Executive Summary
The case study organisation known as “John Lewis” is willing to be more ethical and sustainable regarding its working procedures. However, it is essential to know that there are many challenges to be faced when it comes to being green and sustainable. The discussion provided in this report is expected to raise certain challenges acting as roadblocks for the case study organisation. The discussion will also highlight certain solutions which would allow the organisation to deal with these roadblocks in the best way possible. All solutions and challenges are discussed following the triple-bottom-line approach.
Table of Content
Contents
Deforestation and Negative Impact on Forests. 4
Transparency and Traceability. 4
Measuring Carbon Footprints. 4
Protecting Tropical Forests. 5
Usage of Modern-Day Technologies. 5
Raising Awareness and Funding. 5
Working with Climate Change Consultancy. 5
Working with Additional Retailers and Suppliers. 5
Conclusions and Recommendations. 6
Introduction
The conceptuality of sustainability is an important concept directly related to the formulation or development of products, services or goods to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of upcoming generations to fulfil their needs in the future. Sustainability is responsible for improving people’s lives, protecting the whole ecosystem and preserving natural resources for many generations (Taghizadeh-Hesary and Yoshino, 2020). This report is targeted at the case study of John Lewis, which is based on ethics and sustainability. The case study suggests that the company is working towards making its functionality much more sustainable. It suggested an approximation of a 22 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, 40 million reductions in bags, 6.5 million pounds donated to good causes and so on. All of these functionalities suggest that the company is considering sustainable working procedures.
Figure 1: Facts and Figures from the Case Study
This report will discuss five main sustainable issues the organisation faces in the case study and possible solutions which will help it reduce them. In the end, the suggested issues and solutions will be aligned with the triple-bottom-line approach.
Analysis
Five Sustainable Issues
Following are the five issues faced by the organisation that could have a detrimental impact on the element of sustainability.
Deforestation and Negative Impact on Forests
Deforestation refers to the purposeful clearing or clearing of forested land for commercial use, such as agriculture, animal grazing, or to extract useful natural resources such as fossil fuels, wood etc. (Taghizadeh-Hesary and Yoshino, 2020). In the Raw material sourcing section of the case study, it is highlighted that various raw material sources like Timber, palm oil and Soya are considered quite valuable and of commercial importance to the business. However, the extraction of these elements gives rise to the dilemma of Deforestation, which negatively impacts the natural forests.
Transparency and Traceability
The element of Transparency provides visibility, accessibility and insight into the data at all levels of the supply chain. Whereas on the flip side, the element of traceability is used to track a certain product and its input in the whole line of the supply chain. Both of these elements are extremely crucial when it comes to an organisation’s sustainability and supply chain management (Mensah-Darkwa et al., 2019). In the case study, under the section “People in Supply Chain,” the organisation is also faced with the issue of Transparency and Traceability. If this issue is properly resolved, the organisation under consideration will have greater visibility and improve its ethical compliance with its goals.
Green Infrastructure
Green infrastructure is considered as one of the strategically planned networks which comprises both natural and semi-natural areas alongside other ecological features that are designed and managed for the sole purpose of delivering a wide variety of ecosystem services like the purification of water, air, climatic mitigation or adaptations (Zeng et al., 2022). This is one of the challenges the case study company faces, which is converting its fossil fuel-driven vehicles to electric ones. However, the mass adoption of such functionality will require a massive investment, which the case study organisation lacks. If this element is catered to, it could aid in developing environment-friendly and sustainable infrastructure in the long run.
Measuring Carbon Footprints
The concept of carbon footprint refers to the total number of greenhouse gases, including different gases like Carbon Dioxide and methane generated by human actions, which affects the environment and the level of sustainability (Mensah-Darkwa et al., 2019). In the case study under the section on climate actions, it is highlighted that the organisation under consideration is facing a massive challenge when it comes to measuring the carbon footprint of its supply chain. Right now, the organisation is trying its absolute best to measure the carbon footprints of the product it sells, allowing it to improve its data quality.
Single-Use Packaging
The single-use packaging refers to disposable packaging intended to be used only once before it can be discarded or thrown away. A typical example of single-use packaging includes food packaging, plastic bottles, straws and so on (Pakulska, 2021). The case study organisation is facing a massive problem in eliminating this issue mainly because of the consumer uptake, financial viability and capabilities of the supply chain.
Possible Solutions
Protecting Tropical Forests
The Case Study organisation is considering the preservation of its tropical forest by funding amount equivalent to protecting 822 hectares of Multi Forests situated in East Kalimantan. To fulfil the need for this element, the organisation has to consider artificial plantation and farming of these trees.
Usage of Modern-Day Technologies
To ensure that everything is transparent and traceable in the supply chain of the case study organisation, it has to consider the usage of modern-day technologies such as Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Block Chains, the Internet of Things and Big Data Analytics which can enhance the efficiency of this element by 200 per cent (Tan et al., 2019).
Raising Awareness and Funding
To deal with the challenge of huge investment for the mass adoption of green infrastructure, the case study organisation needs to consider awareness campaigns for the necessity of green infrastructure, which will allow the general public to be involved with the funding of the whole project and mass adoption side of it (Huang, Chien and Sadiq, 2022).
Working with Climate Change Consultancy
To deal with the problem of measuring Carbon Footprint, the case study organisation is considering working with the South Pole to support it in this activity of plan. The South Pole is a well-known Swiss Carbon finance consultancy founded in Zurich in 2006. Consideration of a company that is an expert in this area is a good approach by the case study company as it will allow it to grow and be more sustainable in the future (Sachs et al., 2019).
Working with Additional Retailers and Suppliers
To cater for the dilemma of single-use packaging, which has a massive effect on the level of sustainability and environment (Sachs et al., 2019). The case study organisation is considering working with different retailers and suppliers to deal with this dilemma which is a good approach as it will allow it to discover companies that offer packages that are more environmentally friendly where instead of plastic packaging or straws, it would be using raw materials that are biodegradable and would not damage the environment in any way (Lu et al., 2021).
Triple Bottomline Approach
The suggested challenge of Deforestation has a massive impact on the element of the Planet in the triple-bottom-line approach. However, the suggested solution to protect these forests by funding and farming these forests similarly caters for this dilemma. The challenge of Transparency and Traceability influences the People and Profit side of the approach; however, the suggested solution of using technology enhances both elements in a sustainable manner (Sachs et al., 2019). Green infrastructure would allow the company to have environmentally friendly working procedures, which would positively impact the approach’s Planetside and can be catered to by raising awareness and funding from the general public. The single-use packaging is costly in terms of profitability and harmful in terms of the Planet; replacing it with biodegradable packaging is beneficial for two aspects of the triple-bottom-line approach (Lu et al., 2021).
Conclusions and Recommendations
In conclusion, it is fair to say that the case study organisation under consideration faces many problems when it comes to sustainability in its different operations. All of the suggested challenges are crucial to be catered to. The solution for each of these challenges will allow it to cater for them in the best possible and sustainable manner. However, it is essential for the case study organisation to properly monitor the solutions while implementing them; this will allow it to adjust or change the functionality if any of the solutions bring about negative impacts.
References
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Pakulska, T., 2021. Green Energy in Central and Eastern European (CEE) Countries: New Challenges on the Path to Sustainable Development. Energies, 14(4), p.884.
Sachs, J.D., Woo, W.T., Yoshino, N. and Taghizadeh-Hesary, F., 2019. Importance of green finance for achieving sustainable development goals and energy security. In Handbook of Green Finance (pp. 3-12). Springer.
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