Environmental Business Practices of Greggs - Essay Example

?Responsibility Audit Report Table of Contents Introduction 3 2. Examining the Business Practices of Greggs 4 2 Environmental Business Practicesof Greggs 4 2.2 Business Practices of Greggs towards the Major Groups of Stakeholder 6 3. Explaining and Ranking the Most Responsible Practice of Greggs 8 3.1 Other Responsible Practices of Greggs 9 4. Conclusion and Recommendations 13 5. References 15 1. Introduction Founded in the year 1939, Greggs plc (Greggs) is viewed to be one of the renowned names and the biggest bakery chains in the UK business market. Headquartered in Newcastle, England, UK, the organisation currently operates with more than 1671 numbers of outlets across overseas subsidiaries from its own 10 regional bakeries. Moreover, Greggs employ over 20,000 numbers of employees ranging from its retail outlets, savoury production units and the entire supply chain management networks that are located in different regions in the UK and other global destinations (Greggs plc, 2012). According to the past financial performance of Greggs, the organisation can be apparently observed to attain considerable growth in terms of gaining better financial results from its different bakery and savoury foods production units. Moreover, the company gained better business reputation for its exceptional roles emphasising serving towards the environment and the customers as well (1Greggs plc, 2013). With regard to the current business portfolio of the organisation, this essay aims to critically examine the business practices of Greggs regarding its contribution made towards the environment, demonstrating responsible corporate behaviour. Additionally, the essay would also analyse the ethical practices that perform by the organisation along with its other responsible acts that enabled it to accomplish superior competitive position. In this regard, the essay also tends to suggest effective business practices ensuring enhancing the efficiency of the responsible acts that perform by the organisation and most vitally refurbishing its leading position in delivering environmental and customer based practices in the respective business industry. 2. Examining the Business Practices of Greggs 2.1 Environmental Business Practices of Greggs In relation to the present business performance of Greggs, the organisation has been recognised to operate huge number of bakery and savoury production units across different parts of the UK. Currently, Greggs tends to manufacture its range of bakery items and savoury products through its well-developed production units and delivers quality based products through its wide supplying networks. In this similar context, the organisation also ensures its existence within different locations such as high streets, commercial and business places, universities and other local shopping parades across different locations of the UK (Greggs plc, 2012). It is worth mentioning that Greggs tends to comply with strong environment protection policies and regulations while practicing its wide bakery production and delivery related operations. In relation to the business practices of Greggs, it can be affirmed that the formulation of several strong along with effective environment protection policies might lessen unfavourable impacts that are imposed upon the environment. Although the organisation is viewed to impose considerable impact on the environment through its wide range of production and supply operations, it also tends to perform a responsible role in terms of encouraging wellbeing of each community across the UK (1Greggs plc, 2013). With respect to the recent environmental related practices of Greggs, the formulation of effective environment protection strategies have significantly empowered the organisation to minimise its potential impacts on the environment. In this regard, the organisation has also been observed to maintain its effective operational control and management in terms of using natural resources and protecting them from any sort of hazard. The various initiatives of the organisation such as the usage of fossil fuel, water and waste in its range of retail outlets and manufacturing plants can be duly considered as the major environmental based business practices of Greggs. Moreover, the continuous discharge of effluents along with refrigeration of carbon emissions that conduct by the organisation can also be taken into concern in terms of playing a responsible practice on the environment. In relation to the environmental protection related operations, a broader range of effective measures have been performed by Greggs in order to measure and effectively deal with direct carbon footprints on the environment (3Greggs plc, 2013). During the period 2011-2012, one of the major initiatives adopted by Greggs is lessening carbon footprints on the environment. This can be regarded as an effective set of practice, which eventually diminishes the unfavourable impact imposed over the environment. In this similar context, the company has estimated to reduce up to 25% of carbon footprint from each of its retail outlet within the year 2015. Greggs achieved 5% and 5.6% in the year 2010 and 2011 respectively in reducing carbon footprints that generate from its different bakeries and retail shops. Although the company faced certain difficulties on maintaining its continuous reduction of carbon footprints in the year 2012 i.e. 5%, the supply chain operations of Greggs have reduced 7.4% carbon in terms of delivering bakeries to diversely located retailing points (2Greggs plc, 2013; 3Greggs plc, 2013). Moreover, Greggs also increased its efficiency in diverting waste from landfills. From the recent performance of the organisation, it has been proactively identified that the company diverted its 80% waste to the recycling routes throughout the year 2012. In this similar context, the organisation has also been identified to encourage similar interests towards mitigating issues associated with water emission. In the year 2012, Greggs has donated net proceeds of ?24,000 to the South East Wales Rivers Trust in order to ensure its relevant and responsible practice of saving water from different emission related concerns (3Greggs plc, 2013). 2.2 Business Practices of Greggs towards the Major Groups of Stakeholder Despite the continuous effort of refurbishing environmental impacts, the business practices of Greggs also determine to build strong relationship with the major groups of stakeholders belonging to the company. In relation to the organisational activities intending towards building strong and effective relationship with the major stakeholder groups, Greggs tends to perform effectual business practices particularly with the customers, staff members, investors and other group of stakeholders. These have been elaborately discussed in the following. 2.2.a. Business Practices towards Customers With regard to the business practices of Greggs, recognising customers’ needs as well as their desired expectation can be duly considered as one of the primary reasons for Greggs to achieve continuous success in the UK business market. The business practices of Greggs are highly focused on providing adequate service to each group of customer, which eventually supported the organisation to gain substantial leverage over its major competitors. In order to maintain and raise customer base, the organisation tends to ensure effective personal services on selecting appropriate products in accordance with their actual needs and desires. Moreover, the organisation also persistently review its range of products in order to ensure adequate quality, tastes and value for each individual items offered through the retail distribution outlets. The continuous research programmes relating to the changing food habits can also be considered as a major strategy of Greggs to meet the ultimate needs and expectations of the customers. The company also ensures to resolve customers’ queries associated with products and/or services through its advanced utilisation of online and web-based media channels (4Greggs plc, 2012). 2.2.b. Business Conducts with Staff Members The internal operations of Greggs generally involve effective working culture, which leads the organisation to successfully attain its desired business objectives. The Human Resource (HR) policies of the organisation ensure promoting equalities of the staff members regardless their designation, gender, race and other variables. The company also tends to provide equal opportunities for the Person with Disabilities (PWDs) within its employment policy. Additionally, the HRM department of the organisation also ensures to provide adequate training and experience gaining sessions to its employees not only to increase their productivity but also to promote continuous development of their personal growth (5Greggs plc, 2012). 2.2.c. Role Towards the Investors More significantly, the business policies of Greggs also incorporate adequate values to each group of investors associated with the financial success of the company. In order to maintain its strong investor base, the business strategies of the organisation have long been witnessed to play a pivotal role in preserving its leading position in the respective industry. The strategies associated with greater return on investments (ROI) significantly encourage the organisation to obtain greater number of stakeholders across the overall UK market. Additionally, the environmental and the community developmental strategies of Greggs can further be stated as the most successive tools, assisting the organisation towards developing its operational efficiency as compared to other bakery and savoury production firms (4Greggs plc, 2012). 3. Explaining and Ranking the Most Responsible Practice of Greggs With reference to the critical observation of different environmental and other stakeholder based business practices of Greggs, it can be affirmed that the organisation tends to focus upon demonstrating responsible corporate behaviour. The in-depth analyses of the business practices that perform by Greggs typically demonstrate two major initiatives including environmental initiatives and its roles towards the internal along with the external stakeholders. In this regard, the initiatives associated with environmental contexts can be considered as one of the pivotal practices leading to provide substantial benefits to the organisation. The greater initiatives towards reducing carbon footprints as well as continuous development of the communities have been widely accepted towards the long-term achievements of Greggs in the UK bakery industry. With regard to the environmental responsibilities of Greggs, the company can also be recognised to implement immediate measures in reducing harmful impacts that are imposed on the community. Moreover, the continuous striving efforts in reducing carbon footprints have also enabled the company to be certified as fully compliance with Carbon Trust Standard. In this regard, the commitment of taking adequate measures regarding the reduction of emissions from its bakeries, stores and supply chain operations has significantly enabled the company to become one of the organisations performing most responsible practices. Additionally, the organisation also tends to perform environment rehabilitation projects by alliancing with different external organisations. In this context, the strong alignment of the activities associated with Carbon Disclosure Project can be duly considered as one of the effective and responsible practices of Greggs towards measuring carbon footprints in line with protecting the environment (5Greggs plc, 2012). Correspondingly, the activities associated with building strong relationship with the major stakeholders including customers, member staffs and investors among others can also be taken into concern as a crucial set of business practices perform by Greggs. These practices play an imperative role for Greggs not only in increasing the brand value but also ensuring in meeting its predetermined business objectives (5Greggs plc, 2012). 3.1 Other Responsible Practices of Greggs Based on the above analysis, it can be apparently observed that the organisation perform several responsible practices towards continuous improvement of the environment. Moreover, the business activities of the organisation also ensure to empower its capability in accumulating greater market share in the overall UK business market (5Greggs plc, 2012). With respect to the organisational values, Greggs has long been recognised to incorporate adequate ethical behaviour in order to accomplish its internal along with external business goals. The organisation upholds high ethical principles across its each operation in line with the core values and business conduct policies (6Greggs plc, 2012). 3.1.a. Ethical Practices The focus on performing ethical practices can be duly regarded as one of the major attributes of an organisation in terms of building long-term sustainability in any specific business market. In relation to theoretical assumptions, the term ‘ethics’ signify moral judgement of an individual or group with respect to their different actions. The adequate compliance of ethical conducts ensures an organisation to gain its sustainability and enable it to attract number of stakeholder groups including, customers, suppliers, investors, communities and employees (Business Case Studies LLP, 2013). The ‘Ethical Sourcing Policy’ of Greggs ensures to make the purchasing decisions responsibly as well as ethically in terms of performing each commercial activity as per legal norms and regulations. The aforesaid policy also determines that the supply chain requirements are made and delivered to the manufacturing plants in an ethical manner, which further ensure to avoid abuse or exploitation with respect to people, environment and animals. The company seeks to source the required raw materials including ingredients, food along with other consumables in accordance with the core organisational values (7Greggs plc, 2012). In order to promote continuous development of the organisation, Greggs tends to promote few key areas in order to meet the objectives of its ‘Ethical Sourcing Policy.’ A few of these have been briefly demonstrated hereunder. Supplier Relationship In order to build strong relationship with the suppliers, the business practices of Greggs always seek to value the role and contribution made by each supplier across the different UK business markets. Moreover, the organisation also maintains the notion of equality and ensures to conduct fairness trade through avoiding abuse or exploitation in terms of achieving commercial advantages. The company also ensures to uphold adequate fair terms and conditions regarding the payments and also considers the potential influences on the performance of each of its suppliers (7Greggs plc, 2012). Local Sourcing Supporting local communities along with other groups and/or individual is one of the major ethical practices of Greggs while performing its range of business operations in different UK markets. The local sourcing function of the company incorporates sourcing of quality based food items, ingredients along with other required services from local suppliers and companies. Moreover, sourcing from the local and national suppliers is a major preference of Greggs for delivering quality based bakery foods and other savoury products as per the desired taste of the customers (7Greggs plc, 2012). Quality The quality of each food item including bakery and savoury products are ethically measured and ensure to maintain health and wellness of each individual customer. In order to persistently maintain the ethical standards, the production processes of Greggs are highly focused on avoiding the use of artificial colours, Trans Fats or any type of hydrogenated ingredient. Moreover, the products produced by the organisation also ensure to avoid raw materials from Genetically Modified (GM) ingredients (7Greggs plc, 2012). Animal Welfare The concern of animal welfare is a major attribute of Greggs in terms of making its range of quality based bakery foods and saviour items. In this context, it has been widely observed that the company tends to comply with the policies stated by the EU’s Directives in terms of sourcing various types of food ingredients including eggs, beef and pork among others. Moreover, the procurement of different food ingredients is also protected with the policies in accordance with the present legislation and international farming standards (7Greggs plc, 2012). Thus, the above discussed responsible practices that conduct by Greggs can be ranked as quite superior in comparison with its chief business market competitors. 4. Conclusion and Recommendations After conducting an in-depth analysis about the business practices of Greggs, it has been critically identified that the organisation plays a decisive role not only in providing quality based bakery foods and savoury products to the customers, but also ensures conducting responsive acts towards the environment. In relation to protect the environment, number of initiatives has been taken by the organisation in order to reduce the unfavourable impacts of its carbon footprints upon the environment. Moreover, it has also been identified that the company ensures to make continuous development of its environmental policies and practices to promote the refurbishment of the environment. In relation to the business practices associated with the staff members, the organisational policy of Greggs can be viewed promoting equality along with providing opportunities to each employee relating to personal growth. Additionally, the organisation also tends to ensure complying strong ethical guidelines in order to avoid various sorts of abuse and exploitation regarding its conduct of wide range of business practices. In order to increase the efficiency of the business practices, certain essential measures can be suggested that would eventually make Greggs more responsible towards performing effective practices in the UK bakery industry. In order to increase the efficiency of the environmental and ethical policies, the continuous promotion of the organisational activities including environment protection measures and their rehabilitation programs would bring adequate insight towards Greggs’ continuous success. In this context, the organisation should need to focus on continuously disclosing various sustainable practices through its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports with the stakeholder groups in a more transparent and comprehensive manner. This strategy would influence the stakeholders to provide active support to the organisation in addressing along with mitigating environmental related concerns. Moreover, the ethical practices that perform by Greggs should also need to consider the nutritional needs and the requirements of different customer segments. In this regard, the organisation should seek to procure adequate information and queries of each potential consumer across the different UK markets where it operates. This particular strategy would further enable Greggs to increase its value and attain superior competitive position as compared to other marketers in the similar business industry. 5. References Business Case Studies LLP, 2013. The Importance of Ethics in Business. Ethical business Practices: A Cadbury Schweppes Case Study. [Online] Available at: http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/cadbury-schweppes/ethical-business-practices/the-importance-of-ethics-in-business.html#axzz2niE5RK7A [Accessed December 16, 2013]. Greggs plc., 2012. Company Overview. About Greggs. [Online] Available at: http://corporate.greggs.co.uk/company-overview [Accessed December 16, 2013]. 1Greggs plc., 2013. Environment. Social Responsibility. [Online] Available at: http://corporate.greggs.co.uk/environment [Accessed December 16, 2013]. 2Greggs plc, 2013. 2011 Targets and Achievements. Environment. [Online] Available at: http://corporate.greggs.co.uk/2011-tagets-and-achievements/ [Accessed December 16, 2013]. 3Greggs plc, 2013. 2012 Targets and Achievements. Environment. [Online] Available at: http://corporate.greggs.co.uk/2012-targets-and-achievements/ [Accessed December 16, 2013]. 4Greggs plc, 2012. Customer Care. About Greggs. [Online] Available at: http://corporate.greggs.co.uk/customer-care [Accessed December 16, 2013]. 5Greggs plc, 2012. Greggs Annual Report & Accounts 2012. Building Our Brand. [Online] Available at: http://corporate.greggs.co.uk/assets/Uploads/GREGGS-18035-AR2012-Web.pdf [Accessed December 16, 2013]. 6Greggs plc, 2012. Business Conduct Policy. Policies. [Online] Available at: http://corporate.greggs.co.uk/business-conduct-policy/ [Accessed December 16, 2013]. 7Greggs plc, 2012. Ethical Sourcing Policy. Social Responsibility. [Online] Available at: http://corporate.greggs.co.uk/ethical-sourcing-policy-2/ [Accessed December 16, 2013]. Read More