BUGEN5930 Business, Society and the Planet Report 2 Sample

BUGEN5930 Business, Society and the Planet Report 2

Assignment Details

1. AI Generated summary

• Select a company whose sustainability performance you wish to explore.

• Using an AI large language model (such as Chat GPT or Bard etc.), generate a 300-word summary of your chosen company’s sustainability performance. This section must include:

o Name and weblink for AI tool you used to generate your summary.

o 300-word summary of strengths and weaknesses of your chosen company’s sustainability performance – please note, your copy of this AI-generated summary must not be edited. This text must be copied exactly as it was generated by your AI tool, with no text deleted or added from any other sources.

o A copy of the exact wording of the instruction/question/prompt you used to generate your AI-summary – e.g. ‘300 word summary of strengths and weaknesses of Coles Supermarkets sustainability performance’

• Please note – this section of your submission WILL be identified by Turnitin AI as being AI generated, but this is allowed only for this section of this task.

2. Research and verification

• You then need to research the claims made in the AI-generated summary, to gather evidence that supports and/or challenges these claims. To do this, you may need to provide additional information or detail to contextualise the areas of strength and weakness, why these sustainability actions/issues are relevant to your company, and provide in-text citations (and references) for evidence that supports (or contradicts) a claim from the AI summary.

For example, Chat GPT claims ‘Coles has shown a commitment to renewable energy adoption by investing in solar power installations and energy-efficient technologies in its stores and distribution centers’. After researching this claim, you could agree that Coles has been praised for its commitments to using renewable energy (Shop ethical, 2024), has commitments to achieve NetZero by 2050 and to be powered 100% by renewable energy by the end of 2025 (Coles Group, 2024). You might also comment on Coles’ performance when it comes to other research relevant sustainability themes such as Palm Oil, ethical fashion and payment of workers.

3. Critical analysis

• Based on your research on the sustainability performance of your chosen company and the evidence of its strengths and weaknesses, you need to critically analyse the company’s approach to sustainability.

• You need to identify which of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are most relevant for your business and the country and industry in which it operates, and comment on the extent to which these feature in the company’s sustainability priorities.

• You also need to identify which of Dunphy’s Phases best describes your company’s progress towards being a sustainable company and justify your reasons for your assessment.

4. Recommendations

• You then need to provide specific recommendations for your company to continue its transition to becoming a sustainable company

Referencing: You are required to follow the APA style of referencing for this task. There is no set number of references required. It is recommended, however, that you independently seek out resources in addition to those provided by the lecturer.

Solution

Introduction

Business sustainability approaches profoundly influence company CSR strategies and goodwill benchmarks, for leading change and enhancing commercial business standards. Amazon is one of the biggest e-commerce companies having multinational technology, engaging in cloud computing, and ecommerce services with digital streaming and online advertisements.

The recent report will evaluate AI integrated response on company sustainability performance, and evaluate strengths and weaknesses. It will also work on identifying critical values and evident facts, as a company is highly committed to renewable energy adoption. The study in this report will also evaluate the analysis of sustainability performance, UN sustainable goals relevant approaches, and operations for commercial growth. It will also analyse recommendations for the company to continue its growth as a sustainable company, for enlarged values and progressive ideas technically.

1 AI-generated Summary

“300N Words summary of strengths and weakness of Amazon sustainability performance”

Amazon's sustainability performance has been a mixed bag, reflecting significant achievements and on-going challenges.

Strengths:

1. Commitment to Net-Zero Emissions: Amazon has pledged to achieve net-zero carbon by 2040, a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement's 2050 target. This ambitious goal is supported by substantial investments in renewable energy.

2. Renewable Energy Investments: Amazon is one of the largest corporate buyers of renewable energy globally. The company has invested in numerous wind and solar projects, contributing significantly to its renewable energy portfolio.

3. Sustainable Packaging: Amazon has made strides in reducing packaging waste. Initiatives like the “Frustration-Free Packaging” program aim to minimize excess packaging and use more recyclable materials.

4. Electric Delivery Vehicles: Amazon has invested in electric delivery vehicles through its partnership with Rivian.

Weaknesses:

1. High Carbon Footprint: Despite its efforts, Amazon's overall carbon footprint remains substantial. The rapid growth of its logistics network, including a large number of data centers and frequent deliveries, contributes to significant emissions.

2. Criticism of Labour Practices: Amazon’s sustainability efforts have sometimes been overshadowed by concerns over its labor practices, including workplace safety and conditions. These issues can indirectly impact overall sustainability goals and company reputation for MBA assignment expert.

3. Packaging Waste: While there have been improvements, Amazon still faces criticism for excessive packaging, especially with single-use plastics and non-recyclable materials. The company’s vast and complex supply chain makes it challenging to address packaging issues comprehensively.

4. Supply Chain Transparency: There are ongoing concerns about the transparency of Amazon’s supply chain, particularly regarding how the company ensures that its suppliers adhere to environmental and ethical standards.

Overall, while Amazon has made notable progress in some areas of sustainability, there is still a significant gap between its ambitious goals and the practical realities of its operations.

2 Research and verification

Chat GPT claims are correct, as Amazon is committed to creating the best sustainable and CSR-oriented strategies, for enlarged vision and strengthened goodwill within the global industry specifically. The reviewed data on new Amazon sustainability goals of being committed to net zero emissions by the year 2050 is authentic and important in terms of substantial investments. There are also new renewable energy investments growing with numerous wind and solar projects in the portfolio (Mishra et al., 2024).

The data is informative and highly authentic as Amazon has shown tremendous new achievements in sustainable packaging, with new initiatives like Frustration-free packaging. It is also valid to notice new electric delivery vehicles being rising in terms of electric delivery partnership goals evidently (Torres et al., 2024). The informative content provided on Chat GPT is accurate in the context of Amazon, extensively working on the latest actions by Amazon towards sustainability aspects. The company aims to work on sustainable new change integrating creative changes, and innovation for leading within the sector by high commitment.

3 Critical Analysis

The review can be critically evaluated based on the sustainability performance of the company, identifying new strengths and weaknesses in approaches towards sustainable goals. Amazon is highly committed to creating CSR vision change, by following UN sustainable development goals relevant to business. Amazon is working to integrate new cloud infrastructure and more energy-efficient processes, to provide customers with new tools for impacting sustainability (Lozano & Barreiro‐Gen, 2023). It achieved the goal of matching more than 80% of electricity consumption with diverse sustainable new renewable energy. The company is expanding electric vehicle initiatives with plans to have more than 10,000 new electric delivery vehicles globally in the year 2030.

One weakness is Amazon only counts carbon emissions from its own branded products which make up only 1% of online sales. The brand packaging wastage has polluted the world's oceans and waterways, also carbon emissions increased from 51 million metric tons in 2019 to over 71 million in 2021, devoid of commitment to reach net zero sustainable carbon emissions. Overconsumption of resources in the supply chain is also there, which has lowered the commitment of the company, as it lowered the functional pace of CSR standards technical changes exploration (Melo et al., 2023). However, some improvement in this context can be done by Amazon by working on identified weaknesses successively. Green supply chain management and new labor practices need to be done, for advanced competitive standards in new CSR strategies.

UN Sustainable Development Goals Relevant To Business

Amazon's sustainability efforts are aligned with UN sustainable development goals, climate action being committed to reaching net zero carbon emissions by the year 2040. Amazon also aims to reduce waste and packaging, improving packaging to eliminate waste and ensure growth sustainably (Ortiz-de-Montellano et al., 2023). It aims to work towards SDG 13 Climate Action, which maintains a strong response on keeping climate sustainability as its main motive.

Protecting natural resources is also a major aim of the company, as it's committed to protecting natural resources. This correlates to fulfillment towards SDG 7 affordable and clean energy, one of the major crucial factors for leading constant better outputs. Renewable energy investments and sustainable packaging are surely some important steps taken by the company, in achieving the best standards towards SDG 7 (Lopes et al., 2024).

The company is also focused on advancing human rights, which shows commitment towards SDG 5 gender equality aspects. Amazon supports a wide range of new initiatives to inspire and develop women's talent equally in its business commercial standards. The company is committed to $53 million in investments for accelerating new female representation in climate tech partnership expertise (Subramaniam et al., 2023). New trainings for sourcing and procurement teams’ efforts are put, for improving environmental performance growth.

Dunphy’s Phases of Progress in Sustainability

Amazon is in a phase of strategic proactivity toward a sustainable company due to various reasons such as enhancing leading value-adding strengths and innovation. Organisation is efficiently growing with phases of production as potential resources, and a new proactive strategist acknowledging growth targets. Innovation is a top priority for Amazon in parameters of environment and cultivation of human resources competently, for retained values. In strategic proactivity, sustainability becomes part of a core strategy based on long-term profitability (Li, 2023).

The new sustaining values of Amazon are fully internalized, technically to work on constant change targets rapidly. Amazon's proactive strategists are focusing on climate change with 0 carbon emissions globally, and innovative new creative standards to pursue growth targets technically (Li, 2024). Amazon has launched a $2 billion fund for companies that helps to work on a new transition for a low carbon economy and new plans to invest in best reforestation projects. Also, new supply chain plans are technically enlarged with dignity and new respect levels with work to reduce emissions.

Recommendations

Amazon is competitively growing to become highly sustainable by working on SDGs completion specifically, investing on new enlarged working strengths fundamentally. Investing in change management needs to be done with new long-term plans, focusing on Lewin change model stages inclusion (de Oliveira Neves et al., 2024). There are three stages: unfreezing, freezing, and refreezing expanding new stages of commercial growth impact importance.

- Unfreezing: At this stage old step by Amazon lacking innovation in CSR will be removed, and new action-oriented plans need to be worked on. Creating authentic connections and new brand partnerships, offering opportunities to repair, recycle, and repurpose vision (Pakkan et al., 2023). Unfreezing will work on diverse technical parameters by removing old strategies, raising sustained values, and creatively enhancing sustainability.

- Freezing: Amazon creates authentic connections and new partnerships, focusing on sustainable change rise with new diverse mechanisms (Blind & Heß, 2023). New opportunities with repair repurpose and recycling based on packaging materials will be worked on by Amazon competitively. The freezing stage focuses on the inclusion of change-based training in teams, and enlarged work on sustained value-oriented parameters technically.

- Refreezing: The last stage of refreezing will be focusing on productive growth expansion, heading constant checks on innovation in CSR standards rapidly. Amazon also enlarges major checks on refreezing new changes, cutting carbon emissions, and enlarging productive goodwill.

New Leadership Styles

- Transformation leadership: Amazon plans to work with new transformational leadership, for creating high scale positive change motivation in teams and leading wider scale competitive strengths. The inclusion of transformational leaders’ motivation will further add profound change, in terms of eliminating carbon emissions and working on green supply chain standards (Berrone et al., 2023). Transformational leader's role is also functionally important, for leading untapped change in new CSR goals globally community founding accountability aspects.

- Contingency leadership: It is a leadership style that adapts to the current situation following a new approach, applied to CSR for recognizing new situations and considering dynamic adaptability goals (Henderson & Loreau, 2023). Amazon by working through contingency leadership aims to work on being accountable to stakeholders, improving sustainable energy inclusion technically. Leaders need to be creative, adaptive, and dynamically advanced for working on new global-based CSR goals.

Therefore, both leadership styles will enable Amazon to integrate new constant sustainable change determinants and work on inclusion toward high goodwill.

Conclusion

The research in the present business report is based on business sustainability approaches by Amazon, new sustainable goals operatively growing recently. In the first part, Chat GPT-based responses on company strengths and weaknesses are critically evaluated for extended new constant change targets. The study has concluded important facts stating Amazon plans to match 80% of electricity consumption with new renewable energy levels and having new electric vehicles by the year 2030.

Amazon also faces the weakness of keeping up with carbon emissions, less transparency, and sustainable growth in supply chain mechanisms. It also summarised Amazon being committed to SDG goals completion, towards SDG 13, SDG 7, and 5 for its accountable major business goals. The brand vision is proficiently growing on climate action and new advanced growth mechanisms on affordable clean energy transformation technically. The study also concluded informative dimensions on recommendations related to change management plans, and new transformational and contingency leadership standards.

References

Berrone, P., Rousseau, H. E., Ricart, J. E., Brito, E., & Giuliodori, A. (2023). How can research contribute to the implementation of sustainable development goals? An interpretive review of SDG literature in management. International Journal of Management Reviews, 25(2), 318-339 https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12331

Blind, K., & Heß, P. (2023). Stakeholder perceptions of the role of standards for addressing the sustainable development goals. Sustainable production and consumption, 37, 180-190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2023.02.016

de Oliveira Neves, F., Salgado, E. G., & Lira, J. M. S. (2024). Energetic sustainability in the Amazon region: Exploring impacts, environmental solutions, and rebound effect analysis. Environmental Development, 51, 101043. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2024.101043

Henderson, K., & Loreau, M. (2023). A model of Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges and opportunities in promoting human well-being and environmental sustainability. Ecological Modelling, 475, 110164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2022.110164

Li, W. (2023). Critical Analysis of Sustainable Development Goal 13 Climate Action: A Case Study of Amazon. The Frontiers of Society, Science and Technology, 5(1). https://www.francis-press.com/uploads/papers/yAlfwobmdUDyy0YXzuYLS0HmyaixreQKhMwv6F7j.pdf

Li, X. (2024). The External and Internal Environment Analysis of Amazon. Highlights in Business, Economics and Management, 30, 23-28. https://doi.org/10.3390/eng5010009

Lopes, R. V. P., Tejerina-Garro, F. L., Leite, J. C., Nascimento, M. H. R., & Nascimento, A. S. D. (2024). Assessing the degree of sustainability in extractive reserves in the Amazon biome using the fuzzy logic tool for decision-making. Sustainability, 16(8), 3279. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16083279

Lozano, R., & Barreiro‐Gen, M. (2023). Organisations' contributions to sustainability. An analysis of impacts on the Sustainable Development Goals. Business strategy and the environment, 32(6), 3371-3382 https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.3305

Melo, G. A., Barbosa, S. B., Peixoto, M. G. M., Mendonça, M. C. A., & de Andrade Guerra, J. B. S. O. (2023). Amazon 4.0: Ways to Sustainable Development. In SDGs in the Americas and Caribbean Region (pp. 105-122). Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16017-2_113

Mishra, M., Desul, S., Santos, C. A. G., Mishra, S. K., Kamal, A. H. M., Goswami, S., ... & Baral, K. (2024). A bibliometric analysis of sustainable development goals (SDGs): a review of progress, challenges, and opportunities. Environment, development and sustainability, 26(5), 11101-11143. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-023-03225-w

Ortiz-de-Montellano, C. G. S., Samani, P., & van der Meer, Y. (2023). How can the circular economy support the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? A comprehensive analysis. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 40, 352-362. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2023.07.003

Pakkan, S., Sudhakar, C., Tripathi, S., & Rao, M. (2023). A correlation study of sustainable development goal (SDG) interactions. Quality & Quantity, 57(2), 1937-1956. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-022-01443-4

Subramaniam, N., Akbar, S., Situ, H., Ji, S., & Parikh, N. (2023). Sustainable development goal reporting: Contrasting effects of institutional and organizational factors. Journal of Cleaner Production, 411, 137339. https://doi.org/10.3390/su151914165

Torres, N. N. S., Ledesma, J. J. G., Cavallari, M. R., & Ando Junior, O. H. (2024). Amazon Kit: Proposal for an Innovative Energy Generation and Storage Solution for Sustainable Development of Isolated Communities. Sustainability, 16(15), 6280. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16156280