Sustainability Into Research the Concept

¶ … Sustainability into Research The concept of sustainability has had a strong effect on the way companies and corporations manage their operations, personnel and finances. Improving environmental efficiencies is beneficial for a company not just because of the reduced impact on the natural world, but also because of the potential for the business to cut costs and save money.

The same rings true for a business student: by researching and studying with a focus on sustainability, students can save both money and the environment; will benefit from improved, sustainable technology; and will be part of a movement that can reshape the earth's nature and climate. In the world of business and economics, the bottom line is God. Be it a small-town toy store or a million-employee bank, every company wants to maximize its revenue through increased income and decreased expenses.

By following a model of sustainability, companies can accomplish both of these goals: revenues will increase as environmentally-conscious consumers purchase more of the business' products, and costs will drop due to more efficient use of the ever-limited resources available (Werbach, 2009). This will, in turn, lead to a sustainable business that can last longer in the market and deliver profits to its owners, pay checks to its employees, and services to its community.

While current business students do not have a company's bottom line to worry about, they still have personal finances to keep in order, and are always concerned about spending too much, especially if they are also working with loans or a limited savings account. Because of this, a great way to sell the idea of sustainability to students is to tap into the processes and systems that they use frequently and change the costs associated with sustainable and unsustainable practices.

For example, the cost of printing out a .pdf file, which would normally only be used for reading, could be increased, to discourage students from wasting paper in order to read a document available on computer screens. At the same time, the university could invest in high-quality computer screens that are easy to read off of and create little glare. This will save students the cost of printing off materials, while also saving on the amount of paper wasted in the school.

In addition, providing more books and resources online, instead of in a traditional library, will cut back on paper usage and waste. The failure to initialize this "modernization" will have severe negative effects, the largest of which will be a limited access to research materials. Library supplies are an excellent resource, but there is far more information available on online databases and journals. These online resources, however, can only exist as long as there is a demand from students and professors, and schools continue to pay for them (Williams, 2010).

Staying with the traditional library form of paper-bound books will result in less funds being allocated to online databases, which would in turn cut off revenue and limit the database's expansion; e-journals will not be able to pay for as many articles, and would suffer as well. Thus, by ignoring the need for sustainability in research, schools and faculties will be hurting themselves and their students. Clearly, sustainability is too important -- for the environment, for business and for society -- to be ignored.

Businesses that employ effective sustainable practices will see an increase in revenue, while.