Subject Code : ENVS6560
Country : Australia
Assignment Task:

Questions:
1. Briefly outline your view of sustainability. In your opinion, what is this concept all about?

2. After considering Hawkens et al (2013) do you think our companies and economies are on the path to 'natural capitalism' or still practising 'conventional capitalism'? Are there some aspects of natural capitalism that are more advanced than others? 

3. Why does the concept of Corporate Sustainability mean 'so many different things to so many different people'? Is the range of ways it can be interpreted as a strength or a weakness?

Additional Questions: 
It has been great to read the discussion this week and to see how you collectively revisit and re-evaluate your understanding of sustainability. There is a really interesting discussion going on over the relative strengths or weakness of the diverse (and changing) meaning of sustainability.

To date, there is a good spread across the debate from those how this as a strength (thanks Ayu ), the majority who think the 'lack of strong standards' is a weakness (thanks Jeremy, Benjamin, Ruth and James), and a good portion who think this is both and poses an 'opportunity and challenge' (thanks Sian, Rosemary and Jane). We should be all be aware of the extent to which sustainability is used as a  rhetorical tool used to change to more sustainable practices but equally used as a rationale to re-image existing practices as environmentally beneficial without change fundamental organisational dynamics.
   
However, as many of you pointed out a relatively fluid understanding can make it difficult, particularly at an organisational level, to define goals, outline roles and responsibilities, measure progress and foster change. However, this is some advantages to have an adaptable definition of corporate sustainability (CS), as the relative elasticity associated with the concept of CS allows an organisation to adopt sustainability practices in a broad range of contexts.

This debate should remind us that there is always tension between rhetoric and action in organisations and environmental management. Clear and actionable definitions can play an important strategic role in sustainability issues — particularly within organisations. However, making these definitions too rigid may make some organisations hesitant to adopt sustainability practices and/or stifle innovation. As we explore later in the trimester, environmental management tools are a useful reflection of the environmental performance of organisations but we shouldn’t confuse this with the total environmental performance of organisations. As with many of the concepts we grapple with in this trimester, how we define, measure and action CS is not cut and dry. There is no hard and fast answer but rather we should be conscious of the nuances and complexities of this issue.

An underlying concept explored in this forum relates to organisations and the disparity between rhetoric and action. The definitions of sustainability forwarded in the literature denote the importance of how we speak about sustainability; but does the way we speak about sustainability generally differ from the way we act upon it? This is an important consideration for weeks 3, 4, 5, and 6.

One might say that some organisations haven't really challenged the fundamentals of what they do. ENVS6500 is about going beyond simplistic understandings of how organisations work in relation to their environmental practices and moving towards a more nuanced understanding of the factors that drive environmental behaviours and outcomes. Some of you have already touched on this but I'd like you all to consider the following question:
 
At your workplace, does a large gap exist between rhetoric and action? That is, does your organisation successfully match its actions to its conceptions of sustainability?

Consider the contemporary example of the "climate change realist" position adopted by a certain section of our political landscape. The climate change realist believes that comprehending the problem is less important than doing something about it. This seems reasonable on the surface; all the thinking and debate in the world will not 'solve' the problem. The climate change realist also argues that we can't make radical changes to the way we conduct ourselves, as this would have devastating consequences for our economies and living standards. Subsequently, if discourses are socially constructed (ie they are actively shaped by ideology) we could assume that climate change realist believes that:
 
a) comprehending an issue does not necessarily produce sufficient outcomes; and
b) modification, rather than change, is less likely to cause negative consequences.

Questions:
1. In your opinion, what are the key internal and external drivers, corporate sustainability drivers? Our firms primarily motivated by their internal processes or are they driven by external pressures?

2. In your view, what are the most pressing environmental drivers shaping corporate sustainability? How might this vary depending on the nature of the business involved? Use an example to illustrate your response.

3. It's been suggested that firms need to operate successfully under the influence of legislation and/or regulatory guidelines before implementing environmentally sustainable practices. In your opinion, are firms more likely to implement environmentally sustainable practices due to competitive pressures or due to the coercive pressures of legislation and/or regulation?


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