EMBEDDING SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES INTO DESIGN AND BUSINESS CONTEXTS

Introduction

Sustainability may defined as the process by which an organisation, individual or group is able to meet their current needs without affecting the ability to meet those needs in the future. Usually, sustainability is associated with the resources that organisations use to maintain their overall functions. Sustainability has a large effect on the natural environment because this is where most resources are derived from. If an organisation can look for ways in which they can operate sustainably, then chances are that they will contribute to a greener earth. The purpose of the essay will be to examine how sustainability can be incorporated into various parts of the organisation.

Sustainability as a win-win situation
Numerous business communities are changing the way they operate. They have realised that working sustainably or going green can actually cause increased profits. Usually, most companies are motivated to go green when they are operating under the bottom line scenario. However, soaring stock prices are one example of what sustainability can do to an organisation. Additionally, a company that chooses to go green is likely to portray a positive image to their clients, their suppliers or even to their investors. Consequently, this creates a scenario in which more parties are encouraged to work with that particular company. (Lubar, 2006)

It should also be noted that corporate citizenship is an instrumental factor in determining why an organisation would choose to be sustainable or to go green. It is the responsibility of that particular company to ensure that they affect their community positively and that their activities do not undermine the community’s ability to meet the needs of their future generations. Sustainability of any company can embrace any of the following aspects
• Guarding water supplies and the marine population
• Reducing one’s dependence on carbon based fuels
• Minimising solid waste
• Improving the health of one’s surrounding population
• Reducing the amounts of emissions released to the air

Companies must embrace sustainability in order to remain on top of government regulations that would otherwise require them to depict sustainability concerns. Consequently, there should be sustainability at all times in any given company in order to demonstrate its business commitment to the concept.
Possible project

The purpose of this project is to design mechanisms that would enable organisations to use Information Technology in order to boost their sustainability ratings. Since IT is becoming a useful tool in everyday life, then it would be interesting to know how this can be applied to an organisation.

The company chosen for implementation of this program is Unilever. The reason why this company was chosen was that the company deals in the production of tangible items. Consequently, their pollution concerns are quite high. Additionally, the company is located in various parts of the world; therefore, their business practices affect very many communities. It will therefore be plausible to look for sustainability solutions for such a company. (Lai, 2006)

How sustainability can be merged into business designs
As it has been stated earlier, the purpose of the project will be to merge sustainability with the respective IT solutions in Unilever. This will be applied to all the following areas
Business data
• IT sector
• Asset Management
• Inventory management
• Product planning
• Manufacturing
• Report on sustainability
• Energy efficiency

Information technology has the ability to change and affect the level of sustainability within a certain company. If used well, IT can contribute towards a greener earth by collective efforts in different companies. For this particular case study i.e. Unilever, IT can prove to be an immeasurable asset if Unilever chooses to go green. In order to do this effectively, the company will need to keep watch over their overall emissions, their safety precautions and the amounts of resources that they use from day to day. In order to monitor these effectively, they will have to collect and store data effectively; the best way to do that is through Information Technology.

Through IT, it will be possible for Unilever to analyse, record and even change some of the issues revolving around their green initiatives. Consequently, it will assist them in the process of creating green programs or in setting up procedures required to maintain sustainability. (Lubar, 2006)

The first and most direct way in which Unilever can use IT is in its report production. Currently, the company still has lots of paper reports that are present in almost all sections of the organisation. By using a lot of paper, the company is encouraging the depletion of forests for the former mentioned resource. Also, in order to make paper, one needs to use up a lot of electricity and fuel in paper industries. All these issues can be drastically minimised if Unilever opts to store all its data in electronic rather than in paper form. This will go a long way in reducing the resources required to make paper and also the emissions that are discharged during paper manufacture.

Information Technology can also boost asset management at Unilever. The latter company heavily relies on trucks for delivery of its supplies. Besides that, it also depends on machines in order to create all their products. It is therefore very necessary to make an inventory of their assets from time to time. Information Technology is the route which organisations can use to make effective asset inventory. If Unilever knows exactly which assets are needed at any one time, then they would not have to purchase excessive equipment. This also means that the company will have cut down on electricity, fuel or any other resources required to run those excess equipments. Therefore, Unilever will have become more sustainable.
It is also imperative to note that Information Technology can gain wide applicability in the process of inventory management within this company. One may wonder how this can occur but it is in fact a very possible thing. Supplies to products that have been ordered can be carefully analysed through the use of information Technology.

Many businesses these days have adopted the issue of data warehouse systems management and this has done wonders for their inventory management system. Similarly, Unilever ought to consider such an option in the future. However, one would wonder how data warehousing can be directly linked to sustainability; when companies opt to take up green measures, then they ought to look for all avenues of reducing wastage. If Unilever is to take up data warehousing as part of its options for going green, it would drastically reduce its work orders because it would only be dealing with what is necessary. This means that the company will have very minimal inventory that they will need to discard thus minimising wastage. (Lai, 2006)
If Unilever adopts data warehousing as part of their sustainability strategy, they will also reduce their transport usage. This is because they would have lower excesses of inventory and this will require less transportation. In close relation to the latter issue is the matter of having a well stocked warehouse. This provides cost saving measures to the company.

Information technology can also work for Unilever in terms of product planning and demand forecasting. IT through the use of Business Intelligence can go a long way in forecasting demand for a product. This is usually possible through incorporation of past consumption patterns and a series of other internal and external factors. Through this approach, the organisation will be able to estimate exactly which amounts of products will be needed by clients and this will reduce wastage. (Lubar, 2006)

Furthermore, such an approach could boost sustainability because of the way the company would save up on excessive fuel or electricity required to produce those extra items (which will not be bought anyway). Additionally, the company will save on extra transportation costs required to bring the supplies to be used for making the product. Lastly, this approach will also be instrumental to the company because they will use up less packaging. It should be noted here that most packing material are pollutants because they are plastic in nature. Those ones that are made up paper are also not suitable because they cause forest depletion and water resource depletion.

Information Technology will also go a long way in boosting the manufacturing aspect of Unilever. This is because through the latter approach, more analysis can be conducted in the production process. Packaging can be adversely improved by adopting only the right amounts of packaging material. Additionally, the shipping process can also be effectively analysed through the process of IT so as to ascertain which aspects require improvements. Through this approach, only the most important resources will be used and there will be less wastage thus better sustainability on the part of the company. Additionally, through IT, it will be possible to analyse and determine the most effective methods of packaging one’s product so as to use up less resources and transportation for the merchandise.

Information Technology provides the tools that would assist Unilever in reporting issues about sustainability. This will be possible through effective storage of sustainability efforts in the following areas
• Electricity
• Natural gas
• Water
• Transportation
• Waste disposal

Through effective recording of these items, an organisation will be able to see which direction they are taking and look for ways in which they can save money thus heightening sustainability.

Through effective resource planning, it can be possible for organisations to get hold of some of these sustainability metrics and thus come up with ways of improving. (Lai, 2006)

Information Technologies can also assist Unilever in the process of embracing sustainability in its IT sector. It should be noted that the IT sector is heavily dependent on a series of resources. For instance, Unilever uses up a lot of electricity in order to maintain their servers. Besides that, other IT machinery require heating and cooling and this takes up a lot of energy.

Unilever can minimise the energy consumption in the IT department by reducing redundant servers. Additionally, it can eliminate databases that are not useful to the company and it can also create better energy consumption through the use of more efficient IT systems. However, in order to implement new IT systems, management approvable must be sought. This is only possible when the company’s IT team convince their leaders about its importance.

Conclusion
Information Technology can be a vital tool to Unilever in its sustainability efforts because it can be applied to all sections of the company’s operations. It works by maximising efficiency, elimination of waste and operating under optimum conditions.

Reference

Lubar, P. (2006): Succession Planning and sustainability; Executive Transition Initiative Report, 3, 13-45
Lai, K. (2006): Steps to sustainability for organisations, available at http://www.aiesec.org.sg/ accessed on 12th Nov

The author of this article is a holder of Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard University and currently pursing PhD Program. He is also a professional academic writer. SuperiorWriters.Com>