Corporate Sustainability

It is an organization’s goal to maximize shareholders’ wealth. At the most basic level, every organization has an economic responsibility to make a profit so that they can provide a return to their owners and investors, create employment and keep the economy flowing through contribution of goods and services. However, an organization must be also able to understand the importance of human and natural resources in the environment. Resources from the environment are not unlimited and its misuse can damage ecology and in turn, affect a company’s ability to achieve profit potential. The community is also another important factor because an organization’s customers are ultimately people in society and the well being of these individuals are vital to the success of a company. The notion of “adopting business strategies and activities that meets the needs of the organization and its stakeholders, while protecting, sustaining, and enhancing the human and natural resources in the future is becoming the objective of many companies” (Brundtland, 1987). Corporate sustainability is an organization’s endeavor to achieve best outcome for our society and the environment for both the present and the future (Dunphy, Benveniste, Griffiths and Sutton, 2000). For any organization to be successful in this new century, it must not overlook the social and environmental aspects of the world.

The social dimension of sustainability includes the political, cultural and all issues that concern the well-being of humanity. It involves that the basic conditions for human life to exist and prosper within society. These would comprise of areas such as physiological needs, for example: food, shelter and clothing (Carroll, 1991). There are also safety needs and social needs such as health care, education, interaction and the sense of belonging. These conditions cannot be met without a healthy and sustainable natural environment and economy. Social sustainability occurs “when organizations adopt policies, structures and relationships that actively support the capacity of current and future generations in order to create healthy and livable communities,” (Fowler, 2002). The goal is to provide the people of society a better quality of life.

Environmental sustainability refers on the health of our ecosystems. However, many of the Earth’s ecosystems have been strained or degraded. The poor, who depend almost directly on the natural environment for food, shelter and income, are the ones mostly influenced by the impacts of environmental deterioration. They are at greatest risk from external factors such as climate change due to them living on marginal lands. Without financial resources or the information to handle vulnerable resources in a sustainable manner, they are often forced to degrade their lands for survival, thus increasing to the problem of environmental deterioration and prolonging their poverty (CIDA, 2007, Ð'¶2).

The need for environmental sustainability is based on an understanding that environmental functions must be sustained to support life. These assets provide essential services that support our life, communities, industries, economy and jobs. Just as investors seek to protect their financial assets while enjoying the interest earned from them, members of society must also live off the benefits provided by our stock of natural assets without running down the assets themselves (Berry and Rondinelli, 1998). Environmental sustainability means that we need to consider carefully the full benefits provided by our natural assets before we make decisions on resource use.

Even though accounting for both social and environmental issues can be beneficial to an organization, bringing it into action might not be a fluid transition. In the case of implementing social and ethical practices, if a company places itself as a leader on an issue, the more susceptible it is to criticism if the company fails to meet expectation (Singer, 2003) Another challenge for social sustainability is the increasing population of the world. The natural resource consumption must increase with rising population and it is difficult for families to maintain a sustainable life with more children to feed. On the other hand, trying to reduce population may lead to criticism of violation of human rights (Frankental, 2000). Thus, it is a difficult task to promote the idea of social sustainability with the amount of human population today.

Issues to environmental sustainability are also present; the process of achieving an environmentally sustainable future is labeled a вЂ?Great Transition’ (Raskin at al, 2002; Rajan, 2006; Kreigman, 2006). Sustainability is only possible if all of society, government, and business collaborate to create a revelation of globalization that stresses on quality of life, and human commonality. “The effect of global warming is very evident in the world; climate is becoming less stable at an increasing rate. This will mean unprecedented phenomena of natural disasters, directly resulting in major insurance losses, famines and refugees” (Portney, 2003). Our reliance on fossil fuels for power generation and transportation and the resulting emission of greenhouse gases is heating up our atmosphere and making our climate unstable. The intensity and occurrence of severe weather events is increasing, and the associated worldwide economic losses are estimated to be US $150 billion in the next decade (Baldasano, Valera and E. Jimenez. 2003). Usage of water is also stressed, water is used for most tasks and it is often procured unsustainably. Severe water shortages will likely lower standard of living and public health for many of the world’s people. “It will lead to food shortages due to decreased agricultural production, damaged aquatic ecosystems, and the disappearance of estuaries. Building more water storage capacity not only poses a threat to regional peace; it is also a huge draw on financial and natural capital of many countries.” (Brown & Ulgiati 1999) Each of these situations represents challenges for environmental sustainable development.

Even though the challenges are present in implementing sustainable practice, just having an organization participating as a corporate citizen provides its share of opportunities. A good example of integrating social sustainability in the workplace is IBM. IBM is a good example of a corporate citizen in the communities; the company initiated a number of programs in order to help society. These activities include supporting various educational programs in order to improve quality of education, as well as allowing individuals to learn about information technologies