Sustainability in Business

Sustainability in business addresses the problems of economic, environmental and social changes that happen through business activities (Eweje & Perry, 2011). The approach of three dimensions is known as a triple bottom line. Nowadays, people are more aware of the damages caused by business organizations, hence they asses companies' performance on transparency and ethical behaviour (Silvestre, Antunes & Filho, 2016). The aim of businesses is to maximise profit and reduce costs. One of the ways to achieve that objective may be by satisfying stakeholders including shareholders, customers, employees, government and media. The challenge for the existing businesses is to understand and adopt sustainable practices into the company's agenda and use it effectively to develop (Wells,2013). The aim of this paper is to analyse the effect of implementing businesses' sustainable model as a core value. Specifically, it will focus on benefits and limitation for internal and external business environment. Firstly, there is a relationship between adapting socially and environmentally friendly behaviour and increasing a company financial position (Rezaee, 2015). In other words, the activities related to sustainability that a business undertakes have an influence on the overall economic performance. In the beginning, implementing sustainable actions may involve high investments, however, this is a methodology to create profit in the long-run. The key starting point is to identify what can be sustained and what is worth sustaining (Silvestre, Antunes & Filho, 2016).

Sometimes actions that involve much work are not proportional to the effects that they create. To reduce costs a company should consider the usage of the resource such as water, energy and raw materials. Reduction of them may create for the company a competitive advantage on the market. Moreover, following government regulation and meeting emission norms will protect the company from paying fines for disobeying rules. Furthermore, sustainable initiatives improve efficiency (Kreiss, Nasr & Kashmanian, 2016) by the implementation of new technology and conscious management. Internally, businesses take financial advantages for applying sustainable strategy. Secondly, sustainable business models increase the company value by improving customer and employee relationship (Kreiss, Nasr & Kashmanian, 2016). As mentioned before, there is a growing awareness of responsible business practices and sustainability challenges. Nowadays, customers' more often demand Fair Trade, recycled, or cruelty-free products. Businesses have to adjust to changing requirements, because public opinion is dynamic, and customers' word-of-mouth can either improve or damage brand reputation. Sustainable values are part of brand building and creating positive images in media. Satisfied customers are loyal, who increase sales and as a result increase the profit of the company (Kreiss, Nasr & Kashmanian, 2016).

Additionally, several types of research show communication and up-to-date information of the introduction of sustainable behaviour may strengthen organizational culture, its motivation, and sense of responsibilities within the company (Silvestre, Antunes, Filho, 2016). Improving employees' conditions attract skilled workforce, increase productivity and retention. Consequently, retention decrease training and recruitment costs (Kreiss, Nasr & Kashmanian, 2016). Therefore, business sustainability and human relationship may bring benefits, but only if, managed consciously. Furthermore, a sustainable strategy should be implemented to improve social well-being and state of the planet (Dyllick & Muff, 2015). Organizations should focus not only on their profit but also on environmental and social issues, that may be solved by implementing Corporate Social Responsibility practices. CSR means that a company is responsible for negative externalities related to its business activity, such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, global warming, poverty, or poor work condition (Weber & Wasieleski, 2018). Nowadays, companies are seen as a medium to perform social goals (Ninclaescu, 2018) and this may be a crucial attitude to survive on the market in the long-run (Weber & Wasieleski, 2018). Strategic change and creation of clear social aims will help the organizations not only to prevent, but also to act in favour of environment and people. Businesses should define how their product or service may help to solve sustainability problems and treat each global issue as a business opportunity (Dyllick & Muff, 2015).

There is not only one way to implement sustainable practice, because different market sectors will be able to adopt different practices and solve problems relevant to them. For example, food companies may address issues such as consumption and obesity, healthy nutrition, poverty, access to clean water, hunger (Dyllick & Muff, 2015). The business institutions are believed to have the necessary knowledge and data to deal with environmental and social issues by focusing on CSR. However, there are some limitations considering the implementation of sustainability in business. Lack of incentives, no government support and pressure on short time earning may be seen as obstacles. Additionally, the adaptation of new sustainable values should at no point cause the loss of the company most recognisable features. If the company is known for a cheap product or service they cannot significantly increase the prices, because it will affect the image of the business. Customers tolerate only minor changes over a short period of time. Every major change should take part over an appropriate amount of time, sometimes even over years. Moreover, ethics and transparency should follow each sustainable activity. Stakeholder should be provided with up-to-date, authentic information. Misrepresentation and fraud will create a bad reputation and negative effects which are hard to reverse. For example, in 2015, Volkswagen emission scandal resulted in the company the first quarterly loss for 15 years (Hotten, 2015).

VW has been pleaded guilty of creating a software that modified the emission test, showing lower pollution than in reality. As a result, they lost customers and struggle with the negative opinion for a long time. To conclude, businesses should have responsibilities that go beyond the product or service cycle (Silvestre, Antunes, Filho, 2016). They should be proactive supporters of sustainability. They should not be seen as invaders that deplete environment and society. Adapting sustainable behaviour and satisfying stakeholders, creating positive opinion, and acting voluntary towards improving earth and human condition may result in positive outcome for both internal and external business environment. Parallel to this conclusion, there are also some difficulties, nevertheless, they do not outperform perks. Recognition, measurement and transparent, deliberate steps are fundamental to succeed.

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