Definition of Sustainability and Its Three Pillars Which Are Important Factors of Sustainability
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Executive Summary
The purpose of this report is to inform readers regarding the definition of sustainability and
its three pillars which are important factors of sustainability. The world commission defined
the sustainability as "forms of progress that meet the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generation to meet their needs". There are three
dimensions of sustainability which are the main factors of sustainability: economic,
environmental and social dimension and they overlap each other in terms of responsibility to
achieve sustainability. In organisational context, this report mostly focuses on environment
dimension. Most organisations usually exploit natural resource without any perception of
saving the resource for the next generations. This leads to many consequences since some
natural resources are limited and unrenewable. Not only people in the next generation
adversely affected by this, but also the organisations itself because of not being sustainable
organisation result in bad reputation which damage the organisation in long run. In terms of
importance of sustainability, it obviously contributes to everyone, not only the next
generations or organisations, but everyone! Unilever and Gibson are great examples of
organisation that conducting their business to serve itself and all people. They have been
trying to save the environment as possible as they could and they also change their business
partners to become sustainable organisation as well. However, becoming organisations that
have good sustainable practises is not an easy task. The organisation needs to acknowledge
all stakeholders to understand clearly about sustainability and its importance. Eventually,
sustainability will help organisations to perform effectively/efficiently, people to live better
off, and make the world better place to live.
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 3
THE DEFINITION OF SUSTAINABILITY .............................................................................. 3
Economic Dimension ............................................................................................................................... 4
Environmental Dimension ......................................................................................................................... 4
Social Dimension...................................................................................................................................... 4
SUSTAINABILITY IN ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT ..................................................... 5
THE IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABLE PRACTISES ........................................................ 5
RECOMMENDATION .................................................................................................................... 7
REFERENCE LIST .......................................................................................................................... 9
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Introduction
Increasing globalisation allows organisations to internationalise their business so operation of
organisations is not limited to domestic setting anymore. Because of this, giant organisations
try to expand the business to a foreign country, especially developing country in order to
obtain more competitive advantage by the benefit of economy of scale or economy of scope
(Harzing and Ruysseveldt 2004). However, resource exploitation in developing countries has
increased and the world is now aware of this problem since natural resource is not unlimited
and it is getting depleted. This could lead to huge problem in the future generation due to the
fact that all activities for mankind nowadays rely heavily on basic natural resources which
become less and less in number such as oil, coal and others resource (Moeckli 2007, 2).
Regarding to this problem which is considered significant threat to mankind, organisations
adapt their practises towards the problem. In contemporary business practise, sustainability
become in awareness of organisations since sustainability practise is related to CSR and it
becomes important practise which leads to sustainable success of organisations (Grant et al.
2011).
This report will discuss about the definition of sustainability and the activities of organisation
concerning with sustainability, in other words; sustainability practise, and explanation of the
reason why organisations in contemporary world are committing so much in sustainability
practise. Moreover, an example of organisation which has sustainability practise and also
constraints of such practise will be given in the report. Finally, this report will give some
recommendation for every organisation in order to help them have a more efficiency and
effectiveness of their operations.
The Definition of Sustainability
There are so many definitions of sustainability and it is complex and always
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