Sustainability in Business - Essay Example

?INTRODUCTION – AN ERA OF GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT: If we look at shift of the world from the 1900’s to 2000’s it will be easy to notice that in those initial days not much was needed to be considered while starting operations of business. Many factors that are considered important now and are social even legal responsibilities for businesses were not even placed in consideration set for starting of a business in the early 1900’s. The main reason behind the difference now and then can be based on the fact that there weren’t many entrants i.e. the industries didn’t have many players. With the passage of time the market developed with people heading towards businesses and already existing business started to expand setting up industries, factories and plants. This got followed up by a prevailing trend in industry with more people pursuing businesses as a path for their livelihood. As this increase came and businesses started to develop and expand far and wide across the globe at a rapid pace this lead to the era of late 90’s where production and manufacturing of goods reached their peaks requiring extraction of raw materials in abundance leading to excess production of goods wasting a lot of useful resources. Also at the same time many new experiments were being tried out in pursuit of inventing or coming up with products containing the X factor which will be capable enough to earn revenues for the company by attracting scores of consumers. As a result many prototype projects headed towards the market with the similar intentions of gaining popularity and strength in the market which had little focus on the design and resource utilization as in that stretch little research and focus was concentrated on sustainability and effective use and utilization of resources along with no think tank established to monitor the environmental and ecological effects of these developments and productions. No strict laws were there on which businesses and industries were bound to adhere regarding social, economical and environmental issues as the era was all about development and excelling in the industry. The consumer had the buying power and were not concerned about what processes, methods and technologies are used for the productions of their desired goods. Consumers were at most concerned with the health issues related to products and adverse effects if not used properly. No other knowledge pertaining to the manufacturing and production processes were considered important. ARISING PROBLEMS AND ISSUES: As this rapid expansion and growth of businesses and industries grew and launches of new goods and products continued problems started to surface which caught the attention of many environmentalists, businessmen, industrialists and people. The environmentalist started to notice that in the course of previous century the production and manufacturing plants all over the world were functioning near to their full or almost full capacities in production processes. The outcome emerged as a massive increase in pollution rates in those regions where these industrial sites were located which not only affected the environmental condition but health experts also expressed concerning the health hazards they might lead to in the longer run. Businessmen and industrialists started to express their concerns regarding cost of production which started to increase due to higher productions costs and the prices of commodities rising which in turn reduced the buying power of the consumers. The paradox that surfaced over here was that if less goods were produced keeping in mind the market trend and buying power it would be costly for the business while if the concentration was focused on reducing cost the production then the production needed to be in bulk which would have two fold negative impact. First one if production would be in bulk more resources and materials will be utilized and extracted to produce goods impacting the environment but providing cheaper goods to consumers. The other factor the production in bulk with consumers having less buying power , risk of excess inventory increases. The major problems for businesses arose when such previously unnoticed factors caught the attention of public .The message of businesses, industries and plants having negative and hazardous effect on our health, environment and eco-system started to spread the like fire in the forest and with just the passage of little time companies having operations which fell under these charges or boundaries started to incur losses in their business aswell as fall in number of consumers or customers. SUSTAINABILITY AND BUSINESS: These issues were quite critical and solution was to move ahead towards a sustainable business environment. A solution which would lead in favor of everyone involved in the process i.e. the business, the society, the environment and the people i.e. a WIN-WIN situation which mutually benefits everyone. Now we can define sustainability in business through many ways but the most easy and simplest way it can be defined as procedures and processes through which a business can produce goods and satisfy needs of it consumers through utilization of resources and assets wisely while at the same time the operations doesn’t affect the economy, society and the environment adversely. CANON has been present in the business industry for over 50 years pleasing its customers year after year by producing products which pleased its customers. With a massive product line which include printers, scanners, cameras, calculators, photography content, medical, optical and IT imaging equipment. Canon can be counted as one of the most successful businesses that have been around for over half a century. The main point that makes canon stand out is that despite the fact that canon is one of the most successful business out there and has been there quite a while it was listed amongst the top 50 sustainable businesses out there tied with Nike and food giant Unilever. This indicates the exact fact highlighted before that businesses have started to realize the importance of having sustainability in their operations, procedures and designs. Though it has been around for so much time but it realized the fact of coping up with the needs of the society, environment and economy. Designing, Producing and coming up with products which promote sustainability in all aspects i.e. are recyclable and cause little or no harm to the health of customers. This means that businesses can achieve and work for the greater of the society, environment and people while keeping on track with its processes and procedures by introduction of certain policies and rules. Along with that some rules have been introduced as global standards showing dedication and conviction of the global bodies towards a sustainable business environment . EMBEDDING SUSTAINABILTY IN DESIGN AND BUSINESS CONTEXTS : Many factors can be termed as the influencers which lead to the development of the concept of sustainability and conservation in business. The resources present in the world on which businesses run are rapidly declining i.e. for example petroleum resources, coal resources, gas reserves. Such energy producing products are rich in energy but are major contributors to pollution so a procedure is needed to develop and design fuel or an alternate that conserves these energy rich products aswell as reducing the pollution rates. Also using products which are not recyclable are becoming troublesome as many backward countries don’t follow standard policies of recycling and the ones which do are simple running out of places to landfill such products. Canon after looking at aspects of sustainability included aspects of sustainability into its design and business aswell. Canons realized the fact that using materials that are not recyclable are complete waste of resource and are a threat to the environment, the business and the society overall. A product which cannot be gotten rid of i.e. cannot be recycled has to go through certain procedure which in one way or another will cause harm to the society, the environment and the health or all of them. Hence producing product and goods with such material is more of a burden rather than a remedy to certain problem. Canon realizing and acting upon this fact designed its printers and it printer cartridges in such a way and they are 99% recyclable and can be utilized again in the production of other products. On May of 2008 the company recycled all of the printer cartridges it received from home printers. Also Canon has introduced various types of calculators in Europe which have been made out of recycled printers. Sustainability cannot be restricted as responsibility limited to individual or a firm but it’s a collective responsibility of everyone involved. 84% of the Canon staff are well aware of the sustainable aims of the organization. Canon scores above 75% in its aims, objectives and efforts to achieve its goals regarding environment, ecological and social benefits. The headquarters in UK have been built to extract energy through solar panels which generate 35Kw of energy. The lightening system of the office has been installed which is sensitive to movement and conserves quite a lot of electricity usage by shutting off unused lights. FURTHER OPPORTUNITIES: Canon should use a design approach through which its products can become disposable along with them being recyclable. Although a futuristic approach but already there exists products which utilize a combination of technologies like scanner and printer, scanner printer and faxes etc. Design can be modified such that although a combination but the individual faults render the entire machine useless or the entire machine goes for repair. The design can be made in a way that individual component could be detached and sent for repairs or incase of unrepairable damage can be disposed of completely. Another prototype concept that can be worked upon , since canon already possesses expertise in printer and photocopying solutions is the concept of 3-D printers. A very innovative and design efficient product with unlimited sustainability prospects. The product will be in every way beneficial for the company, the society and the environment aswell. The underlying working principle of 3D printers is that it will replicate the product in the exact same manner it is i.e. the design is copied and functionality is left out. Along with that an initial resource packet of 5kg or 10kg material powder which can be utilized in printing of products efficiently. The success factor or the X factor lays in the fact that the replicated products can again be fetched into the copier and can be used in production of other desired replicas. Hence making 3D photocopier the ultimate sustainable product by design and purpose both. BENEFITS: The major benefits that can be achieved through implementation of sustainability through design for Canon include at first the environmental aspects i.e. usage of environmental friendly products such as biopolymers which are easily recyclable and are degradable if disposed. Also using such materials show the company’s dedication and intentions towards achievement of a green environment free from pollutants. Another benefiting yielding from usage of design for sustainability is that consumers prefer products and goods from organizations which are more environmental friendly. CONCLUSION: Organizations and businesses which have included sustainability in business contexts and in design are the preferred choice of customers and are respected throughout. In the case of Canon if they further improve their sustainable organization procedures and processes along with pursuing design for sustainability will lead to an even better and more consumer base. REFERENCES: Business, Building a Sustainable. What is sustainability. Wednesday 10 2006. . Gigi DiGiacomo, Robert Philip King, Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, Dale W. Nordquist. Building a sustainable business: a guide to developing a business plan for farms and rural businesses. Sustainable Agriculture Network, 2003. Ingram, Mathew. Sustainability and Design: The Key to Efficiency. April 2011. . InstaBlog, James Rickman. Top 100 Sustainable Green UK Companies Announce Goals 2010. June 2008. . Labs, Future Life. Hedonistic sustainability – the future of product design? . Programme, United Nations Environment. Design For Stability (D4S). . REUTERS. Canon tops list of climate-friendly companies. . Review, The European Financial. http://www.europeanfinancialreview.com/?p=2868. . Times, The Sunday. Canon (UK). . Wikipedia. Canon(company). . Read More