The Impact Of Environmental Performance On The Consumption Of Products / Services Essay

Businesses who participate in environmentally friendly practices will become more profitable. There are difficulties and costs that a business will face and profit takes time but is proven to positively impact a business. “The reluctance to address the forces that are polluting the planet always comes down to money (Smith, “6 Reasons Nations Don't Go Green.”). Implementing environmentally friendly practices within a company “will win them customers, and increase profits” (McDonald, “Why Do (or Don’t) Companies Go Green?”). Many global companies today carry out environmental management tools to adapt to environmentally friendly practices, which helps gain customers, and in turn becomes more profitable. In this paper, I will go into further detail explaining why businesses should be more environmentally friendly, the benefits to be gained, costs that come with being environmentally friendly, and management ways that help a company become environmentally friendly.

Many firms are learning that being environmentally friendly and sustainable has numerous benefits. (O.C Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, 2015). This could enable them to increase goodwill from various stakeholders and also save money in the long term. This will mean that they are being more efficient and less wasteful of resources, which will enable them to be more competitive by satisfying stakeholders. The CEO of

IKEA pursues sustainability in a big way which is why competitors could learn from their company. IKEA has a wide variety of products under its label. Today, 71% of all IKEA products are recyclable, made from recycled materials, and or both (A.Jefferies, 2009). In addition to this, Ikea recycles 84% of waste generated in its stores. IKEAs sustainability focuses on four components: products and materials, suppliers, climate change, and community involvement. IKEA bases

Kohl’s Department Stores has expanded its commitment to supply chain sustainability in 2012 to include analysis of 50 private brand vendors, as well as the company’s top 325 national brand vendors, which represents approximately 90 percent of the company’s merchandise spend. The company also surveyed 38 non-merchandise business partners in the areas of transportation and consumables, according to its newly released 2012 corporate social responsibility report. Kohl’s leverages these scores in key areas of sustainability to foster consistent dialogue and education and to help vendors establish their own programs and commitments.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the sustainability practices of two companies in the same industry. The two companies chosen for comparison are The Hershey Company and Coca-Cola Enterprises, both of which are in the consumer staples industry. These two corporations are ranked sixth and eighth, respectively, on the Newsweek Top Green Companies in the U.S 2015. They have taken pride in creating sustainable product designs, having environmentally sustainable processes and supply chain management.

I decided to do my research at Lowe’s Home and Improvement. Lowe’s Home and Improvement is a hardware store that sales everything from your basic household appliances to minor cleaning supplies. Lowe’s believes that in order to maintain great customer service they feel that they must follow these simple rules: Provide customers with environmentally-responsible products, packaging and services at everyday low prices, educate and engage employees, customers and others on the importance of conserving resources, reducing waste and recycling, review and communicate progress made toward achieving established goals and objectives, and to engage on public policy issues related to sustainability. In this report I will discuss how I observed two

ASDA are also helping their suppliers to improve their environmental impact through their ‘ASDA Sustain & Save Exchange’, and they are building a world class supplier base that sets the standard in terms of sustainability. The ASDA Sustain & Save Exchange’ is an online tool supported by live events, which is free for suppliers. This tool gives suppliers ideas and information which enables them to share best practice and identify opportunities for increasing resource efficiency. Their suppliers have made improvements in new and more efficient cold stores, tapping transformers to reduce energy use, to new LED lighting projects. ASDA (2015).

Cooperated with partners and leaders in the field of supply chains and transport, the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Logistics and Transportation started to conduct research on the supply chain. The report “Beyond Supply Chains Empowering Responsible Value Chains” analyses the impact that supply chain practices has brought to business, society and environment, and explores the issue how shared value can be made through better supply chain decisions. The report identifies “a set of 31 proven supply chain practices which provide companies with a blueprint of where they can gain both commercial and socio-environmental advantage (both environment and local economic development)—driving a triple advantage” (). In addition, the report “provides a framework for evaluating the potential value at stake behind each of these practices, and an implementation framework for

Marks and Spencer is one of the UK 's leading retailer business organisations. They have 21 million people visiting their stores each week. They sell clothing, home products, as well as food, responsibly sourced from around 2,000 suppliers globally. Their clothing and home ware sales account for 49% of their business while their food sales account for 51%. Now more than ever, they are also known for their green credentials as a result of their five-year eco plan, Plan A, which will see them, amongst other things, become carbon neutral and send no waste to landfill by 2012.

Sustainability has become a great topic of interest in many arenas. Particularly, leading organizations are recognizing sustainability needs to be an essential aspect of their long term strategies. With this recognition, better business practices are being sought by investors as well as sustainability is becoming a driving force for better efficiencies and innovation. Two organizations, Wal-Mart and Starbucks, have both took on sustainability as long term initiatives to address their customer needs and affect how their suppliers operate.

Imagining a world where all the resources are abundance: we get what we want, we create, we consume, and we destroy.

With the kick-off of The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) in 2008, Unilever has been focusing its business strategy on the need to develop solutions to some of the world’s deep social and environmental challenges. According Unilever (2014), the success of their business relies on finding sustainable solutions to support long-term growth. They target to double the size of the business while reducing the environmental footprint (Unilever, 2014). In 2013 Unilever launched the compressed deodorant aerosol spray technology, a sustainable solution which resulted in less impact to the environment. According to the LCA studies, if 1 million of people switched to compressed deodorants and assuming each person uses in average 5 units a year, there would be a reduction of 696 tonnes of CO2 in the air (Unilever, 2013). However, Unilever recognizes that to achieve great solutions there must be partnerships with both suppliers and customers; a complete value chain analysis (Unilever, 2014). Important to highlight that from a business point of view, Unilever experienced tremendous growth since they start their sustainability plan (Karlsson and Luttropp, 2006). Other companies are following a similar path on sustainability such as Colep. By supporting customers to achieve their objectives, Colep’s

(1) The supply chain managers should address the sustainability issues and should look at the entire supply

In today’s day and age, everyone is concerned about the environment. Our society is increasingly encouraged to “go green,” to do our part in making the world a cleaner, more eco-friendly place. Green marketing is one major strategy being used to promote such efforts, but is it effective? There is some debate about this concept, including the history of green marketing, the problems with green marketing so far, the effectiveness of marketing schemes like Sunchips and Toyota, and the strategies that could be used to increase the ability of green marketing. While protecting our planet is a noble concept, its execution seems to be a little vague. Of all the aspects concerning green marketing, one thing is clear: our planet still has a long

Success of an environmentally friendly supply chain will require an integration of efforts, such as reduction in transportation requirements, implementation of reverse logistics practices that are in harmony with environmental considerations, and an intuitive infrastructure which reduces adverse measures directly impacting the environment. The United States, being one of the top countries in leading eco-friendly supply chain, has a friendly supply chain aspiration for a company to be successful. Many other countries try to be correct in flourishing possible developments in producing consumer goods that will attract them to a large fairly straight forward company. Manufacturers, retailers, and companies in the hospitality sector are valuable contributors to a greener supply chain surround themselves with thousands of proponents, goods, and services that maintain a successful ecosystem. Wal-Mart is a powerful organization who has developed itself into the world’s largest retailer, eco-friendly, and supply chain company (Bonner, 2010). Becoming an eco-friendly supply chain managerial company, a company must focus their efforts reducing waste to nearly nothing, utilizing 100 percent renewable energy, and selling sustainable products. Apple, Inc, as well as, Wal-Mart, has focused their priorities on creating an eco-friendly supply chain that is competing with multiple factories throughout the world. By developing an eco-friendly