Tie Woodward founded Top Shelf Shoes in 1990, which grew rapidly but then lost market share in the 2000s due to concerns about its environmental and labor practices. After reports surfaced about pollution and health issues caused by Top Shelf's shoe recycling facility in Asia, the company saw a 50% drop in revenue. Tie Woodward then hired Sustainable Growth Strategies consulting firm to advise Top Shelf on sustainability policies and help regain its footing.

1. Page 1 of 1
Foundations of Sustainable Business
©2013 Argosy University
Course Project Scenario: Top Shelf Shoes
Throughout this course, you will analyze various factors at a
fictitious company called Top Shelf Shoes. In
each module, you will work on an assignment related to this
analysis.
Review the course project scenario:
Top Shelf was found in 1990 by Tie Woodward. Within five
years, Top Shelf had established a solid
presence in the global shoe business with production facilities
in Asia and sales throughout the world.
By 2000, Top Shelf had a share of 45 percent of the global
market in shoe sales. In 2001, Top Shelf
made the Fortune 500 list of privately held companies and Tie
was awarded the coveted International
Business Award. However, Tie claimed the real success of his
firm could be seen in the stylish Top
Shelf shoes being worn by everyone from villagers in Africa to
rock stars in Hollywood.
In 2003, a major competitor of Top Shelf began a green

2. marketing campaign to highlight its efforts to
reduce its environmental footprint with its new “Green Shoe.” A
simultaneous, growing concern for
environmental issues helped spur the sales of Top Shelf's
competitor—it gained market share. As the
competitor’s sales increased, news stories began to question the
implications of Top Shelf’s business
practices, especially as they related to low cost labor and
environmental concerns. Within a fiscal
quarter, Top Shelf sales were down by 10 percent. Tie
responded by exclaiming on the Nightly Business
Report that everyone had to wear shoes and Top Shelf made the
best looking and most affordable foot
fixtures on the planet. Sales fell another 5 percent the following
quarter. Tie’s management team
attributed this to the competition’s green efforts and the bad
publicity received by Top Shelf.
Tie’s firm hired a middle manager for environmental affairs and
launched a green campaign that touted
a Top Shelf shoe-recycling program with the slogan “We make
them, you wear them, we’ll recycle them.
It’s good for your feet and good for the earth.” Sales climbed
back up 7 percent over the next quarter,
and the boss gave out bonuses to his management team.
While initial reaction to the marketing was positive, especially
among longtime Top Shelf shoe wearers,
two reporters, Burnstone and Woodwoe, broke a story about the
impact of air and water pollution at Top
Shelf’s shoe-recycling facility on the outskirts of a major city in
Asia. Apparently, some of the shoes were
recycled to produce energy. According to the report by
Burnstone and Woodwoe, the shoes were being
burned by low-wage workers without any precautions for the
workers’ health. An increasing number of

3. children and elderly in the region began showing up at clinics
and hospitals with breathing problems,
dizziness, and toxic blood poisoning. Then, a worker at the
plant collapsed and died in front of the large
kiln.
Global news organizations, bloggers, and YouTube broadcasters
quickly picked up the story. The sales
of Top Shelf began to plummet. By the end of the fiscal year,
the company saw a 50 percent reduction in
revenue as compared to the previous year. Growth was no
longer the issue. Instead the company was
faced with the problem of how to stay afloat despite the
significant losses and depleting capital. This
time, Tie made no public pronouncements. He laid off the
manager of the recycling plant, shut down the
kiln at the plant, and, on the advice of long-time friend Gifford
Pinchot III, hired a reputable sustainable
business consulting firm, Sustainable Growth Strategies, to
advise Top Shelf on everything from public
relations to substantive changes in the company’s labor and
environmental policies.
Assume you are leading the consulting team for Sustainable
Growth Strategies. You are responsible for
the analysis leading to a report with a set of recommendations
to put Top Shelf on the path to
sustainability. Your first task is to prepare a brief paper for Top
Shelf that explains the meaning and use
of sustainability within a business context. Your team reports
directly to Tie Woodward. He is a sharp,
hardworking, and open-minded leader with a sense of humor.
Tie realizes that every day without a
genuine sustainability plan is bad for business. Therefore, he
wants to show as soon as possible that the
company is committed to sustainability. He realizes that there

4. may be advantages in positioning Top
Shelf as a sustainability leader in the long run.
Watchdog Journalism
What is Watchdog Journalism
“It is a style of writing or broadcast aimed at identifying a
current societal problem, either hidden or overt, and offering
opinion on necessary action.”
How to do watchdog journalism
Watchdog Reporting Covers:
Personal Scandals
Financial Wrongdoing
Political Corruption
Self-Enrichment in Public Office
Other types of wrongdoing

5. Role of Media
Public Interest
Warn Citizens
Regulation of
Government
Industry
Society in General
Is the media satisfactorily doing its duty to serve the role of
watchdog for the community in society?
YES!!!
Source: Google Image
Political Safety
Watergate scandal
major political scandal
occurred in the United States during the early 1970s
a break-in by 4 Cuban Americans and 1 American at the
Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the
Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. on June 17,
1972.

6. reporting of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein on the
Watergate scandal for The Washington Post and the subsequent
resignation of U.S. president Richard Nixon in 1974.
Prism
a code name for a program under which the United
StatesNational Security Agency (NSA)
collects internet communications from at least nine major US
internet companies.
collects stored internet communications based on demands made
to internet companies
Snowden copied and leakedclassified information from the
National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013 without authorization.
His disclosures revealed numerous global surveillance
programs, many run by the NSA and the Five Eyes Intelligence
Alliance with the cooperation of telecommunication companies
and European governments.
(A well-known example is the reporting of Bob Woodward and
Carl Bernstein on the Watergate scandal for The Washington
Post and the subsequent resignation of U.S. president Richard
Nixon in 1974. )
Prism
Food Safety
A phone conversation captures
One former employee -- a mom, was so disturbed by the spoiled

7. food.
She had her husband call the local health services department.
And it took them five days to finally come out and investigate!
By then all the spoiled chicken had been cooked and served, but
the smell still lingered.
At least KFC corporate was concerned enough that they shut
down the store for a week to investigate and to retrain its
employees.
Supposedly a phone conversation captures the manager telling
and employee to cook what she could of the spoiled chicken
(just not the worst of it) and then change the dates on the boxes.
One former employee -- a mom, was so disturbed by the spoiled
food that she had her husband call the local health services
department. And it took them five days to finally come out and
investigate! By then all the spoiled chicken had been cooked
and served, but the smell still lingered.
At least KFC corporate was concerned enough that they shut
down the store for a week to investigate and to retrain its
employees.
Russia Interference with US Presidential Election
Reported on Russian interference in the US presidential election
in 2016
The media/Facebook uncovers fake Russian Facebook accounts
Exposes the scandalous activity during the election
*Keep citizens updated with the story & uncover “political
fraud/corruption”*
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/06/technology/facebook-

8. russian-political-ads.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/us/politics/special-
counsel-indictments.html
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/10/watchdog-
trump-jr-meet-russian-lawyer-broke-law/
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-johnson-real-
media-threats-20171020-story.html
Publication of the Pentagon Papers in 1971
Pentagon Papers = US & Vietnam Relations 1945-1967
The media watchdog pressured the government to release
information
*The Papers revealed that the US government intentionally
expanded its war with bombings into Cambodia and Laos*
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/30/insider/1971-supreme-
court-allows-publication-of-pentagon-papers.html
Conclusion
Media treats any kind of corporations equally, no matter the
size or performance
Immediate disclosure builds a safety net for community
stability in society
Warning by risk of disclosure, corporations are more careful
with public safety to avoid scandals
公平的对待任何企业（大公司，小公司） fair;
及时的制止给公民的安全带来保障;

9. 有良好的警示作用，防止同样的丑闻再次发生
References
https://www.ee.columbia.edu/~shane/words/watchdog.htm
Coronel, Sheila.“Corruption and the watchdog role of the news
media”.
http://thestir.cafemom.com/food_party/143396/fast_food_worke
rs_claim_they
https://youtu.be/Sxf90TXThY8
http://www.history.com/topics/watergate
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/09/edward-
snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/30/insider/1971-supreme-
court-allows-publication-of-pentagon-papers.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/06/technology/facebook-
russian-political-ads.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/us/politics/special-
counsel-indictments.html
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/10/watchdog-
trump-jr-meet-russian-lawyer-broke-law/
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-johnson-real-
media-threats-20171020-story.html