Environmental Sustainability And Its Effect On Purchasing Practices
Concept of environmental sustainability
The main purpose of writing this paper is to give the concept of environmental sustainability and how it can be achieved. Since the issue of environment is the crucial element that determine our future resources it is important to define environmental sustainability in a way that is understandable, helpful and logic to facilitate understanding, effective communication and actual operation by all the key players including the government, communicators, innovators business and many more (Tilman & Clark, 2014).
The paper will also give analysis of the general purchasing practices and how it relates to environmental sustainability.
To define the term environmental sustainability I must first of all define the term sustainability. Sustainability can be define as the ability to endure a define behaviour for the foreseeable future (Costanza et.2015). Environmental sustainability is the process of production with the environmental condition in mind by ensuring that the activities involved in production by the present generation does not affect the environment hence affecting the production for the future generation. The activities involved by businesses should have less impact to the environment as the adverse impacts such as global warming has a long impact affecting even the future generation hence the need for environmental sustainability. This is one of the key areas that enhances the well-being of mankind on planet earth. Sustainability should exist in the environment for the achievement of various objectives in the society. Environmental sustainability is defined as the ability to make the efficient use of the available resources within the environmental setting in a balanced manner in such a way that the rate of resources consumption does not exceed the available resources. Environmental sustainability can only be achieved when the amount of solid wastes cannot exceed what the environmental is capable of holding.
The research done has indicated that most of the pollution in the environment is caused by industries and various businesses established in various localities. Industries result to both solid and air pollution to the environment. The wastes from the industries may lead to water pollution from the chemical discharged to the water bodies from the industries. Businesses are also causing a lot of pollutions experienced in major towns in various countries which has raised an alarm for environmental agencies such as UNEP to come up with various policies to enhance the achievement of sustainable business environment to facilitate a conducive environment for the members in the society.
Environmental sustainability can be achieved when various parties in the field of production play various roles. The parties involved include the suppliers, buyers and the producers or the manufacturers. The suppliers ensure that they adhere to environmental sustainability practices in the supply of goods and services. Some of the suppliers of products such as oil suppliers use pipelines to transport the products to the consumers. This is important because it reduces the impact that would have been caused by the tankers where they emit carbon monoxide to the environment resulting to air pollution which is hazardous to both plants and animals. Pipeline transport is also efficient as minimizes accidents caused by tankers that result to oil spillage which may have an adverse effect to the environment.
How environmental sustainability can be achieved (case of UNEP)
The producers (the industries) engage in the production of bio-degradable products which enhance the regulation of solid waste in the environment. Most of the industries are engaging in reverse logistics where the suppliers return the packages which have been used for recycling. This facilitate the reduction of solid waste in the environment.
The consumers for various products have their unique roles in ensuring environmental sustainability through their consumption behaviour. The consumers have a role in ensuring proper disposal of wastes to control the pollution to the environment. They consumers can have collection points in their various estates where they dispose some of the waste materials which are collected by the organizations agents for recycling which promotes environmental sustainability.
Herman Daly was among the earliest forerunners of ecological sustainability, Herman viewed the problem from the perspective of natural capital maintenance, and he suggested that:
- For any renewable resource, the rate at which the resource is harvested must not surpass the regeneration rate.
- For pollution, the rate of waste products generation from ventures must not exceed the environment assimilative capacity.
- For non-renewable resources, the exhaustion of non-renewable resources must have comparable creation of renewable resource substitute.
The list above is broadly accepted and therefore environmental sustainability as seen from the list can be define as ‘’ the rates of renewable resources harvest, pollution, creation and non-renewable resource depletion that can be continued indefinitely and if they cannot be continued indefinitely then they are not sustainable’’ (Riikkinen, Kauppi, Salmi, 2017)
In the year 2002 according to statistics a child passed away from diseases that come from consumption of unclean water, poor hygiene and deplorable sanitation. As per the statistics that was carried out in the same year, one out every six people globally was not able to access clean water. This was a total of 1 billion people and nearly 300 million of these were young children. It was also found that most of the people did not have latrines and many children live under congested dwellings of mud flooring.
In the sub-Sahara region more so in countries such as Rwanda, Uganda and Ethiopia, 80 percent of children consume surface water and others had to walk long distance in order to find protected source of water (McKinnon et al. 2015).
Consumption of unclean water cause diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera. These diseases kill around four million people each year and most of them are young children. Most of the African countries suffer this kind of water related diseases. Poor health conditions affect learning potential of children. For instance, 300 million annually are infested by intestinal worms which affect their mental abilities (Singh, 2015).
Many young children especially girls are forced to go for long distances in search of clean water, the children are affected so much with this at an extend that they are barred from going to school. Unavailability of latrines affects children dignity severely. For example, the children may have to wait till night hours to relieve themselves. They do this in order to protect their modesty and safety. The children household roles shows that the diseases can be spread easily to the other members of the family if they lack safe water post-partum, sick and pregnant woman are vulnerable too poor sanitation and they pass diseases to their children (Wong & Zhou, 2015).
UNEP responds to enhance environmental sustainability
The issue is not that there is insufficient water. Lack of commitments by the government and poor technology to that help ensure sanitation and safe water. Lack of funds also attributes to these factors.
UNEP help the African countries by educating on Hygiene and assisting on technology improvement
Policies and programmes that encourage sustainable development are very critical to conserving water resources. With over 40 years in the field in more than 100 nations, UNEP is a major UN agency in the countries. When local authorities are able to treat and dispose water adequately, it causes minimal wastage of fresh water and better conservation. Utilizing water resources cautiously prevents contamination and reduces the necessity of water treatment (Acquaye, 2017).
In cooperation with partners for instance the EU Water Initiative, International Water Association and the US Environmental Protection Agency, UNEP is working to obtain government support for to achieve the goals, and help the countries to create sanitation and water programs in low cost. It also enhances hygiene education in all the community levels. One major component, for instance, teaching parents good hygiene which would then help them to extend the same to their children.
Together with the WHO, UNEP has also tracks advancement on worldwide. Water and sanitation achievement via Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP). JMP monitors changes in the coverage and help many countries check on their own dimensions, develops questioners, definitions and indicators, and enlighten policy makers via publications and websites (Shirazi & Keivani, 2017).
UNEP has assisted partners and government implement community based surveillance system which screen on water quality and detect contaminants such as human faeces, nitrates and fluoride. UNEP has also encouraged many suitable low cost sanitation and water. Many communities are gifted with opportunities and tools which help them to choose and design basic technologies which can be upgraded gradually, for instance a system to harvest rain water (Song, et al. 2017).
UNEP has involved many locals in projects for instance women, the crucial shareholders in the supply of domestic water sector and traditional leaders, sanitation and many other community organizations.
UNEP is an international frontrunner in most of the emergency responses of man-made and natural disaster, involving partners in sectors of hygiene, sanitation and supply of water. UNEP also focus on providing seamless evolution from emergency reaction to sanitation programme and sustainable water. In other words, UNEP may disseminate water, water cleaning tablets and assist in constructing bit latrines.
Through commitments, reliable digital infrastructure UNEP have exclusive opportunity to involve many people in innovation developments. The innovative developments concentrate on reducing wastage of resources instead of substituting the existing labour with technology.
The appraisal of distributed technology in the sector of energy, maturity of fiscal tools and great awareness among stakeholders give an opportunity to resolve global issues of accessing energy. With the availability of technology, the serious factors which should be overcome are the fiscal challenges- through the making bankable and scalable long term investment. Enabling this will consent energy systems to attain affordability and sustainability (Centobelli, Cerchione & Esposito, 2017).
UNEP management has observed that there is need for collaboration among different sectors in order to attain environmental sustainability, among the sectors are those that are responsible for water health and sanitation programs, energy, rural and urban development in different countries. The recent strategy on environment is an example of collaboration that is crucial in achieving results that address basic environmental issues that are prevalent to most of the developing countries. The strategy was created through the collaboration between Human Development Network and Sustainable Development Network (Minten, Zeller, 2017).
The UNEP evaluations recognizes environmental related development policy operations to support institutional reforms. It considers the policies separately since it views that the environmental achievements of the policy may not relate directly to the disbursed amount in basis of the investment operations. Developing environment help a country attain sustainability.
UNEP may organize rubbish collection campaigns to collect disposed, glasses, plastics, and electronics. Old electronic material should be taken to recycling facilities to ensure that they are handled properly and recycled safely.
According to the research that was done recently by UNEP, the US produces nearly 60 million tonnes of w-waste every year. Out of these only 25% is safely recycled. The remaining 75% remain in landfills. Recycling of waste products helps to conserve the environment and hence sustainability cab be achieved.
Research shows that every year over 50, 000 marine creatures and over 500’000 birds die from choking plastic materials. UNEP has encourage on the use of reusable bottles, grocery bags and travel bags
controlling deforestation
The major habitat where deforestation is being carried out is the tropical rainforest, which are located around the Equator. UNEP have tried to manage the forest more so in the developing countries, this is because most of the countries are cutting down tree at an alarming late. The main reason why people cut down trees is to because of the demand of wood, fuel and paper products.
Among the effects of deforestation is that it cause global warming and soil erosion. UNEP have put down measures that discourage deforestation and encourage afforestation.
Meaning of general purchasing practices
This refers to the various actions by buyers in the process of buying goods and services. These activities are very essential for the achievement of the purchasing objectives by any business organization. Some of the key purchasing practices are: negotiation for wonderful price, sourcing for suppliers, planning and forecasting on the purchasing procedure.
Environmental sustainability refers to the activities by the organization that contribute towards the conservation of the environment. This is important as it enhances a conducive business environment for both the organization and the members in the society. Environmental sustainability has become a major concern today due to an increased rate of environmental problems such as global warming due to depletion of the ozone layer, increased pollution of the environment by solid wastes and many other forms of pollution. Research has indicated that most of the pollution of the environment is contributed by business organizations through its various activities in relation to manufacturing, logistics and marketing. Organizations such as UNEP have set various regulations for organizations that aim in the protection of the environment. Such regulations entail the production of environmentally friendly products, recycling of waste, establishment of garbage collection central points to reduce the accumulation of solid waste into the environment (Pullman & Wikoff, 2017).
To achieve environmental sustainability, most businesses are in the process of implementation of the major purchasing practice known as green purchasing where the business procures raw materials that have a slight impact to the environment during the process of manufacturing and after disposal of the waste by consumers (Marchisotto et al. 2017).UNEP has defined green purchasing as the purchasing initiatives that enhance the conservation of the environment through the process of purchasing raw materials that meet the environmental objectives such as waste reduction, products that can be recycled, products that can be reused, and products that can be substituted by other products to meet similar environmental objectives. Green purchasing ensures that managers focus on environmental sustainability in the process of purchasing products (Zhu, et al. 2017).
Official products
Purchasing of products that meet the requirements of ability for recycling and reusing
The manufacturers should specify that the products do not contain environmental hazards components such as lead, CFCs and products should not be packed in plastic bags because they do not decompose hence polluting the environment (Johnsen, Miemczyk & Howard, 2017).
The manufacturers should thoroughly describe the ingredients used to manufacture the products so that the consumers can have a clear information of the products to purchase so as to avoid products that may cause health problems. The side effects of the product should also be clearly outlined by the manufacturer to enable the consumer consume the product at his own or her own risk (Foo, 2018).
The business organization should request the suppliers to provide the questionnaires that outline the environmental aspects of the product and should also provide the management systems that support environmental sustainability in products (Wiengarten & Ambrose, 2017).
Green purchasing focuses mainly on coordinating the environmental performance of the products supplied by the sellers. UNEP is also focusing on reduction of deforestation through promoting the use of energy sources such as biogas by sponsoring the manufacturers in order to increase the productivity so as to enhance frequent supply which shall in turn reduce deforestation which shall promote a sustainable environment for the wellbeing of the society (Schaltegger & Wagner, 2017).
UNEP encourages corporate social responsibility programs by sponsoring organizations by provision of attires for environmental cleaning planned occasionally which enhances a clean environment which enhances a conducive environment for the organization as well as the members in the society (Schmidt, Foerstl & Schaltenbrand, 2017).
Environmental sustainability in procurement enhances the purchasing of sustainable goods and services that have a less impact to not only the environment but also human health. Products that are environmentally friendly bears the following characteristics: they are less harmful to natural resources during and after consumption, they consume less energy during manufacturing because this shall enhance energy conservation especially if solar energy is used, the products should be free from toxic substances to avoid environmental pollution after being disposed to the environment (Van & De Langen, 2017).
Social reasons
Business organizations have to effectively utilize the public resources to achieve sustainability since some of the resources are natural resources and are required by a large number of people. Such resources include water. Industries should not release waste products to the rivers as they are very crucial for the well- being of the society but they should rather use the water for various industrial operations and control the waste materials by having a collection section (Carley & Spapens, 2017).
Industries should purchase electricity and use for various industrial operations for the good of the entire community. Power should not be wasted by any chance because some of the natural resources such as rivers are used in generation (Ledgerwood, 2017).
Businesses should engage in the procurement of raw materials that have less impact to the environment so as to reduce some of the risks such as global warming, effect on human health. Organizations should operate in an environmentally friendly manner through practices such as erecting long chimneys to ensure the smoke emitted from the industry does not an impact to the people and plants. UNEP has set various regulations for industries to control environmental pollution. Some of the regulations are the requirement for industries to use smoke filters so as to prevent carbon monoxide from been emitted into the atmosphere because it is a major cause of the greenhouse effect and global warming. As a result the environment remains conducive for man, plants and animals (Johnsen, Miemczyk & Howard, 2017).
Environmental purchasing has the following benefits:
- Enhances the reduction of energy and water consumption
- Enhances efficiency utilization of the available scarce resources.
- Enhances waste reduction through purchasing of products that can be recycled.
- Reduce environmental pollution
- Creates a market for environmental sustainable products facilitating the distribution of those products to various places which reduces various types of pollution that may result from the product (Kroger, Duchin & Vázquez, 2017).
- Increases the viability for recycling the products
- Facilitates the adoption of cleaner technologies by various industries to enhance the production of less toxic products
Products that are environmentally sustainable sell best in the market as they are usually the favorite for many consumers. This is because the product reduces the risk to the consumers as it’s less toxic as well as reducing the risk to the environment (Lo, & Kwan, 2017).
Environmental sustainability in relation to products commences in the product life cycle of the product where the product is made better in each stage of its development which results to a better that product that meet the environmental sustainability objectives (Abdul et al. 2017). Each stage of the product life cycle has an impact to the environment to a specific extend. During the extraction of the raw materials, environmental pollution occurs in the process which is a poor sustainable practice to the environment (Ottman, 2017). Activities such as mining and deforestation has an adverse effect to the environment. During the processing of the raw materials, hazardous gases are emitted into the atmosphere which have a negative impact to the environment. Hazardous solid wastes are also exposed to the environment resulting to solid waste pollution to the environment (Eizenberg &Jabareen, 2017).
The process of recycling products has a little impact to the environment because it results to reduced dependence of virgin resources which needs to be complimented with some waste products to be complete. Most of the environmental pollution occurs during the consumption of the product hence the choice of the raw materials is very crucial for the implications of the product to the environment (Kemp, 2017).
Some of the companies such as Rio Tinto, Unilever, Toyota, Ford, General motors Holden have various policies that enable the suppliers to adhere some of the environmental sustainable practices to initiate the purchase of raw materials (Mogre, Lindgreen,& Hingley, 2017). The companies have a common rule for them that ‘’ if you want to do business with us, you will have to meet certain levels of environmental or social performance in your operations’’. This has been a common principle of supply chain management for many organizations. The established code of conduct for suppliers has ensured that those companies are supplied raw materials that have less impact to the environment promoting environmental sustainability (Pascual et al. 2017).
Some business organizations have collaborated with the suppliers to where they return the packaging materials which are usually recycled and used. This is a sustainable practice as it results to environmental conservation hence promoting environmental sustainability (Mishra, 2017).
Departmental implementation
These practices should begin by being implemented within the departments during the procurement of various materials from the suppliers. This would eventually result to raw materials that would be environmentally friendly during the production process in the whole organization.
The risks that the product has on the environment have to be ascertained before purchasing from the suppliers. This ensures that the products are safe to the environment even after the disposal of the waste which enhances environmental sustainability (Rodríguez, & González, Benito, 2017).
The organization should have a checklist of the environmental hazards present in various raw materials so as to enable the organization avoid some raw materials with some of the identified hazardous substances
Conclusion
The environment is very crucial for the wellbeing of the society hence should well conserved. Human beings will only be interested to achieve sustainability if they have are well educated about the importance of environmental sustainability. People should adhere to sustainable practices that enhance a conducive environment for business operations hence the need for environmental sustainability in every aspect of business operations from the product development to purchasing. The suppliers should ensure that the raw materials will result to safe products to achieve the sustainable objectives in the business environment (Kumar, Manrai & Manrai, 2017).
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