Describe environmental programs which can be adopted, with particular emphasis on waste paper. Discuss the potential problems and benefits of the programs. Include any information on the experiences had by other firms. Respond to the suggestions by the Managing Partner.
The business organizations working in the society and in the world have several responsibilities towards the society and the environment. The business operations of an organization should not harm the interest and safety of the society and the balance of the ecosystem. This is a report which highlights the importance of an organization being responsible and ethical towards society and environment. In modern organizations the priority is given to the environmentally sustainable operations. The organizations small, medium as well as corporate believe that they are having some sort of responsibility to the environment. Some of the organizations have included this in their organizational culture and objectives (Wicks, Toohey, Keogh, Shearing, Fox, Chan and Anderson, 2013). The activities of an organization should not affect the environment adversely as it can become a threat in the future. Almost all organizations reduce the usage of plastic bags and containers so as to go green in its business activities. This report discuss about the importance of an organization being environmentally sustainable. An organization as example and the environmental issues that it can cause and its impacts are discussed briefly in this report. Environmental programs which can be adopted by that organization are discussed (Epstein and Buhovac, 2014). The potential benefits and draw backs of the environmental program is discussed. Some of the recommendations are also provided at the end of the report so that the organization can became more environmental friendly.
ABC is an Accounting Firm which has around 45 staff members. This is a small firm and it is not causing much harm to the society and the ecosystem as it is not involved with any production and transportation activities. The impact which the organization can cause is its high consumption of the paper and its wastage. The resources like books, files, records, other resources etc for the purpose of documentation and data storage purposes. These resources cannot be maintained for a long period. Hence more papers are required for those data and new ones. This causes more wastage of paper. The managing partner suggests the recycling of the waste papers and other resources. She is not concerned about the cost which is incurred about the process. She wants her firm to be eco friendly.
The information regarding environmental issues and programs has been collected by referring through various books, attending seminars, internet websites etc. This information was very helpful in identifying the environmental issues that offices can cause and its impact towards the environment.
As far as an accounting firm is concerned its business operation doesn’t involve any sort of production or manufacturing (Carroll and Buchholtz, 2014). Hence the pollution that it can cause to the water and air will be less when compared to other manufacturing organizations. The main environmental issues which the accounting firm can cause to the environment are the usage of paper. As far as an accounting firm is concerned it requires more papers for maintaining records and for other purposes. Paper is produced from trees (Babiak and Trendafilova, 2011). When the paper is consumed heavily it will result in cutting down more number of trees which can lead to deforestation. This can affect the balance of the ecosystem which can affect the environment adversely.
An analysis can be conducted to identify how much paper is utilized in the organization for the purpose of maintaining records. This will help the management to identify how much the usage of paper is affecting the ecosystem (Benn, Dunphy and Griffiths, 2014). The government has also introduced new laws and regulations which restricts the usage of paper so as to protect trees. Even though the information is maintained as a hardcopy like print outs, manuals etc its life is limited. The papers cannot be retained for the life time. It might get ruined after a period of time. Then again the data should be restored in fresh papers and manuals. Hence again same quantity of paper should be produced for the same purpose. Here it is evident that the production of paper for serving a particular purpose is not a onetime process. This can affect the environment so badly (Golicic and Smith, 2013).
Some other pollution it can cause is through the usage of the individual vehicles. The staffs of the accounting firm use their individual vehicles which can consume more fuel oils and also pollute air through its emission. The management can also take adequate measures to prevent this pollution even though it is of small quantity (Hall and Vredenburg, 2012).
The managing partner advises the administrative officer to make use of the recycling programs so as to reduce the wastage of papers and other resources (Maschler, Friedrich, Weyhe, Heegn and Rutz, 2012). The papers and manuals when it get ruined should be replaced with fresh books and papers. Likewise other resources like files, plastics, covers, waste papers etc should also be replaced when it gets ruined. When these wastes are deposited in the dust bin it can affect the environment. When plastics or torn plastic bags are deposited in the dustbin it will not get decompose and can harm the environment (Thomas, Barnhart, Eastwood, Nichols and Gahm, 2014).
As per the recommendation of the managing partner she advises recycling process for the waste papers and other resources. Government has introduced various recycling processes which can be used in small as well as big organizations privately. The waste papers can be recycled and can be used again. Some organizations outsource the recycling process. There are firms which recycles the paper and plastics to for the organizations. They use eco-friendly and cost effective methods of recycling process. Through outsourcing the recycling process the firms need not have to concentrate much on it and they can deal with their own business operations without wasting time on it (Virtanen and Nilsson, 2013).
Some of the organization so as to reduce the usage of plastic in the office they make use of bags and carriers which are made of paper and clothes. The bags which are made of clothes will be long lasting and the bags made of papers can be recycled. Plastics which when recycled also can emit some poisonous gases which can harm the environment (Allwood, Ashby, Gutowski and Worrell, 2011).
The government has introduced many cost effective recycling methods for recycling papers and plastics. Since our company being a small firm can opt for outsourcing the recycling process. I recommend this because we don’t have much usage of this equipment if we buy it. The cost of electronic storage devices is also reliable and various brands are available in the market.
Some recommendation can be given to accounting firm so that it can adopt some cost effective methods and can reduce he wastage of paper and other resources. The most appropriate and cost effective method to avoid the usage of paper is the usage of digital documents. The accounting firm can save the data as a soft copy in CD or in some external or internal memory. These storage devices are long lasting and the information recorded will not get deleted too. This will not create any wastage and accessing information from these devices is also very easy. It can also some small recycling methods or can outsource the recycling process. The cost incurred will be equal to the cost incurred in buying new papers and other resources (Liao and Kannan, 2011).
Conclusion
Being environmentally sustainable is the responsibility of the organization whether it is big or small. Almost all organizations take necessary measures to reduce the negative impact that it can cause to the environment. This report explains the importance of an organization being environmentally sustainable. An accounting firm is taken into consideration and various environmental issues it generates and its impacts are discussed. Consumption of huge quantity of papers and its wastage is the main environmental issue. Some of the methods adopted by other firms to reduce wastage are recycling of paper and other resources, the usage of clothes and paper bags instead of plastic bags. It is recommended to use electronic devices to save the information to avoid using papers and to reduce recycling costs.
References
Allwood, J. M., Ashby, M. F., Gutowski, T. G and Worrell, E, 2011, Material efficiency: a white paper. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 55(3), 362-381.
Babiak, K and Trendafilova, S, 2011, CSR and environmental responsibility: motives and pressures to adopt green management practices. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 18(1), 11-24.
Benn, S., Dunphy, D and Griffiths, A, 2014, Organizational change for corporate sustainability, Routledge
Carroll, A and Buchholtz, A, 2014, Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management. Cengage Learning.
Epstein, M. J and Buhovac, A. R, 2014, Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring corporate social, environmental, and economic impacts. Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Golicic, S. L and Smith, C. D, 2013, A Metaâ€ÂAnalysis of Environmentally Sustainable Supply Chain Management Practices and Firm Performance. Journal of supply chain management, 49(2), 78-95.
Georgi-Maschler, T., Friedrich, B., Weyhe, R., Heegn, H and Rutz, M, 2012, Development of a recycling process for Li-ion batteries, Journal of power sources, 207, 173-182
Hall, J and Vredenburg, H, 2012, The challenges of innovating for sustainable development. MIT Sloan Management Review, 45(1).
Liao, C.,and Kannan, K, 2011, Widespread occurrence of bisphenol A in paper and paper products: implications for human exposure. Environmental science & technology, 45(21), 9372-9379
Thomas, S. B., Barnhart, W. W., Eastwood, H. A., Nichols, C and Gahm, K. H, 2014, Development of a simple recycling process for evaporated organic solvent after preparative supercritical fluid chromatography using powdered activated charcoal. RSC Advances, 4(34), 17405-17412.
Virtanen, Y and Nilsson, S, 2013, Environmental impacts of waste paper recycling. Routledge
Wicks, A., Toohey, K., Keogh, T., Shearing, A., Fox, R., Chan, W and Anderson, B, 2013, Inter professional learning about environmentally sustainable allied health practice.
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