Business Practices and Business

¶ … 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. Big Businesses and Sustainability Big businesses are increasingly facing the need to be ecological and sustainable in their operations because of the extent with which their activities affect the environment.

Ranganathan (2013), states that these businesses continue to fall short of assuming the leadership responsibility and role on the urgently needed sustainability across the globe. Even though chief executives of these kinds of businesses have publicly recognized the need for sustainability and its significance for businesses, they are encountering numerous difficulties in ensuring their operations are above par in relation to sustainability.

Some of the reasons for failure of big businesses to be sustainable across their practices include non-compliance with environmental regulations, lack of effective internal policies and controls, lack of suitable sustainability tools, negligence, and ignorance. Despite these challenges, there are some big businesses that have adopted relatively suitable practices towards ensuring sustainable business practices. One of the measures undertaken by big businesses to be more sustainable and ecological in their operations is efficient use of resources like water and energy.

Energy use has been a major issue in sustainability because of the environmental harms of conventional energy production processes and plants. Additionally, the use of water has gained significant attention because of the impact of climate change on the world's ecosystems and depletion of natural resources. Consequently, big businesses have focused on efficient use of water and energy in order to become more sustainable and ecological. An example of a big business that has adopted such measures is BMW, which was ranked the world's most sustainable company this year (Dill, 2016).

Secondly, big businesses are successfully implementing green marketing practices because of the safety of environmentally-friendly products (Nadaf & Nadaf, 2014). In this case, big companies are increasingly focusing on manufacturing recyclable, non-toxic, and environmentally-friendly products. Green manufacturing is a newly adopted strategy and practice in the automotive industry to lessen greenhouse gases emissions and help companies in this industry be more sustainable and ecological.

For instance, Toyota and General Motors have adopted green manufacturing and other green operations practices to promote energy efficiency of their products and lessen emissions of environmentally harmful gases. Some of these green operations practices include eco-design, green supply chains, and green buildings (Nunes & Bennett, 2010). Third, big companies are gradually changing their current production means to adopt a green form of production (Miller, 2010). This is particularly evident in the automotive industry where companies like Toyota are slowly shifting their production measures to green form of production through eco-design.

In this case, these businesses are re-engineering or redesigning their production techniques to reflect the shift towards a green economy and green operations. The shift towards green production techniques is fueled by the need to lessen the carbon footprint and enable businesses to become sustainable and more ecological. 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.