Personal and Institutional Consumption in Relation to the Environmental Footprint - Coursework Example

Heading: Business and Society Your name: Course name: Professors’ name: Date Personal and Institutional consumption in relation to the environmental footprint As a tertiary student, I was attached to an institution. After studying environmental footprint, I found out that the environmental footprint was very wide to be exhausted by human beings. However, my institution and I only occupied what was essential; the rest was left to other occupants. With very little consumption, utilization of the environmental footprint was only limited to a person’s area of occupation. Nevertheless with much research on what could be utilized, there was a finding that the environment could serve many people better than it did depending on how much it was utilized. Nature proved to be very rich; the knowledge on how to get the maximum out of it remained the greatest concern. Before I started the reflection, I had never thought of where the resources I consumed came from. Due to abundance of the natural resources, I was so naïve to assume that everything was self made. I often attach much credit to consumption and very little to knowing the process the products went through to be ready for my consumption. It was after reflection that I discovered that the environment played the bigger role in production before human beings processed them to finished resources. In a broad perspective, the land and the sea area provided resources enough for every occupant of the earth. They both could support life and other activities that could involve production. As a tertiary student, my consumption from the environment ranged from energy, food, shelter and water. My institution consumption consisted of all that I consumed plus things like building materials, land and bio-productive land (GFN, 2011). Through the resources, the institution was able to continuously meet the growing demands from students and the society around it. To ensure that the population’s needs got met, self reliance could have been one way to solving issues in supply and demand. The land had the capacity to be used for building as well as cultivation. Cultivation and tree planting could minimize underutilization and instead make the land more productive However, my institution’s consumption coupled with mine was only a small percentage of the total supply. There still remained a bigger room for more resource regeneration in the ecology. By only consuming energy generated from the environment, food produced from the land and water supplied from the sea, I at times felt we were either under utilizing or over utilizing the available resources. For example, on several occasions, I forgot to close the tap and switch off the lights while leaving the house. Due to lack of degeneration, the resources went to waste and affected supply to my neighbors. The wasted resources could have been spared to be spent by somebody else in the ever growing human population. According to Apple (2012), it was possible to minimize human impact on the environment. It only called for minimum consumption of materials, minimum use of available space, avoiding toxic production and being energy efficient and recyclable as possible. However this was not the case for me and my institution. As a student, surplus on everything was a sign of satisfaction. There was therefore so much wastage when I could not consume all I had at my disposal. I enjoyed being in the biggest room with enough space for reading, playing, eating, and resting. I ignorantly could not consider that all that space could be compressed to one small room and create room for another person. Despite the fact that the environment was so generous to give us the best in the institution, there were some deficits on social responsibility from both the institution and student’s fraternity. I got education from the institution hosted by the environment and the institution made profits courtesy of the environment. With all that, my institution and I still participated in creating a negative impact to the environment. Emissions of toxic products from institution’s experiments and procedure, releasing dirty water into the rivers and emitting carbon gasses into the atmosphere were just a few of them. Otherwise research showed that, resources like dirty water could be recycled for better use in things like farming and washing. In the reflective exercise, I saw a great importance in remembering that long after I am gone, other people would need the environment. There was therefore a need for me and my institution to be committed to preserving the environment from which we got all that we needed. What I identified as my ideal targets after completing the Career workbook, “Developing a work target” I must admit that I had never given a thought on having a career workbook, leave alone completing one. To be able to complete the work book, I first asked myself if I was in the right field of which I confirmed I was. Through developing a work target, I discovered that a career workbook is what I had lacked despite my high hopes in my career. Completing it made me realize the importance of planning and strategizing on the development of my career. It made me identify areas that could have lead to my failure if I had not taken time to look at my targets. Through it I managed to develop focus and much care on my professional choices. Before completing the career workbook, I was so sure of my long term goal. The goal was to working full time in the business field as a service to the society. With such a great goal, the career workbook proved the approach as a wrong one and recommended a change of approach. The initial approach lacked planning since all I wanted was to clear school, start looking for a place to work and move on. I was ready to work in any field at the beginning with hopes of catching up with my career latter. I never considered having a specific kind of an employer with specific management procedures; all I would go out looking for was a potential employer. Career workbook came in to challenge me to plan and be sure of what I wanted. It also laid a very great importance in laying strategies on how to arrive at the goal and proved that it was possible. MSH (2006) idea of breaking the bigger objective into smaller objectives got so informative at the planning stage. My bigger objective was to work in the private sector with an employee capacity of not more than 500 as a business analyst. My ideal employer was one who will promote personal and career growth and will be willing to offer a good salary package for the employees. To locate one needed planning and o good research. I therefore looked at the available resources, the challenges I could meet while looking for such an employer and the amount of time I had to finish the process. After completing the work book, my immediate target was to get great results that would boast my profile in the job market. Since target companies were the growing kind, they needed high performing and dynamic personalities. I did my personality test which enlightened me in the kind of a person I am. This helped me in making informed decisions on the kind of management I would work best with. I managed to understand what my priorities were by putting consideration on the status and reputation of the organization more than the environment. I knew with a good reputation, the management would definitely be done professionally while promoting ethics. To achieve my targets, time management from student level to professional level was a factor to consider. As a student I had to be committed to follow the cause to the end if I was to succeed in my career. At that point a schedule was the only way out since the research was to take place. I came up with a daily schedule on how to locate the companies with my ideal kind of values. My basic values still remained an employer who offers equal opportunities to all and esteems the customer as the key stakeholder in the business. Every day I would tick what I was able to achieve and plan on how to catch up with the deficit was put in place to ensure I kept track of what I was doing (MSH, 2006). Answering questions in the career workbook helped me discover that my target of doing business as a service to the community was achievable. It gave me an idea of who to work with and how to work. Research has become part of me since I still try to get more information on whom and how to go about it. It’s helped me to focus on my life target of being an employer and the wealthiest person in the society. Through my wealth, I will not only be able to meet my needs but also the needs of the people around me. I am therefore certain that I will be able to achieve my targets not only in my career but also in life. After reading Platts’s and Provis’s articles, do you think you will have any ethical issues in working as professional in the global workplace? According to Riley (2012), one cannot declare to be ethical if he/ she do not consider the unethical issues around them. Having read Platts’s and Provis’s, I believe working for the society while upholding professional values, would not have much ethical issues in the global workplace. By the time I will be getting into the job market, I would have gathered enough information through research on what the society expects of me. My profession being one among many that promotes direct economic growth, I will endeavor to work responsibly in my area of specialization to ensure that the economy remains intact. Though there are some facts about global workplace that I may not be able to handle alone, I will endeavor to do my level best in my area, believing that there are other professionals doing the same. I want to believe I will rise to management in a very short time. In whichever position I will be, I target to train people on good business practices which are essential for business growth. I aim at attaining competence to attract trust from both fellow employees and society by transmitting understanding in every person who will work under me (Platts, Jim 2003 The greatest concern at the moment is how I will be able to maintain professionalism without getting involved in issues like corruption and nepotism. This two are the huddles that dominate the global market. I understand that failure to handle the two issues would lead to serious credibility issues in my career. This may in turn affect my future career development since they can lead to losing a job. However, I will try all that will be within my power to avoid corruption and nepotism so that my credibility and that of the company would get protected (Provis 2004, pp. 2). I will venture into being different by practicing what is ethically right even if the society around may not approve that. I am not ignorant of the times when even as a junior employee; favors could be allotted to me innocently. There could be external pressures that could affect my ethical standards, but among them there will be situations when I will be quite aware that the favors could be related to some corrupt deals. Never the less I will purpose to maintain clean relationships that will not be based on any favors but pure professional grounds. By considering efficiency levels required by my profession and the possible problems one could get into if unethically involved, ethically right professionalism still remains the better option. I would not like to cross paths with the law on grounds of corruption and nepotism since both are criminal offences. References Apple 2012, The story behind Apple’s environmental footprint, Viewed 7 Jan 2012, http://www.apple.com/environment/ GFN 2011, Footprint Basics- overview, Global Footprint Network Advancing the Science of Sustainability, Viewed 7 Jan 2012, http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFn/page/footprint_basics_overview/ MCH 2006, Developing Short-Term Targets Management Sciences for Health, Viewed 7 Jan 2012, http://erc.msh.org/mainpage.cfm?file=2.2.3h.htm&module=planning&language=English Plattis & Jim (2003), ‘Developing Competence and Trust: Maintaining the Heart of a Professional’, Professional Ethics: S Multidisciplinary Journal, Vol. 11, no 1, pp. 3-18. Provis, C 2004, ‘Guanxi, Relationships and Ethics’ Paper submitted to the International Society of Business, Economics, and Ethics, Third World Congress, University of Melbourne, Australia, July 14-17, 2004. Riley, Jim 2012, Ethical issues and Example,Tutor2, Viewed 7 Jan 2012, http://tutor2u.net/business/strategy/business-ethics-issues.html Read More