Environmentally Sustainable Business – Adidas
Task 1
“Write An introduction that summarizes key company and environmental impacts information from your first assignment (no more than 200 words)”
The purpose of this brief introduction is to provide a foundation of information that enables the reader to make sense of Tasks 2+3. You will have to be selective about how you summarise your first assignment, but in doing so be sure to include the key environmental impacts for which your company is responsible. Make brief reference to relevant frameworks especially the Nine Planetary Boundaries Framework. On no account write more than 200 words here – if you do, you are wasting your word count.
Task 2
“A critical evaluation of the environmental sustainability strategy and performance of your chosen company. Your evaluation should include at least the following:
A summary of your understanding of the sustainability strategy of your company.
An evaluation of the company’s approach to their sustainability strategy using a variety of theoretical frameworks
An explanation of your company’s approach to Environmental Management Systems, and what this says about their commitment to their strategy
An evaluation of the company’s environmental performance i.e. the implementation of their strategy over the last 3-5 years, in two or more of the following areas: marketing; operations and supply chain management
The incorporation of relevant concepts, frameworks and theories (including but not restricted to the principles of resource savings (the 5Rs) into the performance evaluation
An explanation and evaluation of how comprehensive and transparent their sustainability reporting is, using relevant frameworks to support this evaluation.”
First, really concentrate on the first sentence. In this assignment we are talking about environmental sustainability strategy so if you find yourself talking about strategy in general or other non-environmental forms of sustainability then you are probably on the wrong track.
Second, notice we are asking you about strategy and performance. You need to evaluate both, not just one of these.
Third, note we are asking you to carry out a critical evaluation. This means throughout this report you need to maintain a critical, questioning frame of mind that subjects both company and other data to critical scrutiny. This means asking yourself questions such as: on what basis is this statement made, is the evidence valid, is there independent verification of this claim, have all stakeholder perspectives been considered, what is not being said (omitted) in this report etc. etc.? You will find it much easier to maintain this critical perspective if you are reading widely, especially the very up to date reports via ENDS and edie.net.
Looking now at the more detailed requirements of Task 2:
“A summary of your understanding of the sustainability strategy of your company?”
Before addressing any of the questions below, you need to present your overall summary of what you think the company’s sustainability strategy is. Remember that the company might not have a section in their report headed “Strategy”. They might instead talk about long term objectives, key goals, plans etc. You will need to work from your understanding of what strategy is (from the week 6 materials) to judge what to include here.
“An evaluation of the company’s approach to their sustainability strategy using a variety of theoretical and policy (e.g. COP26) frameworks”
The PWC Reporting with Purpose publication as well as authors such as Blowfield and frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals give us ways of assessing, classifying and understanding the environmental sustainability strategy of organisations. Use the evidence you find in your company’s report and beyond to make a case for classifying your company’s strategy in a particular way using some of these models. What are the insights that such models help to generate? Critique the models too if you find them inadequate, or draw on other models you have come across in your reading.
“An explanation of your company’s approach to Environmental Management Systems, and what this says about their commitment to their strategy”
“An evaluation of the company’s environmental performance i.e. the implementation of their strategy over the last 3-5 years, in two or more of the following areas: marketing; operations and supply chain management”
