Sustainable Business Practices Of Woolworth Company Australia

Sustainable Business Practices

Question:

Explain How A Retail Chain Store Maintains Its Sustainable Practices

Determine The Existing Contribution Of Woolworth Company Towards Environment And Community?

What Is The Key Responsibility Of Woolworth Company Towards Employee, Customer, Suppliers, And Shareholder?

In the present scenario, globalization has resulted in creating better growth and development opportunities for businesses. Furthermore, globalization has also supported companies to carry out free trade practices and have more efficient access to the latest and upgraded technology. However, it can be critically argued that along with the growth and development of many small and large organizations, challenges linked with exploitation of natural resources, increasing pollution and global warming have also raised to a great extent (McCarthy 2014).

These problems have emerged as a threat to entire environment, societies and the people living in the same. Nowadays, businesses are encouraged to carry out their operations and activities by adopting sustainable practices. In simpler terms, sustainable practices can be defined as those activities which result in economic development without depletion of the environment and natural resources (Methner, Hamann & Nilsson 2015). The concept of sustainability emphasizes on the integration of three major elements which are environmental, socio-political and economic sustainability. Nowadays many brands such as PepsiCo, Starbucks, Tesco, and General Electric have adopted the concept of carrying out sustainable business practices.

The present research outlines the sustainable business practices adopted by Woolworth Company Australia. Furthermore, the objectives, methodology, and limitations of the study are also highlighted in this report.  

The primary objective of the present research to identify the way in which a retail chain store maintains its sustainable business practices. To carry out in-depth and efficient analysis of the topic under investigation, Woolworth Company has been taken into consideration. The present report has outlined the way in which Woolworth is carrying out its business practices without damaging the environment and society.

Another objective of the present research paper is to identify the contribution made by Woolworth in the development of the community. Apart from this, assessing the key responsibilities of the company towards its stakeholders is also the objective of this paper. 

The present research paper has helped in understanding the way in which sustainable business practices are carried out by Woolworth Company. Here, different sources of data collection are taken into consideration to gather accurate, reliable and valid information. This study has helped in understanding the overall contribution made by Woolworth Company towards the growth and development of community within which it is carrying out its operations and activities. On the other side of this, the study has also supported in getting aware of the fact that at present, Woolworth Company is accomplishing its responsibilities towards all its stakeholders in the best possible manner. For example, the business emphasizes on delivering quality products and services to all its customers at very convenient prices. In addition to this, Woolworth Company provides equal and adequate growth opportunities to all its employees.   

Objectives, Methodology and Limitations

It can be expressed that over the past few years, the concept of sustainability has gained high popularity among businesses and organizations (Lawley, Birch & Craig 2016). Furthermore, these practices can provide companies with real benefits which are essential for long-term growth and development. For example, adopting sustainable business practices allows companies to enhance their overall brand image and gain a competitive advantage over the other players operating in the marketplace (Klovien? & Speziale 2015). The rationale behind this is that adoption of sustainable practices helps in developing a strong sense of satisfaction among people in the market. Further, individuals start perceiving that the company cares about society and environment under which it is operating.

It acts as a strong motivational factor and encourages people in the market to purchase product and services from one particular company. However, it can be critically argued that adapting sustainable practices is not an easy task for organizations as there are various issues and challenges which businesses face (Klettner, Clarke & Boersma 2014). For instance, enterprises are required to carry out changes in their existing systems, operations, practices, and it is not an easy task to perform.

Companies can attract investors and employees by carrying out sustainable practices in the long run. People are more interested in investing their money in organizations which take care of society, community and environment (Nursey-Bray, Harvey & Smith 2016). A company respect towards workers, stakeholders, and environment can be considered as a substantial factor which motivates investors to invest their money. On the contrary, it can be argued that measuring and reporting sustainability practices is quite challenging and arduous (Hughes, McEwan & Bek 2015). Further, this acts as an obstacle in front of organizations regarding adopting sustainable practices.

Nowadays, leading brands of the world have taken the initiative in protecting the community and environment through their business practices. It can be expressed that brand like Coca-cola is carrying out its sustainable practices through water stewardship program (Rajabian Tabesh, Batt & Butler 2016). The company has been able to enhance its overall efficiency of water usage by 20%. On the other side of this, brand like General Electric is encouraging more and more engagement of employees through its sustainable practices (Hadjimichael & Hegland 2016). A company like PepsiCo carries out sustainable business practices through encouraging stakeholder management. Here, meetings with the stakeholders are conducted by PepsiCo at regular intervals and discussions regarding climate change, public health issues and scarcity of resources are carried out.

Contribution of Woolworths towards environment and community

The concept of sustainable practices is also getting popular in countries such as Australia and many companies operating in the country have adopted these practices. Australian organizations such as Westpac Banking Corporation, Stockland, Insurance Australia Group, Woolworths Company, etc. have become very popular in the world because of their sustainable practices (Pro Bono Australia 2011).

Woolworths Company has developed a sustainability plan, and the brand emphasizes on accomplishing its sustainability goals by the end of the year 2020. Woolworths Company has established twenty primary goals which are linked with corporate social responsibility and sustainability (Flax, Bick & Abratt 2016). The vision of Woolworths Company is to make Australia healthy through its products and services. One of the primary goals of the organization is to ensure zero percent waste going into landfill. Apart from this, the company has introduced its packing brand to ensure effective recyclability of its packing material (Woolwoths Group 2017). Woolworths Company is also creating awareness among industry and people in the market to carry out more sustainable sourcing of products. At the same time, the retail chain is focusing on reducing its carbon emissions with a purpose to deal with the challenges linked to climate change.

In the modern era, landfill form food waste has resulted in negatively damaging the entire environment (Shauki 2016). Furthermore, the government, stakeholders and regulatory authorities now encourage businesses to reduce their landfill and protect the environment in every possible manner (Dos Santos, Svensson & Padin 2013). Woolworths Company has taken a step further in this program, and the brand is reducing its overall landfill through various strategies and practices. For example, the retail chain emphasizes on carrying out the reduction in its stock loss and enhancing its waste management practices. Woolworths Company has also developed a partnership with the local community, and now it is contributing a lot to regional support, food rescue and farmers.

In today’s cooperate scenario, attaining higher profits and increasing customer base cannot be considered as the core objectives of businesses (Bepari et al. 2016). Every company has certain roles and responsibilities towards society, and these responsibilities should be accomplished in the best possible manner. The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) emphasize on the fact that every organization has some responsibility towards society, environment, and these responsibilities should not be neglected in any case. At present, CSR activity of Woolworths Company focuses on different areas to ensure the protection of environment, society, and stakeholders (Devin & Richards 2016).

Responsibility of Woolworths towards employees, customers, suppliers, and shareholders

For example, the company now emphasize on encouraging more diversity within its staff members. At the same time, the retail chain ensures that no form of discrimination is carried out by all employees. Woolworths Company does not encourage any pay gap between male and female employee working at same level (Woolworths Group 2017). On the other hand, the corporate social responsibility program of Woolworths also focuses on the areas such as developing long-term relations with all suppliers and carrying out more sustainable practices (Zutshi et al. 2016). Nowadays, the organization is looking forward to carrying out responsible souring of all raw material and products. Here, the company is looking forward to earning respect and trusts of all its customers (Woolworthsgroup 2017).

The responsible sourcing practices of Woolworths focus on areas such as animal welfare along with sustainable sourcing of fish, seafood, and forestry products. These practices have supported the retail chain to develop a strong sense of satisfaction among all its internal and external stakeholders (Arli et al. 2013). The major focus of Woolworths CSR program is to develop positive relationships with all its suppliers and development of community under which it is operating. The company has been able to achieve leading customer satisfaction score in the entire industry because of its sustainable practices and corporate social responsibilities.

It can be expressed that the company has also developed and launched The Good Business Journey Program in the year 2007. In this particular program, the business emphasized on four major areas which were climate change, social development, transformation, and environment (Akbar & Ahsan 2014). The company established more than 200 targets linked with sustainability for the period of 2007 to 2013, and it is been able to accomplish the majority of these objectives. However, it can be critically argued that achieving those goals was not an easy task for Woolworths and the retail chain was required to place a lot of efforts and resources. For example, the organization encourages its investors, employees, NGO’s and suppliers to become part of the five-year program. At the same time, an audit of suppliers was carried out on a frequent basis to ensure that the practices which they are carrying out are sustainable. In addition to this, a fair and transparent process of communication was used to render information to all stakeholders.

Over the past one decade, the brand has been able to sell products which create little or almost zero harm to the environment and the local community (AO Dos Santos, Svensson & Padin 2014). The practices and business operations of Woolworths are also focused on dealing with the issues and challenges faced by society. The supermarket retail chain has developed targets to reduce its carbon footprints, improving its energy efficiencies and it can be stated that it will able to achieve the same with efforts and corporation of all stakeholders.      

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities of Woolworths

The major limitation of the earlier literature is that it focuses only on the company’s point of view towards sustainable practices. The reviews and work of other researchers and studies were not taken into consideration to identify the way in which a retail chain store maintains its sustainable business practices. The previous emphasize only on the information presented in within the official website of Woolworths. Thus, it can be stated that there is an apparent gap in the literature about the sustainable practices adopted by Woolworths.

The research design is defined as the action plan or strategy which is employed by research to accomplish objectives and aim of a particular study. The use of appropriate research design assists a researcher in arranging various components of research in a logical and coherent manner. To identify how a retail chain carries out its sustainable practices, the exploratory design of research is selected by the researcher (Coleman 2013). The benefit of using exploratory research design is that it has supported in developing insight into the topic chosen for investigation. In the existing research paper, the use of exploratory research design has helped in identifying the different strategies and action plan adopted by Woolworth Company to carry out its corporate social responsibilities. The problem associated with present research has been identified more efficiently through the use of exploratory research design.      

The process of qualitative research begins with the development of general research questions linked to the study. In the second stage, different kinds of literature and secondary sources are selected in qualitative research. The third stage begins with the development of the conceptual framework and then the process of data collection is carried out (McNely, Spinuzzi & Teston 2015). The analysis and interpretation of information collected are done through methods such as thematic analysis. After this, the final stage of writing findings or conclusion is carried out. The validity and reliability of research are ensured by selected authentic and reliable sources of data collection. Furthermore, nonprobabilistic sampling methods such as snowball sampling quota sampling and convenience sampling are used in qualitative research.

Quantitative research can be termed as the form of research wherein numeric data or numbers are taken into consideration while collecting information about a particular topic. The primary objective of quantitative research is to test different theories and obtain valid outcomes. The process of quantitative research begins with the formulation of theory linked with the topic. Furthermore, a hypothesis is developed in the second stage of quantitative studies (Zhang 2013). After this, the researcher selects the most suitable research design, and then different independent and dependent variables of the study are identified. After this stage, sampling method and the sample size is selected, and then data is collected. Further, different types of tools such as SPSS are used to analyse and interpret the information gathered. At last, the conclusion is drawn by data analysed. In quantitative research, probabilistic sampling method such as stratified sampling, simple random sampling, cluster sampling and systematic sampling is taken into consideration.   

Responsible sourcing practices of Woolworths

To carry out the present study, a limited amount of resources and time was available to the researcher, and this can be considered as the primary limitation of the present study. Furthermore, the data collected in the current research paper was also limited to secondary sources. Here, primary sources of data collection are not used, and this has affected the results of paper to a great extent.

Activity	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8
Writing Research Proposal
Reading various literature
Finalizing the aims and objectives
Draft literature review
Collect secondary data
Analyze secondary data
Develop research approach
Draft research methodology
Draft Findings
Analyze data
Writing down findings and conclusion

Conclusion

From the above-conducted research paper, it can be inferred that sustainable business practices have become essential for long-term growth and success of the organization. Furthermore, Woolworth Company has adopted different strategies and tools to carry out sustainable practices. At present, the brand has developed different sustainable objectives which it aims to accomplish by the end of the year 2020. The business has been able to accomplish its corporate social responsibilities in the best possible manner. For example, equal pay for employees is offered, and no form of discrimination is encouraged at the workplace. On the other side of this, Woolworth Company is also focusing on areas such as sustainable sourcing to reduce the negative impact of its business practices on the environment.

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