Sustainable Enterprise: Literature Review And Case Study Of Suncorp Bank

Literature Review

Discuss about the Sustainable Enterprise for Literature Review.

Indicators are the backbone of monitoring the sustainable development goals that serves as a management tool and helps in understanding the direction where an enterprise is, which direction it is leading and the extent to which an enterprise is ready to go and fix it. The indicators of sustainability allow social, economic and environmental progress. The effective indicators and good monitoring systems help in determining the direction to be taken the address the issue (Parmenter, 2012).

Characteristics of Good Indicators	Definition
Valid or Relevant Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper	A good monitoring system must fit the purpose of measuring. The effective indicators are relevant that shows something important to be known.
Reliable	A good monitoring system must be consistently measurable over time. They must be reliable and the information provided is trustworthy in nature.
Easy to Understand	A good monitoring system is easy to understand even by the layman.
Accessible Data	A good monitoring system must provide timely information so that there is time to act and reconcile the issues.

Table 1: Characteristics of Good Indicators

Source: (Marr, 2012)

The Sustainability Phase Model by Dunphy et al. (2003) created a model for the companies having six developmental phases that help in evaluating the organization’s current commitment and habits in relation with ecological and human sustainability. The phases are used to investigate the path undertaken by the organization and a potential path forward. The six phases are rejection, non-responsiveness, compliance, efficiency, strategic proactivity and the sustaining corporation (Dunphy, Griffiths, & Benn, 2015).

The stages are explained as under:

Phase 1: Rejection- This stage portrays a strong belief about the organization existing purely to maximize profitability. The human resources such as subcontractors and employees are exploited. There are disadvantages stemming from gender, ethnicity, language proficiency and others. Minimum training s provided to the employees and the community concerns are rejected. Further, the environment is treated as an abundantly available good and the pollutants are discharged into the atmosphere (Dunphy, Griffiths, & Benn, 2015).

Phase 2: Non-responsiveness- This stage results from ignorance or lack of alertness rather than laying emphasis on profitability. The human resource strategies and policies, community concern are ignored. The environmental resources are wasted and the risks or opportunities are considered irrelevant (Dunphy, Griffiths, & Benn, 2015).

Phase 3: Compliance- This stage focuses on minimizing the risk of failing to meet the basic standards. The human resources conduct training, total quality management and development on a low scale. The environmental abuses are eliminated which require strong action by the company (Gallagher, 2012).

Phase 4: Efficiency- This stage reflects growing awareness that can help in gaining advantage by implementing sustainable practices. The attempts to integrate human resources and increasing efficiency helps in reducing cost. The poor ecological practices are interpreted as avoidable cost. There is active involvement as the company follows approaches for managing the environment (Dunphy, Griffiths, & Benn, 2015).

Phase 5: Strategic sustainability- In this phase, strategic sustainability involves making sustainability a critical part of the business strategy. There are flexible work practices and diversity seen in the organization. The organization seeks competitive leadership by following environmental practices and processes that are used as a source of competitive advantage (Suncorpgroup.com.au, 2017).

The Enterprise

Phase 6: The sustaining corporation- This phase is far away from the reality as it strongly internalizes the ideology of a sustainable world. The organization is a strong promoter of work-life balance, equal opportunity and has a strong ethical position in the eyes of stakeholders. Further, the organization tries to assist society in environmentally sustainable ways and facilitate sustainable society (Hawes & Chitra, 2016).

Suncorp Bank, a part of the Suncorp Group was established in the year 1902 which is now the fifth largest bank in Australia (Suncorp.com.au, 2017). The Suncorp Group offers a wide range of products and services that makes the banking company a great choice for individuals, families and farmers. The company is an award-winning Business Bank of the Year in 2016 (Suncorp.com.au, 2017). They deliver excellent solutions to the partners and customers. The enterprise employees are highly passionate about their community in which they live in and support a range of local activities, events, charities and staff volunteering programs. Suncorp Bank follows personal advice model so that the individual needs of the customers can be addressed. Suncorp Bank also offers the customers with integrated internet banking services and assistance to grow their personal finances and wealth (Suncorp.com.au, 2017).

Based on the above theory and concept, it is interpreted that Suncorp Bank is at the fourth phase of Dunphy Phase Model. The approach is focused on driving mutual value with the stakeholders while managing social, governance, environmental risks and opportunities that impacts financial performance.

Figure 1: Corporate Social Responsibility Approach

Source: (Suncorp.com.au, 2017)

Suncorp tries to be the workplace where the employees want to come and work in New Zealand and Australia. Suncorp aims to provide people with meaningful careers, workplace flexibility and developmental opportunities. Suncorp has people working part-time, from home, job share and other flexibilities (Boons et al., 2013). Further, there is a diversity council that minimizes discrepancy between men, women and other categories of potential discrimination. Further, Suncorp has partnership with The Heart Foundation that is helping the Australians to lead healthier lives. Suncorp is also partnering with the Financial Basics Foundation for improving the financial literacy of youngsters (Suncorp.com.au, 2016). Suncorp also partners with sports, entertainment and other foundations for creating brighter future of the people in wider community (Suncorpgroup.com.au, 2012).

Suncorp aims to have a strong and resilient economic management. The company focuses on having quality products, attractive shareholder returns and meaningful careers. The banking company is influenced by certain economic conditions. The inflation rate, economic policies, market conditions and interest rates influences the economic dimensions. The bank promotes capital formation and encourages the habit of savings in people. The bank also helps people in mobilizing the finances to productive uses. The bank can also promote the process of monetisation and convert debt into money in the economy (Vezzoli & Manzini, 2014).

Sustainability Dimensions

Suncorp is committed to understanding the environmental impacts and finding ways to minimize it. The company promotes environmental awareness, decreases waste to landfill, minimizes carbon emissions and improves energy and water efficiency within the premises. Suncorp monitors and records the energy use. They use energy efficient bulbs and sensor lighting so that there is energy efficiency. Suncorp consolidates its office space for reducing the environmental impact (Vezzoli & Manzini, 2014).  

The following table represents the list and assessment of indicators for measuring environmental sustainability.

Indicator	Definition	Measurement	Challenges
Carbon Footprint	It is the measure of harmful greenhouse gas emissions produced by a company.	All inputs such as fuel, electricity and travel need to be multiplied by emissions factor. Use x Emissions factor	The calculation may be erroneous while measuring all uses of carbon.
Energy Consumption	It is the measure of the extent of company measuring energy consumed in a particular period.	Total energy consumed	It is difficult to measure direct energy efficiency impacts
Waste Recycling Rate	It is the measure of the extent to which a company is able to reuse or recycle the waste.	[Amount of waste recycled or reused / Total waste produced] x 100	It may be challenging to find total waste production.
Waste Reduction Rate	It is the measure of the extent to which a company is able to reduce its waste as part of the operations.	[Wasted Raw Material (in this period a) / Wasted Raw Material (in the last period b)] x 100	It may be challenging to find total waste raw material.

Table 2: List and Assessment of Indicators for Monitoring

Source: Created by Author

The PSR model includes the abbreviation of pressure, state and response. It is based on the concept that the human activities can exert pressure on the environment, thereby changing the quality and quantity of natural resources. The resulted changes can alter the environmental state. The human responses against these changes tend to prevent the environmental impact (Parmenter, 2012).

Pressure-The bank Suncorp has significantly operating its activities by considering the environmental impact upon the society.  However, energy consumption is high and there is a lack of measurement of waste recycling. Thus the rate of waste reduction is questionable. Thus, lack of proper waste and energy management may impose pressure on the environment.

State- There is a lack of system for measuring total energy consumption, rate of waste reduction, waste of raw material and calculating waste reduction rate.

Response- A proper monitoring system would be developed and implemented for mitigating the environmental effects by the organization. Organization promotes environmental awareness, decreases waste to landfill, minimizes carbon emissions and enhances energy and water efficiency within the premises. Suncorp monitors and records the energy use. The organization has started to use energy efficient bulbs and sensor lighting for reducing unnecessary use of excess energy (Parmenter, 2012).

For moving to the next Dunphy phase, strategic sustainability, Suncorp needs to conduct operations that are not only good for the business, but also conserve the environment. Suncorp needs to seek stakeholder engagement so that environmental friendly products and services are processed. Suncorp needs to make employees practice to turn off the equipments when they are not under use. The communication channels such as emails and messages must be used rather than printing hard copies of the same. Double sided documents must be used in the bank. The energy, water and waste must be reduced as much as possible (Vezzoli & Manzini, 2014).

Socio-cultural Dimensions

For moving to the next Dunphy phase, a monitoring system should be developed and implemented by the organization. The monitoring system should focus on three dimensions, people, planet and profit, known as the ‘triple bottom line’ that captures the essence of sustainability through the measurement of the organizational impact upon the world. The positive ‘triple bottom line’ indicates that the organization is being operated sustainably (Milne & Gray, 2013).

People- It is easier to measure the social impacts of the company, by measuring employee satisfaction, health and safety, impacts of the company on local community. These are the factors to be monitored by the monitoring system to be developed.  The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) indicated four social performance indicators, which would be monitored by this system. These include labor practices, human rights, safety and product responsibility sustainably (Milne & Gray, 2013). To meet the social standards, the monitoring system would be developed with high ethical standard.

Profit- The monitoring system would focus on improving the economic status of the stake holders instead of the financial status of the organization itself. GRI identified the economic performance indicators, which are sales, profit, ROI, monetary flows, tax paid. The monitoring system would focus on measuring economic status of main five stake holder’s group, i.e. customer, employees, suppliers, providers of capital and public sector.

Planet- The organization Suncorp has engaged its organizational operations to meet the environmental standard. The ecological sustainability of the organization is more focused on preventing the hazards caused to living organism by the organizational activities. In this dimension, the monitoring system would consider the performance indicators by GRI; these include materials, energy, water, biodiversity, waste disposal and transport related to organizational activities sustainably (Milne & Gray, 2013).

With the help of the monitoring system, Suncorp bank can promote to the ‘winner’ phase in Dunphy model for strategic sustainability.  

 

Conclusion

Conclusively, Suncorp bank offers a wide range of products and services that makes the banking company. The company is in the fourth phase, efficiency, of Dunphy Phase Model. Suncorp is committed to understanding the environmental impacts and finding ways to minimize it. Suncorp needs to monitor and record the energy use.

References 

Boons, F., Montalvo, C., Quist, J., & Wagner, M. (2013). Sustainable innovation, business models and economic performance: an overview. Journal Of Cleaner Production, 45, 1-8. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.08.013

Dunphy, D., Griffiths, A., & Benn, S. (2015). Organizational change for corporate sustainability (1st ed.). London: Routledge.

Gallagher, D. (2012). Environmental leadership (1st ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications.

Hawes, A., & Chitra, T. (2016). Keeping up with the FinTechs: A banker’s strategy for digital transformation. Journal of Digital Banking, 1(2), 102-110.

Marr, B. (2012). Key performance indicators (1st ed.). Harlow, England: Pearson Financial Times Pub.

Milne, M. J., & Gray, R. (2013). W (h) ither ecology? The triple bottom line, the global reporting initiative, and corporate sustainability reporting. Journal of business ethics, 118(1), 13-29.

Parmenter, D. (2012). Key performance indicators (1st ed.). Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons.

Suncorp.com.au,. (2016). Community Partnerships : Suncorp : Financial Basics Foundation : Australia | Suncorp. Suncorp.com.au. Retrieved 30 December 2016, from https://www.suncorp.com.au/corporate/community/partnerships/financial-basics-foundation

Suncorp.com.au,. (2017). About Us. @SUNCORP-BANK. Retrieved 4 January 2017, from https://www.suncorp.com.au/banking/about-us.html

Suncorpgroup.com.au,. (2012). SUNCORP CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILTY REVIEW 2011/12. Suncorpgroup.com.au. Retrieved 30 December 2016, from https://www.suncorpgroup.com.au/sites/default/files/html/csr-repackaged/development/index.html#

Suncorpgroup.com.au,. (2017). SUNCORP CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILTY REVIEW 2011/12. Suncorpgroup.com.au. Retrieved 4 January 2017, from https://www.suncorpgroup.com.au/sites/default/files/html/csr-repackaged/development/index.html#

Vezzoli, C. & Manzini, E. (2014). Design for environmental sustainability (1st ed.). London: Springer.