Businesses and Organisations
Shortcuts and Solution Stimulators for
Business and Organisational
Environmental Goals and Methods:
Ecological competence in a sociological sense is based around the relationship that humans have formed with the environment. It is often important in certain careers that will have a drastic impact on the surrounding ecosystem. A specific example is engineers working around and planning mining operations, due to the possible negative effects it can have on the surrounding environment. Ecological competence is especially important at the managerial level so that managers may understand society's risk to nature. These risks are learned through specific ecological knowledge so that the environment can be better protected in the future.
Persuading your business or organisation- different levels of help:
Economic, environmental, social, and governance performance
Corporate Social Responsibility
The Triple Bottom Line
How connects with organisational plans, goals, policies, procedures
Business benefits of getting environmentally certified:
improved public perception, increased stakeholder confidence
increased competitive advantages
increased resource efficiency, improved operational efficiency, waste reduction, reduced business costs
environmental certification opening up new markets that the organisation did not previously qualify to tender for
new skills, innovation, new perspectives, improved internal controls
environmental and regulatory requirements are being met; beware greenwashing: pretending to be environmentally friendly or sustainable when in truth, not meeting standards
Sustainable business
Alternative fuels
Corporate accountability
Economic development
Ecotourism
Energy conservation
Green building
Pollution prevention
Social investing
Sustainable technology
Waste reduction
Water conservation
Thinking about stakeholders
Stakeholders could be all people and things that will or can be affected by business operations or that affect the operation of the business. They could be internal, external, entities, stakeholders or structures, although there is a longer list of suggestions below.
potential environmental and social impacts on stakeholders
requirements from stakeholders
Stakeholders could include
local, national, and global communities, cultures, society, affected groups
the environment itself; not in terms of deep ecology, but in terms of the top 10 local environmental priorities, such as not creating climate change, not causing noise pollution to residential areas, not affecting animals that everyone depends on, such as bees, not creating other serious environmental effects; how might practices affect the sea, land, air or water? How might practices affect resources like trees, gases, plants, the soil and minerals?
competitors
customers, the general public (local, national, global), communities
local, state and federal governments, government agencies
regulatory bodies/regulators and standard setting bodies
peak industry bodies
advisory bodies, consultants
investors, shareholders, creditors
trade unions
employees at all levels of the organisation, managers, supervisors
your suppliers/ supply chain
networking partners
other companies- industrial, commercial, private sector, public sector
other organisations
Sustainability reports that companies often publish include:
Corporate Social Responsibility reports
Sustainability reports
Social accounting and auditing reports
A sustainability report often contains things like information about economic, environmental, social and governance performance
These reports are intended to assure investors, employees and stakeholders that their investments and the organisation is ethical and contributes to sustainability, and to support advanced environmental management systems, policies and procedures
Please be aware of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, which apparently are the worldwide drivers for the quality of sustainability reports.
Also, apparently the largest database of corporate sustainability reports is on the website of the UN Global Compact Initiative website.
There is something called the ISO 14001:2015 standard, which is a guidance framework for Environmental Management Systems that you purchase that shows you best practices with creating a Environmental Management System. It apparently has a continuous improvement approach and gives information about how to apply sustainability into organisational policies, procedures, operations and culture. However, you would need to thoroughly research it for yourself before buying.
The ISO 14001:2015 shows you information applicable to improving resource efficiency, reducing waste and reducing related costs. It also apparently (you would need to research for yourself) show you information around environmental systems, audits, communications, labelling, life cycle analysis, environmental challenges such as climate change.
You would need to thoroughly research it for yourself, but it can apparently be used by all industry sectors including public sectors, private sectors, local governments, process industries, manufacturing industries, large multinational companies, single site companies, high risk to low risk service organizations, equipment manufacturers and their suppliers. But again- you would need to really thoroughly research it to find out if it’s relevant to you.
The ISO 14001:2015 offers certification, shows you the criteria applicable to an effective Environmental Management System and maps a framework for setting up an effective EMS for any organisation, regardless of its activity or sector.
Apparently they help organisations of all types to minimise negative effects of operations on the environment (e.g. adverse changes to air, water or land) and to support- compliance with regulations, legislations, other requirements and continuous improvement.
The idea is that over time, more and more business activities, processes, products, resources and emissions get managed by the Environmental Management System being implemented… Therefore, the business starts with what it can do, and then expands out over months and years until it is excellent at this. It also includes accumulating additional knowledge around the Environmental Management System.
The continuous improvement part of this is not focused on continuous improvement of products and services, but rather on the environmental consequences of products and activities.
There are several potential benefits to your organisation having an accredited Environmental Management System. The first part of this is knowing that you are helping something really needed but really neglected worldwide, because of the idea of ‘the tragedy of the commons’… you are improving your business around this.
The second part of this is that you get accredited, and this can be used to communicate with customers that you are a business acting for the social good, which can be included in your advertising and competitive advantage. A lot of potential buyers are interested if organizations help with environmental, social and good governance goals.
The third part is that employees and managers become aware that you are a business that is trying to help the world, which can mean that they become more motivated to help your business.
The fourth part is that external stakeholders become aware that you are a business that is trying to help the world (if you explain it to them in the right way) and could become more committed to helping you succeed.
The fifth part is the minimization of the risk of regulatory and environmental liability fines.
The sixth part is that you can potentially reduce costs through lower consumption of resources, increased waste reduction and increased organisational/operational efficiency.
The seventh part is not having environmental barriers to expanding your business- e.g. it could open up new markets that the business could not previously tender to.
The eighth part is a good framework for continuous improvement.
Important parts of communicating this to employees include
Why it is going to be implemented
What is going to be implemented
What the potential benefits are to the organisation, to stakeholders and to the environment
What the potential benefits are to employees and the organisation (e.g. helping sustainability and why sustainability matters)
An explanation of relevant regulations, legislation and compliance requirements
Time frames and strategies for implementation
Expected outcomes and KPIs
Support and resources that will be provided
Accreditation and what the organisation is doing to help with sustainability can be communicated to customers via methods such as:
Emails, newsletters, media releases
Social media
Networking activities
Annual reports
Web pages, etc.
