CRKC7045 Motivations for Environmental and Social Consciousness Assignment Sample

• Subject Code : CRKC7045
• University : University of Cumbria My Assignment Services is not sponsored or endorsed by this college or university.
• Subject Name : Management

Tackling Global-Local Challenges in Ethics, Responsibility, and Sustainability

Contents

Introduction.

Triple bottom line model

Planet.

People.

Profit.

Analyses of ethics, responsibility, and sustainability.

Rethinking e-waste.

Sustainability challenges of Walmart.

Rising greenhouse gases.

Lagging on Renewable Energy.

Voraciously Consuming Land.

Conclusion.

Reference

Introduction to Motivations for Environmental and Social Consciousness

Wal-Mart is a multinational retail company that operates a chain of department stores, supermarkets, and grocery stores. The company was established by Sam Walton in 1962. Furthermore, the company possess the ability to change with market conditions. It always focuses on providing high-quality products and services to potential customers. Wal-Mart has also converted 28 percent of energy sources to renewable. The organization made an effort to implement environmental measures on creating zero waste in order to sustain people and the environment. The analysis focuses on analyzing sustainability with the help of sustainability models. Finally, the conclusion summarises the overall analysis.

Triple Bottom Line

Triple bottom line is one of the most effective models for assessing the sustainability of a business. Furthermore, businesses use this model to evaluate their impact on the environment. One of the major benefits of applying this model is that it helps to measure the social, financial, and environmental performance of the company in the most effective manner. The model will be highly effective in assessing the sustainability aspects of Walmart (Brockhaus et al. 2017). With the help of this model, the company will be able to make changes in their sustainable goals in order to reduce harmful impacts on the environment.

Planet

The company is trying to reduce its energy consumption and carbon emissions. Furthermore it has recently transformed 28 percent of the present energy sources to renewable resource. The goal is ultimately get to 50 percent renewable and zero waste in Canada, Japan, the UK, and the United States by 2025 (Bohlmann et al. 2018). In order to know the situation of climate alteration and possible implications for the retail segment, the organization has carried out a climate scenario investigation; functioning with an autonomous third-party expert. Furthermore, the companies look at 2030 and 2050 to make a declaration about four climate variables such as temperature, drought/water stress, severe weather events, and sea level. 

People

Walmart uses an effective complaint programs to solicit, evaluate, and tackle the distress of associates, clientele, personnel in the supply chain, and people in the community. Workforce attitude is shaped around three initial pillars like access to service; constancy and mobility intended to lead individuals from entry to opportunity while forging a model for tackling international personnel progress challenge. In addition, Walmart provides employment to around one million people in the U.S. All these efforts indicate the company is highly responsible towards community, suppliers as well as employees.

Profit

Profit specifies the financial performance of the organization. Walmart is working towards the objective of zero-emission. The choices have resulted in superior financial growth. With the help of sustainability efforts net sales of Walmart U.S. nurture by 2.9 percent in the economic year 2020 when compared to the previous period. Walmart's profits for the quarter ending April 30, 2020, were $134.622B, an 8.63% increase year-over-year (Walmart 2020). Furthermore, the evidence revealed that sustainability has provided various benefits to Walmart in terms of profit and growth.

Analyses of Ethics, Responsibility, and Sustainability

Walmart has been paying attention to manufacturing, supply chains, growth, and earnings. In current times, Walmart reaches out to external stakeholders to strive and widen areas of highest environmental impact and develop effective programs which may help in attaining these goals (Neebe 2020). The achievement of Walmart depend on the highly sound supervisory choice and the inventive execution of the sustainability approach to radically decrease the business impact on the international environment and in an attempt to become “the most competitive and pioneering company in the world”. The business believed in the three effective sustainable approaches:

• To create zero waste
• To be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy
• To sell commodities that sustain citizens and the atmosphere

The United Nations project that the global population could increase 30 percent by 2050. Without modernism, the augmented requirement for structure, commodities, and services will affect natural resources, amplify waste, and raise emissions. These factors will harmfully affect the quality of air and water which harm ecosystems, jeopardize food supply, and augment the possibility for harsh climate conditions, deficiency, and scarcity (Abbamonte and Cavaliere 2017). By moving towards renewable resources the company can save additional cost and reduce impacts on the environment. Furthermore, renewable resources may help the company to cut extra costs and invest more in research and development. It is necessary to recognize that the carbon footprint of the company's international supply chain is contributing to carbon emissions. As a result, the organization is working with dealers, farmers, and factory to drive its energy efficiency and diminish carbon emissions.

Rethinking E-Waste

Walmart’s waste diversion group is also focused on finding new outlets for electronic waste. This is a major issue that is distressing landfills all over North America. These widespread lists comprise all from TVs, processors, and electronics to kitchen electrical devices – many of which utilize heavy metals, substance, and plastics, which can pollute landfill sites (Smith and Crawford 2019). While the e-waste issue is not specific to Walmart’s business but it is huge trouble facing the retail business as a whole. The company is also reviewing alternatives on how best to approach the matter.

Walmart is maintaining gender equality by providing opportunities in the retail sector. The company is also focusing on employment opportunities and offering effective training programs so people can learn new skills. These programs are highly effective in enhancing the corporate social responsibility of the company. The world produces an average of 3.5 million tons of waste per day. The World Bank report highlighted that waste will increase up to 6 million tons per day by 2025, and a shocking 11 million tons by 2100 (world bank 2020). Also, Millions of tons of supplies flow through Walmart's amenities every year.

Fossil fuels like coal, gasoline, and natural gas account for approximately 80 percent of world energy use and are a noteworthy driver of greenhouse gas release in Wal-Mart’s action. Renewable energy sources including hydro, wind, solar, and biomass present a clean and more sustainable substitute. The company is focusing on:

• invest in cleaner, more reasonable and consistent energy
• using renewable resources
• decreasing the demand for energy

Sustainability Challenges of Walmart

Walmart has tried to place itself as a sustainable leader. Furthermore, the organization is facing major challenges that may influence its long terms sustainability goals and corporate social responsibility efforts. The three major challenges are as follows:

Rising Greenhouse Gases

Walmart’s greenhouse gas emissions have been increasing gradually. The company specified that its operations make 22 million metric tons of greenhouse gas a year and it anticipates its emission to continue to enlarge. It has also reduced carbon emissions by13 percent (Walmart 2020). In addition, the energy used by novel stores is adding twice as much CO2 to the environment every year as Walmart’s store enhancement has saved. Every corporation has accountability to decrease greenhouse gases as rapidly as it can.

Lagging on Renewable Energy

Despite six years of deeply endorsing its renewable energy program, in 2011, Walmart derived less than 4 percent of the electricity it used from its renewable power purchase and solar power scheme (Neebe 2020). However major efforts are percent required to achieve the goal of 100 percent renewable energy. In addition, there are many competitors who have already achieved the goal of using renewable energy. Furthermore, it is also difficult to fund low carbon technologies that may meet ROI requirements.

Voraciously Consuming Land

Despite effective sustainable goals, Walmart continues to exploit its land utilization by building huge, low-rise supercenters (Mustapha and Hassan 2018). Walmart’s expansion practice has a huge effect on the atmosphere, causing troubles such as habitat loss, water contamination from parking lot overflow, collapse, augmented driving, and air contamination. Furthermore, the manufacturing practices of Walmart also cause much harm to the environment.

Conclusion on Motivations for Environmental and Social Consciousness

It has been identified from the overall analysis that Walmart is trying to achieve sustainable goals. Furthermore, there may challenges that affect the effectiveness of its long terms of sustainable goals. In addition triple bottom line framework indicates that sustainability efforts provide a competitive advantage to Walmart. However, the company should focus on reducing greenhouse effects and the effective use of renewable energy. It has also been identified that the company is working towards creating zero waste in order to sustain people and the environment. The evidence also revealed that the company is responsible for the community and environment. All these evidences indicate that the company must focus on developing effective sustainable programs that may reduce the impacts of its activities on the environment.

Reference for Motivations for Environmental and Social Consciousness

Abbamonte, L. and Cavaliere, F., 2017. Shopping as ‘Best Practice’-Analyzing Walmart’s Debated Sustainability Policies. Russian Journal of Linguistics, 21(1), pp.105-125.

Bohlmann, C., Krumbholz, L. and Zacher, H., 2018. The triple bottom line and organizational attractiveness ratings: The role of pro‐environmental attitude. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 25(5), pp.912-919.

Brockhaus, S., Fawcett, S., Kersten, W. and Knemeyer, M., 2016. A framework for benchmarking product sustainability efforts. Benchmarking: An International Journal.

Brockhaus, S., Fawcett, S.E., Knemeyer, A.M. and Fawcett, A.M., 2017. Motivations for environmental and social consciousness: Reevaluating the sustainability-based view. Journal of Cleaner Production, 143, pp.933-947.

Corporate.walmart.com. 2020. [online] Available at: <https://corporate.walmart.com/media-library/document/2019-environmental-social-governance-report/_proxyDocument?id=0000016c-20b5-d46a-afff-f5bdafd30000> [Accessed 9 July 2020].

Data.worldbank.org. 2020. World Bank Open Data | Data. [online] Available at: <https://data.worldbank.org/> [Accessed 9 July 2020].

Mustapha, N.A. and Hassan, R., 2018. Organizational Efficacy and Corporate Sustainability in Business Performance: A Literature Review. Advanced Science Letters, 24(5), pp.3493-3497.

Neebe, K., 2020. Sustainability at Walmart: Success over the Long Haul. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 32(2), pp.64-71.

Smith, N.C. and Crawford, R.J., 2019. Walmart: love, earth (A). In Managing Sustainable Business (pp. 243-267). Springer, Dordrecht.

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