ECO 415 Week 5

Individual Final Examination

Learning Team Sustainability PowerPoint Presentation and Paper

Select one of the companies from the following list and investigate its commitment to and performance in sustainable business:

Pepsi-Cola Company

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Lowes

Starbucks Coffee Company

Barnes & Noble

Amazon.com, Inc.

Hewlett Packard Development Company, L.P.

Dell Inc.

The Walt Disney Company

Microsoft

Write a 1,400- to 2,100-word paper in which you:

Define sustainability.

Explain why sustainability is important for financial success.

Evaluate the selected business in terms of sustainability, addressing the following:

oIdentify its financial and non-financial stakeholders.

oDescribe how economic and non-economic business decisions may negatively or positively affect stakeholders.

oExplain how those decisions may affect profits when stakeholder reactions are taken into account.

oIdentify ways in which the selected business is succeeding and ways in which it is falling short in terms of sustainability.

oCompare the selected business to other businesses within the same industry in terms of sustainability. Consider at least one of the following:

Commitment to environmental issues

Company and employee relations

Commitment to the communities in which the company operates

Product design

Create a sustainability strategy for the selected business:

Identify ways in which it may expand upon current or past sustainability successes.

Identify opportunities for turning sustainability shortcomings into areas of sustainability growth.

Identify ways to improve stakeholder relationships.

Explain how specific actions and policies must be implemented.

Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.

Create a 10- to 15-slide Microsoft PowerPoint presentation highlighting your paper.

Discussion Questions

On what ethical, moral, or social grounds would you make a management decision that would lead to decreased profits? Cite a specific example and explain why your decision would be appropriate.

Sustainability is often viewed as a break with an outdated business philosophy in which management decisions are driven strictly by the desire to increase profits whereas social and environmental concerns fall by the wayside. In The Triple Bottom Line, Savitz argues convincingly in favor of sustainable business, showing how, in todays socially and environmentally conscious world, companies must take the wellbeing of non-financial stakeholders into account to achieve financial success. Do you believe that todays companies make socially and environmentally sound decisions because it is the right thing to do? Or do you believe it is simply because the risk of negative financial consequences for not doing so has become too great? Is there a new triple bottom line?