Microsoft, a leader in global technology, has proven to be strongly committed to CSR and sustainable business practices, particularly when it comes to lowering its carbon footprint. Microsoft recognizes the urgent need for radical change in energy consumption and production in the face of urgent problems like climate change. The company’s 2022 Environmental Sustainability Report emphasizes the seriousness of climate change by demonstrating that 2022 was the sixth warmest year in recorded history, leading to catastrophic weather events and alarming effects on ecosystems and communities.

Microsoft has established challenging sustainability goals in order to address these issues. The company hopes to achieve carbon negativity by 2030, zero waste generation by 2050, positive water usage, and the offset of all greenhouse gas emissions since its founding. Microsoft is aware of how digital innovation can support sustainable practices. The business is promoting sustainability throughout its supply chain, investing in renewable energy, and lowering the carbon footprint of its goods. Additionally, Microsoft works to ensure that everyone has access to clean energy, which is good for society as a whole.. I would like to make the suggestion that Microsoft continue to create and market cloud-based tools and solutions that allow companies to track, lessen, and report their environmental impact. These innovations, like Cloud for Sustainability, simplify procedures and support businesses in making sustainable decisions based on data.

Finally, Microsoft’s thorough approach to CSR and sustainable business practices, particularly in lowering its carbon footprint, demonstrates its commitment to addressing urgent global challenges. Microsoft can continue to lead in generating positive change for a more sustainable future by strengthening its commitment to innovation, collaboration, employee development, and long-term vision.

Source:https://news.microsoft.com/en-cee/2023/05/18/microsoft-is-committed-to-achieving-zero-carbon-emissions-and-waste-by-2030/

Apple, a company I interact with daily, is noteworthy for its efforts in sustainability and social responsibility. They are committed to environmental sustainability, a testament to which is their use of 100% renewable energy for corporate facilities. This is part of their broader initiative to reach net-zero climate impact across their business by 2030, a goal that highlights their commitment to energy conservation and reducing their carbon footprint.

In terms of social responsibility, Apple has a Supplier Code of Conduct to uphold workers’ rights and fair treatment in their supply chain. Their commitment to this code of conduct shows their efforts in ensuring ethically produced products.

In order to improve its ethical practices, Apple could consider increasing the lifespan of its products and providing better support for older models. This would contribute further to sustainability by reducing electronic waste. Additionally, reinforcing their Supplier Code of Conduct could ensure that workers are consistently treated fairly and justly. Regular third-party audits could improve transparency and ensure the adherence of suppliers to the code.

These suggestions would help Apple further its goals of ethical business practices, social responsibility, and sustainability, solidifying its position as a leading innovator that values not just technological advancement, but also a healthier planet and just working conditions.

When facing the topic of this assignment, I had many options in mind. After careful consideration, I decided to choose Nike. Nike has always been a brand that I frequently heard about from my family since childhood, and it’s a store I have visited since I was young. I have great confidence in the quality of their products. Over the years, Nike has expanded its business from sportswear to casual wear, and they also offer versatile accessories such as backpacks and hats. So besides buying sports shoes, I sometimes purchase cute clothes and pants from them as well.

As a globally influential company, Nike’s practices regarding corporate social responsibility and ethical principles have drawn significant attention. In recent years, Nike has been the subject of controversy, especially in the areas of advertising and labor rights. Therefore, in this assignment, I will elaborate on Nike’s efforts in social responsibility and explore their ethical principles. I will also provide my thoughts and recommendations on some areas that may need improvement.

In the context of increasing global resource and energy consumption and environmental degradation, industries are demonstrating their ability to contribute to environmental protection and sustainable development, integrating sustainable development concepts into their daily operations through innovation and leveraging their advantages. On November 6, 2022, Nike and Ant Group jointly launched the “Nike Reuse a Shoe” mini-program, which has collected more than 25,000 pairs of discarded sneakers from both online and offline channels. These old shoes will be processed using Nike Grind technology and used to build environmentally friendly playgrounds. To date, the Nike Grind project has recycled over 30 million pairs of old shoes and over 120 million pounds of footwear factory materials, transforming them into innovative sports products. As Nike deepens its commitment to sustainability, they are continuously exploring innovative ways to achieve their long-term goals of zero carbon and zero waste. At least 90% of the Nike shoeboxes you receive are made from recycled materials. In order to reduce packaging waste, Nike has launched the “One Box” packaging that doubles as a shoebox and a shipping box. Currently, One Box is being piloted on a small scale and will be expanded on a larger scale in the future. Through innovative green packaging, Nike plans to reduce 414 tons of packaging waste over the next three years. Each shoebox goes through a journey from the warehouse to the store, consuming a large number of cardboard boxes. To address this, Nike is trying to use reusable boxes instead of factory original cardboard boxes, and logistics centers are reusing factory original cardboard boxes as much as possible. According to Nike, the current reuse rate of cardboard boxes has reached 80%. Nike is also actively promoting the construction of a “circle of friends” for green supply chains with supplier factories, promoting the application of renewable energy. At the front end of logistics, as Nike’s largest logistics center in Asia, the Nike China Logistics Center uses 45% of its energy from renewable sources, including solar and geothermal energy. Nike has signed a commitment with the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance to reduce carbon emissions by 30% by 2025 and use 100% renewable energy. It is evident that Nike has been making efforts to fulfill its social responsibilities and actively reduce carbon emissions.

However, despite Nike’s excellence, there are still areas where the company could improve. For example, in the past, Nike has faced criticism regarding labor rights issues in its supply chain. Although they have taken measures to improve the situation, there are still reports pointing out issues like overtime work, low wages, and unfair labor conditions in some supplier factories. Additionally, there is a lack of female representation in Nike’s upper management, and female employees are paid lower salaries compared to their male counterparts. Some of Nike’s advertising campaigns have also been controversial, with some people feeling that they are too commercialized or exploit social issues to promote products. Furthermore, although they are committed to promoting sustainable materials and production methods, more efforts are needed to reduce their carbon footprint, water consumption, and waste generation.

In conclusion, while Nike has made significant strides in social responsibility and sustainable development, there are still areas for improvement. To create a more ethical, socially responsible, and sustainable business, I recommend focusing on improving worker wages and protecting human rights. Allocate funds to upgrade production equipment and reduce environmental pollution. Actively improve supply chain management. Pay more attention to social fairness issues. Also, promote the development of sustainable products. By actively addressing these issues, Nike will continue to be a leader in the industry and make a positive contribution to a more sustainable and socially responsible business environment.

https://www.textiletoday.com.bd/nike-pledges-cut-co2-footprint-use-100-renewable-energy-2025

As African, the restaurant that provides quick and easy fast food is known as Mcdonald. It is an American multinational fast-food chain, since 1940. According to my reading, my research, and what I physically felt. Mc Donald has been involved in various social responsibilities. 

Sustainable sourcing and supply chain: Mc Donald has been pursuing the use of sustainable items and collaboration with supplies to ensure agricultural methods, to not encourage deforestation. The company also established goals to gain a portion of its coffee, beef, oil, and so on from natural sources without abusing it. 

Energy conservation: It has been a long time that Mcdonald’s has emphasized energy conservation and reduced its carbon footprint. It is a requirement for them to develop greater energy efficiency within its establishment and added a renewable energy option to diminish emission of greenhouse gasses. Moreover, they have goals to decrease the intensity of carbon emission. 

Reduction of carbon footprint: Mc Macdonald effective waste management practices plays an impact on carbon footprint reduction. They have a strategy for recycling, and a strong strategy to reduce the waste of methane emission. Regarding the effort, Mcdonald is fighting to save the future of the environment by managing carbon emission. 

Philanthropy: According to RMHNY (Ronald Mcdonald House New York), Mcdonald has supported over 59,000 families since 1979, it provided families seeking for well-being regarding their health. It is finally important to know that philanthropic of McDonald vary by region and over the time. 

Volunteer: Mc Donald’s activity organizes volunteer Day to allow employees from all over the world to come together in community service projects.  In sum, the company serves over 400 meats to families annually. The volunteer Mcdonald program that can also vary by need and location.  

Based on my understanding of Mcdonald goals and broader context of ethics, my recommendation and/ or sustainable business, the practice I recommend to McDonald’s is that it can do better in being responsible and good for the environment. They should get their ingredients in a more careful way and offer more food options without meat. This helps the Earth and makes customers happy. McDonald’s can also make packages that are used again or don’t hurt the Earth. They should use cleaner energy like sunlight and wind power, which makes less pollution. McDonald’s should tell people what they are doing and help their workers have a good job. They can also work with local groups to make communities better and protect nature. Trying new things and saving water is important too. McDonald’s can be a leader in doing good things for the planet and people.

I would like to discuss about the ethics and social standards Amazon managers abide by, since I work at an Amazon fulfillment center. Having worked there for over a couple of years I have experienced how physically strenuous working conditions at amazon are, without providing any adequate accommodations to do such strenuous work. Employees need to be on their feet for 10 hours straight without any opportunity to rest their legs, except for two small breaks. Managers always provide unrealistic daily goals/rates that needs to met, otherwise employees get a right up for poor performance. And during peak season, around summer times and the few weeks before Christmas, employees are required to do mandatory overtime. Until recently Amazon had a policy called Tot, where employees where digitally tracked to see how long they’ve been off work, and if it is usually above 5 minutes, they would get a write up. Employees are daily forced to risk such harsh working conditions, otherwise they would get fired. Because of such harsh policies in place, Amazon has received huge criticism from its employees and also from various government and non-government agencies. Such harsh working conditions have forced Amazon employees to form the ALU or the Amazon labor union, which has promised to overturn such harsh policies through collective bargaining with Amazon management. But Amazon decided to appeal the decision of forming the ALU, in the court, so that it can continue to exercise its harsh policies upon its employees just to earn more and more profits at the expense of the wellbeing of its employees. It is high time the court rules in favor of the ALU so that employees can have a better working condition at Amazon.

https://www.businessinsider.com/work-at-amazon-jobs-performance-reviews-hiring-firing-interviews-warehouses-delivery-drivers

Hamidou Tounkara

Professor Buckler

BUS 104-E052

5 August 2023

    The company that I am going to talk about is Amazon.com.Amazon is referred to as “one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world”. Amazon is a conglomerate in it include sectors like e-commerce, cloud computing, entertainment, and logistics. Like most of the population I shop on Amazon. I am also employed by Amazon. Amazon plays a big role in society today. They also take important steps in regard to social responsibility and pursuing sustainable business practices to help reduce the impact of their business and better communities.

      Amazon being one of the world’s biggest companies must play a big and important role in social responsibility. In fact,they do find ways to be socially responsible in communities. On the homepage of their website in our approach section it says “We focus on addressing immediate needs, such as reducing hunger and homelessness, providing affordable housing, and serving communities in need following natural disasters. We also look to the future, by providing programs that support science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and skills training”. Amazon should look expand more socially responsible I other areas of the world. I would recommend that they look at trying to help end hunger in the world.

      Amazon has faced a lot of backlashes in the past and present for how they are not using sustainable business practices. A company of that size plays a major role in the climate change crisis. According to an article from the Verge amazon’s greenhouse gas emissions grew 18% in 2021 compared to 2020.Amazon has made a pledge to reach net zero carbon carbon dioxide emissions by 2040. Calma 2022. My recommendation to reduce carbon footprint is to focus on the use of renewable energy. I work there and I see so changes they are making like adding more electric delivery vans to their fleets and the use of more renewable energy.

      There is always room for improvement when it come to social responsibility and pursuing sustainable business practices. Companies always find ways to improve their role in these issues. After all it benfits the public and companies positively.

Citations:

https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/communities

https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/1/23287351/amazon-climate-change-carbon-emissions-worse-2021

The Israeli food firm “Tnuva” was founded 90 years ago, and its foundations are entwined with the Zionist settlement enterprise and its labor, which is reflected in the growth of Israel’s agricultural and food sectors. With sites all over the country, Tnuva is the largest food firm in Israel. It employs approximately 6,500 people and has a significant impact on other industries and groups in the dairy, agricultural, and industrial sectors.

The contribution to the community has accompanied Tnuva’s efforts throughout its years of existence and has strengthened social responsibility as a value for the whole company. Tnuva is a major food group that is a crucial component of the Israeli home. In 2011, Tnuva inaugurated its social responsibility project – “Beit Ligdol Tov”(home to grow well), which is an educational and entertainment area for kids from birth to age six and their families. It provides activities that are economically and geographically available to people with special needs and gives them new chances in a variety of sectors that benefit the kid, the parent, and the whole family. The creative project offers a wide variety of leisure and enrichment activities in the cognitive, motor, artistic, and value sectors. In addition, before the holidays, Tnuva greatly increases their donation and even mobilizes its staff to package and distribute food to low socio-economic families via different organizations.

As a firm that aspires to be the market leader in Israel’s food industry, Tnuva puts a premium on making sure its goods and its consumers are healthy. Tnuva’s consumers range in age from infants to teens, and the company accommodates them by offering advice, suggestions, and reference materials. Tnuva provides easy-to-understand information about health to her clientele, along with parenting advice, child-friendly recipes, and instructional materials. To ensure and supply the healthiest goods to customers, Tnuva has a comprehensive health team and a research institution staffed by world-class experts. Moreover, Tnuva obtains its “Nutritional Compass” program, which represents its commitment to the constant improvement of a basket of basic and everyday products, for a tastier and healthier diet for every household.

Since the firm highly values ethics, Tnuva highlights its employment policies and working conditions. The company’s contracts and code of ethics provide support for all of these claims. Tnuva permits the provision of equitable chances for the whole population regardless of religion, color, or ethnicity, and Tnuva prioritizes secure employment, employee well-being, and a healthy work environment.

As Tnuva is one of the top firms in Israel and a corporation that represents the Israeli spirit, it has set to itself the objective of conserving the environment and the nation’s land. They have developed a set of guidelines that direct their operation and permit cohabitation between factory production and maintaining the environment’s quality:
 A dedication to using raw materials, energy, and water in a sensible manner.
 Lessening the negative environmental effects of industry and manufacturing byproducts. For instance, limiting the quantity of trash produced in manufacturing, purifying wastewater, and lowering air pollution.
 The use of cutting-edge environmental technology to guard against harm to the processes involved in manufacturing, storage, transportation, and distribution.

A great example of their effort to preserve and protect the environment is the way in which they purify water and use recycled water in their manufacture in the Jezreel Valley.

Purifying of water – the purifying systems were constructed by Tnuva with entire backing and continue to benefit the local farmers today. The dairy, which uses 3500 cubic meters of water each day, irrigates the fields in the Jezreel Valley with the majority of the water after it has been thoroughly purified.

Treatment of water – water from “sources” that have been treated to remove the naturally occurring pollutants has been used to wash the dairy. The remaining chemicals are found in the brine, a clear liquid that has been filtered out of the water and is rich in compounds. Tnuva made the decision to transmit the brine to the fishponds via a lengthy pipe that it expressly constructed, through which the brine travels from their manufacture to the fish ponds in Emek Harod out of consideration for the environment.

Based on my study of the firm’s history and current practices on ethics, sustainability, community involvement, and environmental protection, I believe the company would benefit from a renewed emphasis on and expansion of its work in the health sector. Since Tnuva sells food products to customers, I think that stressing the importance of incorporating and encouraging physical activities is of primary priority. To get more people involved in physical activity, I think the firm could create a platform in which it promotes sports activities by integrating its protein-rich milk and other dairy products. Given Tnuva’s prominence in the food industry, I believe it is crucial that the firm goes above and beyond just providing its customers with the greatest and healthiest food product. Promoting physical activity and healthy lives can contribute much to the community and society as a whole.

Page Reference

“Tnuva” official website – https://www.tnuva.co.il/

Mcdonald’s corporate social policy allows McDonald’s to look for more ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle in their restaurants. Just like many other fast food restaurants McDonald’s now only serves paper straws. Another way McDonald’s tries to reduce, reuse, and recycle is by using low-energy LED light bulbs, energy-saving equipment, and waterless urinals, and they also recycle cooking oil into biodiesel to fuel most of their delivery trucks. 85% of McDonald’s packaging is made from renewable resources and they also recycle their cardboard boxes. Due to the New York City “Skip the Stuff,” Bill McDonald’s has been able to reduce their plastic use tremendously by only providing ketchup, cutlery, and other plastic condiments upon request. 

McDonald’s sustainability goal is to ensure that its ingredients are always at their best quality. This is not only stated by McDonald’s on their website but I see it daily when working there. Food safety has to always be done making sure everything is at the right temperatures. Also, new timestamps are always placed to make sure that by the time you serve something, it’s still fresh.

I believe that for McDonald’s to create a more ethical and sustainable business, something they need to work on is how they care for and treat their employees. Working at McDonald’s isn’t like any other job where you have one position. Employees’ titles are called crew member or crew trainer and with either one of these titles, you learn/ need to know how to do almost everything because your role can switch from one day (or even at any given hour) being in the kitchen to one day being in the front or even on drive-thru. Working at McDonald’s isn’t as easy as many may assume. It is a highly stressful job to have with very minimal pay and workers are always doing multiple tasks at once while still trying to meet timed requirements. I think that for McDonald’s to improve their business they must acknowledge what they already know about the stresses of this job and first increase their staff’s wages and start giving bonuses to their crew members.

Links:

https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/help/faq/what-is-mcdonald-s-corporate-social-responsibility–csr–policy.html

https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/about-our-food/our-food-philosophy/commitment-to-quality.html

One company that I interact with very often is Starbucks. As someone who use to work there, their goal is “With every cup, with every conversation, with every community – we nurture the limitless possibilities of human connection”. Starbucks has done much more than sell coffee; they have taken on social responsibilities and have been pursuing sustainable business practices to achieve their goal of fostering connections.

The social responsibilities that Starbucks has taken on include “Opportunity for All” and “Strengthening Communities”. “Opportunity for all” allows for Starbucks to create more jobs opportunities for both they employees and their customers. Their goals focus on “hiring more Opportunity Youth, refugees, veterans and military spouses. To date, we have hired over 25,000 veterans and military spouses and look to hire 5,000 more each year”. Starbucks has also created a program with Arizona State University for their employees called the Starbucks College Achievement Plan. This program allows for Starbucks partners to work at Starbucks while simultaneously obtaining a bachelor’s degree of their choice. Another social responsibility is “Strengthening Communities” which focuses on the fact that every Starbucks store is within a community therefore, Starbucks gives back to the communities that they are apart of. One way that Starbucks gives back to the communities is donating food to local food banks. Every day, “Starbucks partners collect surplus pastries and fresh food to donate. Refrigerated trucks pick up the donations and transport them to a nearby distribution center. From there, donations are sorted and delivered to local food banks and mobile food pantries”. These responsibilities have been helping Starbucks achieve their mission of being able to connect people together through not only their coffee, but through their endless opportunities for their employees and customers alike, as well as, helping those in need.

The sustainable business practices that Starbucks has been using include “Greener Retail” and “Sustainable Coffee”. “Greener Retail” is Starbucks efforts of creating a better and “greener” way of reducing their carbon footprint. They are “building and operating stores with an aim to minimize our environmental footprint. We plan to build and operate 10,000 greener retail stores, improve the recyclability of our cup and invest in 100% renewable energy”. With this in practice, Starbucks can help create a better environment and help reduce climate change. Another sustainable business practice is their “Sustainable Coffee”. Right now, Starbucks is working with other industries to make coffee the first sustainable agriculture product. They plan to invest in “training and financing for coffee farmers, and providing 100 million coffee trees by 2025”. These practices help Starbucks not only connect with their employees and customers, but also with those who they work with in other industries and to gather others to help with reducing the carbon footprint on a larger scale.

While Starbucks does have many ways to keep their business as an ethical and socially responsible company, there are a few other practices that Starbucks can create to maintain this. Incorporating the awareness of plastic and global warming is a good way to be socially responsible considering that Starbucks cups can be plastic and they also provide plastic straws. Team exercises that revolve around helping the community is another one. It allows for coworkers to bond together while simultaneously helping the community in different ways, wether it be cleaning up trash on the beach or volunteering at a soup kitchen. Another one is to be more aware of diversity and culture. In order to connect people together, understanding each other’s identities and culture is very important to achieve that goal. Having a variety of pastries or drinks from different cultures could be a good way to make everyone, partners and customer’s alike, feel included in a community.

Cites:

https://www.starbucks.com/careers/working-at-starbucks/culture-and-values/

https://www.starbucks.com/responsibility/people/

https://www.starbucks.com/about-us/