An Examination of Stakeholders and the Opportunities They Present - Case Study Example

?Going Green: Strategies for Greenwich Executive Summary Environmental sustainability has become a matter of significant consideration forinstitutions and organisations today. Universities and colleges tend to become Earth-friendly, green institutes by reducing the garbage and pollution they create while also bringing down the amount of energy they consume. Universities going green in its core concept means, changing the manner in which educational institutions maintain their position in a society, construct their buildings, conduct their various classes, carry out the research works, and persuade students and staff to cultivate a green habit. Universities and campuses have moved into environmental action as a matter of their environmental responsibility and as accountability towards their students. This report in particular brings out the importance of Environmental Sustainability Policy which would help the Greenwich University to become a leading innovator in its practice towards a sustainable environment. The green strategies included in the report would help the Greenwich to comply with all relevant environmental legislations, policies, and standards set at local, national, and international levels. This report will also address the importance and need for an ecologically friendly environment in the Greenwich University Campus, and will explore the various green strategies and practices currently used in education. This paper also includes as set of Green Strategies that suits the University best to enable students studying at Greenwich to go green. This study, for external references, has relied on data collected from secondary sources (internet, articles, and books). The research looks deeper into the issues associated with implementing green strategies at the University, and finally, it points out solutions to overcome those problems. Introduction Going green is a highlighted concept for Academia, businessmen, and customers to understand and practice different ways to make environment friendly choices. Going green is a movement that undertakes strategies to protect the environment and learn how daily choices affect the planet (Greenwich University). For example, as Frey (2006) pointed out, the Seattle University has decided to make use of the pineapple heads, watermelon rinds, and lettuce leaves to fertilize the flowers rather than passing it into the garbage. In the same way, the students and faculty at the Pacific Lutheran University conduct their math classes in a building that does not have any carbon footprint (ibid). Moreover, most evidently, the staff members at the University of Washington have moved to use hybrid cars and decided to convert the rest of the vehicles into biodiesel –run (ibid). Greenwich has implemented several sustainability measures like recycling process, which is now in need of being expanded. The first step is to set and communicate meaningful environmental objectives and targets for all aspects of the university to sustain the process of reducing usage of natural resources and to anticipate, minimize, and avoid adverse environmental impacts. Therefore, the University should incorporate the green strategies by maintaining sustainability principles, awareness and understanding into its research, consultancy, teaching and other community programmes. This should be followed by combining the Principles of Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) into its all academic, institutional activities. Green Strategies Green strategy is a modern environmental concept which was developed to complement traditional ecological policies. A green strategy greatly assists an organisation to effectively deal with decision making process, to thoughtfully structure its operations, and to achieve sustainable performance; hence, a green strategy has a positive impact on the environment. According to an explanation, “a green strategy also helps the organisation define its role in environmental stewardship, communicate its role to the world, and determine how aggressively opportunities and investments to “go green” will be pursued” (Olson, 2009, p.24). A greener operation largely aids an organisation to deliver eco-friendly services to its community and thereby to maximise its total revenues by cutting down bottom-line costs associated with resources and energy management. Although educational institutions like colleges and universities contribute only a little to ecological imbalances, a well structured framework of green strategies is essential to keep their operations cent percent eco-friendly. While setting green strategies, the Greenwich University must ensure that the proposed strategies are potential enough to restructure the operations and asset strategies of the organisation effectively (Lord Green). In addition, cost reduction and revenue growth must be the two important aspects to be considered at each phase of the strategy formulation. It is advisable for the University to comply with regulatory policies in practice, to establish high degree of competitiveness, and to build a good stature in the global community. A well planned green strategy may be helpful for the organisation to effectively anticipate the consequences of their activities in the long run (Green strategy’11). The following diagram represents the four principles that constitute an organisation’s enterprise level green strategy. (Source: Olson, 2009, p.25) While analysing the operational environment of modern business organisations, it seems that most of the institutions or business houses adopt three main types of green strategies including “green innovation, greening the organisation, and green alliances” (Cronin et al). The green innovation strategy reflects the development of innovative green products and it is the most widely employed strategy across the globe. A number of recent surveys have indicated that global organisations are introducing green products and services at an increased rate so as to stabilise their profitability. Green innovation is an integral component of the entrepreneurial marketing strategy, which has been developed over the last years to effectively achieve economic and social objectives. The development of every new green product or service would assist a firm or institution to convince its stakeholders that it operates eco-friendly. However, the development of green products and services is a difficult task for organisations as they need to meet the interests both the shareholders and general public simultaneously. The greening strategy specifically focuses on the environmental policies of the institution itself. Under this strategy, an organisation formulates policies for greening the processes related to product manufacture or service delivery. Management experiences show that such a strategy cannot be easily performed by every organisation because the process of greening the organisation may result in an organisational change. In addition, organisations often take advantages of alliance or partnership to promote green orientation and thereby to meet legal, political, and social environment safety requirements. Nowadays, green alliance strategy is observed to be the most recommendable environmental strategy as it serves the long term interest of both partners. Meeting the challenges at Greenwich adds the responsibility of focusing on the IT (Information Technology) to be more proactive. So it is of greater significance to integrate an IT (Information Technology) strategy into the green strategies. The IT strategy calls for incorporating environmental factors into IT and creates short-term and long-term provisions for planning and providing new opportunities, which will help the University to operate in a more environmentally-friendly way. The IT Strategy is a University wide program, which explains a framework for the formation, development, application, and procedure of green IT and green IT attitudes within the Greenwich University. This framework also takes into consideration the existing programs undertaken by the University and the new opportunities and strategies that can be adopted and updated with the existing ones. The main aim of the green IT strategy is to make sure that the University’s IT initiatives are attuned to handle the environmental issues identified at the campuses. Recommendations In order to enable the Greenwich University to go green, it is necessary to plan a comprehensive green strategy. First of all, the organisation has to conduct green campaigns among its students since a green strategy cannot be performed well without the active involvement of the students. In addition, the university can recycle the content papers across various departments and it can be used for a variety of purposes including photocopying and printing. It is advisable for the University to introduce cardboard recycling method because many educational institutions are nowadays successfully recycling tonnes of cardboard per month (eauc). E-waste has been becoming a potential threat to the environment for the past few decades. Therefore, it is advisable for the Greenwich University to collect and recycle its old IT equipments. This strategy may also assist the institution to trim down its costs of new purchases and thereby to increase its profitability. Referring to the suggestions of Lyons (2000, p. 66), the university can introduce an effective Waste Management Contract to effectively cut down operational costs and to improve the overall waste monitoring by facilitating enhanced waste recycling. The Green strategy also considers the environmental sustainability policies and suggests the university to work with the Carbon Trust on its carbon footprint in ensuring eco-friendly operations like the Brookes environmental Forum, which has placed it as one of the leading environmental performance within the UK Higher Education sector (Oxford Brookes University). Moreover, switching into modern technologies creates a lot of e-waste. And the only available solution to this problem is to use only e-cyclers certified electronic materials, which would not be an issue against the proposed green strategies. Higher education plays vital, influential, and even pioneering roles in moulding the future of students. Therefore, the green strategy will also include a policy that binds the Greenwich with the HEFCE undertakings which intends to make the higher education sector a major contributor to society’s efforts to achieve sustainability within the next ten years (HEFCE, 2005). This movement would require Greenwich to help its graduates to learn and take up these green strategies and operations. Evidently, forming a student body within the university would be demanding for the campus themselves. More sustainability coordinating groups and sustainability committees would come up with most effective measures through friendly competitions on who would introduce the most ecological friendly methodology. So, the university should make sure that it complies with the government regulations on energy consumption and environmental safety and there by saves money and conserves eco friendly surroundings. References Cronin et al 2009, “Green marketing strategies: an examination of stakeholders and the opportunities they present”, Academy of Marketing Science, viewed 24 Dec 2011 Frey, C 2006, “College campuses are going green”, Hearestnewspapers, viewed 24 Dec 2011 Green strategy’11, viewed 24 Dec 2011 Go Green – A Corporate Social Responsibility, Greenwich University, Viewed 24 Dec 2011 HEFCE Report 2005/28, Sustainable Development in Higher Education, viewed 24 Dec 2011 Lord Green: Real estate strategies, viewed 24 Dec 2011 Lyons, K 2000, Buying for the Future, WWF-UK. Olson, EG 2009, Better green business: Handbook for environmentally responsible and profitable business practices, Pearson Education Inc, New Jersey. Queen's University Belfast achieve ISO14001, The Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (Eauc), viewed 24 Dec 2011 University strategy 2010 to 2020, Oxford Brookes University, viewed 24 Dec 2011 Read More