User:SidneyStablein/Sustainable business

Terminology
Sustainability is often confused with corporate social responsibility (CSR), though the two are not the same. Bansal and DesJardine (2014) state that the notion of ‘time’ discriminates sustainability from CSR and other similar concepts. Whereas ethics, morality, and norms permeate CSR, sustainability only obliges businesses to make intertemporal trade-offs to safeguard intergenerational equity. Short-termism is the bane of sustainability. While CSR and sustainability are not the same, they are related to each other. Determining salaries, implementing new technology, and retiring old plants all have an impact on the firms stakeholder's and the natural environment.

Social Sphere
Organizations that give back to the community, whether through employees volunteering their time or through charitable donations are often considered socially sustainable. Organizations also can encourage education in their communities by training their employees and offering internships to younger members of the community. Practices such as these increase the education level and quality of life in the community.

For a business to be truly sustainable, it must sustain not only the necessary environmental resources, but also social resources—including employees, customers (the community), and its reputation.

A term that is directly relates to the social aspect of sustainability is (environmental justice). Sustainability and social justice are directly connected to one another, and seeing these as separate unrelated issues can lead to more problems for the environment and potentially businesses.

Consumers and Marketing
In this day in age, there is more awareness and transparency around the environment and sustainability. With this transparency, consumers are demanding more sustainable goods and services. Because of this demand, companies must focus on their impact on the environment to gain the business of consumers. Presently, when people are choosing to purchase goods or services, they care what a company stands for. This includes social and environmental aspects that may not have seemed important in business in the past. This is why it is important for businesses to have sustainable practices in order to have consumer loyalty. Because ecological awareness can be treated as a choice of personal taste rather than a necessity, it can be a method to try to increase capital from a marketing standpoint. When marketing a product or service it is important that a business is actually following through with environmental claims, and not just pretending to be in order to gain customers. False advertising leads to distrust among consumers and can ultimately end a company.

Greenwashing
With the idea of sustainability becoming more prevalent in the last decade, businesses must be aware of laws surrounding it and the potential legal implications. The (FTC Green Guides) are essentially a rulebook for businesses on how to avoid deceiving consumers with false advertising. This often is a problem when companies make vague or false environmental claims about a product or service they are selling. When this occurs it can be called "greenwashing". Greenwashing can also be described as the act of overexaggerating the beneficial effect the product has on the environment. If companies do not follow the green guide they could be subject to being sued or could be fined. It is also important for green businesses to have legal practitioners who can understand and can counsel on the FTC guidelines.