industries have to change their way of operation, which can add the most value with the least use of resources and pollution. Meanwhile, increasing public awareness of sustainability...
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...1 ESSAYS ON SUSTAINABILITY Thirteen Challenging Essays for Earthlings By Peter E. Black, 2008 Wheels and Water .......................................................page 1 Water and Humans on Planet Earth ................................... 2 Climate, Weather, and Global Warming ............................. 3 A Catastrophic Loss of Species ......................................... 4 The Naked Truth................................................................... 5 Asymmetrical Resource Distribution ................................. 6 Stormwater and Groundwater Runoff ................................ 7 Economy, Energy, Environment ......................................... 8 Drill in the ANWR? No Way! ............................................... 9 The Wonder of Water ......................................................... 10 Buffering Sands of Time.................................................... 11 Ecology and Civilization .................................................... 12 With a Bang, not a Whimper.............................................. 13 © 2008 Peter E. Black, PhD (US Copyright Registration TXu 1-580-484, July 13, 2008 as “Conservation is the Cornerstone of Sustainability”) Distinguished Teaching Professor of Water and Related Land Resources, Emeritus, State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, 1 Forestry Drive, Syracuse, NY 13210 peblack@esf.edu and www.watershedhydrology.com Essays on Sustainability Thirteen Challenging...
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...“Large Companies are embracing sustainability reports in various forms but are just as profit driven and unethical behind the scenes”. Introduction There is no such thing as an agreed definition for exactly what sustainability means. However what we do know is that sustainability is about taking what we require to live now, without tarnishing its potential for people in the future to meet their needs (LandLearnNSW, 2016). Sustainability is based around 3 pillars, these are economic, social and environmental factors. Sustainability reporting is the practice of measuring, disclosing and being accountable to internal and external stakeholders for organisational performance against specific environmental, social and economic governance goals and metrics (lecture notes, 2016). Although it is not a legal requirement for a company to report on sustainability, it is estimated that almost 93% of the top 250 companies globally will do so (lecture notes, 2016). Where did sustainability begin? Sustainability first came into the public eye at a United Nations conference on the human environment, this was located in Stockholm Sweden in 1972 (Moore, 2014). Over 100 nations attended and agreed on an action plan for the human environment. Furthermore the real development of sustainability came at a UN conference in bas in Rio De Janeiro in 1992. It was here where 130 nations signed an agreement climate change, Biodiversity and an action plan called Agenda 21 (Cleveland, Kubiszewski...
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...Sustainability Issues In Civil Engineering Environmental Sciences Essay ukessays.com /essays/environmental-sciences/sustainability-issues-in-civil-engineeringenvironmental-sciences-essay.php Sustainability is the prevention or reduction of the effect of environmental issues for humans to live a sustainable life and as part of the effort is to return human use of natural resources to a sustainable limit at which it can be replenished. The fact that sustainability issues affect the ways in which project are been chosen, planed, designed or implemented does not mean human life should be stagnant, rather, according to Mahri (2001), environmental issues needs to be put into consideration as a principal means of achieving sustainable development, also sustainable development enhances the quality of life This report shall put lights on a critical evaluation on current academic thinking as regards how sustainability issues can affect the way civil engineering projects are chosen, planned, designed and implemented. CHOSEN PROJECTS AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES Civil Engineering is the construction of systems that aim to improve life in different ways (Tavares, 1999). These are engineering field that brought about bridges, dams, roads, buildings, fabrications, etc. and these constructions have either a direct or indirect ways of polluting the environment during their construction processes. Like in the construction/fabrication of buoys, piles, vessels, where blasting and painting are carried...
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...in our students in order to provide a gateway for her/his futures as global leaders, while maintaining a strong value for character and the environment. Throughout this course, and your education at LADAC, you will be required to take several liberal arts classes that enable you to earn your degree in Sustainable Architecture or Design with a focus in Entrepreneurial Thought and Action. Our course will feature four units titled: I. “Mapping Environmental Change” II. “Understanding (Our) Place in (Disturbing) Nature” III. “Restoring the Imagination of Place” IV. “Preserving and Protecting our Beautiful Landscape” How the course relates to the ideals of LADAC? Throughout this course, we will explore various questions and topics surrounding the broad topic of “Nature and the Environment.” These questions relate directly to the ideas and mission of LADAC. For example, one of the course questions discusses how we, as a college and as individuals, manage the conflict between short-term needs and desires, and long-term sustainability. As a college, it is quite evident that we have steeper tuition prices in comparison to other institutions, but these...
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...social responsibility becomes more and more important. Many organizations and individuals concern about the environmental sustainability. The best description of the social responsibility level in the company’s current operation is the economic responsibility –Company produces products with maximum profits for the owners and stakeholders .In this case, the customers question about the using of dangers materials and processes. It seems that the company just want to maximize the profit and hasn’t concerned about the safety of products and environmentalism- an organized movement of concerned citizens and government agencies to protect and to improve people’s current and future living environment. They may have illegal or unethical action, such as the use of harmful materials and danger and manufacturing processes. Therefore, it will not be legal responsibility. Discretionary responsibility is not possible because the company do not serve as social role for public in their manufacturing. Also, it would not be ethical since some environmental problems will occur because of the manufacturing. Industry has a natural prejudice against environmentalism because it would restrict its activities and growth. However, we can make a balance between environmental protection and company’s growth. We can give a main direction to the company by setting an environmental vision- ‘Environmental manufacturing keeps the environment sustainable’ Since the current competitors of carpet use the same...
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...Essay “The challenge of sustainability for the financial sector” Student Name: Word: 902 Date: 12th February, 2012 “The challenge of sustainability for the financial sector” Sustainability for the financial sector can be explained as environmental and social impacts of the financial sector. Approach of sustainability for the financial sectors includes the engagement of financial sectors with environmental, social and financial opportunities and risk associated with it by complying with all related rules, regulations and ethical standards. The sustainability for the financial sector could challenge the core business of the financial sector. The financial sectors have now realized that the practice of sustainability have the positive impact as it could save cost, increase the overall earnings, decrease the risk factors, and also could help to develop human capital for the financial service providers. On the other hand ignorance of the sustainability issue could harm their reputation. - Gerster Consulting (February, 2011) Many scientific communities have argued to focus on the threat for human beings and the Earth due to running ecological system of earth and the main reason behind this is human activity. Our current international economy and financial sectors need some changes like switching to low carbon products and services etc. Currently 3 to 4 oC climate is now a minimum or acceptable level for healthy and safe human life. -International Climate Conference...
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