Final Sustainability Proposal Paper Page 1 of 15

Final Sustainability Proposal Paper

Jacob Ray

Central Washington University

ADMG 285

Professor Robert Amador

6/10/20
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Abstract:

“Achieving sustainability refers to the broader balancing of social, economic, and

environmental aspects within the planet’s ability to provide. The United Nations’ Brundtland

Commission (1987) suggested ‘sustainable development is development that meets the needs of

the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’”

(Matthews, H. S., Hendrickson, C. T., & Matthews, D. H., 2014). I will be addressing the key

sustainability concepts and their practical application in real-life settings. I will be formulating a

sustainability proposal to incorporate these key sustainability concepts to a real-world setting to

ensure a sustainable future for your business. The key sustainability concepts I will be covering

in this paper are as follows: Life cycle thinking, circular economy, life cycle assessment, life

cycle cost analysis, and the triple bottom line. I will be defining each key sustainability concept

and provide examples of each concept. I have found my citations from academic sources found

on the website www-jstor-org.ezp.lib.cwu.edu.

The examples used for each sustainability concept has been correlated by me and used to

help clarify the sustainability concepts to the reader. Sustainability is an important concept for

current and prospecting businesses to adopt and utilize to ensure a healthy environment, social,

and economic future for generations to adapt and follow. If these key sustainability concepts

aren’t adopted by most of the world’s businesses, then more environmental, social, and economic

problems will continue to occur. Even the change of one business to adopt sustainable concepts

is helping humanity build a brighter and cleaner future.

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Introduction:

Sustainable thinking is relatively new to being implemented in business plans of Fortune

500 companies all over the world. The old way of doing things was focusing only on the bottom

line, profit and how to expand the profit of their company. Now that environmental problems are

apparent to the world and sources can be found from manufacturing facilities, life cycle

assessments and sustainable thinking is being taught to these companies to utilize and use

towards their advantage. I will be covering 5 different key sustainability concepts and their

practical application in a real-world setting. These key sustainability concepts include the

following: life cycle thinking, circular economy, life cycle assessment, life cycle cost analysis,

and the triple bottom line. These 5 key sustainability concepts have helped many companies

reevaluate their practices to become more sustainable and have less of an impact on the

environment overall. After addressing these key sustainability concepts, I will be covering the

outline for my sustainability proposal study for your company and how they can implement

sustainability into their business. Ensuring a sustainable future for mankind starts with the men

and women of businesses everywhere in the world. Companies must stay ahead of the curve

when it comes to new breakthrough sustainable technology and thought to help ensure a

sustainable future for humanity.

Key Sustainability Concepts:

Life Cycle Assessment:

“Life cycle assessment is a cradle-to-grave or cradle-to-cradle analysis technique to

assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product's life, which is from raw

material extraction through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, and use.” (Curran,
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M. A., 2008). The life cycle assessment is used to assess the overall environmental impact caused

by the manufacturing, materials processing, distribution, use, or disposal of an item over the

course of its entire lifetime. The cradle-to-cradle analysis is a reference to study an item from the

time it’s manufactured, or born in the cradle, until the time it dies and is disposed of and then

recycled to be born again; to cradle. Businesses have adapted this type of product evaluation to

determine their businesses’ overall environmental impact from their products and how they could

change their products to impact the environment less or not at all.

A perfect example of a life cycle assessment is the process of making gasoline from oil.

Oil is a natural resource that must be extracted from the earth; therefore, the first step is the raw

material extraction. Then the oil is distributed to the manufacturing facility or refinery where the

oil is turned into gasoline for use in automobiles. The gasoline then leaves the facility to be

distributed to different retail gas stations to be ready for consumers to purchase and use in their

automobiles. The gas is then purchased by the consumer and used in their car and the gas

emissions from the car have harmful effects on the environment. Therefore, maybe an oil

company will use an LCA to help with their overall impact on the environment following the

cradle-to-cradle technique of oil and gasoline and their impact on the environment.

Life Cycle Cost Analysis:

“Engineers have been estimating the total cost of operating a product or system over its

life, also known as the life cycle cost, for decades. Life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) has been

used to estimate and track lifetime costs of bridges, highways, other structures, and manufactured

goods because important and costly decisions need to be made for efficient management of

social resources used by these structures and goods.” (Matthews, H. S., Hendrickson, C. T., &

Matthews, D. H., 2014). The life cycle cost analysis or LCCA is typically used for “decision
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support on fairly large-scale projects.” (Matthews, H. S., Hendrickson, C. T., & Matthews, D. H.,

2014). For instance, an architect that is developing a new mall would use information gained

from LCCA to gauge how much it will be to construct the building or how much it will cost to

maintain the facility over its lifetime; upkeep, building maintenance, etc.

When a company conducts a LCCA, they usually look at the first or initial cost, future

costs, recurring costs, and total cost. The first or initial cost are any costs to the company prior to

that business opening its doors. This would include the cost to construct the facility, stock the

shelves with merchandise, etc. The future costs of a company include any costs to the company

that occur post manufacturing and could happen years later. Also, recurring costs are any costs

that happen repetitively over a given amount of time. And finally, total cost is the complete total

cost of all the above mentions. Therefore, usually engineers or architects that have to construct

big buildings like super malls, bridges, roads, tunnels, or any other big structure will use a LCCA

in their lifetime to properly evaluate the cost to manufacture that building or how much it will

cost to maintain that building over a course of time. An LCCA is useful for anybody who is

trying to calculate the cost to manufacture something over its entire lifetime.

Triple Bottom Line Perspective:

“The triple bottom line (TBL) is a framework or theory that recommends that companies

commit to focus on social and environmental concerns just as they do on profits. The TBL posits

that instead of one bottom line, there should be three: profit, people, and the planet. A TBL seeks

to gauge a corporation’s level of commitment to corporate social responsibility and its impact on

the environment over time.” (Kenton, W., 2020). I thought Investopedia did an excellent job at

defining what a triple bottom line was and they also gave me some examples of how it is

implemented in a real-life setting. The triple bottom line is created to measure the social,
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environmental, and financial performance of a company over a set course of time. The old style

of thinking was relying only on profits as the bottom line for any business. However, global

warming and other harmful impacts to the environmental has created a need to adopt sustainable

concepts like the TBL to have businesses practice and follow to ensure a sustainable future here

on Earth. Failure in adopting to a TBL or other sustainable concept could result with the

destruction of the rainforest, damage to the ozone, or exploitation of labor.

“Companies as significant as AT&T, Dow Chemical, Shell, and British Telecom, have

used TBL terminology in their press releases, annual reports and other documents. So have

scores of smaller firms.” (Norman, W., & MacDonald, C., 2004). According to this academic

source, many companies have implemented the triple bottom line in their annual reports, press

releases, and other documents to show their overall economic, social, and environmental

performance of that year. Although sustainable thinking and TBL is relatively new, more and

more companies are using these concepts to gauge their sustainability performance as a company

compared to other companies in the world. Companies have also implemented training programs

to help other companies adapt to the TBL concept and use it to gauge their annual performance.

Social could involve employee welfare, charitable contributions, and fair trade. Economic

involves the revenue, the annual economic growth of the company, and the cost of

underemployment. Finally, environmental could involve the land the company uses for its

facilities and how they impact that land, waste management, and resource consumption.

Sustainability Proposal:

The sustainability proposal for your business is finding how to incorporate these key

sustainability concepts to a real-world setting in a business environment to ensure sustainable

thinking for the future of your business. The short-term goals of this sustainability proposal and
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study is to find flaws in your company where key sustainability concepts could help create a

more sustainable company and to help employees and managers adopt sustainable thinking. To

ensure a sustainable company is to change the inner workings of that company to implement

sustainable ways of thought as well as finding ways to change from outdated technology to

match new sustainable and eco-friendly technology that is more environmentally feasible.

Therefore, the focus of this sustainability proposal is to show your company the results of

how your company uses these sustainability concepts presently and how you can change your

company to adapt to a better sustainable future business plan. The first phase is showing the

employees and managers of your company the results of this sustainability proposal study and

identifying faults and flaws that key sustainability concepts or technology could help change for

a better sustainable business. The second phase would be addressing these faults and flaws and

implementing the necessary change over to a more sustainable business plan. After the business

adapts to a sustainable company, then more data could be taken to find the results of the

implemented change compared to the results of the previous unsustainable business plan.

Goal Statement:

The proposed goal statement for sustainability in your business will be implementing

sustainable technology as well as sustainable thinking before acting in your future business

plans. By this I mean incorporating more eco-friendly modes of production for your business that

will create less wasted energy, a possible change to a renewable energy source from non-

renewable energy sources like the burning of fossil fuels, and always trying to train employees to

use to key sustainable concepts in any future business plans for your company.
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An easy key sustainability concept to implement in any new or occurring business is

using the triple bottom line perspective (TBL) and not only focus on the financial gains and

losses of the company, but also by measuring the social, environmental, and financial

performance of the company over a set course of time. Most new businesses are using the triple

bottom line perspective to help reduce their harmful impact on the environment and help

maintain a health relationship with their consumers on a global scale. I believe using the TBL

perspective will help us gauge your business compared to other related businesses and how you

rank in sustainability performance based on social, environmental, and financial bases.

Therefore, the goal statement and premise of the study being conducted on your business

will be using the TBL perspective to help find what your business must improve upon in order to

maintain a sustainable business for the future. Along with the TBL perspective, we could use a

life cycle cost analysis to find out how your business uses their finances to maintain

sustainability in the past, present, and future. The study will use a life cycle cost analysis to find

flaws in company expenditures and how your company could implement sustainable concepts to

help save money financially to increase the profit of your company altogether. The final

sustainability concept that will be used in this study will be life cycle thinking to help monitor

the life cycle of company products and how your business could implement sustainable and life

cycle thinking to help cut down on harmful effects on the environment, over spending, and

producing better products for your consumers.

The target audience for this study will be the employees and managers of the company to

help them adopt key sustainable concepts for the business and to help ensure a sustainable future

for their company. We will be using this study to help the employees and managers discover how
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their company uses sustainability in their business environment and how they could improve

upon these sustainability concepts to ensure a better sustainable future for the company.

Scope:

The main scope of this study will be your company and business and how to implement

new key sustainability concepts within the business to help ensure a better sustainable future for

their business. Instead of focusing on one product or one department of the business, it will be

better to focus on the business to help identify ongoing sustainability concepts being used in the

company or places that could use sustainable technology or thinking. I believe the sustainability

study shows better results if the entire business is used in the study, instead of individual

departments or only one product. The main scope of the sustainable study is having your

company’s business plan use the triple bottom line perspective and other key sustainable

concepts to help change their company to a sustainable company. The sustainable study should

cover the entire business to have the best results to show what parts of the business is affecting

the environment the most or what social aspects of the business need to be addressed to adapt to

sustainable thinking.

Proposed Data Collection Methods:

The proposed data collection method that will be used in this sustainable study is to

collect as much data about your business as we can. The more information and data we can

collect from this study, the better we can find problems with the company and places to

implement new sustainable technology or concepts into the new business plan. Therefore, the

key sustainability concepts that I have presented previously in the paper will be implemented
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into the business plan to find what data will help change the company to a better sustainable

company for employees, managers, and the consumers.

After the data is collected from the business for the initial sustainability proposal study

and analyzed, the results of the study will be presented to the company’s employees and

managers. These sustainability proposal study results will help your company compare

themselves to other companies trying to adapt to a sustainable business. After the results of the

sustainability proposal study is shared with your company, we will be implementing the

necessary changes with your business to change over to a new sustainable business plan that is

more socially, economically, and environmentally feasible for a sustainable future for humanity.

The results of the sustainability proposal study will be shared with your company’s

employees and managers and compared with other related companies in the world to see how

your company’s sustainability performance measures up with the competition. Comparing your

business to other related businesses will help you identify your errors and how you can change to

become a more sustainable business. Finally, after you compare the results of your sustainability

proposal study with other businesses, action will be taken to implement necessary changes to

your company to create a better sustainable company.

Benefit(s) and Trade-Offs:

The benefit(s) and trade-offs of conducting this study and implementing key sustainable

concepts into your business plan has a few pros and cons to the situation. The first pro is creating

a sustainable company that will use cleaner renewable energy, replacing outdated technology

with better eco-friendly sustainable technology, and creating a sustainable outline to follow for

future employees and managers of your company. By conducting this study for your company
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will create more opportunities for a better sustainable business overall and possibly reduce

harmful effects on the environment that are being produced by your company facilities.

Another potential benefit of conducting this sustainable study is adopting key

sustainability concepts into your business plan and the use of key sustainability concepts within

your company including: the triple bottom line (TBL) perspective, the life cycle cost analysis,

life cycle assessment, life cycle thinking, and sustainable thinking overall. The main key

sustainability concept being used with this sustainability study will be adapting your business

plan to match the triple bottom line (TBL) perspective. By doing so, your business will be

drawing the focus away from the bottom-line finances and start to measure the company’s social,

environmental, and financial performance over a set course of time. Following the triple bottom

line will allow your company to find how they impact the environment and how they could use

sustainable thinking and technology to help reduce these harmful effects or get rid of them

altogether. Another good reason for your company to follow the triple bottom line perspective is

to build better and closer relationships with your consumers. The better the relationships between

companies and consumers, the easier it is to accommodate to consumer’s needs and demands,

and therefore be able to sell more products for your business.

A few cons of conducting this sustainability study with your business would include a

few financial choices of implementing new sustainable concepts into your company. For

example, replacing outdated technology with newer sustainable technology will cost the

company financially. However, the money lost for incorporating sustainable technology within

your business can and will be recuperated by cutting down on environmental waste and using a

renewable energy source instead of non-renewable fossil fuel energy that is harmful to the

environment.
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The final benefit(s) and trade-off for conducting this sustainable study with your

company is analyzing your businesses’ finances and how they could save money or make more

money with your consumers. The ability to use the triple bottom line perspective allows the

company to measure their social, environmental, and financial impact and how they could save

or make more money as a company in the future. Building better relationships with your

consumers will help the company meet the demand of the consumers better and therefore sell

more product. Also, finding environmental impacts caused by your company could allow your

company to find ways to reduce or stop environmental impacts caused by your business or

modes of production by your business. The cost of replacing outdated technology with

sustainable technology could affect your life cycle assessment and your finances, however the

money will be recuperated overtime by cutting the cost of environmental clean up of the waste

produced by your company.

Interpretation – Applying the Results of your Proposal:

If the sustainable study is successful with your company, changes to your business plan

and company will help your company ensure a sustainable future with employees and managers

able to adopt sustainable and life cost thinking as well as the ability to use the triple bottom line

perspective for everyday use with your company. A successful study will help your company

change from outdated ways of thinking to adopting new sustainable key concepts and sustainable

ways of thought for future generations of the company. Instead of your company focusing on the

bottom-line finances, they will realize how the company affects the environment and the

relationship between your company and your consumers. Old technology will be replaced by

newer sustainable technology. Your company will make the transition from non-renewable

energy sources to renewable energy sources that will affect the environment less, cost the
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company initial start-up fees, but save the company money in the long run with eco-friendly

energy saving abilities.

After the completion of this study, I will be presenting it to your company’s employees

and managers. If every employee receives a copy of the study, they can begin adapting to

sustainable thinking that will help creating a sustainable company from the inside, out. The

employees and managers are who make up the company, therefore the employees and managers

are who need to help the company change their sustainability. I would help motivate the change

from outdated business plans to sustainable business plans by sharing the results of the study first

to show the employees and managers the difference between their old way of doing things and

the new sustainable company. Once the employees and managers see the difference between old

and new proposals for their overall business plan than they will notice that the study makes

feasible sense to adapt to the new sustainable thinking and concepts.

Now that the study has been conducted and presented to the employees, managers, and

board of directors, the next step would be implementing the changes in the company to begin the

transformation from the old and outdated business plan/company to the new and sustainable

business plan/company. Phase 2 would include changing the present status of your company to

adapt to a sustainable business to help ensure a sustainable future for your company.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, by conducting this sustainability study for your company will be showing

you the difference between your present business plan and a sustainability business plan. By

adapting key sustainability concepts into your business, you are essentially creating a sustainable

business or company and helping create a sustainable culture of eco-friendly business to ensure a
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sustainable future for mankind. The importance of creating a sustainable future for mankind

cannot be stressed enough, especially the environmental impact seen from mass production in

recent years must be addressed. The key sustainability concepts like the triple bottom line

perspective is one way to combat harmful effects on the environment caused by mass production

of modern companies. Sustainable technology has been developed, but many companies are not

making the switch from their outdated technology because it does not make feasible economical

sense for the bottom-line perspective. However, in correlation with this sustainable study and

ensuring a sustainable business for the future and adapting to a triple bottom line perspective will

save the company money in the long run after the initial start up fees are addressed.

Phase 1 includes conducting the sustainability study with your company and finding out

the triple bottom line your business faces and drawing up possible sustainable business plans to

implement with your company. Phase 2 includes using the sustainable study to help change your

business plan to create a more sustainable business overall and adapting key sustainable concepts

to your business plan like the triple bottom line perspective will help create a sustainable

company with your business. The final phase would be comparing the results of the converted

sustainable business and the results of the previous sustainability study to help see the results and

how sustainable your business has become because of this sustainable proposal study.

Sustainable thought and technology are changing the way employees and managers are

conducting their day to day business. Sustainable businesses are going to become necessary once

environmental factors become too much to bear in the future or some other catastrophe points the

fingers at companies as the culprit for unsustainability for mankind. The change for our

sustainable future starts now with your company and this sustainability proposal study.
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Works Cited:

Matthews, H. S., Hendrickson, C. T., & Matthews, D. H. (2014). Life Cycle Assessment:

Quantitative Approaches for Decisions That Matter.

Kenton, W. (2020, February 5). Three Bottom Line (TBL). Retrieved May 31, 2020, from

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/triple-bottom-line.asp

Norman, W., & MacDonald, C. (2004). Getting to the Bottom of "Triple Bottom Line". Business

Ethics Quarterly, 14(2), 243-262. Retrieved June 1, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/3857909

Curran, M. A. (2008). Life-Cycle Assessment. Retrieved May 31, 2020, from

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/life-cycle-assessment

Foundation, E. M. A. (2019, February). The Circular Economy in Detail. Retrieved May 31,

2020, from https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/explore/the-circular-economy-in-detail

LAURENT, É. (2018). Sustainability. In Measuring Tomorrow: Accounting for Well-Being,

Resilience, and Sustainability in the Twenty-First Century (pp. 136-154). Princeton; Oxford:

Princeton University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctvc7727v.20