Corporate Sustainability strategies in the electronics and IT

Question 1

List 6 corporate sustainability strategies

Answer 1

• Transparency, accountability, auditability
• Elements of a corporate sustainable strategy
• Global reporting initiative
• CDP
• Internal carbon pricing strategy
• Effect on project decision – e.g. data centres in Iceland because it’s cold and low carbon co2.

Question 2

why do companies have sustainable strategies?

Answer 2

Doing it because 1 it’s good for the environment but 2, it gives a competitive advantage, ready for a low carbon world

also:
• Makes corporations looks good to the public
• Not much risk but big pay off if it works well
• Team working / experience
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Question 3

What are the five elements of a corporate sustainability strategy?

Answer 3

1) Keep your house in order
2) Reduce the impact of our products
3) Stakeholder engagement
4) Research and innovation
5) Philanthropy

Question 4

What does keeping your own house in order include? (4)

Answer 4

a. Energy reduction and low carbon practices around facilities, travel,
b. Reduce waste reduction and use of hazardous materials
c. Appropriate auditing (ISO14001) – get recognition for the good work you’re doing. Logo for marketing materials. It has value for example – doing government work it might be a requirement
d. Public reporting

Question 5

what does 1) Reduce the impact of our products include? (3)

Answer 5

a. Design for the environment and end-of-life
b. Remove waste / bad materials
c. Engage with the supply chain to improve things

Question 6

what is stakeholder engagement? (3)

Answer 6

a. Enegage with employees – raise awareness and harness their ideas
b. Work with other companies in the sector
c. Engage with government, investors, NGOs

Question 7

what does research and innovation include? (2)

Answer 7

a. Invest in research to improve long term sustainability

b. Research how the companies products could be used to make the world better

Question 8

what does philanthropy include? (2)

Answer 8

a. ive to the rest of the world – put money into doing good

b. Is it a small bolt on to make it look better?

Question 9

what is the global report initiative? (3)

Answer 9

• Provides the worlds most widely used standards on sustainability reporting and disclosure
• Provides an over of the company and some key performance indicators
• We can use this to check companies own reports – what bits aren’t they telling us?

Question 10

Explain greenhouse gas reports, challenges and give an example

Answer 10

• Convert everything into the equivalent of CO2 e.g. methane is much worse than CO2
• Three phase – upstream, downstream and company
• Scope 3 is very hard to report
• Example Walkers crisps – farmers were incentivised by the weight of potatoes sold, therefore potatoes high in water content were worth more in terms of money. However, high water crisps take more energy to fry (more co2). Therefore, walkers changed the way in which they incentivised farmers