Sustainable Development for the Gorilla Health Bar Limited - Case Study Example

Sustainable development report for the Gorilla Health Bar Limited Student name Student’s ID. Class number Lectures name 1. 0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1.1. Purpose Gorilla Health Bars limited in the recent years has faced a decrease in their profit margin. This is because the company does not focus on Social sustainability issues. This report provides sustainable recommendations to the Gorilla Health Bars limited. There is need for the company to incorporate social responsibility initiatives in their operations. The report seeks to analyze the current situation of the company and provides relevant solutions to the problems faced by the company. The report aims at assisting the GHB to integrate more sustainable approaches by taking advantages of the recommendations of corporate strategies. 1.2. Scope of investigation Relevant information for the report is obtained from other companies who take into consideration sustainable issues, additionally, books and academic journals will also be useful resources. 1.3. Methodology The methods used in completing this report entails studying and analyzing of the mentioned sources and encompassing reports from the company focusing on the sustainability of the company. 1.4. Key Findings The Gorilla Health Bars has recently put more emphasis on relevant ways of improving their reputation and obtaining more profits in the long run. Adopting sustainable activities in the environment will assist Gorilla Health Bar to benefit culturally, socially and economically which actually has been their main objective. As argued by a study by Schaltegger (2010) sustainability issues develop opportunities for success for a business. In their attempt to improve the general operation system for the company, GHB should consider the relevant cost that is needed for effective implementation of social suitable activities. Through the implementation of the sustainable development issues, the company will be able to attract more consumers and the employees would be compelled to improve their morale in their operations in the company. 1.5. Conclusion and Recommendations Concerning the available information, Gorilla Health Bars should find relevant ways of implementing sustainable initiatives within their premises to help the company prosper in the future. The company should be aware of all the benefits that come from sustainable development and find it adequate to implement the strategy. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0. Executive Summary 1.1. Purpose……………………………………………………………………………………2 1.2. Scope of investigation……………………………………………………………………..2 1.3. Methodology……………………………………………………………………………….3 1.4. Key findings……………………………………………………………………………….3 1.5. Conclusion and Recommendations ……………………………………………………….3 2. Introduction Background………………………………………………………………………………….4 Defining the problem……………………………………………………………………..…4 Overall purpose of the report……………………………………………………………….4 Definition of sustainability and its importance to corporations……………………………4 Overview of the report structure………………………………………………………...…5 3. Findings and Discussions 3.1. High electricity bills………………………………………………………………………5 3.2. High water consumption………………………………………………………………….6 4.3. Transportation cost………………………………………………………………………..7 5. Recommendations…………………………………………………………………………..8 6. References…………………………………………………………………………………..10 2. 0 INTRODUCTION Background Gorilla Health Bars is a Victoria-based company that uses cereals, fruits and nuts to produce healthy snacks. The company was founded in 2011. In the recent years, the company has been recording constant decreases in their profits. The company has enabled their market or the consumers to obtain healthy eating habits by focusing on healthy eating. Defining the problem The major problem that Gorilla Health Bars is facing due to lack of sustainability is the drain of the company’s financial resources due to the excessive energy consumption, transport cost and water consumption costs. Such occurances are a significant challenge to the company. These issues have made the company to reduce their profit margin and therefore calling for more sustainable recommendations. Overall purpose of the report The report aims at identifying the problems facing the Gorilla Health Bars limited, which is a lack of sustainability in their operations. The report further seeks to provide relevant recommendations on how the company can eliminate the problem within its premises. Definition of sustainability and a summary of the importance of sustainable practice for corporations Sustainability also regarded as corporate sustainability is the ability of the business organization to manage and coordinate environmental, financial and social demands and concerns to obtain ethical, responsible and achieve success in their operations (Blowfield, 2012). Through sustainable practice, the business corporations can improve the confidence of their employees. Corporations that respond to the demands of sustainability are highly targeted by investors. Ethical activities within the corporations improve the competitiveness of the corporation encouraging growth and accumulation of more profit margins (Grünewälder, 2009). E. Overview of the report structure Identify main problems that Gorilla Health Bars is facing Examining the meaning of sustainability Addressing how the company can benefit from sustainable practice Proposing relevant strategies that can be used to improve sustainability within the organization. 3. 0 Findings and Discussions 3.1. Electricity bills The research found out that the electricity bills were very high based on the fact that the building was constructed using corrugated iron sheets. The building is also cold during winter and hot during summer. Thus, the company uses electricity to cool and heat their premise. Consequently, the company consumes a lot of electricity in its daily operations. This raises the electricity bills for the company. As to this, the company uses a lot of their finances paying the electricity bills. This limits their profit margin. For the company to deal with this menace, the company needs to review their daily operations and energy efficiency. The management of the company should review how electricity is used in their premise. They should find out operations that require a lot of energy to run and find relevant ways of limiting electricity consumption within the company (OLLA, 2012). The company should also reconstruct the old buildings. The buildings were constructed back in the 1960s and since then, they have not been renovated. The corrugated iron sheets make the buildings very hot during summer and very cold during winter. This compels the company to use a lot of energy to heat and cool the buildings. The company should construct modern buildings that can withstand adverse weather conditions. Thus saving on energy that they use to cool and heat their buildings (OLLA, 2012). The other solution to the high electricity bills is that the company can as well use generators to save on electricity. The company can have generators that can generate energy used within the company. Through this, they can limit the amount of energy consumption within their company. It is vital for the company to find out proper and adequate means of managing energy consumption within its premise. 4.2. High water consumption The research discovered that there was high consumption of water within Gorilla Health Bars. The company needs to reduce their level of water consumption. The first way of reducing excessive water consumption is educating their employees and setting up a water conservation program within the company. The company should create an understanding among the workers on the importance of water conservation. They should be aware of water scarcity issues and involve them in various problem-solving discussions on how to minimize water usage in the company (Tineke, 2011). The company can also reuse process water. The company needs not to assume that all the processes need quality water; they need to reuse water between the businesses wherever possible. These limits amount of water used within the company. The company should install water treatment process within the company and use for recycling already used water. Water treatment options that the enterprise can use include aerated ponds, hybrid constructed wetland, and vertically constructed wetland (Tineke, 2011). The company can also conduct operational changes within its premises. Some of the fundamental operational changes that the company can use to reduce water consumption is developing a regular inspection program for hoses and piping and finding other uses of water. For the company to be successful in implementing the operational changes, they should thoroughly plan for the changes. They should implement the changes, monitor and evaluate the activities to ensure there is sustainability (Grobicki, 2014). 4.3. Transport cost Transport cost is another problem facing the company. The company faces transport challenges in their attempt to distribute their products to other countries. The company needs to understand the cost incurred when sourcing overseas. They need to calculate the freight, brokerage, duty, and the inventory costs to support the lengthened supply chains. They should factor the cost of their employees flying to other countries. Once they have understood the real cost and the impact it has on the business, the business can make sound decisions (Craig and cater, 2011). Again, the company should have informed decision making. They need to provide to the customers of their logistics network and decision makers the cost of freight for every service level and the actual cost of operations for them to make sound decisions. Through this, the company will be able to realize transportation channels that are costly and plan on how to reduce the cost of transportation (Blowfield, 2012). Finally, the company can consolidate their transportation networks. If they have multiple suppliers in a given area, the company can consolidate their goods into one shipment. Also, if the company has less than container load shipments, from a particular country, they should find other less container load importers of goods in that country. This will enable the firm to consolidate and partner to a more cost effective full container load shipment (Blowfield, 2012). 5. 0 Recommendations and Conclusion For the company to obtain sustainability in electricity consumption, the company needs to reduce the cost used in heating and cooling of their buildings. This can only be achieved through the construction of a modern buildings that can withstand the adverse weather conditions. The study found out that excessive heat during summer and cold during winter compels the company to use more energy in heating and cooling of their buildings (OLLA, 2012). The company can also reuse and recycle water within their premises. Through this, they can cut on the high cost of water consumption. They should also find various activities where they can easily reuse water. The company should treat and recycle wastewater. They should establish a different mechanism that they can use to treat the already used water. Not all the activities within the organization need pure water (Tineke, 2011). Making proper and informed decision making on the transportation cost can enable the company to cut on the transportation cost. Policy makers should be provided with relevant information that they can use to make sound decisions. Such information includes the total cost incurred in sourcing in a given country. Through this, the company can cut on its transport cost while sourcing in other countries (Blowfield, 2012). In conclusion, Gorilla Health Bar Company needs to be socially and economically sustainable for it to realize improved profit. The company can achieve success if they cut down financial cost on energy, transport and water consumption. The management should ensure the workers are well trained on the ways and means of conserving energy and water within their premises. Consequently, there should be proper guidelines on how decisions are to be made within the organization. This limits excessive cost incurred in transportation. Generally, for the GHB to be successful, it must be sustainable in its overall operations. References Blowfield, M, 2012, Business and sustainability, Oxford, Oxford Univ. Press Craig, S and Carter, P, 2011, "Sustainable supply chain management: evolution and future directions", International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 41 ( 1), pp.46 – 62. Grobicki, A, 2014, The Future of Water Use in Industry. Global Ministerial Forum on Research for Health, Geneva: World Health Organization. Grünewälder, A, 2009, Integrating Environmental Sustainability into the Company's strategy A study of contributing factors to overcome barriers between sustainability and shareholder demands. OLLA, P, 2012, Global sustainable development and renewable energy systems, Hershey, Pa, Information Science Reference. Schaltegger, S, 2010, Sustainability as a Driver for Corporate Economic Success, Centre for sustainability. Tineke , L., 2011, Corporate social responsibility: sustainable use of water, Journal of Cleaner Production. 19(8), Pages 852–866 Read More