Financial Impact of Sustainability
Submit a paper considering the questions in Sections III and IV of the Final Project. These questions concern the financial impact to XYZ Manufacturing Company of implementing the environmental and social sustainability measures discussed in Milestone Three. While examining the financial sustainability forecast, discuss what impact emerging technologies or industry best practices will have on the environmental and social sustainability plans. Be sure to address how these will affect the overall plan, either positively or negatively.
Financial Impact of Sustainability Prompt
You are the director of operations at XYZ Manufacturing Company. Your boss, who is the VP for Operations, came to your office to vent. She just got out of a meeting where senior executives were pressuring her for increased output and better financial performance in the company’s operations. However, she is concerned that the company has been focused too much on short-term financial performance, and not on the long-term sustainability of the company.
She worries that employees are not satisfied, and the company is currently experiencing a “brain drain,” where many top performers are actively searching for employment elsewhere. Unfortunately, some employees have already left, and they are helping to convince others to leave too. She also is concerned about constant threats from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has recently questioned whether or not some of the firm’s processes are polluting local
water sources. In addition, customer focus groups have indicated that the company does not have a good environmental reputation, and data from the focus groups suggests companies’ environmental efforts are becoming increasingly important to consumers.
In summary, she is worried that the company will not last if it keeps going in the same direction. She wants to develop a plan to present to the COO that addresses some of the issues described above, but she’s not sure where to start. She has asked you to do some research on ways the company can improve, but beyond just financial performance. She understands that there must be a balance and that financial performance measures will always be important, but you know that “performance” is not based on financial statements alone. To get started, she has been considering some environmental and social sustainability goals for the company, such as:
- Exceed all EPA and other environmental regulatory standards.·
- Reduce carbon footprint by 50% in the next 20 years.·
- Attract and retain the best talent.·
- Improve the company’s reputation in the local community and with customers.With your instructor’s help, you will choose a company to research to inform a sustainability strategy for the hypothetical XYZ company. You may choose to use the company at which you currently work if there is enough information to inform sustainability recommendations for XYZ Manufacturing Company. When researching your chosen company, focus specifically on social, environmental, and financial stability. Next, apply what you have researched to inform sustainability choices for XYZ Manufacturing Company.·
Financial Impact of Sustainability