Environmental sustainability challenges in large corporations

¶ … Big Businesses Sustainable?

Sustainable practices based on environmental regulations have been a concern for businesses, especially big businesses, in the past few decades. The significance of sustainable business practices has gained traction in the past few decades because of the enactment of regulations that seek to promote environmentally friendly practices by businesses. Countries across the world, especially developed countries, have been enacting laws that seek to help streamline business operations towards preventing and controlling environmental pollution. However, the significance of environmental sustainability in business operations has become vital in recent years (Stephenson & Rodriquez, 2012). This is largely attributed to the increase in social pressures for environmentally friendly and sustainable business operations. Despite these attempts, there are concerns on whether big businesses are environmentally sustainable.

Importance of Environmental Sustainability in Business Practices

As previously mentioned, environmental sustainability has become a buzz word and an important aspect of successful and profitable business operations. Given social pressures and the negative impacts of business activities on global climate, environmental sustainability is regarded as one of the most important components towards realization of business goals and objectives. Business organizations in the modern business environment are required to not only focus on profits but also take care of the communities where they operate through environmentally friendly activities and practices. Chief executives and finance chiefs are increasingly acknowledging the need to incorporate sustainability into their business models and practices (Ranganathan, 2013).

Sustainability is an important aspect for businesses because it enables them to be socially responsible through addressing environmental concerns using suitable strategies. In this case, sustainability is not only good for the business but also generates numerous benefits for the society and the environment (Miller, 2010). In light of recent environmental concerns, sustainability is crucial for businesses because of the need to address global warming by lessening the emissions of greenhouse gases. Climate change, which has emerged as a major environmental issue in the recent past, is brought by greenhouse gases emissions from production processes associated with big companies. Consequently, the most suitable measure for addressing this environmental problem and dealing with climate change is adopting sustainable business strategies and practices.

Unsustainable Big Businesses

Even though most of the leading companies and businesses are increasingly adopting sustainable business practices, there are some that are not sustainable. As previously indicated, there are several reasons for environmentally unsustainable business practices by some big companies including negligence or ignorance. One of the big companies that are not environmentally sustainable is Volkswagen, which has adopted strategies that do not necessarily lessen its emissions of greenhouse gases. In 2015, Volkswagen was caught cheating in emissions tests through making its cars look significantly less polluting than they actually are (Greener, 2015). Secondly, some big businesses are not sustainable because they do not comply with environmental regulations across their operations. Some big companies like Volkswagen have found it more beneficial to cheat systems rather than comply with environmental rules.

Third, some big businesses are not sustainable because of environmental pollution throughout their operations. For instance, AES which recently joined the U.S. Climate Action Partnership is a huge environmental polluter (Yarow, 2009). Additionally, some big companies have failed to enact suitable and effective policies and strategies towards environmentally friendly practices. Some of these companies have blamed the relative lack of coherent regulation and intrinsic nature of their operations as the reasons for their unsustainable business practices.

In conclusion, environmental sustainability is an issue that has obtained significant concerns and focus in the recent past because of global climate change that continues to affect the world's ecosystems. Big businesses have recognized the need for sustainability because of the level with which their operations affect the environment. Some of sustainability measures adopted by these companies include lessening emissions and carbon footprint, shifting towards green production, and adopting green marketing practices. However, some big businesses are not sustainable because of negligence, lack of suitable internal controls, non-compliance with environmental laws, and relative lack of coherent regulations to govern their operations. Therefore, while significant gains have been made to help ensure big businesses are sustainable, more initiatives are required to prevent them from engaging in environmentally harmful practices and operations.