BSS017-2 Sustainable Business Management Assignment Sample
Module code and Title: BSS017-2 Sustainable Business Management Assignment Sample
Executive summary
Sustainability in business refers to the strategies and actions of a particular company to eliminate the adverse social and environmental impact that are caused because of the business operation in the particular organisation. The different issues faced by John Lewis in the case study includes shortage of labour in the UK and challenges faced in providing support to vulnerable workforces that caused various inconveniences in the supply chain of the organisation.
Besides this, other issues included deforestation, challenges faced in adoption of RFVS as well as in establishing a volatile dairy market in the UK. In order to overcome these challenges various measures are suggested in this report like recruiting disable people to curb the shortage of labour in the UK, recycling of goods in order to overcome the challenge of deforestation and so on. These suggested measures would help John Lewis to overcome all the issues faced by them.
Introduction
Sustainability is a systematic approach in business that helps in creating long-term value by considering how a particular business organisation operates in a social, economic and ecological environment. It refers to performing business activities without posing negative impacts on the society and environment as a whole. Sustainability is one of the most crucial factors that not only helps a business organisation achieve success but also helps in curbing the existing global challenges.
Sustainability initiatives can help a company improve its financial performance, fostering support from the public. This report aims to evaluate and analyse a case study concerned with John Lewis, mentioning the various environmental, social and economic challenges faced by the organisation along with outlining the effective solution to overcome those challenges. Besides this, the challenges will be aligned and analysed with the Triple bottom line theory for portraying the impact of the issues faced by the company on social, economical and ecological factors.
Analysis
Q1: Sustainable issues faced by the organisation
Shortage of labour in the UK
The shortage of labour in the UK is one of the major challenges faced by John Lewis in the case study, affecting its supply chain (John Lewis Partnership, 2021). The mean food production sites amidst the pandemic have not been able to meet the labour demands that affected the productivity of the organisation. The warehouse operations faced many difficulties in recruiting workers for the peak season in the year 2021. This shortage of labours increased the reliance of the business organisation on the providers of contingent labours.
Providing support to vulnerable workforces
The Covid-19 pandemic provided numerous negative impacts on the global supply chains, making it very difficult for the vulnerable workers to meet their basic needs and requirements (John Lewis Partnership, 2021). This hampered the employee performance along with reducing the productivity of the company thereby affecting the business turnover of the company.
Establishing a volatile dairy market
In the present situation, the dairy farmers in the UK market are facing a lot of issues such as unprofitable selling price and increased cost for fuel, feeding and labour. Even Waitrose, in the UK market, fails to provide fair prices to its dairy farmers (John Lewis Partnership, 2021). This increases the inconveniences of establishing a volatile dairy market in the UK.
Encouraging the adoption of Responsible Fishing Vessel Standard (RFVS) in the UK market
In 2020, the RFVS was launched in order to enhance fishing operations ensuring decent working conditions. In Scotland, the vessels that supply its materials to Waitrose have gradually started the adoption of RFVS, but it is limited in other places due to increased demand in the sales along with stakeholders disagreeing to incur additional costs (John Lewis Partnership, 2021).
Collective actions for preserving forests.
The commodities including palm oil, timber and soya are some of the most important natural resources but the fact that they lead to increased levels of deforestation cannot be ignored thereby affecting the ecosystem (John Lewis Partnership, 2021).
Q2: Possible solutions to the outlined problems mentioned above
In order to overcome the issue of labour shortage in the UK market, John Lewis needs to consider the overlooked groups like people with disabilities, ex-military officers and even those that are eager to return to the workplace after a long period of absence (Jessop, 2021). However, the company is already observed to engage with the government of UK along with the National Farmers Union in order to tackle the problem.
To overcome the issue of providing support to vulnerable workforces, John Lewis needs to focus on factors like strong communication and patience while dealing with vulnerable workers (Zhong et al. 2021). However, the company is already seen to support some of its supply chain vulnerable workers by including them in projects that are convened by the Ethical Trade Initiative thereby securing the workers.
In order to overcome the issue of establishing a volatile dairy market, John Lewis needs to consider building a cash buffer along with lowering down the capital being spent (Thorsøe et al. 2020). However, throughout 2021, Waitrose was observed to review its prices on milk against the market prices corresponding to the cost of the milk production.
To overcome the issue of encouraging the adoption of Responsible Fishing Vessel Standard (RFVS) in the UK market, John Lewis needs to focus on the fact that RFVS is a voluntary, certified programme enabling high standards in various of the operational practices (Koehler, 2020).However the company is observed to be working with the Global Seafood Allowance (GSA) and their main supplier in the UK, performing road shows for encouraging the adoption of RFVS.
Lastly, in order to overcome the issue of deforestation for cultivating soya, timber and palm oil, John Lewis needs to begin the process of recycling in order to reduce the consumption of trees for the manufacture of the products in the company (Nurfatriani et al. 2019). However, the company is observed to be already striving to protect the forests along with other vital ecosystems in parts of Brazil.
Q3: Alignment of the issues with triple bottom line
The Triple bottom line theory is a concept employed in business operations making the particular firm measure the environmental, economical and social impact of the business activities. The bottom line of the theory focuses on 3Ps namely people, profit and planet (Elkington, 2018). It is known to be one of the sustainability frameworks that tend to measure the success of a business organisation.
In this case study, both shortage of labour in the UK and challenges faced while providing support to vulnerable workforces fall under the aspect “people” among the 3Ps of the theory (Treiblmaier, 2019). The issues regarding establishing a volatile dairy market and encouraging the adoption of Responsible Fishing Vessel Standard (RFVS) in the UK market is associated with the “profit” aspect of the theory.
The challenges regarding collective actions for preserving forests and thereby preventing deforestation is associated with the “planet” aspect of the theory signifying the impact on the environment.
Conclusion and recommendation
From the above study, it can be concluded that the organisation concerned in the case study, belonging to John Lewis, faces various challenges in its supply chain, environmental factors as well as in its workforce that are mentioned in this report along with the different effective solutions to overcome those challenges. However, John Lewis is suggested to consider and focus on solutions like recycling to overcome deforestation and others in order to overcome the different challenges faced by the organisation. The implementation of these measures would help the organisation overcome all the challenges they faced over the past few decades.
Reference list
Elkington, J., 2018. 25 years ago, I coined the phrase “triple bottom line.” Here’s why it’s time to rethink it. Harvard business review, 25, pp.2-5.
Jessop, B., 2021. Neoliberalization, uneven development, and Brexit: further reflections on the organic crisis of the British state and society. In Dislocation: Awkward Spatial Transitions (pp. 28-46). Routledge.
Johnlewis partnership (2021). Ethics & Sustainability Report [Online]. Available at: <https://www.a.co.uk/content/dam/cws/pdfs/Juniper/ethics-and-sustainability/Progress-Report-2022/Ethics-and-Sustainability-Report-2021_22.pdf> [Accessed 27 October 2022]
Koehler, H., 2020. The case for industry transparency in supporting sustainable tuna fisheries. Marine Policy, p.104087.
Nurfatriani, F., Sari, G.K. and Komarudin, H., 2019. Optimization of crude palm oil fund to support smallholder oil palm replanting in reducing deforestation in Indonesia. Sustainability, 11(18), p.4914.
Thorsøe, M., Noe, E., Maye, D., Vigani, M., Kirwan, J., Chiswell, H., Grivins, M., Adamsone-Fiskovica, A., Tisenkopfs, T., Tsakalou, E. and Aubert, P.M., 2020. Responding to change: Farming system resilience in a liberalized and volatile European dairy market. Land Use Policy, 99, p.105029.
Treiblmaier, H., 2019. Combining blockchain technology and the physical internet to achieve triple bottom line sustainability: a comprehensive research agenda for modern logistics and supply chain management. Logistics, 3(1), p.10.
Zhong, Y., Li, Y., Ding, J. and Liao, Y., 2021. Risk management: Exploring emerging Human Resource issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 14(5), p.228.
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