This handout on business sustainability is a product of team of students from the University of Huddersfield, UK who mentored students from Kajire Girls secondary school from Kenya in marketing, customer relations and business sustainability. Students communicated through skype and email in the first term of 2016. The cooperation was managed by student Chris Wainwright from the University of Huddersfield and Abuga Ezra, teacher and Sote ICT Club mentor at Kajire Secondary.

1. Week 3 – Business Sustainability
Business Sustainability
Business sustainability relates to how a business manages the financial, social and
economic risks which can be linked to profit, people and planet in the long-term. This
means that a company has to be ethical when trading, and take into account
environmental and social factors. One of the key ways of doing this is called corporate
social responsibility.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) means that a business has to consider issues in
society, such as paying a fair wage and ensuring good working conditions, and the
environment such as ensuring that they are considerate of the amount of natural
resources used.
Some people, such as Milton Friedman, believe that businesses should only be concerned
about profit. However, other business researchers such as Carroll believe that
businesses have lots of other responsibilities:

2. There are two main approaches to CSR:
 Offensive – using this model to realise opportunities and expand into new
markets, such as sustainable technology
 Defensive – using this model to protect their existing company
Business Ethics
All of these points relate to an overall theme of business ethics. This means deciding
between what’s ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, and choosing to act in the ‘right’ way. It’s fairly easy
to identify unethical business decisions. For example, companies shouldn’t use child
labour, bribery or copyrighted materials. Doing any of these things would be unethical,
and very bad for business because customers won’t be happy.
However, it’s not always easy to enforce ethical behaviour. This is especially the case
when owners are pushing a business to make a profit, because acting in a more ethical
way can be expensive.

3. Advantages of Ethical Business Behaviour and Corporate Social Responsibility
Although this model can be more expensive, it can also have a number of advantages for
businesses such as:
 More public support – if your customers see that your company is acting
responsibly, they are more likely to buy off you and spread the word! People like
to buy off companies who demonstrate that they care about customers, society
and the environment, and not just making money.
 Long-term profits – doing things like helping to look after the environment will
lead to long-term profits for your business. This is because certain resources
will be available for longer periods of time, which your business can use in the
future.
 Ethical obligation – quite simply, acting responsibly is the ‘right’ thing to do.
 Better environment for future generations
 Discourages government regulation – acting more responsibly will mean that the
government is less likely to enforce certain laws in the market. This will give
your business much more freedom to operate how it chooses.
 Improves business value – considering all the above, your business will be much
more valuable!
Disadvantages of Ethical Business Behaviour and Corporate Social Responsibility
As mentioned previously, this model can lead to increased costs which your business will
have to include in its accounts. It could also mean that your business is less likely to
make a profit. Finally, many businesses don’t have the knowledge or skills to implement
a CSR policy.

4. How CSR can be encouraged
As you can see, CSR and ethical behaviour will be very important for your business to
succeed. Although it may seem complicated, here are a few simple steps for you to
make your own CSR policy.
Employee training and selection
Employee training on issues relating to ethical behaviour will make them more likely to
share the business’s vision of how it should operate. When selecting employees, you
should show awareness of issues such as gender equality and equal opportunity for
disabled applicants to demonstrate that you’re an ethical business.
A code of ethics
A code of ethics is a document which sets out exactly what a business does and how it
should operates responsibly. Every business should have one of these. You should also
get employees to sign it.
Leading by example
Of course, not every business in today’s world operates responsibly. This is why it’s
often left up to smaller organisations to lead the way and show other businesses and
customers how a business should operate. This could mean that others join the
movement in the long-term.
Reinvesting in society
There are many businesses and projects which reinvest in the societies where they
operate. The Fairtrade project, for example, has helped to set up education and
healthcare facilities across Africa by setting aside some surplus revenue. This concept
is known as philanthropy. If your business can do this, it will certainly lead to a
competitive edge!
Green business behaviour
Living in a world which is set to become more affected by climate change, businesses
now have to take action. This means preserving natural resources, water harvesting and
greener forms of energy. If businesses don’t do this, then the world could face
catastrophic consequences such as rising sea levels, crop degradation and many
businesses being forced to close.

5. Types of Business Sustainability
The issue of business sustainability can be broken into three strands; community,
economy and the environment.
Community
With shifts in population size, it’s expected that we will have a population of 9 billion
people by 2050. This means that food production will need to increase by 70%. A
sustainable business will have to adjust their behaviour to cope with such a significant
population rise.
Economy
More people are living in poverty than ever before. It’s important that businesses try
to pay fair wages to break this cycle. An example of a major corporation working with
charities is Amazon with their very own Amazon Smile service whereby Amazon donates
0.5% of the price of a customer’s eligible Amazon Smile purchase to a charitable
organisation of the customer’s choice.

6. Environment
Climate change is affecting the way in which we live. Global temperature rises will mean
decreased crop yields, water shortages and extinction. Successful and sustainable
businesses will look to have alternative methods of running their business if problems
such as flooding, fires or extreme weather were to arise.
We hope that you found this handout useful – please email us if you have any
questions!