Major Quadrants of Activities to Improve the Effect of UK Aviation on the Environment - Case Study Example

Review of Sustainable Aviation Report The UK aviation industry confronts some serious environmental and social issues as a result of the daily activities undertaken by the airlines. Examples of these issues include: climate change due to the emission of too much green house gases that tend to destabilize the atmospheric compositions; noise from the aircraft; pollution of the local air quality; improper uses of surface access; the necessity to use natural resources carefully to avoid increased environmental footprints; the need to improve UK economy so as to help the country’s economy to grow; the concerns about social interactions between the industry and its workers, customers, partners etc (Sustainable Aviation Progress Report, 2009). Hence, applying Zadek’s “Four Stages of Issue Maturity” framework, all issues affecting an industry could be categorised into four different stages: namely, latent, emerging, consolidating and institutionalised (Zadek, 2004). A latent social issue is the one that exists but has not been widely known. An emerging issue is just catching the attention of the public but has not been fully debated or addressed. Consolidating stage reveals that the issue has been recognised but this is the time to test the efficacy of the solutions for it. And such a social issue becomes institutionalised when there are laws and regulations to guide the implementation of its solutions in the concerned industry (Zadek, 2004). Therefore, the environmental and social issues affecting the UK aviation industry are tabulated as follows: 2 Environmental and Social Issues affecting UK Aviation Industry Latent Emerging Consolidating Institutionalised Proper uses of natural resources to control environmental footprints Pollution of local air quality Improper use of surface access Climate change due to Green gas emission Proper uses of natural resources to reduce supply chains’ environmental impacts There is progress in the processes of accessing and doing some trials of alternative fuels Noise from the aircraft and other aviation activities Social relationships between the industry and workers, partners, societies etc Reduction in loss of man-made and natural heritage at the airports Economic impact of the aviation industry on the general UK economy As an example, British Airways carries out the processes in the table above in its attempt to be socially responsible to the people in the United Kingdom (British Airways, 2010). 3 All the environmental and social issues affecting UK aviation industry outlined above can be summarized into three main headings: climate change issues; local environmental problems; and economic and social concerns. These issues are of utmost importance in the sense that they exert huge impacts on the environments and the economic situations in the United Kingdom. However, if all these issues receive prompt and efficient responses from the aviation industry players, it will reveal their level or extent of sustainability and social responsibility in the societies. 2. The Sustainable Aviation Progress Report 2009 reveals some strategic approaches taken by UK aviation players in addressing the issues hinted above. These approaches or responses can be best analysed using the Sustainable Value Framework model proposed by Hart and Milstein (2003). The model is made of four major quadrants as shown below: There are Today, Tomorrow, Internal and External quadrants. What this signifies is that Today indicates the necessary process to undertake in aviation industry now, and Tomorrow pinpoints some strategic processes that should be carried out in the future (near or far). Internal indicates the inside of aviation industry, and External refers to the goings on outside the aviation industry. Hence, there are usually Today/ Internal, Today/External, Tomorrow/Internal, Tomorrow/External tensions. 4 Tomorrow Innovation & repositioning Growth Path & Trajectory Internal External Cost & Risk reduction Reputation & Legitimacy Today [Hart & Milstein’s Sustainable Value Model (from Hart & Milstein, 2003)] (i) Today/Internal—Cost & Risk reduction—UK aviation players have invested hugely in training their workers for them to realise the danger of destroying the environment. Attempts have been made to step up maintenance of environment through making rapid progress in the area of alternative fuel. Airports have established better surface accesses to create easy transportation network that will facilitate successful operations in the industry (Sustainable Aviation Progress Report, 2009). (ii) Today/External—Reputation and Legitimacy—these include all the activities of the stakeholders in UK aviation industry. The Aviation laws and regulations are made by the appropriate bodies or governmental agencies like Civil Aviation 5 Authority (CAA), International Air Transport Association (IATA), and Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC). And all the partners of the aviation players also do their parts to endure that the quality of the aviation services rendered is desirable by the customers. On the receiving ends, the demands of the customers are strictly taken into consideration so as to encourage them to patronise the aviation industry. Some of the actions carried out by UK aviation players include having robust relationships with the airlines’ customers and offering reasonable fares to constantly attract the customers. Issues about environmental importance are seriously considered so that the customers could enjoy services that would be dangerous to their health and environment in the long run (Sustainable Aviation Progress Report, 2009). (iii) Tomorrow/Internal—Innovation and reposition- the UK aviation industry has been working hard in the area of applying technology to all its activities with the view to becoming pioneers in corporate social responsibility. The following actions have been undertaken by aviation players in order to innovate and reposition the industry for greater performance: using technology to reduce the volume of green gas emission; using fuel-efficient transportation in the airports to increase surface accesses; application of efficient communications systems that would help customer and the airlines be in constant communication; re-branding the aviation industry with the hope that they could help improve UK 6 economy through the expansion of economic activities that will spur employment and sales (Sustainable Aviation Progress Report, 2009). (iv) Tomorrow/External—Growth and Trajectory Path—the UK aviation players often review their current approaches and strategise for future expansions in the areas concerning natural resources management, employees’ training, economic diversity, reduction in local air pollution, noise control and so on. The purpose of doing this is to establish helpful factors or conditions that would let the industry grow considerably without actually impacting the environment negatively. One important fact is that UK aviation players, under the umbrella of Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) establish a medium where on-going research would be carried out in order to discover better approaches at solving the myriad problems ensuing from the activities of aviation players (Sustainable Aviation Progress Report, 2009). The Value of Stakeholders in UK Aviation Industry: The term “stakeholder” is mostly used in Hart & Milstein’s Sustainable Value Framework, and not the shareholder. So, below is the possible list of stakeholders in UK aviation industry and the explanation about the value of each stakeholder: Airlines--current and future – the value of the airlines depend on the quality of services they offer: are their planes new and eco-friendly? 7 Airline staff—current and future—Are the airline staff properly trained? Do they make the customers happy? Is their work of highest quality and environmentally sustainable? Customers—current and future—Are they enjoying the service given by the airlines? Do they have services that worth their money? Governmental agencies and bodies—what kind of laws and regulations do they make? Will climate change be reduced through the impact of the laws? Rival Transportation companies—Are other transport companies posing formidable competition with the airlines? International aviation groups—Do they make fair and equitable laws that could help UK aviation industry to progress? Suppliers—what is the quality of the supplies they sell to UK aviation players? Each stakeholder value is essential in the general contribution towards attaining a state of high-quality services in UK aviation industry. Hence, this value may not be improved as expected if there are no determination on the part of aviations to operate within the framework of Hart and Milstein’s four-quadrant proposition, and by harnessing all agendas that would encourage optimum operations in the industry, paying serious to the call for sustainable social responsibility (Sharma & Starik, 2004). 8 3. The two models applied in analysing the situations in UK aviation industry are quite efficient in the sense that they present the core challenges facing the industry and offering the practical approaches necessary to arrest the situations. In the first instance, Zadek’s “Four Stages of Issue Maturity” model helps in identifying the four stages of identifying important issues in an industry: namely, latent, emerging, consolidating and institutionalised. It is of great significance that the issue of determining the extent of the usefulness of natural resources in relation to environmental footprints and the impact of chain stores on the environment are still latent at most airports; the worries about the local air pollution is still emerging in the industry; the quest to control the impact of aircraft noise on the environment is totally consolidating;, and why climate change has received unprecedented attention recently with laws and regulations proposed to regulate the effects of the industry on our environment. In fact, Zadek’s model helps to unravel the main issues that may improve or destroy our environment as far as aviation industry is concerned (Upham, 2003). Similarly, Hart & Milstein’s model reveals the four major quadrants of activities that could improve the actions of UK aviation on the environment: these include organisational transformation through the processes of cost-cutting, innovation, planning, growth, legitimacy and social responsibility. All these factors could make our environment clean if players seriously consider them and put them in practice. Most of these actions depend on human factors in aviation (Wise et al., 2009). References British Airways, 2010. Corporate Responsibility. Accessed at < http://www.britishairways.com/travel/csr-overview-plans/public/en_gb?gsLink=searchResults> Hart, S. L., & Milstein, M.B., 2003. Creating sustainable value. Academy of Management Executive, 17 (2), Sharma, S. & Starik, M., 2004. Stakeholders, the environment and society. Glos: Edward Elgar Publishing. Sustainable Aviation Progress Report (UK), 2009. Environmental and Social Issues Affecting UK Aviation Industry. Accessed at Upham, P., 2003. Towards sustainable aviation. London: Earthscan. Wise, John A., Garland, Daniel J., & Hopkin, David D.,2009: Handbook of aviation human factors. Boca Raton (FL): CRC Press. Zadek, S., 2004. Tomorrow’s history: selected writings of Simon Zadek1993-2003. Sheffield: Greenleaf Publishing. Read More