Affiliated Institute
Environmental Sustainability
Small & Medium Sized Enterprises (SME) often tend to neglect the impact of their business & processes on the environment. Such companies, owing to their tight budgets, may tend to skimp on the requirements of Environmental Sustainability. While many others may only put in what is mandated by law. While the government & society has put in a lot of efforts to ensure that the companies in their regions actually turn conscious about environment & take imitative about caring for the same, has the company in your scope done the same? Often the policies about turning green are merely mentioned, albeit in detail, only on paper, but rarely is the same followed in its entirety in real life. Your topic for dissertation is to evaluate whether the green technology, become adverse that SME are deliberately trying to avoid implementing it or is it that the benefits like tax-rebates; carbon credits not enough for the SMEs to seriously consider actually amalgamating the techniques for long term Environmental Sustainability into their everyday processes? Employ qualitative research to understand human behavior towards environment form the point of view of adopting eco-friendly methodologies. The research project should cover the information about the business, the procedures that it employs. Preferably manufacturing company with clear understanding about the inputs likes raw materials, chemicals, water, electricity & other additional requirements that are needed. Chronicling the procedures at each & every stage of manufacturing like inward receipt of material, unpacking the components, their cataloging & storage, warehousing, dispatch, logistics & distribution is important. Understand the efforts to monitor the manufacturing process to optimize usage of natural resources. Jot down consumption of fossil fuels & measure the amount of waste. Has the company taken efforts to take into account the amount of wastage that can be economically used back into production? Does the company care to have a record of its Carbon footprint & if yes, what is it doing about it. Has the company considered reducing its emission or switching over to regenerative fuels or alternate sources of energy to curtail pollution? Example, electricity that is being used in the industry may be generated using wood or charcoal thereby reducing the efforts put in by the company to adopt electricity instead of wood / charcoal, themselves. However, if the electricity is hydal or nuclear, the negative impact on the environment is considerably lower. It is vital to evaluate the stand that company has taken to understand the need for strategically manage Environmental Sustainability. It will be your responsibility to thoroughly study the company’s approach from the point of view of economic, social, cultural and political requirements & aspirations. Take into considerations any added efforts that the company has put in to maintain the diversity of life in both human-managed and natural systems. What is the company doing to curtail its pollution & has it undertaken any activities to maintain & improve the quality of land water & air. Apart from analyzing the company’s efforts towards Environmental Sustainability, research has to be also conducted on the company’s commitment towards the Social variables as well. Has the company initiated certain Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects? All in all, it will be your prerogative to judge whether the company cares enough to actively integrate environmental sustainability projects within their corporate strategy of producing for profit, to achieve a healthier environment alongside a healthy balance sheet.
References
1. Canadian International Development Agency (2011), Retrieved from web. 2 August 2011 http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/acdi-cida/acdi-cida.nsf/eng/JUD-111814837-QFY
2. Julia Frost Nerbonne, Naropa University, (2011) Environmental Sustainability, Retrieved from web http://www.naropa.edu/about/env_index.cfm
3. Times Foundation, The Times Group, Retrieved from web http://endpoverty2015.org/goals/environmental-sustainability
4. End Poverty 2015, millennium campaign (2011), Retrieved from Web. http://endpoverty2015.org/goals/environmental-sustainability
5. National Science Foundation, Environmental Sustainability, Retrieved from Web http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=501027
6. Environment, Development and Sustainability (2011), Sustainable Development, Retrieved from Web http://www.springer.com/environment/sustainable+development/journal/10668
7. Environmental Sustainability, An Evaluation of World Bank Group Support (2009), Retrieved from Web http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTENVIRONMENT/Resources/environ_eval.pdf
8. 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index, World Economic Forum, Retrieved from Web http://www.yale.edu/esi/ESI2005_Main_Report.pdf
9. European Commission Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability (2011) Retrieved from Web http://ies.jrc.ec.europa.eu/
10. Environmental Sustainability: Population, Poverty and the Environment(2005), Retrieved from Web, 15 December 2005 http://www.unfpa.org/pds/sustainability.htm
