Co-operative Business Ethics And Social Responsibility For Business Ethics

NBB’s efforts towards Environmental stewardship

Describe about the Co-operative Business Ethics and Social Responsibility for Business Ethics.

Business ethics is a type of professional ethics or applied ethics that are employed for examining the ethical moral and principles or the ethical problems that are faced in a business environment. It is applicable for all the aspects of business conduct that is relevant to the conduct of the entire organization and the individuals (Weiss 2014). These are the sets of values and contemporary standards governing the behavior and actions of an individual in an organization. It has the dimensions of descriptive and normative.

Corporate social responsibility is a type of corporate self-regulation that is incorporated into a type of business model. The policies of corporate social responsibility function as a self-regulatory mechanism where the business ensures and monitors the active compliance with the international and national norms and ethical standards (Carroll 2015). The implementation of corporate social responsibility of an organization goes beyond the compliance and gets engaged in actions that cause some good for the society which is required by the law and is beyond the interests of the organization. High ethical standards and positive public relations increases shareholder trust and long-term profits to reduce legal and business risk by taking the responsibilities for corporate actions.

New Belgium Brewing Company (NBB) is a craft brewery that was opened in 1991 and is located in Colorado. It is the 8^th largest brewery and 3^rd largest craft brewery in the United States. The brewery was founded by Kim Jordan and Jeff Lebesch who were husband and wife who emphasized on employee ownership and eco-friendly practices in its marketing materials (Ferrell and Fraedrich 2015). NBB is known to offer a variety of seasonal and permanent pilsners and ales. The standard line of the company includes Blue Paddle Pilsner, Sunshine Wheat, Trippel Ale and Abbey Ale. This assignment will discuss the various aspects of NBB and will analyze the engagement of the company in different sustainable social responsibilities.

NBB strives to address the three issues of environment that is the energy saving and cost-efficient alternatives for reducing its environmental impact and conducting its business, creative re-use and recycling strategies and techniques of green building. The marketing strategy of NBB critically involves the linkage of its brand and its products with the philosophy of the company of environmental friendliness (Reid and Gatrell 2015).

From high-tech industry achievements and leading edge environmental gadgets, the company believes in giving back to the community and thereby demonstrates the desire for creating a learning and living community. To make its beliefs and value statement true, the owners agreed to switch to wind powered brewery to reduce its carbon emissions. The company conserves energy by installing sun tubes that provides natural daytime that light the brew house (Rynders et al. 2015). NBB recycles its supplies like bottling glasses, office materials and cardboard boxes. Air pollution is controlled by encouraging alternative transportation like cruiser bikes for its employees. NBB has been participating in the green building techniques with innovative techniques for reusing the generated heat in the brew-house and conserve resources by closing loops. The environmental stewards of NBB have been the three ‘R’s that are recycle, reuse and reduce. For recycling, RBB turns the waste products into useful and new products and support the market in innovative ways. Reuse is carried out by heating for the brewing process, water and cleaning chemicals. Reduce is done by using the cold winter air for chilling their beer with the help of induction fans (Reid, McLaughlin and Moore 2014). The carbon dioxide emissions have been reduced by the implication of wind turbines and the brew kettles used are energy efficient. The company converts the waste water into a harvestable form of fish food and recycles about 9% of its total waste (Pullman et al. 2015). The canning capacity has been increased by the company that injects lesser carbon dioxide into the cans. Apart from this, the NBB has taken several other strategies to address the environmental issues for reusing the greenhouse gas emissions, waste water usage and landfill waste recycling. These are the energy saving and cost effective alternatives that helps the company to reduce its impact on the environment. The company has the largest private solar panel array in Colorado producing more than 200 kilowatts of electricity for their premises that reduces that energy consumption drastically. A steam condenser is used for capturing and reusing the hot water employed in production that is further used for heating the tile floors, additional brewing and deice the loading docks. NBB employs a complex system of extracting methane gas that is funneled back for reducing the energy consumption in the facility prior to release the water into the water supply of the municipality. They do not release their waste water into rivers and local streams. NBB uses about 20% less water compared to other brewing companies by using only 4 gallons of water for every gallon of beer (Lynch 2016). This significantly reduces the water consumption and contributes to the environment. The company also reuses and reduces that they can during their production that includes the use of recycled bottles and giving away their used hops and barleys to the farmers for feeding their pigs. The company along with contributing towards the environment encourages recycling, reusing and reducing to their employees as well by offering incentives like cruiser bikes that contributes equally to reduce air pollution.

NBB’s focus on Corporate Social Responsibility

NBB has taken tough stand towards sustainability because it is their belief that the choices that are designed for enriching the environment, society and community are strong business strategies and carrying out the right activities exhibits good business sense that is paid off in long-term. They input efforts that are equated for increasing employee satisfaction and morale and also the industry reputation (Bumblauskas 2015). For encouraging sustainability, the company has also introduced it into the supply chain and adopted sustainable purchasing guidelines. These guidelines are helpful in pin-pointing the suppliers that are eco-friendly and allows them to work closely with them for creating sustainability in the complete value chain of the company. It is a belief that Jeff Lebesch, the founder of the company had love of the outdoors and strong personal values that were contributory towards the strong stance of the company on sustainability (Wells 2016). The bottom line of the company will be increased with the adoption of such sustainability measures. Having a consistent brand attribute proves to be a key advantage on the competitive scale and consistency is believed to require a stronger commitment to the repetitive ideals sets. Therefore, to make the initiatives more authentic as authentic is believed to be a powerful tool for marketing, the company has taken a tough stand towards sustainability.

I completely agree with the fact that the focus of the company on social responsibility has provided it with competitive advantage.

NBB carries out lots of social responsibilities and it is evident from the fact that it tries to improve the life of the people and improve the communities by means of philanthropic involvement, event sponsorship and corporate gifting as the company donates 1% of its earned profits (Stead and Stead 2016). A board for community bulletin is maintained by the company on its premises for posting the community involvement proposals and activities. The company, through its ten point beliefs and values, demonstrates its commitment towards becoming a company that is socially responsible. There are many companies who have beliefs and values but not all of them take similar approaches like NBB. The company has a triple bottom line that consists of three ‘P’s which are people, profits and planet. Where people and profits form the part of social responsibility, planet forms the part of environmental sustainability (Hoalst-Pullen et al. 2014). The company has achieved success through this framework as its corporate culture includes thousands of customers and hundreds of employees that they serve daily. NBB carries out lot of social responsibilities like the company acts to improve the lives of the people and enhance the communities through philanthropic involvement, event sponsorship and corporate giving by donating 1% of the profits of the company (Fish 2015). It also acts socially by maintaining the community bulletin board in the facilities and by posting the proposals and activities of community involvement. NBB has become popular for two key aspects that include high quality products and commitment to sustainability. This gives the company a competitive advantage that is highly attributed to its social responsibilities because the consumers feel good and believe in their purchased products (Lee et al. 2015). The most important asset of NBB is its image and its corporate brand which is the symbol of concern for society, responsibility and quality. For NBB, the stakeholders like employees, consumers and the community makes up the core of the company. The company considers that without their stakeholders, they would not have achieved the heights that they have done. This instills faith and confidence in the conscience of the stakeholders which makes them to stay with the company and invite new stakeholders to the business which in turn gives a competitive advantage to the business. NBB considers that they create products that enhance the lives of the people while exceeding the expectations of the consumers and this provides competitive advantage to the lives of the stakeholders as well. The company is an industry leader in the environmental contributions and operations. Compared to the other competitive organizations, the company has taken proactive stance in the reduction of the carbon footprint that they leave on the community. The company publishes an annual sustainability report to provide information towards a greener future on their website that reflects their commitment and social responsibility (Carroll and Buchholtz 2014). This takes the company a step forward from its competitors to provide a competitive advantage to its business. On a broader social aspect, the company has a diverse portfolio which is designed to match the need and taste of every customer. Their beers are released round the year and for this, they have sours, seasonal brands and year-round brands. This depth of brand exhibits the mission and engagement of the company to produce beers of world class quality and providing its consumers an enriching experience. It is evident that the consumers like the brand exceptionally well and to broadcast their experience, they provide pictures of their real time enjoyment with the brand on social media which further provides a competitive advantage out of consumer satisfaction. NBB is active incredibly on the social media that is supported by their consumer base (Holtkamp et al. 2016). The consumers have expressed their love for the brand via social media and the company responds in real time by the introduction of concepts of ideas and new products to the followers of their brand. This is an innovative idea that highlights their social commitment on a broader aspect that takes their business to a new and competitive edge. NBB has set higher tone and standards for the other brewers to follow by maintaining its commitment to the product qualities and dedication to the employees of the company and environmental commitments for more than twenty years. It can be stated that since the company stated its journey as a small set up, it has a greater impact on their neighbors and local communities by providing services and goods and involvement in the community (Bamforth and Cabras 2016). This was the base of attaining a competitive advantage as the company never divulged from its core values and principles of social responsibilities since its establishment. It never lost its focus on the little things and stayed conscious of what it stood for and this makes me believe that the social responsibilities of NBB have given it a competitive advantage in its business.

Benefits of focusing on Social Responsibility

People will continue to purchase tobacco and alcohol products regardless of their manufacturers and sellers. Just because NBB manufactures alcoholic beverages in a legal manner, it does not hold enough grounds to call them irresponsible. It is the consumers who should be held responsible for their irresponsive acts and the not the manufactures who are producing tobacco and alcohol products. If the alcohol manufacturing company restricts the sale of their products to the minors and promote responsible drinking, then that company should be regarded as socially and ethically responsible (Kleban and Nickerson 2012). If NBB can conduct its manufacturing by being socially responsible and environmentally friendly and motivate other alcohol manufacturing companies to follow the same path, then it will be an all round success. Alcohol and tobacco manufacturing companies that conduct their business at any cost, there will be no environmental and social concern and profit will be the only criteria (Liss and Loomis 2013). Therefore, I would like to applaud for the company that strives to do the things in a socially, environmentally and ethically sound manner and make genuine efforts to continue this practice. NBB has created a positive image of their company with smart decision making for the beer consuming public. Yet some components of the community could not accept the fact that an alcohol manufacturing company can be socially responsible. To prove this wrong, the company has set the thought that the consumers who drink responsibly will have the support of the company as a form of social contribution. The company promotes beer culture with the help of specially designed products with attractive visual presentation and aroma (Bamforth and Cabras 2016). The appreciation of beer is also promoted by the company by its support and participation in the culinary arts. This is evident from the fact that NBB hosts dinners where the courses of the meals are served with a culinary treat that is complimentary. This shows the graciousness and nobility of an alcohol manufacturing company which is responsible towards its community and its people. The six packs of the beers of NBB has a phrase that considers the makers of the beer lucky for creating fine products that enhances the lives of the people (Kumagai 2014). The founders believe that this statement will uphold the company’s attitude. The social responsibility and environmental concern of the company gives it a competitive edge as the consumers feel good and believe in the products they receive from NBB. The most important asset of the company is its image and that is a corporate brand that signifies the concern for society, responsibility and quality. The brand of the company Fat Tire possesses a bloodline that runs straight from the practices and ethical beliefs of the enterprise (DeBenedetti 2016). To maintain their brand value, the company should continually re-examine its environmental, social and ethical responsibility. NBB still do not manufacture organic beer and the process of manufacturing is still not emission free or zero waste. The to-do list is never ending and therefore, NBB should consider the fact that with the increase in their annual sales, the brand challenge increases to remain culturally authentic and on a human scale. It will always be a challenge for the brand to grow boldly with the maintenance of its humble feel.  The selection of the company to focus on the issues of the environment has positioned it as a company that is socially responsible (Martin and Johnson 2015). Going against the traditional views, the company excelled as an organization that can be socially, ethically and environmentally responsible apart from being a manufacturer of alcoholic beverages.

NBB has achieved greater strides in the creation of a brand image that is socially responsible however, it has a long way to go. The company has received the environmental achievement award from the environmental protection agency. This was a boost for the company’s motivation and honor for continuously achieving its goals that are socially responsible. There are more ways for the company to excel as a corporate citizen and this includes heating in various parts of the plant by natural gases and not by the renewable sources. Alcohol abuse should be avoided and there should be more public dialogues on this rather than suppressing the alcohol manufacturing companies (Malone and Lusk 2016). There are pros and cons that can be attributed to this issue and it is my belief that the initiatives and actions of NBB clearly set it as a socially responsible corporation. Since the company emphasizes on the socially important factors like youth environmental education, sustainable agriculture, bike advocacy, sensible transportation and water conservation, the company can be broadly termed to be socially responsible. People know the achievements of NBB and will remember its success, irrespective of its type of business. Defining itself as a company that is more than just a company producing beer, the brewer recognizes itself as an organization that is concerned and caring of its stakeholders that include the employees, environment and community.

Conclusion

To wrap up the discussion, it can be stated that NBB is responsible ethically to its employees and is responsible socially by virtue of its environmental stand point that has been incorporated into the company since its infancy till its maturity. Its standards make it a first class company of being socially and ethically responsible and it is clearly visible in its employee ownership, management, environmental responsibility sustainability with the generation of profits simultaneously. Greatness can be defined in several ways and this might include having a huge net income and paying out higher dividends to its investors and monthly and yearly statements (Bhuyan and McCafferty 2013). NBB is one such company that apart from meeting the standards, it also exceeds them. The profitability of the company is reflected by the knowledge, passion and expertise of its employees and the vision of the employees and management of the company by the cutting edge technology that has been implemented in its plants. This has helped the company to cut down the costs by being environment-friendly. Beyond the use of the innovations and technologies that are environment-friendly, NBB enhances the lives of the people and improve communities (Holtkamp et al. 2016). The funding decisions of the company are taken by the philanthropy committee that is made up of employees present in the brewery. The company searches for non-profit organizations that are capable of demonstrating an innovative approach, diversity and creativity for their objectives and mission. The committee also searches for groups that strive to include the community for attaining the goals of the company. These initiatives of the company have made NBB an extraordinary company that is utterly dedicated towards the social and ethical sustainability.

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