In the last few decades 'environmental degradation and global warming are the most bothersome factors that need to be resolved as soon as possible. If significant steps are not taken in time it leads the world toward a very fatal future. Several factors are aggravating this phenomenon, some of which are natural and others man-made.
There are essential three characteristic variables that can result from climate change: volcanic eruption, variety in the Sun's Energy, and movement of the crustal plate. During Volcanic eruptions, a large amount of carbon dioxide,aerosols, ash, dust, and other unwanted substances are released into the air. These further exaggerate the greenhouse effect blocking the heat and prevent it from reflecting from the earth to the outer atmosphere thus, trapping more heat and resulting in global warming. Moreover, the sun radiates more heat during active periods of sunspots. Because the sunspots are suppressing heat, the heat flows to surrounding areas causing these regions to be hotter than normal. While more sunspots may contribute to a warmer global climate, fewer sunspots appear to be associated with a cooler global climate. About 300 years ago, there was a period of reduced solar activity. This was called the Little Ice Age. As tectonic plates move over geological timescales, land masses are carried along to different positions and latitudes. These changes affect global circulation patterns of air and ocean water and the climate of the continents. Therefore, all these factors prove that climate change is not man-made and has no relevance to sustainability.
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However, there is also another side of the coin, which can't be neglected which accuses rapid urbanization and industrialization as the main culprit of climate change. Human activities such as rapidly using natural resources, exploiting fossil fuels and urbanization have led Earth to a disastrous situation. More industries making more machinery which in turn uses more fuels to run and exploits fossil reserves and also emits pollution hence resulting in global warming. With the population increase the need for residential urban land also increased hence builders deforestation at a greater rate to make buildings. Also demand for machinery that runs on fuels and emits pollution increases such as cars, air conditioners, and refrigerators. So, it's quite clear that all these above-mentioned factors state that human intervention is a vital aspect behind global warming and climate change.
Sustainability and waste management are exceptionally fundamental for battling global warming and climate change. A few steps ought to be taken, which are too known as waste management progression:
- Source reduction: the best technique of waste management is not to create it. Avoiding to use of unnecessary goods and single-use goods can help a lot. Some materials like plastic bottles or bags are used for a few minutes but then stay in the environment for more than a century before they decompose. So, these should be avoided.
- Recycling and composting; The most preferred approach to waste management is to not create it in the first place. This can involve the choice to avoid unnecessary consumption of goods and services, and it can also include purposefully reducing the inputs that go into the creation of products through source reduction. Such source reduction efforts can include the decreased usage of virgin materials and energy conservation, as well as the creation of less pollution and toxicity of waste. Take, for example, the case of aluminum. The equivalent of 60.2 billion aluminum was recycled and reused in the US in 2013, representing a 66.7% recovery rate.
- energy waste; The process of waste-to-energy (WTE) involves the capture of energy from trash. This is accomplished through a variety of approaches, including waste incineration, pluralization, anaerobic, digestion, gasification, and landfill gas recovery.
Treatment and disposal; Disposal is the final option in the waste hierarchy, however, a key component of integrated waste management. Landfills are the most common approach to disposal, with the design, operation, and end-of-life requirements strictly controlled. In the U.S., landfills must follow strict standards established by the EPA and are typically regulated at the state, tribal, or local level.
Knowledge management system; A knowledge management system (KMS) is a system for applying and using knowledge management principles. These include data-driven objectives around business productivity, a competitive business model, business intelligence analysis, and more. (fall.k.R1994)
As KMS’s definition already has mentioned it helps to improve the productivity of organizations, and if all employees are well trained with it then it reduces the wastage of all materials, hence it directly encourages sustainability.
Sustainability is the ability to exist constantly. It can defined as the process of people maintaining change in a balanced environment, in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development, and institutional change are all in harmony and enhance both current and future potential to meet human needs and aspirations. ( Cavagnaro,2008)
Quality management is the act of overseeing all activities and tasks needed to maintain a desired level of excellence. This includes the determination of a quality policy, creating and implementing quality planning and assurance, and quality control and quality improvement.
Total Quality Management is a combined effort of both top-level management as well as employees of an organization to formulate effective strategies and policies to deliver high-quality products that not only meet but also exceed customer satisfaction. Total Quality Management enables employees to focus on quality rather than quantity and strive hard to excel in whatever they do. According to total quality management, customer feedback and expectations are essential when it comes to formulating and implementing new strategies to deliver superior products than competitors and eventually yield higher revenues and profits for the organization.
To embrace customer expectations, an organization should implement these five principles of TQM’;
Producing quality work (the first time) means quality is built into the processes for producing products or providing services, and The three pillars of corporate sustainability - economic, social, and environmental - work together to help organizations strive for more sustainable practices. Businesses need to move from an outdated sense of fast profits at the expense of the environment to a more mutual interdependence and eco-innovation. Adopting sustainable practices not only helps the environment - corporations have proven that sustainability initiatives lead to an improved brand image, reduced costs, happier shareholders, increased productivity, and countless more benefits. Sustainability is here to stay.
Measures are taken to ensure the processes work every time. Focusing on the customer involves designing products or services that meet or exceed the customer's expectations. This involves the product itself, its functionality, attributes, convenience, and even how the information about a product is received by a client.
By having a strategic approach to improvement, processes are developed and tested to ensure the product or service's quality. This also involves making sure suppliers offer quality supplies needed to produce products.
Improving continuously means always analyzing the way work is being performed to determine if more effective or efficient ways are possible, making improvements, and striving for excellence all the time. (Schiffrin, A.,1996) By improving standardized programs and processes, continuous improvement aims to eliminate waste. Continuous improvement was first practiced in Japan world world after World War 2nd influenced in part by American business and quality-management teachers, and most notably as part of Toyota. It has since spread throughout the world and has been applied to environments outside of business and productivity. Moreover, Coca-Cola and Leyland are another company which has implemented this strategy to attain sustainability.
There are six important principles of sustainability, and without applying these it's very hard to gain success in implementing sustainability;
- Maintain and, if possible, enhance, its residents’ quality of life
- Enhance local economic vitality
- Promote social and intergeneration equity
- Maintain and if possible, enhance the quality of the environment
- Incorporate and corporate disaster resilience and mitigation into its decisions and actions
- Use a consensus-building, participatory process when making decisions
Therefore, the three pillars of corporate sustainability - economic, social, and environmental - work together to help organizations strive for more sustainable practices. Businesses need to move from an outdated sense of fast profits at the expense of the environment to a more mutual interdependence and eco-innovation. Adopting sustainable practices not only helps the environment - corporations have proven that sustainability initiatives lead to an improved brand image, reduced costs, happier shareholders, increased productivity, and countless more benefits. Sustainability is here to stay.
References
- Cavagnaro, E. and Gehrels, S., 2008, July. The Extreme Make Over of a Restaurant: The Change Process from Mainstream to sustainability at a Hotel Restaurant in the Netherlands. In Proceedings of the International Association for Business and Society (Vol. 19, pp. 372-381).
- Change, I.C., 2014. Mitigation of climate change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 1454.
- Cullen, M.J.P., 1993. The unified forecast/climate model. Meteorological Magazine, 122(1449), pp.81-94.
- Elkington, J., 1994. Towards the sustainable corporation: Win-win-win business strategies for sustainable development. California Management Review, 36(2), pp.90-100.
- Fall, K.R. and Pasquale, J., 1994, May. Improving Continuous-Media Playback Performance with In-Kernel Data Paths. In ICMCS (pp. 100-109).
- Journal of Sustainable Development. (2014). Canadian Center of Science and Education. [online] [Accessed 1 Sep. 2019].
- Lebnac, R. (2018). [online] the balancesmb.[Accessed 1 Sep. 2019].
- Saini, D. (2014). How can we develop a culture of continuous improvement in organizations [online] research gate? [Accessed 1 Sep. 2019].
- Schiffrin, A., Colle, E. and Belmonte, M., 1980. Improved control in diabetes with continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion. Diabetes Care, 3(6), pp.643-649.
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