Individual Reflexive Diary Assignment Sample
Week 1: Course overview and introduction
Brief overview of the key learning points
Through this course I was able to understand that the current consumption of the world is extremely unsustainable. People are more inclined towards using the products which have the potential of degrading the environment to a great extent. Unsustainable consumption also includes the consumption pattern which can deplete the natural resources very fast. This session also helped me to understand the cause and effect of over consumption in the environment. Over consumption can be described as a situation in which the use of resources has exceeded the sustainable capacity of an ecosystem. In addition to that, I also learned about the different social and economic models of sustainable development and its implication to adapt to sustainable consumption. This course helped me to understand the ethical and environmental issues that are related to the marketing activities. Unfair pricing, dishonest advertising are few ethical issues related to marketing activities, whereas plastic packaging, extensive use of papers are some environmental marketing issues (Chomskyite and Laohavichien, 2021). Prime aim of the course was to teach us how people can adapt to sustainable marketing strategies and how the behavior’s and consuming habits of the consumer affects sustainability.
Examples that illustrate the above mentioned learning points.
Sustainable marketing can be described as the type of marketing, which focuses on the use of products and services that are environment friendly and sustainable. It suggests how a company needs to meet the demand of the present generation without depleting the available resources and making it unavailable to the future generations (Coffin and Egan, 2022). For example a company can use recyclable packaging materials to show the sustainability of the company. Just like the company LEGO, has set a mission to make all the Lego-bricks sustainable by the end of year 2030 (Kristensen and Melgaard, 2020). A company should use renewable sources of energy for the manufacture of their products as well as marketing. Recyclable materials should be used and non-biodegradable materials should be avoided by the companies.
According to the theories learned through this session, the green gap is the difference or gap between the green intentions of the consumers and their green actions. Going green can be explained as the knowledge and practices adopted to achieve more eco-friendly and ecologically responsible lifestyles (Camacho-Otero, 2018). Even though the consumers are aware of the adverse effects of over consumption and unsustainable lifestyle still they fail to achieve a completely sustainable lifestyle this is categorized as a green gap. There are certain ways through which this gaps can be reduced, for example consumers can check energy labels on products before buying it. Consumers should focus more on consuming organic foods which are locally grown, and recycling and using more eco friendly products.
Week 2: Introduction to market sustainability
Sustainability needs to be maintained in society to use the resources in a controlled way and give something valuable in return to society along with saving some resources for future generations (De Giacomo and Bilipschitz, 2020). From the session, I have learnt that in order to become a sustainable society, it is important to eliminate the over-extraction of heavy metals and fossil fuels from the crust of the earth. It is important for an organization to maintain sustainability in the case of the employees also. I have learnt that unsafe working conditions should be eradicated and enough payments need to be made for the employees in order to meet the basic requirements of human beings. It is also important to eliminate the overbuilding of chemicals and compounds that has been produced by substances such as DDT, PCBs and dioxins. For example, I have seen that the reuse program of Nike involves the usage of grinds in athletic shoes and using recycled materials for the surfaces of artificial soccer fields, basketball courts and athletic tracks. It has tried to keep more than 21 million defective shoes out of landfills.
It has maintained the principles of emphasizing treating the products that involve low-level toxics, less waste and the materials which are more preferred environmentally along with product innovation in a sustainable manner. I have gained information that Nike has made an alliance with the natural step framework for getting help associated with the application of sustainability principles in its business operation. The company tried to formalize its commitment to sustainable commerce with an official statement of policy afterwards (Thirstier and Johannsdottir, 2019). I have seen from the coursework that hundreds of Nike employees have been trained for using the Natural Step Framework within 1998 and 2001 leading to numerous programs of innovation to make improvements further in its sustainability goals. In the year 2008, a partnership contract was signed between Natural Step and Nike for helping to assess and develop its approach towards product innovation further by giving a definition of a long-term vision to manufacture sustainable products.
It resulted in a North Star vision and the creation of innovation goals has made Nike one of the leaders in the field of sustainable product innovation and work towards creating a sustainable future (Laasch, 2018). From the case of Nike, I came to know that it has attained high success in partnering with Natural Step and has tried to use its talented workforce in order to introduce innovation in the market. This also enabled the company to maintain sustainable behaviour within the community and future generations. Recycling the products by Nike has become an important step towards attaining sustainability. This company has given efforts towards making the used product utilizable in manufacturing another furnished and new product. This impressive strategy has made it one of the influential companies in the field of sustainability. The other company also got inspired by Nike as it is an inferential organisation and is one of the most popular organisations dealing in sports goods.
Week 3: Principles of Sustainable Marketing: Circular economy
Sustainable marketing is not limited to the sale of products and services; this is where achieving a circular economy comes to a place where the waste that is generated due to consumption is put to use with the help of recycling, reusing and reduction.
The discussion from the third week was specifically focused on sustainable marketing and how it helps in achieving a circular economy where the role of organisations as well as the community is intertwined (Kristensen and Mosgaard, 2020). I believe that in order to achieve a circular economy it is essential to create awareness among consumers. One of the key factors that mines and the success of a circular economy are the ability of organisations to collect waste and receive a waste management process where everything that is generated is consumed and the leftover is utilised for the process of production over and over again. Recycling is one of the processes that is mostly utilised for reusing waste for developing and introducing new materials (Camacho-Otero et al. 2018).
In this regard, the circular economy is the most effective way through which plastic pollution can be controlled and minimised where all the three processes that include reducing, reusing and recycling needs to be employed. Organisations specifically in the FMCG industry who are responsible for the packaging of products which plastics I need to minimise the use of plastics or replace them with substitutes of paper whenever possible. I believe that if organisations start to minimise the use of plastics then a certain level of induced awareness can also be achieved among consumers. Consumer preference would shift towards sustainable packaging products and services that do not lead to the generation of plastics. This would motivate the company to minimise the use of plastics (Sherwood, 2020).
Gal Sun this week has also helped in understanding the ABCD planning model for achieving sustainability which refers to the creation of awareness and obtaining vision for achieving sustainability regarding a particular process. B in this model Refers to the current state or the baseline from which back casting needs to be achieved creative solutions need to be employed and finally, the decisions regarding the private sector needs to be made throughout the entire process.
The discussions this week has also led to the focus upon the increased emissions in different countries, especially in the UK. Hence, based on the consensus linked with omissions the country has decided to cut down 68% of the country’s emissions. The country would focus mostly upon supporting industries that are sustainable and therefore have lower emissions while also focusing upon achieving renewable energy sources for powering the energy requirements of the country (Benachio et al. 2020). The major proportions of the emissions in the UK are a result of its industrialisation process. Thus, to minimise industrialisation the government can provide subsidies to industries and factories that adopt sustainable consumption and ethical use of resources and that do not have a negative impact on the environment. This is why a circular economy is becoming important as the overall carbon in the entire cycle does not increase (Grafström and Aasma, 2021).
Week 4: The Sustainable Consumer
I have learnt that over the previous years, the requirement of a sustainable lifestyle has become imperative. Brands have gained more confidence in trying to change the world through sustainable beliefs. Compelling, brave and bold campaigns across different platforms have proved how the companies are aligned with the new environmental and pro-social values associated with millennial (Wadin and Ode, 2019). The pollution crisis can be solved by organisations nowadays by investing more in technological advancements and signing contracts with other influential organisations that deal in mitigating the pollution such as cutting the emissions of carbon dioxide, conducting programs for water purification and others. I have learnt about sustainability through some brands such as Colgate, which give an effort to save water at the time of brushing, whereas, Alexa wants to teach politeness to the kids. I have gained information that a green consumer is someone who has gained awareness on his or her obligations for protecting the environment through selecting green products and services. For example, green products can be in the form of solar energy, organic food and others.
Therefore, organisations need to attract different consumers by showing their approach towards using recycled products for a good cause and manufacturing near environmental friendly products. I have also learnt that the consumers focus more on the companies that give something valuable back to the community in the form of providing education or any kind of help to the backward community. I have gained knowledge that according to Temporal Construal Theory, temporal distance helps in changing the response of people to future events by altering the manner in which people represent those kinds of events. I have seen that with the increasing temporal distance, the events can be represented through a few abstract features that help in controlling the perceived essence associated with the events such as career, health fulfilment and others. Shortening of temporal distance can make the event mode represented through utilising incidental details associated with the event (Cantele, Moggi, and Campedelli, 2020). According to my learning, high-level construal can be considered more informative and can be powerful in making decisions associated with the future.
Colgate can be considered as an example of high-level construal which reflects water optimisation while brushing. In order to build a proper sustainable model, organisations need to look at their employees and their needs in a detailed way (Pedersen et al., 2021). According to my learning, it can be established that the brands have tried to make alliances for proposing a sustainable strategy of helping the community and the people who have insufficient resources available for their daily life. Hence, organisation can deal with the small groups in order to get hold of the green consumers. However, those specific groups need to have a proper concern for maintaining future sustainability in a convenient manner. Based on the learning, I have come to a conclusion regarding sustainable consumers that in order to attract them, the organisations need to come up with innovative ideas associated with responsibility towards the community and the environment.
Week 5: Past, present and future directions
When it comes to consumers, ethical decision-making regarding sustainable purchasing plays a major role in achieving sustainability and minimising the carbon footprint that can arise in the market (Kushwah et al. 2019). Week 5 was focused upon the decision-making process of consumers and led to the discussion which helped in understanding why consumers are not ethical and sustainable in their overall decision making in the purchasing process.
The main areas of focus in this week were linked with sustainability and how it has become a mainstream issue linked with consumer purchasing patterns. Furthermore, the weak also sheds light on how consumers can be encouraged to make ethical decisions regarding the products and services they are well which can minimise their carbon footprint and can also help them to achieve sustainability.
Key strategies that have been discussed this week can help to encourage consumers to be much more ethical in terms of their purchasing, focusing upon production services that have a lower carbon footprint (Zollo et al. 2018). Products that are organic can be bought from local markets that have low carbon content bought from fair trade practices are some of the best options that consumers can avail in order to achieve sustainability.
When it comes to ethical decision making regarding sustainability it depends upon the consumer and their choices and in this regard I have seen that consumers have a certain amount of awareness that can help them to understand the impact of unethical purchasing and consumption. I believe that with increased awareness in the community consumers would become much more ethical in terms of understanding what to buy and what to avoid which especially has a significant impact on their carbon footprint.
Ethical consumption has also been focused upon in this week which not only sheds light upon the policies that have been undertaken by the World Trade Organisation regarding ethical consumption but also sustainable ways of production that companies can achieve. Ethical consumption is not just limited to the end-user but is also something that large corporations need to take into consideration when it comes to the consumption of the various natural resources that are present in limited quantities (Kuokkanen and Sun, 2020.). The use of fossil fuel is one of the most relevant examples where ethical consumption has led to global warming. With the rise in industrialisation, the use of fossil fuels significantly increased and the demand and consumption among consumers also increased. I believe organisations are not the only entity to be blamed but it is also the consumers and the end-users who are creating the demand in the first place. In order to satisfy these demands, organisations are adopting mass production processes.
It has also been discussed in the 5th week that to ensure a more sustainable future social-political challenges need to be addressed first where consumer behaviour needs to be influenced and changed in the first place which can ultimately help in achieving overall sustainability throughout the community (Chumsakwinit and Laohavichien, 2021).
References
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Camacho-Otero, J., Boks, C. and Pettersen, I.N., 2018. Consumption in the circular economy: A literature review. Sustainability, 10(8), p.2758.
Cantele, S., Moggi, S. and Campedelli, B., 2020. Spreading sustainability innovation through the co-evolution of sustainable business models and partnerships. Sustainability, 12(3), p.1190.
Chumsakwinit, S. and Laohavichien, T., 2021. Celebrity and Beliefs Affect Ethical Consumption Intentions. ABAC Journal, 41(1), pp.183-208.
Coffin, J. and Egan–Wyer, C., 2022. The ethical consumption cap and mean market morality. Marketing Theory, 22(1), pp.105-123.
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Kristensen, H.S. and Mosgaard, M.A., 2020. A review of micro level indicators for a circular economy–moving away from the three dimensions of sustainability?. Journal of Cleaner Production, 243, p.118531.
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