Sustainability - Corporate Social Responsibility: Black Milk - Assignment Example

Sustainability - Corporate Social ResponsibilityPart 1: Select an organization (have knowledge with) and look at the organization in terms of a mid-level business manager's seat of duty/responsibility within the organization. Identify what you could do today to help support the organization become more modern in its approach to become more socially and environmentally responsible.Black Milk is an Australia-based company that operates in apparel retail industry. The company manufactures clothes in Australia and sells it online to consumers from all over the world.

The Black Milk company is actively developing its sales internationally, facing fierce competition with other retailers. Currently, the company is not committed to social and environmental responsibility. Black Milk has not yet integrated the principles of Corporate Social Responsibility. Therefore, the company needs to analyse and evaluate how its social and environmental efforts will be aligned with its corporate strategy, to prioritise potential activities and to develop a plan of different initiatives.

As the company operates in the apparel industry and is involved in manufacturing it is important to ensure that the negative environmental impact from production operations is reduced. The company may undertake different initiatives and participate in different voluntary programs that aim to protect the nature and local environment. In addition to the environmental initiatives the company may undertake social intiatives as wel aiming thus to contribute positively to the lives of local community or a specific category of people/communities.

This could be donations, educational programs, financial support, etc. Once there are identified potential activities, the company needs to develop a strategy and tactics of how better to implement it. It is important to track and measure positive contribution and communicate the results to public, media and other stakeholders either through the website or in stand-alone sustainability report. Part 2 : Review the Global Reporting Initiative website (https://www.globalreporting.org/) and identify ways that would help this organization emerge as a sustainable player among its organizational peers.

Illustrate what you would do to make this happen. In order to help the organization emerge as a sustainable player among its organizational peers the company should focus not only on economic but also on environmental and social factors. The company may complete the voluntary sustainability report based on the company’s goals and priorities. This sustainability report will illustrate the firm’s commitment to business sustainability and readiness to report on economic, environmental, and socially sustainable aspects (Fulton and Lee, 2013).

Social responsibility may cover diferent subcategories, including: society, human rights, labor practices, product responsiblitiy, and decent working conditions (Global Reporting Initiative, n.d.). Black Milk company may start with ensuring decent working conditions and labor practices. Apparel industry also has raised several major environmental concerns such as use of non-renewable resources and hazardous chemicals, as well as waste generation (Kozlowski et al., 2015). In terms of social concerns, there are more often raised issues with labor practices and conditions in apparel suppy-chains (Kozlowski et al., 2015). Nowadays, many apparel brands address these and many other relevant issues.

Black Milk company may focus on such sustainability relates issues as: use of organic and recycled materials, reduction of water and energy consumption, decrease of water pollution and reduction and reduction of product waste (Kozlowski et al., 2015). For this purpose, the company needs to evaluate the whole process of supply chain management starting with design of an apparel item and finishing with labelling and shipment of garments (Fulton and Lee, 2013).References:Fulton, K. and Lee, S. (2013), ‘Assessing sustainable initiatives of apparel retailers on the internet’, Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 17 (3), pp. 353-366.Global Reporting Initiative (n.d.), ‘G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines’, Reporting Principles and standard disclosures.

Retrieved from https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/g4/Pages/default.aspxKozlowski, A., Searcy, C., and Bardecki, M. (2015), ‘Corporate sustainability reporting in the apparel industry’, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 64 (3), pp. 377-397.