World Changing Response #3

Kristen Zelenka
World Changing Response #3

For my third response to World Changing, I read an article entitled “Creating Business Value from Sustainability.” I chose this article because we discussed in lecture today the responsibility of companies to protect the environment and their roles in conservation. Particularly, we talked about Wal-mart’s role in understanding scale and how if everybody bought compact florescent light bulbs how we could drastically reduce our coal consumption.

I also just became the first employee at a start up company that is only three months old. As I listen to the lectures and try to digest all of the information given to me, I start to think about how to implement some more sustainable business practices into the company model. Each individual should be held accountable for his or her actions.

The article explains that our economy is dependent on a healthy environment in order for it to prosper. If an organization adopts greener practices, it will most likely be ahead of government regulations, gain the approval and confidence of the consumer, and ultimately increase its image and profit margin.

However, most companies are only motivated but the profits of the year and do not look for long term goals and anticipate changes in the environment, the negative effects they contribute to, or increased regulation. In class, we also discussed Ford and car production in Detroit as an example for this poor business model. The company only produced SUVs because that is what the public demand was but then when the government mandated that they needed to produce cars that have better gas mileage they were behind the times. It is beneficial to environment and for companies’ bottom line to be conscious of resources and be effective in their use of them.