Management Position Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Management Position - Research Paper Example The purpose of this paper is to describe how companies can use sustainability in their operations strategy. The concept of sustainability is not a fad. It is a sound strategy that can be used by companies to achieve long term success. There many corporations such as Colgate that have implemented sustainability as a long term strategy. Colgate’s long term sustainability strategy is focused on three areas: people performance, and planet (Colgate, 2012). This firm has integrated sustainability into its operations by investing in production technologies that lower its consumption of water and electricity. The world is currently in the middle of an energy crisis due to the high dependence on petroleum. A sustainability practice that benefits companies by lowering its operational costs is energy savings initiatives. There are various alternative energy technologies such as solar and wind energy that can partially or completely supply the electricity needs of a business. Utility comp anies will pay corporations for the excess energy that is produced by these systems. A simple operational solution that can save a lot of money in energy is switching all the light bulbs in a company to LED bulbs. Lowering the gasoline consumption of the fleet of vehicles of a corporation is another sustainable practice that can pay off great dividends. This can be achieved by switching the firm’s fleet of vehicles to hybrid and electric cars. Companies that have their own trucks can apply logistics techniques to minimize the time in transit of the trucks. A way to achieve that is by placing warehouses near the places where the most business occurs. Human resource practices can also help in the implementation of sustainability. Car pooling policies force employees to share a ride with each other. A major environmental problem that our society faces is the excessive amounts of garbage that is produced daily by the actions of individuals and corporations. Luckily sustainability is one of the solutions that can help alleviate the problem. An operational sustainability practice that can be used to improve the profitability of a company is green packaging. Green packaging can be achieved by using recyclable or environmentally friendly materials to package products. Companies that use recyclable material in their packaging are able to save money because typically the majority of recycled materials are cheaper. â€Å"It is now cheaper to recycle an aluminum can into a new can than it is to make one from virgin material, and the same is becoming true for plastic bottles† (Strom, 2012). Engineers can also use ergonomics to design packages that minimize the total use of material. A 5% decreases in total material usage for a company that generates millions of units yearly can represent a saving of thousands of dollars. Sustainability can be applied in the production process of businesses. A lot of industrial processes generate pollution. Companies have to a pply engineering principles to develop production processes that lower pollution. Air and soil pollution are two big problems that must be attended by corporations. It is often challenging to lower pollution and the problem is more complicated and complex than what people think. â€Å"Because industrial activities are so different, one from the other, it is impossible to arrive at any single solution—