Learnings of the Green business course

The Green business course has been a very interesting one and I have learned many new lessons in this course about how companies are applying Green policies to make their business operations less harmful for the environment. The point is to achieve sustainability in order to protect the environment and also this turns out to be more profitable for them in the long-term if it is done well. The way to look for sustainability and also the profiting for a company at the same time is achieved with the triple bottom line accounting method and in the future this is going to be very useful for us in the work because we will be able to understand how sustainability can be achieved efficiently in a company.

In the class we learned that companies in order to achieve this need to study the processes that involve all their business operations. A good way to know if your company is green and sustainable is to use the calculator of the CO2 emissions that we used in class. This shows us how much a company is polluting the environment based on the energy and transportation that they do on an annual basis. We also learned about sustainable companies with the furniture companies that were headed by successful people like Miller that decided to turn its business green by not only committing to sustainable practices, but also by using recyclable green materials in order to make not only the company, but also their products truly sustainable.

Doing this is the only true way to achieve sustainability for a company and interestingly we also studied companies that did this in the US and were very big corporations. The green awareness is bigger on developed countries and this is also something very important that I learned in the course. In the less developed countries the concept of sustainability is still not as well seen and for example the consumers prefer to buy products only based on price, but instead consumers from developed countries will also be taking in account the social awareness of a company and would even prefer healthier or less-polluting options. These initiatives are being applied by the companies like Wal-Mart that apply this by letting others guide their employees in order to train them or counsel them about the engagement in with good sustainable practices and their importance.

Another source of good sustainable habits that we had in the course beside the ones about the changes that could be made by one billion people for example are the ones of professor Calix in the online session about the concept of spending less water or using modern light bulbs that spend less electricity because of them being more efficient. Even in the video of sustainability and changes that could be done by many it says that if about a billion people changed their light bulbs to the more efficient ones many coal plants all over the world could be closed because of this initiative. There are also many other ways for diminishing the dependence on natural resources and this is very important because we are using them all up at a rate that cannot be sustainable by the society. One very important online session were we also learned about this was the one in which we saw about the limited oil supply and the excessive demand that also is a problem that we must address in the future. The limited resources will affect us all and that is why we must find sustainable methods to preserve and reuse them. Committing to sustainability and also becoming aware about the environment protection are the most important things that I learned about in this course and also I will now apply them in the future.

Post relating HR and sustainability

The human resources are a very important aspect to the company that gives an aggregated value to it because it becomes more balanced and sustainable. The HR is related to sustainability because the practices of sustainability aim to protect the environment and also the healthy habits of the employees. People that consume less junk food and fats and get into healthier diets with fruit and vegetables will be healthier and more productive for the company. The human resources department can promote healthier diets and also good habits like quitting smoking, that at the same time are practices of sustainability. 

Looking also from the business point of view using vehicles that pollute less the environment and also machinery will increase the health of the workers because they are less exposed to toxics and at the same time boost the morale of the company. The boost in the morale happens because people seeing that there is a company that practices green business and also sustainability will make them feel better about working here and at the same time attract others to work in this institution because being environmental friendly and being committed to sustainable practices is well seen and appreciated by the society. Then because of this the people will consume more in the company because giving the image of being a company that is in favor of sustainability gives a good image that people appreciate and because of this they will like to consume more the products done by this company instead of the ones of a company that those not promote an image of being sustainable.

An interesting point of view I also read about CEO and how they relate sustainability to a company is that the sustainability is seen as more important than ever to success and in building this new era leadership will be required and this means HR will have to take action to make this possible. This is because the leadership and organization is responsibility of HR and sustainability is going to be achieved with this.

Source:

http://www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/Accenture_A_New_Era_of_Sustainability_Study_and_CEO_Video_Transcript.pdf

Reflective essay on interviews to the logistic companies

The mentality of businesses to engage in green practices and to pollute the environment is becoming more and more popular throughout the society. But this is taking place more actively in countries that are developed. Countries like Panama are going already through this process of starting to engage in greener business activities, but they must still go a long way because the society has to promote this more and also the local government. In this country one of the problems is that people still don’t see it as a positive practice for businesses and instead they see it as more of something neutral. 

The lack of enough support makes the companies feel less stimulated to engage in this practice. An economic and social stimulus is still missing in order to make this activity more common and this will benefit our country. The positive is that these technologies are becoming cheaper as time passes and people find them more affordable for their businesses. Also efficiency has increased and this helps. Companies like the one of logistics where I interviewed the manager are doing well for our country by setting a good example for the rest. But there is still a long way to go and to reach the goal of making must of the companies in Panama to engage in Green business practices. To achieve this people must change their mentality and through globalization and by some setting a good example I believe that this will become eventually possible. When this happens our country will be more on its track to finally become a developed country.