BSS017-2 Sustainable Business Management

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 Table of Contents

Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2

Opportunities and threats posed by sustainability to Amazon:..................................................2

Three sustainable strategies:......................................................................................................2

 Environmental sustainability...........................................................................................2

 Social sustainability........................................................................................................4

 Economic sustainability..................................................................................................5

Conclusion:................................................................................................................................6

Reference list:.............................................................................................................................7

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Introduction:

The paper provides some detailed and brief strategies and recommendations to the
organization on the basis of the challenges that are identified in the previous assessment. In
addition to this, the paper entails a detailed discussion of various theories that support the
recommendations to the case company. It is to be noted that as per the given case study of the
company, social sustainability is one of the main issues that amazon has been facing lately
due to various “Corporate Social Responsibility Issues (CSR issues) (Campbell, 2020). And,
in this study, various strategies and recommendations have been proposed to address
environmental sustainability and economic sustainability of the company. 

Opportunities and threats posed by sustainability to Amazon:

It is to be noted that sustainability can pose both threats and opportunities to the case
company, that is Amazon Plc. The various threats that can be posed by sustainability
includes:

 Reduced stakeholders’ trust due to increased legal infractions

 Chances of suspension of operations due to increased probability of natural
disasters (Caraway, 2020)
On the other hand, two areas of opportunities that can be posed by sustainability in
the case company include:

 Increased provisions of special values from rapidly resuming operations

during “disaster periods” (Liu et al. 2019)
 Opportunity to expand sales from CRM strategy that integrate consumer data
from group companies (Campbell, 2020)

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Three sustainable strategies:

 Environmental sustainability
Manufacturing products using sustainable materials:

Picture 1: Carroll's CSR pyramid

Practical issue 1:

One of the practical issues faced by amazon is that other competitors claim that
Amazon claim false social activities (Martins et al., 2019). 

Solution: It is to be noted that in order to ensure environmental sustainability,

science-based approaches are required to reduce packaging, and ease the process of recycling
as well as deliver the products sustainably and safely and these activities are visible and
apparent and hence can save the company from the allegations (Liu et al. 2019). Here, the
“Cradle to Cradle” theory can be taken under consideration, demonstrating secured,
sustainable, and potentially infinite circulations of various materials and nutrients within
cycles (Hansen and Schmitt, 2021). In other words, the theoretical framework of “Cradle to
Cradle” can be defined as a design or product production of various types so that they can be
fully recycled at the end of their lives, resembling the “nature’s cycle” with all either returned

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or recycled to the earth directly or indirectly via food as a completely non-toxic and safe
substance (Ismayilova and Silvius, 2021). 

Therefore, according to this theory, it is recommended that Amazon design and

mass-produce their infrastructures, equipment and products considering the “C2C model” and
manufacture items using bio-degradable, eco-friendly, sustainable, and biological nutrients,
along with technical nutrients wherever possible (Morseletto, 2020). For example, in the case
of making a shoe, the sole can be made up of “biological nutrients” and the upper part from
“technical nutrients”.

Effective waste management:

Practical issue 2:Amazon is a giant compay and through its packaging and logistics
activities every day,  it produces bulk amount of wastes which is another practical issue in the
company. 

Solution: Effective waste management is of vital importance when it comes to

fostering environmental sustainability within a company. Here, in this case, Amazon can
refer to the postulations of the “Cradle to Cradle” theory and it must see garbage as an
eternal source and also considering doing the right thing right from the beginning
(Morseletto, 2020). Moreover, it is all about making the product development and the
community function in the same way as a healthy ecological system where all the resources
are used in an effective manner and in a cyclical process (Ismayilova and Silvius, 2021).
Therefore, it is to be noted that in order to make the whole organizational system to be
sustainable, all the materials within products should be kept tidy and must not be mixed with
each other and Amazon can also place a separation system which can be used when the item
is discarded (Hansen and Schmitt, 2021). 

With the reference to the C2C framework, amazon should follow the concept
“Waste=Food” which means that the wastes in a particular cycle can become food for another
product cycle. Thus, Amazon should design their products in such a manner so as to ensure
that all the materials must be classified into “one of two cyclical systems” and should use the
materials that are naturally biodegradable in nature and the ones that can be returned to the
ecological systems as they can substantially use “natural fibers” and “bio-plastics” as their
raw materials. For example, they can include materials like “metals”, “oil-based plastics”,
and chemicals as these products can be recycled and reused producing the same quality in
closed systems, if they are not mixed-up. 
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  Social sustainability
Build a carbon-free community and cities

Practical issue 3: One of the most significant practical issues of social sustainability
in Amazon plc is that huge amount of carbon emissions from Amazon have been causing
social unsustainability. 

Solution: It is important to note that Amazon Plc must consider the SDG 6, that is
“Sustainable Cities and Communities” and based on that it must incorporate effective waste
management strategies within the company and should emphasize preceding towards a “net-
zero carbon future” where the people that tend to support the whole value chain are all treated
with immense respect and dignity (Sachs et al., 2019). It is important to note that,
Amazon ,must give highest priority to the consumers as the most vital stakeholder group as
they most potentially affect the company’s revenues (Sachs et al., 2019).

Here, the model of the “Pyramid of CSR” can be considered by Amazon plc and
where the main emphasis is on the “whole” and not the various parts. It is to be noted that the
“CSR pyramid tends to hold the fact that the firms must engage in various decisions, actions,
and policies, as well as various practices and that, frequently tend to fulfill the 4 factors
“economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic or discretionary responsibility”. It is important to
note that “compliance” and “corporate social responsibility” with the laws are the most
important conditions for “Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)” and while discussing the
ethics of the company and the level at which it provides support to the society with money,
time and talent. 

For example, in order to fulfil economic responsibilities, it is important to focus on

profitability to give adequate payments to the workers and to donate societal benefits, and to
fulfil legal responsibility, they should adhere to all “employment and tax laws” in order gain
trust and reliance of the stakeholders. Moreover, to fulfil ethical responsibilities, Amazon
must treat the employees respectfully, and foster eco-friendly business practices to attract
positive attention of stakeholders and to fulfil philanthropic responsibilities, they should
focus on doing the right thing and give back to the society what they take. For example,
Amazon can control their carbon foot print and control pollution by building new natural
resources and use bio-degradable eco-friendly products.

Creating Jobs to reduce poverty:

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 Amazon can create jobs for people around the world and this will help to various
“sustainable development goals” like “no poverty”, “zero hunger”, “good health and
wellbeing”, and so on (Bacq and Aguilera, 2022). Beyond their own workforce, Amazon can
invest to support other indirect jobs in various other fields to improve the living standards of
the people (Bacq and Aguilera, 2022). Here, the “Theory of Social values” can be referred to
here which is mainly concerned with personal values that are commonly held by
“communities” and the ways these values may change under various conditions (Lee et al.,
2019).

Based on this theory, it is recommended to Amazon that “institutional adjustment is

of vital importance to foster social values and this tends to include improving incentives
while promoting competitions and preventing corruption (Lee et al., 2019). For example,
amazon can donate in local charities and local community groups and can entail “ethical
sourcing practices” and produce working opportunities for disabled people.

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  Economic sustainability
Reduce overhead costs by reducing wastes:

Practical issue 4: One of the practical issues for the company is that the company
faces high overhead costs and wastes as compared to the other industry players. 

Solution: Here, the company can consider the “Circular Economy” which is a
model of consumption and production involving “sharing”, “leasing”, “reusing”, “repairing”,
“refurbishing” and “recycling” existing materials much as possible (Velenturf and Purnell,
2021). Following the postulations of this theory, the life-cycle of the products can be
extended and hence economic sustainability would be fostered along with reduced wastes.
Thus, in other words, it can be said that Amazon must design out the wastes and pollution
and should also keep the products and the materials in use and must also regenerate natural
systems (Morseletto, 2020).

For example, based on the theory of circular economy, Amazon plc must
manufacture and design their organizational infrastructure and equipment so that each
product is reusable, for an instance they can design their electronic and electrical appliances
such that they are easy to repair and must entail as much recyclable raw materials as possible
(Velenturf and Purnell, 2021). In terms of packaging the products, amazon can recycle
existing plastics into pellets to reuse them.

Reducing dependencies on natural resources:

Practical issue 5: Another practical issue facing amazon is the increased use of
fossil fuel causing climate change as well as various health hazards. 

Solutions: To solve this issue, it is important for amazon to reduce its carbon
footprints and this can be done by electrifying the “delivery vehicles”. Here, in this context,
Amazon can consider the “Cap-and-trade theory” which is a system that tends to limit
various aggregate emissions from a group of emitters by placing a “Cap” on maximum
emissions and this can be characterised as “market based policies” for reducing the overall
environmental footprints and investing in “fossil fuel alternatives” and increased energy
efficiency (Stavins, 2019). It is to be noted that the main aim of “cap and trade model” is to
steadily minimize harmful environmental and conventional resource decencies (Stavins,
2019).

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 Therefore, Amazon plc can use it as a market instrument where a government tends
to put limit or a cap on the total amount of green-house games that can be emitted and the
total amount of fossil fuel that can be consumed (Holtsmark and Weitzman, 2020).
Electrification warehouse activities can be a good way to limit fossil fuel consumption and
also they can buy “carbon free hydrogen” from plug power Inc, to operate more than 30,000
forklifts or 800 long hauls trucks on an annual basis in order to use lesser “fossil fuels” and to
decarbonize the organizational operations (Holtsmark and Weitzman, 2020).

Conclusion:

The paper had discussed some in-depth and useful strategies and recommendations
to the case organization, that is Amazon, based on the various challenges that are identified in
the case study as well as the previous assessment. In addition to this, the paper has also taken
under consideration various theories and models in order to support the recommendations.
Furthermore, it is important to note that based on the given case study about Amazon plc,
Amazon has been trying hard since decades to build a highly sustainable company though
net-zero carbon activities and increased CSR activities, and in this study, various strategies
and recommendations have been suggested that would help to foster environmental
sustainability and economic sustainability of the company. 

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Reference list:

1. Bacq, S. and Aguilera, R.V., 2022. Stakeholder governance for responsible

innovation: A theory of value creation, appropriation, and distribution. Journal of
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2. Campbell, E., 2020. The Other Amazon: Deconstructing Amazon's Climate
Pledge and Sustainability Discourse.
3. Caraway, B., 2020. Interrogating Amazon’s sustainability innovation. In
Cultural Industries and the Environmental Crisis (pp. 65-78). Springer, Cham.
4. Guo, L., Xu, Y., Liu, G., Wang, T. and Du, C., 2019. Understanding firm
performance on green sustainable practices through managers’ ascribed responsibility and
waste management: Green self-efficacy as moderator. Sustainability, 11(18), p.4976.
5. Hansen, E.G. and Schmitt, J.C., 2021. Orchestrating cradle‐to‐cradle
innovation across the value chain: Overcoming barriers through innovation communities,
collaboration mechanisms, and intermediation. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 25(3), pp.627-
647.
6. Holtsmark, B. and Weitzman, M.L., 2020. On the Effects of Linking Cap-and-
Trade Systems for $$\hbox {CO} _ {2} $$ CO2 Emissions. Environmental and Resource
Economics, 75(3), pp.615-630.
7. Ismayilova, A. and Silvius, G., 2021. Cradle-to-cradle in project management:
A case study. International Journal of Circular Economy and Waste Management
(IJCEWM), 1(1), pp.54-80.
8. Lee, S.S., Kim, Y. and Roh, T., 2019. Modified pyramid of CSR for corporate
image and customer loyalty: Focusing on the moderating role of the CSR experience.
Sustainability, 11(17), p.4745.
9. Liu, L., Zhang, M. and Ye, W., 2019. The adoption of sustainable practices: A
supplier's perspective. Journal of environmental management, 232, pp.692-701.
Martins, V.W., Anholon, R., Quelhas, O.L. and Leal Filho, W., 2019. Sustainable practices in
logistics systems: An overview of companies in Brazil. Sustainability, 11(15), p.4140.
10. Morseletto, P., 2020. Targets for a circular economy. Resources, Conservation
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11. Sachs, J.D., Schmidt-Traub, G., Mazzucato, M., Messner, D., Nakicenovic, N.
and Rockström, J., 2019. Six transformations to achieve the sustainable development goals.
Nature sustainability, 2(9), pp.805-814.
12. Stavins, R.N., 2019. Carbon taxes vs. cap and trade: theory and practice.
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13. Velenturf, A.P. and Purnell, P., 2021. Principles for a sustainable circular
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