Sustainability

Wipro headquartered in Bangalore is one of India’s leading firms which was founded by Mr. M. H Premji. Its business can be categorized under three main headings:  IT, BPO, R&D and Consulting Services: Wipro Technologies, Wipro Infotech, Consumer and Institutional Products: Wipro Consumer Care and Lightning , Infrastructure and Ecological Engineering: Wipro Infrastructure Engineering Wipro as an organization recognizes the importance of corporate social responsibility and has taken several initiatives to benefit the stakeholders.

Wipro Model of Good Citizenship Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives Wipro Cares Unlike mere philanthropy, this initiative channelizes the efforts of the employees and their friends to provide a long term benefit to the society. It focuses on two main areas – assisting in disaster management by providing rehabilitation to the survivors of natural calamities and initiating a learning enhancement program which would improve the skill set and self esteem of the underprivileged children ; thereby ensuring that they grow up to be independent.

Under this scheme, Wipro launched five new projects in 2007-08 which was in addition to the eight ongoing projects. Some major ongoing projects are as follows: Tsunami relief initiatives which include reclamation of agricultural land, donation of boats to fishermen and construction of school buildings have been undertaken at Pushpavanam village, Tamil Nadu. Learning enhancement programmes which aim to broaden the horizon and increase awareness levels have been successfully implemented in several schools – Olcott Memorial School, Chennai, TVK School in Chennai and Government Secondary School, Bangalore.

The success of these programs aptly demonstrates the benefit of sensitizing and involving employees in contributing to society. |Wiproites in Kolkatta in association with an NGO provide health care services for families of brick kiln labour camp children. In association with Swadhar, an NGO, Wipro has helped set up community centres for marginalized families. A vocational course and a school are run by Swadhar from this centre. Makkala Jagriti is an after school safe home set up in Bangalore for around 200 children.  Wipro Applying Thought in Schools Wipro firmly believes that an educated India is the key to bring about societal change. This initiative is aimed at improving the quality of education with the long term focus being to develop systems which would allow each child to reach his potential. Projects aimed at educational reform have been undertaken with organizations such as Disha, Gurgaon and Katha, Delhi. Wipro has fostered relationships with many NGO’s. Wipro is also a member of the CII National Committee of Education Reforms.

The experiment based learning projects are of two types:

• Holistic School Engagement Programs: Wipro has worked with over 1100 schools. For example, Eklavya in Bhopal, is an initiative at providing education for the economically disadvantaged children by developing material and teacher development programs.
• Capability building for organizations: This aims at introducing school reform and providing grants to build resource centres in the organization. For example, support has been given to Udaan-Janvikas, Ahmedabad to build the organization into an educational resource centre.

Mission10X

Mission10X, is a not for profit trust established in 2007 with the aim of improving the quality of engineering education in the country and producing employable graduates who are equipped with the necessary skill set. Workshops have been held which have empowered more than 1000 faculty members. These workshops focus on asset building aimed at creating a world class repository of learning assets. The mission is to eventually empower 10,000 faculty members by 2010.

Wipro has engaged in a transformation drive to fulfil its commitment to ecological sustainability. In addition, it is also trying to educate all stakeholders regarding the fragile ecosystem and the urgent need to take affirmative action. This drive was kicked off in 2008 and it involves all stakeholders – employees, suppliers, partners and communities. As per, Mr Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Ltd, “We firmly believe business cannot be built at the cost of ecology. It is not sustainable. Ecological Sustainability will increasingly be the defining force for society and business globally.

Wipro will work on the dimensions of carbon neutrality, water balance, waste management and bio-diversity. Eco Eye is the “eye” through which we attempt to see everything, and act for ecological sustainability. ”The themes for eco-action include identification of a portfolio for sustainability investments that will generate new lines of revenue and profits and remodel internal operations to reach neutrality/surplus in the elements of energy, water, waste.

In addition, there exists a “Beyond Wipro” initiative to partner with national and global groups to take sustainability initiatives and to motivate employees to make environment friendly changes in their personal lives. The initiative to invest in a new portfolio for sustainability is in line with Milton Friedman’s views, wherein Wipro has made a business case for social responsibility. In addition, Wipro recognizes that society is becoming more conscious and in due course of time, both customers and employees may demand the need for sustainability and the government may also mandate it.

Hence, it is clearly in their interest to take the lead and tap the hitherto unknown business opportunities. Eco Eye allows Wipro to have a “Going Green” tag, but more importantly it is structured in a way to bring value to the shareholders. This strategic positioning is important as the money spent on the Eco Eye initiatives are viewed as ‘beneficial’ to the shareholders and not a ‘burden’ on them. As per Milton Friedman, if a company spends shareholder money on corporate social responsibility, it is equivalent to a ‘tax’, hence this strategic positioning of generating returns is important for the shareholders.

The Eco Eye is a strategic corporate social responsibility initiative (in accordance with Porter and Cramer’s views) that provides mutual benefits to the society and the shareholders. Wipro has also partnered with regional, national and global groups as part of larger sustainability initiatives in energy, water, waste and biodiversity. This has been aimed at bringing about an industry change and alter the rules of engagement in the long run. Some of the key actions undertaken on ecological sustainability include: Reduce carbon footprint by encouraging telephone and video conferences to reduce employee travel emissions, encouraging car pooling. Wipro Eco Energy, a division of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering, offers consulting and implementation services across the spectrum of solar, wind, geothermal and biomass energy sources.  Usage of alternative sources of energy like LED lights, ISO 14001 Certification & Greening of all Buildings based on LEED standards . Reducing water usage by recycling waste water and harvesting rain water.

Wipro Water, a division of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering offers solutions in water treatment space.  In the field of waste management, Wipro has increased the usage of recycled materials and packaging in the design of products which has resulted in significant cost savings.  Conducts regular energy audits. In addition Wipro is a member of the Green Grid, a consortium dedicated to improving the energy efficiency of data centres. Integrated Portfolio of ecological solutions.

He has established a not-for-profit Azim Premji foundation which aims at introducing a holistic system change in the education system. The ‘Eco Eye’ which is the largest social initiative taken by the company aims at generating new business and providing value to all shareholders. Employees: They are provided with ample opportunities to contribute to society through programs such as ‘Wipro Cares’ and ‘Wipro applying thought in school’ which result in increased motivation. They are also involved in the Eco Eye program to reduce the carbon footprint – car pooling, encouraging video conferencing, E-waste policy.

Wipro has also launched Women of Wipro (WoW) with a charter to mentor women leaders, contribute to business growth and to remove disparities in the work-force. Medical benefits and superannuation plans are in place. Career development programs are run to improve the skill set of the employees. In the IT industry, the employees have a sedentary life style. Keeping this in mind, Wipro has initiated a “Fit for Life” program which aims at improving the physical and mental health of the employees.

Customers

Wipro has set up recycling agencies and processes for recycling E-waste. Customers are provided this service through a single helpline and are actively encouraged to use environment friendly products. This has projected the company as socially responsible and added brand value. Wipro has been environmentally responsible and has launched toxin free “greenware” desktops. Government: Wipro proactively engages with the government and regulatory bodies to evolve a legal and regulatory framework which addresses the needs of societal stakeholders. Wipro provides feedback to government on vital economic issues.

For example, the Offset Policy is aimed at facilitating technology transfer and large defence contracts with MNC’s. In addition Wipro offers advice to the government on educational reforms (in line with its philosophy of introducing a paradigm shift in education) and has also partnered with the government in promoting economic growth in Tier-II and III cities. Wipro is also a signatory to CII’s mission on sustainable growth.

Community

The initiatives taken under Eco Eye have an indirect impact on the surrounding communities as the focus is on energy efficiency. Wipro InfoTech has also launched “Super Genius Bharat PC” in an attempt to bridge the digital divide in India and is targeted specifically at the rural community. Disaster management drives through ‘Wipro Cares’ have benefited victims of natural calamities particularly in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Orissa. Wipro believes in engaging with the people and is averse to ‘plain cheque book philanthropy’. Wipro in association with civic bodies has worked in areas of ecological importance. For instance, it worked with the Bangalore municipality in 2007 to transplant fully grown trees.

Academia

Wipro has education programs aimed at the ‘future generations’ as it has an impact on influencing the future work force. These programs have been launched under “Wipro Cares”, “Wipro Applying Thought in Schools” and “Mission10X”. Initiatives have been taken to train teachers. Non Profit Organizations: Relationships have been nurtured with several NGO’s in promoting community welfare particularly in educating the underprivileged children. Wipro has also received accolades for its environment friendly initiatives and was ranked No. in Green peace’s Guide to Greener Electronics.

Suppliers

Wipro has an ombudsprocess available to all their vendors so that they can raise concerns relating to any breach by the employees. Before finalizing any contract with a vendor, Wipro ensures that the vendor has fair labour practices which include payment of statutory wages to employees, ensuring no gender discrimination and no forced or child labour. Wipro has undertaken responsibility not only for its own actions but has also taken steps to ensure that its suppliers do the same.

Controversies

In June 2007, Wipro along with two other Indian firms was black-listed for four years by the World Bank from receiving direct contracts under its corporate procurement program. This is the first time that the World Bank had taken such a stern action of black-listing firms. As per the bank, this disciplinary action was necessitated because Wipro had allowed the acquaintances of the bank’s CIO to participate in the “Directed Share Program”. This program offered American Depository Shares of Wipro in the US, at IPO market price.

Wipro claimed that this was simply a ‘goodwill gesture’, since the shared offered were too few to cause any conflict of interest. This controversy caused the share prices to fall by 12%. This clearly shows that there exists no such concept of a “perfect company” and companies are willing to indulge in unethical practices for their business interests. Conclusion Wipro, through its initiatives has created new market opportunities for itself in the domain of environment friendly products. It realizes that in this day and age, consumers have become more environment conscious and hence Wipro has promoted itself with a green tag.

They have tried to convey the message that they are a resource efficient company and have built a reputation around it which makes them attractive to investors, consumers, employees and other stakeholders. They are averse to taking up isolated initiatives and have devised a comprehensive and a coherent strategy for the entire organization. Having a socially aware chairman in the form of Mr. Azim Premji has ensured that the corporate social responsibility initiatives are discussed at the highest level and are an integral part of the business strategy.

In the Indian context, Wipro has paved the way forward in the realm of corporate citizenship for other companies to emulate. However, the World Bank controversy illustrates that even companies like Wipro need to always set for themselves high ethical benchmarks. They must never deviate from them even while aiming to maximize their long term business interests. Often, many social and environmental issues are effectively handled if a company is willing to partner with its competitors. Wipro being such a major player in the Indian market can usher in an industry change by collaborating with other companies.

Wipro’s initiatives are a testimonial to the dawning realization that corporate social responsibility is the future of business. In the words of Jeffery Hollender, “It’s what companies have to do to survive and prosper in a world where more and more of their behaviour is under the microscope. ”

New Balance had faced many new challenges in terms of ethical and sustainability issues. The challenge for the company was to recognize how to incorporate an effective Corporate Social Responsibility program for stimulating a successful global business, while increasing the contribution of New Balance to developing an upright and sustainable world. New Balance is enduring a commitment to environmental principles in its business operations to have the least minimal negative impact on the global or local environment, community, society, or economy. This is why the company knew that the time was right to create headway on their CSR strategy to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

Pertaining to the goals of New Balance for better sustainability, they faced key issues that could interrupt their process and makes things difficult for the company to move forward with a better implemented strategy. These issues included a lack of transparency throughout the company, no centralized method or metrics for measuring the company’s total contribution towards CSR, innovating new environmentally friendly products, managing oversea supplier factories, and no product life-cycle analysis for the company’s products. New Balance had lacked the ability to have openness, communication, and accountability throughout the company. In some of the interviews with the senior management on the key aspects to CSR, they believed New Balance had left out critical areas like transparency and accountability (Veleva 8).

The organization needs to decide how to become more transparent because it increases stakeholder trust and support. Greater trust from the stakeholders allows a better emotional bond that leads to better customer loyalty. Trust is important for a company because it relieves pressures from the community to take actions on better ethical movements. A greater transparency could build trust and mitigate unexpected reputation recalls or incidents in the supply chain. New Balance also had a problem with establishing a centralized method or metrics for measuring the company’s total contribution towards CSR. Their biggest challenge was to take it to next level and fully integrate it into the core business (Veleva 6).

The company showed commitment to their CSR strategy and was their central part to the organization, but they did not have a coherent agreement or understanding of what this should entail. Due to the company’s troubles on being able to communicate effectively, managers could not be sufficiently guided on how to identify the potential business risks and opportunities. This is a huge problem because communication on an ongoing basis was critical for CSR in the core business strategy and is the obstruction the company is facing for positioning themselves as the leading company. With the growth of environmentally conscious consumers, innovating new environmentally friendly products was the next big step for New Balance’s commitment towards CSR.

They knew they needed to minimize the environmental and social impacts and maximize social benefits along the supply chain, but the company faced a lack of complete understanding of how this domain linked to CSR and how the company could better leverage its existing environmental and social incentives to generate business benefits (Veleva 10). Regulations like REACH imposed greater responsibility on companies to assess environmental, health and safety impacts of their product ingredients and to identify safer alternatives. Emphasizing the high-priority on environmental-friendly products, implementing an integrated CSR strategy was critical for New Balance to be successful in doing this. New Balance had a significant gap between the level of CSR management in the U.S. facilities and oversea suppliers.

The management in the domestic operation facilities compared to the foreign supplier facilities overseas, were not well connected and aligned. This problem could put New Balance in jeopardy of a potential risk of loss resulting from damages to a firm’s reputation, in lost of revenue or destruction of shareholder value, even if the company is not found guilty of a crime. So the company’s issue is to assess whether through compensation or retraining, how was the company going to minimize the negative social impacts on their workers overseas. New Balance monitored their oversea facilities and took action when violations occurred, but the company did not have a standard set on the short-term contracts it had with the temporary workers overseas. Use of contract labor overseas factories was an area that “raises a red flag”(Veleva 13).

Therefore, New Balance’s stakeholders had a concern about the company’s exertion of no standard set for the short-term contracts. This is something the company needs to fix so it doesn’t face issues between regulations on labor forces whether it be a domestic factory or an oversea one. New Balance did not have a system in place to assess the life-cycle impacts of products.

They were having issues on determining materials to be used in their environmental-friendly products that were durable and provided good performance. They needed to find materials the consumers liked and would wear all the time. If New Balance were to develop a system for product life-cycle analysis, it could position them as an industry leader by being able to measure their carbon footprint for decreasing gas emissions, a way of reducing environmental hazardous conditions. But the company did not have a way of measuring or communicating the carbon footprint, which makes them liable for any potential risks to do with the society or environment.

Much more education was needed to “push design teams toward using environmentally preferred products and manufacturing” (Veleva 11). Building a core business occurrence for an integrated CSR strategy is the critical step for New Balance to achieve, in order to secure its sustainability and move forward.

The essay will have a closer look on what is preventing businesses to become more eco friendly and produce goods which are safer for the environment. The essay will discuss the guidelines stated in the report by Edward Freeman, Jeffery York and Lisa Stewart titled environment, ethics, and business. The essay will also put light on Roper Starch’s Green Gauge, in which he discusses the five-part segmentation of the environmental marketplace. The essay will also concentrate on why it is safer and even profitable for businesses to preserve the environment.

Business these days have to shift away from their old beliefs that a business as an entity is just there to provide a service or a product and make profits. This is an old story now, as environment concerns are growing in the minds of people, and they are putting in a great deal of effort to preserve environment. With millions of businesses contributing every day to pollution and harming the environment it is very much important now to move towards much eco friendly business operations. A London based consultancy firm Trucost reported that world’s top firms combined damage to the environment was $ 2.

2 trillion in 2008, more then $ 600 billion was contributed by consumer goods and basic materials producers (Jowit, 2010). Which such devastating impact on environment a close view on the article environment ethics and business published by Institute of Corporate Ethics can help us move towards a greener business environment. An eco friendly business is which controls its activities and produces goods and services to measure, prevent, limits or corrects environmental damage to water, air an soil, as well as problems related to noise, waste and eco-systems (Titley, 2008).

Against Change: The Business View With the world being hit with more harmful natural disasters much of the blame is being put on polluting business operations due to which global warming is occurring. The businesses have taken a lot time to realize that they have responsibility of protecting the environment, mainly because there are still disputes among environmentalists and businesses, as the article states. Firstly many facts put forth by scientist are disputable and there are uncertainties surrounding them that will the fact really come true in the long run.

There are also disagreements about policies to protect the environment as many people can not find a line of best fit between business and environment. Thirdly there is a difference in values, people may want eco friendly environment but may not be ready to let go some of their harmful habits or they may be confused between recycling or consuming green products. The inability to find a workable solution has encouraged lack of response and inaction in businesses. Lack of response has also been stemmed by the mind sets of businesses.

The five mind sets mentioned in the article are seen to be the reason why businesses fail to adapt an ethical and eco friendly business practice. Regulatory mind set mentions that businesses think that following government laws will eventually fix the environment, they abide by the law but don’t put in much effort other than that. This does not encourage them to look for new ideas which may benefit the environment, as they see their only responsibility is to abide by the laws.

This raises questions about the research and policies lead by the government, that are they reliable and will it really help in the wrong run. The other mind set is cost/benefit, this mind set states that businesses look at what benefit they will derive when they put in a cost towards making there business more environment friendly. If the benefits derived are not good the plan will be dropped. BP’s recent oil spill had sparked many opinions that BP itself knew that the quality of the pipe line was not good enough to hold on for long and oil burst was eminent, but did not take actions due to high cost.

Due to this mind set businesses do not incorporate the external environment, as they feel that it will only add up to their cost. The other mind set is constraint mind set which states that the business only exists to create economic value and all other issues such as environment and ethics are considered hindrances in their activity. Sustainable mind set on the other hand tells that the businesses will help preserve the environment for the present generations but may rethink their strategy for the future.

Lastly the greenwashing mind set states that the business can never move away from their objective of profit maximization. This mind set is what traditionally businesses are made up for, the basic target is to find out ways to maximize their profits, even if it means damaging the environment in this process. This mind set also states that the company pretends that they are committed to preserve the environment yet really there ways are still damaging, it’s only an image which they try to create in the minds of the people to generate even more profits.

Aerospace giant Boeing stated that there new Boeing 787 will be more fuel efficient and environment friendly (Harry Hurt, 2008), yet studies showed that the greenhouse gas emission was still higher and it was only an exaggerated claim by the company. Against Change: The Consumers View It’s not about the inability of businesses to change but also the consumers, as they are driving these companies foreword by purchasing their products and services. Consumers are also blamed for the inability to act on this issue.

The reason behind this that consumers also have different mind sets regarding their purchasing habits. There are five segments as stated by Roper Starch (Joel Makeover, Cara Pike, 2008). True-Blue green are the first of them who are the most active in preserving the environment, they are considered to be initiative takers and constantly work against businesses harming the environment. Green back greens are the consumers who are willing to pay a higher price for goods who are eco friendly.

Then there are Sprouts, who are very late adapters to idea of buying eco friendly products. The last two are Grousers and Basic browns, the grousers are disinterested in considering eco friendly goods, on the other hand basic browns feel the environment issue is a big problem for them to solve, and that’s why they are least worried about it. These different mentalities of consumers are also blamed for businesses to not consider a greener approach, and fail to accept it as their responsibility of preserving the environment.

The major reason is that no matter how much pollution they create their products are still selling and are still making profits the very reason for their existence. Roper Starch comments on this that media and government awareness program can help people jump to the safer segments, such as true blue green and green back greens. Shades of Green Theory The report environment, ethics, and businesses also incorporate the levels of environment friendly strategies which businesses can adopt.

First of the four levels is Light green, this attitude tells that the company compliances with the environmental laws passed by the government. With compliance to these laws the firm can think how they can improve on customer relations, more innovative products can help boost their sales. The next level is Market green principle, which is that the business concentrates on the customers need to have environment friendly products. This can be beneficial for the firm as customers nowadays are willing to pay a higher price for goods which they feel are safe for the environment.

If the customer feels that the business is fulfilling its responsibility it is likely that the business will be more popular in the eyes of the customer and they will surely reward it with their loyalty. Then there is stakeholders green, at this level a firm tends to satisfy the environmental needs of more then one stakeholder, such as employees customers or shareholders. It may encourage suppliers to meet environmental requirements and by also looking at its own manufacturing standards, ensuring that it is less harmful.

The last level is dark green, in which companies act as leaders in sustaining the environment, and continuously work towards it. Companies like Du Pont , Wal-Mart and General Electrics can be considered as one. These companies have launched green initiative and are also stressing on seriousness of sustainability. Why Go Green Businesses now feel that going green is the way forward, this does not mean they will have to cut on their profits, it maybe for the short run but in the long run it will be much more profitable and beneficial.

Large companies such as GE and Du pont have actually become more profitable going green. With oil and raw material such as steel aluminum and copper prices rising, looking for sustainable energy and less cost effective methods will help in lowering bills, moreover also contributing in preserving environment. Wal-Mart are using smaller plastics container to transport detergents, which in turn uses less petroleum to manufacture those containers, it also help transport more containers at a time from plane. This reduces bills and also puts less damage on the environment.

Bank of America on the other hand have shifted from using receipts made up of 20 pounds to 15 pounds, this has saved them money on transportation and storage worth $ 500,000 a year. With consumers becoming more aware of the environment issues and regularly looking for products and companies which are deemed safer for the environment, it is an opportunity for firms to become environment friendly and reap rewards of customer loyalty. Customers are willing to pay more eco friendly goods, recent survey showed that people in America are willing to pay 15 % more for eco friendly goods.

Companies using renewable energy such as wind and solar have reduced cost significantly, example DuPont, with oil reserves shrinking and prices soaring everyday renewable energy is the answer. These methods can give businesses a non price competitive advantage. Companies who are environmentally responsible tend to generate higher profits if they market themselves accordingly. Advertising on billboards is expensive, even giving out pamphlets is expensive too, reduce cost and preserve environment by advertising on internet.

For example Toyotas Hybrid had been well marketed on the internet and television for being an eco friendly car, it is now a top seller surpassing GM and Ford. Which such benefits of growing green the businesses should start changing because now it’s a priority to go green; the plus point with it is that it is also profitable. References Titley, Brian. 2008, Comparative Advantage and Green Business, pages 71, retrieved on retrieved on 29 July 2010 from www. berr. gov. uk/files/file46793. pd Harry Hurt 2008 Feb. 19. The Toxic ten, retrieved on 29 July 2010 from http://www. portfolio. com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2008/02/19/10-Worst-Corporate-Polluters/index5. html Juliette Jowit 2010 Feb. 18 .

World’s top firms cause $2. 2tn of environmental damage, report estimates. Retrieved on 29 July 2010 from http://www. guardian. co. uk/environment/2010/feb/18/worlds-top-firms-environmental-damage Freeman, Edward. York, Jeffery. Stewart, Lisa. 2008, Environment, Ethics, and Business. Pages 25, retrieved on 29 July 2010 from www. corporat-ethics. org

ISSUE: As more regions and countries develop their tourism industry, it produces significant impacts on natural resources, consumption patterns, pollution and social systems. The need for sustainable/responsible planning and management is imperative for the industry to survive as a whole. FACTS: TOURISM IMPACTS: 880 million people travelled internationally in 2010 and this is expected to reach. billion by 2010.

• The average international tourist receipt is over US$700 per person
• Travel and tourism represents approximately 10% of total global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (if it include tourism related business (eg catering, cleaning)
• The global travel and tourism industry creates 10% of world employment (direct & indirect)
• At least 25 million people spread over 52 countries are displaced by violence, persecution and/or disasters – tourism receipts in every country are affected by this.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS:

The average Canadian household used 326 liters of water per day…. a village of 700 in a developing country uses an average of 500 litres of water per month AND a luxury hotel room guest uses 1800 litres of water per person per night…

The average person in the UK uses approximately 150 litres of water per day – 3 times that of a local village in Asia

• A species of animal or plant life disappears at a rate of one every three minutes
• 70% of marine mammals are threatened The Western world (with 17% of the worlds’ population) currently consumes 52% of total global energy.
• 1 acre of trees absorbes.
• 6tonnes of CO2 per year
• 58% of the worlds coral reefs are at risk
• Seawater is expected to rise 70 cm in the next 10 years

By 2050 climate change could have directly led to the extinction of 30% of species, the death of 90% of coral reefs and the loss of half the Amazon rainforest. •Since 1970 a third of the natural world has been destroyed by human activity

• Half the world’s population lives in urban areas and this figure is expected to increase.
• In Latin America and the Caribbean, 76% of the population live in urban areas
• By 2036, there will be 1200 million cars on earth – double the amount today
• A European uses 14x more energy than someone living in India
• For every 1 degree rise in temperature above 34 degrees Celsius, yields of rice, maize and wheat in tropical areas could drop by 10%

Although 70% of the earth’s surface is water, only 3% is potable Sources: FOC, 2002, WTO, 2000 & 2002, UNWTO, 2011, www. risingtide. co. uk, 2004, UN, 2003, Gov’t of Canada, 2005, Tourism Concern, 2011, Science Msusuem, 2006)

SOLUTION:

Sustainable tourism is about re-focusing and adapting. A balance must be found between limits and usage so that continuous changing, monitoring and planning ensure that tourism can be managed. This requires thinking long-term (10, 20+ years) and realising that change is often cumulative, gradual and irreversible. Economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainable development must include the interests of all stakeholders including indigenous people, local communities, visitors, industry and government.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

1. Address environmental and social concerns through policies, practices and initiatives with others.
2. Are you traveling? Use these guidelines for being a responsible traveler?
3. Are you traveling? Use these guidelines for being a carbon conscious traveler?
4. Are you a business or organization? Use these questions to guide you.
5. Have us help you with policy development, environmental management, business planning and marketing efforts.
6. Read more or contact us directly. Click here for definitions and information about sustainable tourism.

Traditionally companies have been only contend with reporting on what is legally required of them i. e financial statements. Environmental and social reports, which form the core of corporate social reporting, featured less prominently in the company’s annual report. This trend however, changed in the 1990s where many companies started to incorporate corporate social reports in their annual reports. Environmental and social reports started to become a common feature in the company reports.

One of the main reasons why companies never bothered to report on their socioeconomic engagements is the fact that they made company reports to the shareholders and not to the stakeholders. Shareholders are the owners of the company while stakeholders are the parties that are affected by the actions of the company. Corporate social responsibility is where companies go beyond their statutory mandate and take into consideration the welfare of the other stakeholders of the company. These stakeholders include employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers and even government.

Under CSR, companies are basically concerned with the well being of the community as well as its employees. Environment conservation and sustainability is also part of the CSR (Josephine 2005). The one part of the CSR that has gained prominence is the environmental reporting. Environmental conservation and preservation is the talk of the world today. Terms like ‘going green’, ‘carbon footprints’ etc are common. Concerns about environment degradation, green house gas emissions and the use of renewable energy pose a great challenge to many a company.

Many companies have committed themselves to promoting sustainable development. These companies have signed sustainable development charters. Environmental reporting has been the one feature of CSR that companies were concerned with, although this seems to have expanded. Triple Bottom Line concept of ‘people’, ‘planet’ and ‘profit’ is gaining popularity within the business circles. Triple Bottom line ensures that companies report the social and environmental performance apart from the statutory reporting environments.

TBL is largely concerned with the measurement of the development of the company and the society in general i. e. the economic, social and environmental success. In the Triple Bottom Line approach, companies extend their reporting obligation beyond the traditional shareholder. The interest extends beyond the shareholders to cover all the stakeholders affected by the actions of the company. Triple Bottom line explained As seen earlier ,TBL encompass people, planet and profits as a means of achieving sustainable development.

The people aspect of TBL includes the consideration of the interest of the employees, customers, suppliers and the community as a whole. It basically involves promoting fair trade practices through sufficient salaries to its workers, avoiding the use of child labor, community participation through contributions to schools, health care, water etc. The company may also take a portion of its profits back to support the suppliers e. g. the company may promote the use of environmentally friendly inputs and ensure that they get fair price for their produce (Norman, W & Mac Donald, C April 2004).

The planet aspect of TBL is essentially environmental preservation and conservation through the engagement of activities that do not cause damage to the environment. It is all about the management of the waste emanating from the company and trying as much as possible to reduce the toxicity of these wastes before being released to the environment. The use of clean or renewable energy is also part of the TBL. Examples of clean energy are solar and wind energy. Companies embracing the TBL concept basically entails ethical investments i.

e. they do not engage in weapons production or products which are toxic. These companies usually avoid environmentally degrading practices i. e. they aim to reduce their ecological footprints or the widely known carbon footprints. Remember the controversy created by UK supermarkets when they said that they were going to indicate the number of miles that every product in their store traveled before reaching their stores. Some critics argued it is a way of trying to lock out horticultural exports from Africa.

The profit aspect of the TBL means the economic enhancement derived by the community in which the company operates in. The company should be able to benefit the area in which it does business in. The profit aspect of the TBL is not merely the profits earned by the company rather it is the economic benefit that the society derives from the company’s operations in their society (Norman, W & Mac Donald, C April 2004). Corporate Accountability The corporate accountability has moved away from the idea of being accountable to only the shareholder to stakeholders also.

This is why as part of the corporate accountability, companies are expected to ensure that reports include ethical and social accounting as well as integrate the social environmental and economic information into their management accounts as well as in the decision making process (Sustainability Ltd. 2008) Before many companies adopted corporate social reporting, the perception that the companies were sending to the stakeholders was that they had to have faith that the companies were not engaged in bad practices. This lead to the aspect of the stakeholders trusting the company and assuming that the companies actions were well intended.

During this era, companies rarely included corporate social reports in their statements (Sustainability Ltd. 2008). This, however, has changed to the stakeholders demanding that they be told and shown what corporate social actions that the company is engaged in. This is the reason why nearly every company has a section on corporate social responsibility in their annual reports and/or websites (Brenkert 2004) Corporate social reporting Social and Ethical accounting, auditing and reporting (SEAAR) SEAAR is a performance measurement tool that touches on the two important facets of social reporting i. e.

social impact and ethical behavior. The corporate reporting is included in the company’s mission statement and implemented through stakeholders’ engagement. SEAAR basically starts from the accounting system i. e. collection which is then put in a report recording and analysis of the data in order to evaluate the company’s performance. The next step involves the auditing of the financial reports from step one in order to determine their fullness and integrity. The last step of the SEAAR is the publishing of the audited report from step 3. The published reports are then made available to all stakeholders (ISEA-SA-2000)

The above process is basically a cycle i. e. from financial accounting auditing and reporting. SEAAR ensures that the organization is accountable and transparent to its stakeholders thus contributing to the sustainable development. According to Institute for Social and Ethical Accountability – South Africa , SEAAR basically touches on basic human rights. SEAAR includes social impacts which touches on the company’s activities which are aimed at achieving social economic development and ethical behavior of the company, which ensures that, they treat their employees in a dignified and equal manner.

Environmental reporting enables the company to judge its performance on its efforts to conserve the environment. The right to live in a pollution free environment is one of the human rights (ISEA-SA-2000) The quantification of corporate social responsibility is important to every company in that, the company is able to evaluate whether the CSR programs that it is currently pursuing or that is engaged itself in the past were successful in promoting the overall goal of CSR which is to enhance sustainable development. It is therefore paramount that the company uses the internationally guidelines developed by accepted metrics.

Some of these metrics include the global reporting initiative (GRI) that measures the impact of CSR programs on the society or community in which the company operates. This is the equivalent of ‘people’ aspect in Triple Bottom Line concept (ISEA-SA-2000) The company should also be able to evaluate the economic well being of the local community. If the company is making profits, then, the community should be seen to be making economic profit. Otherwise, the performance of the CSR will have failed if the community stagnates or their economic well being declines. CSR and sustainable development

According to SD Gateway, sustainable development means the use of the currently existing natural resources in a way that it does not compromise the well being of future generations. In order to ensure sustainable development the community should find innovations that will ensure the achievement of quality living that will ensure that the natural resources will never be exhausted. (SD Gateway 2008) The discussion earlier on the corporate social responsibility and corporate social reporting clearly shows that sustainable development is enhanced through corporate social reporting.

Of particular importance are the environmental reporting and social economic reporting. The companies should be able to ensure that they conserve the environment through the adoption of ‘clean’ philosophy. The products that the company products that the company produces should not cause any environmental degradation some with the wastes. The companies should ensure that the waste they emit does not include any toxic waste or if it does, minimal to acceptable levels that cannot harm the environment.

Environmental protection and sustainability is part and parcel of the sustainable development. The socio economic aspect of CSR involves the economic and social empowerment of the stakeholders and the community. As noted earlier, economic and social empowerment touch on the basic human rights. The company should ensure that they adopt fair remuneration and even through contributions to the health care, education and water projects that can ensure better quality of life for the community.

It is therefore evident that environmental conservation and socio economic empowerment of the community are a pre-requisite to the achievement of sustainable development. Environmental conservation ensures that natural resources of land productive in the short and long term periods. Productivity of the environment enables the community to meet their current needs without straining the environment (Das 2003) Economic and social empowerment of the community provides them with alternative option of catering to their needs without largely depending on the environment.

Impact of CSR/CSI on financial Reporting and Accounting profession The introduction of corporate reporting into the mainstream financial accounting reporting has already revolutionized the way companies present their annual company reports. Corporate social reporting coupled with financial reporting ensures that companies are accountable to all the stakeholders of a company. Corporate social reports enables the company to elaborate and measure the success of the various socio economic activities that the company is engaged in. Transparency and accountability is enhanced this way.

Corporate social reporting encompasses the inclusion of environmental socio economic reports etc. The way it was before was that companies had no obligations to report on anything other than their financial reports but with the introduction of CSR reporting, companies are expected to include all the activities that affect the various stakeholders of the company. Corporate social reporting enables the company to engage with the various stakeholders of the company. CSR report is a way of taking into consideration the views, aspirations and needs of the different stakeholders.

CSR thus ensures that the organizational goals are achieved keeping in minds the needs of the stakeholders. Of course, CSR has some negatives impacts on the financial reporting. The benefits associated with the corporate social responsibility may not actually be worth the costs of reporting them. Such that the company will be engaging in a purely public relations exercise that has no meaningful gain in the society. CSR also may lead to information overload to the stakeholders such that it may not be relevant in the long run. A lot of information that requires expert analysis may not be helpful to the stakeholders.

HR governance is the practice of making effective decisions regarding the human resources of the organization and the efficient controlling of them. It is interrelated with establishing HR policies, continuous monitoring of their proper implementation and governing the body of an organization.

This study explores the HR governance practice of the private sector in Bangladesh and its impact on organization’s sustainable human resource development. To investigate this scenario, sample size of 200 from five manufacturing industries and three service industries both sectors were selected to conduct a survey through floating a structured questionnaire on target employees.

Here, six independent variables talent management, consolidated HR policy, HR risk management, employee development, compensation benefits, employee welfare and one dependent variable sustainable human resource development have been identified to conduct the regression analysis.

The result shows that the f-test value = 34.400 which implies that the model is statistically significant and valid. The significance level of the employee development and compensation benefits at (0.000) which have positive impact on sustainable human resource development. On the contrary, the talent management is insignificant at (0.006) and consecutively consolidated HR policy (0.019), HR risk management (0.063) and employee welfare (0.106).

The regression model illustrates that the private sector of Bangladesh is going to be comparatively more concern about the employee development and compensation management but others variables have insignificant but positive relationship for the increasing of sustainable human resource development.

Moreover, this study attempts to provide the conceptual and pragmatic insight of the HR governance practices in the private sector of Bangladesh; this might help to emerge new corridors for future research.

Introduction

With the passage of time, HR governance has become an emerging concern where it is esteemed as the backbone of the sustainable human resource development which transforms the human resource into the human capital and all these ensure the incremental growth of an organization. Furthermore, the traditional HR policies and regulations act as the precautionary guard for the organization, but now it is reactive in nature through reducing, transferring and deducting actual and probable HR risks and liabilities.

However, it is essential for an organization to become transparent administrative structure to achieve core competitive advantages of human resource enforcing the non-compliance proactive measures. Effective HR governance facilitates compliance with legal and ethical obligations relating to people management practices and having a proper HR governance structure in place which can even impact the way an organization does business and makes decisions at the highest levels-right up including its board of directors.

Hence, this structure will ensure that decisions related to personnel management practices are governed at the highest level thereby strengthening HR and management credibility (Kreissl, 2012). For instance, like other developing countries, Bangladesh has been marked by the inefficiency of the public sector to meet the demand of its citizens, ineffective public services, and unfavorable environment for the proper growth in the private sector, leadership crisis, lack of transparency and accountability in administration, ineffective political institutions and so on.

In this regard, it is the best to follow equity at workplace, well-being and employee development and some other five preconditions for sustainable human resource development such as; compliance, governance, ethics, culture and leadership (Cohen, 2012) .

Another thing is that the well concern about labor law and consistent HR governance are yet not flourished at macro pace especially in private sector. Because most of the listed companies in Bangladesh are dominated by family members, occupying important posts like CEO or the managing director, leading to inefficient HR governance practices (Brennam, Solomon, Uddin and Choudhury, 2008) .

Due to the absence of govt. close monitoring; sometimes they are violating the principles of Bangladesh Labor Law.Moreover, public sector is running under the shelter of legal government compliance and several pivotal research works have been done over this but now private sector is emerging not only in the corporate governance rather good HR governance.

In spite of, there is very few research works exist on this context where mostly done on about the good governance practices and its prospects in Bangladesh. Almost there is no instance of such work that can show the emerging essentials of good HR governance and its impact on the sustainable human resource development.Nevertheless, there are some laying challenges so that the private sector can’t go ahead as expected in terms of human competencies.

For such poor feedback in HR governance, it is essential to examine how far Bangladesh lags behind the HR governance practices. Against all these backdrops, this paper attempts to critically analyze the current scenario of HR governance and also to sketch out the impediments in the way of HR governance to improve the HR competencies in the private sector of Bangladesh. To end, this study shows a set of measures which need to be undertaken as an effort to establish good HR governance and indemnifying sustainable human resource development in Bangladesh.

The fundamental objective of this study is to address the research question; “Does HR governance affect the sustainable human resource development from the perspective of private sector in Bangladesh?” Some other objectives are:

1. To investigate the response of HR governance in the private sector of Bangladesh.
2. To measure the impact of HR governance on sustainable human resource development.
3. To identify different factors affecting sustainable human resource development.

Problems of cultural development in Kazakhstan could be solved Outline Title: Problems of cultural development in Kazakhstan could be solved

I Introduction

Thesis statement:

Due to decline of the cultural development in Kazakhstan the government and the society should take definite and urgent measures to improve the situation.

II Background of the Problem

A. History

1. Legacy of ancestors

2. Some achievements of Kazakhstan

III The first possible solution is to raise the intellectual development.

A. Advantages:

1. Young people’s background knowledge

2. Educating achievements in domestic and world culture

3. Receiving modern educational equipment.

B. Disadvantages:

1. Financial difficulties

2. Organizational problems

IV The second possible solution is to increase cultural valuables and saving cultural heritage for future generations.

A. Advantages:

1. Discovering new talents

2. Support from government

B. Disadvantages:

1. Cost

2. Commercialization

V The third possible solution is to creating conditions for receiving general and special education.

A. Advantages

1. More possibilities

2. More educated children

B. Disadvantage

1. Costly

2.Time

VI Conclusion-Recommendation

Even though the government has to invest money in educational process, the last solution is the best because it has the advantages of the other alternatives without major disadvantages. Therefore, I recommend that the Kazakh society should keep in mind that the important strategic objective is to preserve the traditions of the Kazakh culture for future generations and increasing the cultural values of the city. In the meantime, I suggest the government immediately take the measures by supporting the society and creating new opportunities to develop the culture of Kazakhstan. By being responsive to the citizens, government in essence would try to unite with them for the success of their purpose to raise the cultural development of the country. The total well being and lifestyle potential of population in many cases determined by stage to train and learning and social stage of people, their background knowledge and perspective growth, and by available opportunity to receive and use required information. These factors determine whether city community is involved in local, national and international process of civil growth.

Ways to train and learning, ethical concepts and useful accessibility are the main features of religious and possible development. Thus, development of viewpoint system to train and learning, social and useful growth are the most important in growth of country. Due to decline of the cultural development in Kazakhstan the government and the society should take definite and urgent measures to improve the situation. “One of the main success of the period of freedom is rebirth and further growth of the Kazakh lifestyle and the societies and customs of social categories existing in Kazakhstan.

The growth of the Kazakh lifestyle promote socio-cultural and ethical regrowth of community as a whole, as well as growth of social categories located in Kazakhstan, the building up of worldwide interaction. In the years of freedom have created a multitude of cultural and social facilities, art groups.. ”(Kornilov,2011). Exclusive lifestyle and unique spirit of understanding and information of life which were provided to us as a heritage of this wide area of Kazakhstan by our ancestors. This sense of independence and valor of the steppe was not lost on different periods of history, it andled to keep by the past generation, who have been through tragic obstacles. And hundreds of years of desires and ambitions of our forefathers came real. Kazakh community believes that, Kazakhstan becoming a birthplace of many projects in the area of lifestyle and artistry. “For example, learners of Almaty Choreographic University confirmed their abilities in the United States and Switzerland, the Korean National Music and Drama Theatre took part in an worldwide ethnic event in the Republic of Korea, and numerous activities were organized in other countries, devoted to the performs of Abai. ”(Kornilov,2011). Although “Kazakhstan finalized the contracts on cooperation in the area of lifestyle from 49 nations of the near and far overseas. ”(Kornilov, 2011). However, Kazakhstan has many issues to fix, especially worried social growth. Despite that fact that while preserving kazakh heritage, Republic of Kazakhstan shows keeping with the speed of contemporary high culture and to kazakh art employees praised most of all judges all over the world, the present younger people only just taking the first actions to achieve success praising their native country in the future.

The first possible solution is to raise the intellectual development by advertising the books, articles, journals etc. , if to be exact-to make them fashionable. The main way of upbringing the population, particularly children, adolescents and young people, striving for intellectual development is the formation of a unified and accessible to every citizen of the educational space of the city, providing technological, logistical and financial resources, promoting libraries and book stores creating conditions for the citizens of modern education in accordance with their needs. The greatest advantage of his solution is that young people’s background knowledge may become improved and wide because of new technologies and free access area created.

Another advantage of raising the intellectual development is mastering achievements in domestic and world culture. By this, I mean that citizens of Kazakhstan seem to pay more attention on what have been reached on cultural level, especially domestic. The last advantage of this solution is that young people of Republic of Kazakhstan could receive modern educational equipment like hi-tech libraries, free access internet resources etc. These ducational tools are likely to help young generation achieve more success in their studies. The greatest disadvantage of the first solution would be financial difficulties that government or Kazakh society could ever face. Another disadvantage have occurred because of the difficulties of the organizational process, to be exact, the establishing the cultural events and hiring workforce. One of the suggested solutions is to increase cultural valuables and saving cultural heritage for future generations. For example, observe the monuments and memorials, decrease the price of tickets for theatre and museum visiting.

All these method should definitely help with governmental support. Reducing the level of culture, dangerous in itself, because it creates spiritual lack and causes the loss of completeness and quality of life, it is unacceptable for the transition to sustainable development, since it violates the principles. Therefore, an important strategic objective is to preserve the traditions of Kazakh culture for future generations and increasing the cultural values ?? of the city. One of the main advantages of the solution is discovering new talents. There are many ways to ind talented people like annual competitions among school children and youth on the best research on the cultural history of the city, systematically lead the campaign to restore the historic, cultural and moral traditions in Kazakhstan, establish a fund supporting young talents. Moreover, there is definitely should be governmental support which may lead to better comprehension between society and administration.

However, there are still disadvantages are included unfortunately, one of them is cost because the cultural heritage has to be protected and saved, and there simply should be finances to rovide the expenses. Another disadvantage is that intrusion into the cultural market economy has led to a noticeable decrease in the quality of commercialization and cultural life, in which the rule passed to popular culture. Free profit in culture dramatically reduced intellectual and moral standards of its mass perception, put the property in line with consumer goods are. There was a dominance of low-grade and low-grade commercial foreign films on television advocating violence, corruption, lack of spirituality, the book market appeared dubious literature, from the repertoire of theaters as washed out and a real classic domestic drama, in art the main place was kitsch.

Thus, the culture fully experienced the negative effects of the economic crisis, social and political instability, activation of destructive forces in society. Finally, the third possible solution is to creating conditions for receiving general and special education. Young people and the city’s population as a whole has recognized the importance of education for progress and success in life. Young generation desire to find a prestigious profession, noted the desire to develop their personality, to find ositions in society, to gain the respect of folks. The greatest advantage of this solution is that not only in Kazakhstan, but mostly in all countries, general and special education happen to be very beneficial, because those people who have received general and special education become more or less educated, they have fundamental knowledge. Another advantage is that children likely to be more educated because of new educational environment and new interests in study that adolescents would be excited.

The greatest disadvantage would be still the financial part, because for each sphere of ducation should be allocated some amount of money for providing better educational system. But allocation of money still cannot be done appropriately because of many factors such as corruption, negligence etc. Also, the creating of new conditions for receiving general and special education would may take some time because creating includes innovations in educational system, new buildings, more equipment and so on. According to John Heywood (n. d. ) “Rome wasn’t build in a day”. Although the increasing the cultural valuables and saving the cultural heritage would be he most convenient, the solution of creating conditions for receiving general and special education is the most feasible. Even though the government has to invest money in educational process, the last solution is the best because it has the advantages of the other alternatives without major disadvantages.

Therefore, I recommend that the Kazakh society should keep in mind that the important strategic objective is to preserve the traditions of the Kazakh culture for future generations and increasing the cultural values ?? of the city. In the meantime, I uggest the government immediately take the measures by supporting the society and creating new opportunities to develop the culture of Kazakhstan. By being responsive to the citizens, government in essence would try to unite with them for the success of their purpose to raise the cultural development of the country.

Reference list:

1. Kornilov I. (2011) “Developing the culture of the modern Kazakhstan” Retrieved November 6, 2012 from http:// kv. ucoz. kz Heywood J. (n. d. )
2. “Rome wasn’t built in a day” Retrieved November 8, 2012 from http://www. quotationspage. com