An Introduction to Sustainable Development - Term Paper Example

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY OF EDINBURGH NAPIER al Affiliation) Key words: Principles, Competitors Recommendations for sustainable development strategy of Edinburgh Napier University Introduction Sustainable development is the intelligent use of natural resources to meet the needs of the current population without negatively affecting the ability that the future generation might need to acquire their basic needs (Elliot 2002). Sustainable development is an idea and goal that the need setting of clearly defined goals and strategies in its implementation. The main purpose of sustainable development is to ensure future sustainable development. An organization striving to promote sustainable development requires a mission and deployment of expertise to enable full achievement of the sustainability goals. Such strategies in planning set considerable challenges to other organizations. The university has a great base of sustainable development as it has being recognized by Institutions such as carbon masters standard. It has therefore demonstrated a great baseline for sustainability. As a university it has much to accomplish to ensure persistent sustainability and improvement of the environment. The university has to first be aware of its strengths and weaknesses in pursuit of sustainable development (Baker 2006). There must be engagement of community and government to enable the vision of sustainability a reality. Ample research and drafting of a plan should be done before the onset of activities in sustainability management. Many factors shall have to be considered by the university to ensure maximum realization of sustainable development. Despite sustainability undertakings known to be costly to organizations, the ethical work enables the organizations take part in social corporate responsibility. In current trends sustainability continuum is a critical trend to all organizations. The claimers in clued the shareholders, employees, and governments; each of them has satisfiable reasons for expecting and oftenly demanding that the firm satisfies their claims in a responsible manner. An organization that adversely affects the environment in such terms of air pollution and discharge of wastes, have a great task in terms of sustainability. Such institutions have much to do in their mission to counter their effects to the environment. This means a more budget allocation in sustainability measures. High technologies and qualified expertise should be employed to activities such as recycling of waste, renewing of energy, and carbon particles trapping. Without such measures such organizations will be at risk to lose their responsibility to the society and may lead to the eventual closure. With these demanding trends in current environment setup organizations have no choice but to always include sustainability in their vision and mission decisions from the onset of the their business. Clear strategies should be implemented to enable successful sustainability undertakings. The strategic planning process will involve a review of the organization’s mission in regards to sustainability; examination of both internal and external environments; strategic analysis and making of the necessary choices; developing long-term grand strategies; setting up of policies and procedures and developing strategic mechanisms. Feedback should be continuously given to gauge the progress in accomplishing the ultimate goals. Lack of good plan and strategy implementation will lead to poor sustainability. Hence organizations should treat sustainability goals as part of the business objectives so as to maximally realize its benefits. The benefits are mostly a good image by the stakeholders and the society which enables the organization to be more acceptable and in the end marketable. The Edinburgh Napier University should invest hugely in sustainability as it would lead to its satisfactoriness by the society in which they depend on for customers that are the students to join them. The university stakeholders would prefer a university that upholds sustainability with great efforts since it will in the long-run produce a workforce with high ethical standards. Environmental management can be done through investigation and ample research. Systems used in this management should be efficient to reflect the improvement of environmental management. These systems will also help in the detection of measures that are not productive in environmental sustainability ensuring that only useful measures can be used in the future. The university should also engage other institutions to enable sustainability of the environment. This could be through sharing of resources such as transport and energy. Sustainability strategies enable an organization to stand to be competitive in its industry due to its acceptable standards by the society in general. Edinburgh Napier University might use this strategy to counter competition from its competitors. Its sensitivity to a number of environmental challenges should be dealt with high professionalism to show its ability as an educational institution to provide solutions for environmental degradation as discussed below. Strategy enables organizations choose the best alternatives in the achievement of competitive results. The best alternative includes an undertaking of low cost and yet with high impact in realization of the sustainability goals. Competitive leadership should be deployed to enable well management of the organisation to undertake sustainability. The leaders should be of ample experience. Alliances and acquisitions can be taken as a strategy to enable maximum achievement of sustainability goals. Activities such as environmental sustainability are to be done by organizations with cooperation so as to ensure maximum realization of environmental wellness. The alliances can also be through government and international bodies’ involvement. These institutions can act as agents to bring about uniting institutions and individuals so as to achieve a national or global goals pertaining sustainability. Stakeholders involvement can be taken as a strategy to enable sustainability of the organisation. Such individuals like customers can greatly contribute in an organizations’ improve their products and services. This will definitely help the organization have a promising long life in meeting customer demand. Edinburgh Napier University can invest in student satisfaction by reviewing of their performance with the involvement of the students who are the customers of the university. An organisation would mostly know its sustainability risks by the status of the customer satisfaction. Wide market orientation should always be considered by all organizations. This involves more customer value compared which involves customer understanding than competitors. An organisation should never concentrate only to big market acquisitions but must insist on quality production to sustain the few customers rather than supplying much to many customers with mediocre value. Value added products promises an organisation a prolonged life service compared to one which has less value goods. The university should ensure quality education with reasonable sustainable measures. These measures will enable the university to have a continuum in provision of Educational services in the nation. In part of strategy implementation can compete successfully in superior strategy implementation and not superior strategy. A strategy is merely unattainable unless the right implementations are carried out so as to realize the strategies. With this the implementation leader should understand the strengths and weaknesses to achieve such strategies. Such challenges should be countered with so as to enable maximum implementation of strategies. There should employment of the right human capital and eventual employee engagement so to synchronize efforts of each and every department to achieve the ultimate goal. Technological innovation should be highly be invested in so as to ensure competiveness. The current trends are technological advancements for sustainability in terms of cost reduction and efficiency. Technological experts should be invested in so as to improve the University’s systems of management and other systems of provision of education. As educational institution the University has to spearhead in such technologies since they are believed to be the providers of solution in systems of customer satisfaction. Analysis of systems implemented should always be done periodically so as to understand and evaluate the performance of business progress. This can be done through research or comparisons to base year’s performance. E valuation can also be done through comparison to competitors; an outstanding competitive feature shows good development of the organisation. Involvement in Government programs such in the case of chartered universities enables acceptability by the nation as a market. This serves to be competitive compared to other universities that are not satisfied by the government itself. Satisfaction by other institutions such as the ISO certification enables an image of standardization compared to those competitors who don’t invest in such certifications. Sustainable innovations can be through management of internal factors and external factor. Many aspects are to be looked at to enable sustainability of the university and the community it is in; The university as an institution that majorly is the in the business of training individuals in different fields of practices. As a university it should ensure sustainability in skills and availability of expertise in the economy. Shortages of expertise in some lines of practice should be earlier detected by the university so as to ensure availability of enough expertise with ample skills required in the given field. The institution should ensure fully trained professionals on skills and knowhow of a given practice so to avoid inefficiency in the job market. Poor training can lead to substandard supply of goods and services. A good supply of professionals in a given nation also discourages importation of labor that is too costly. Changes in regulation and standards are a threat to the university and other institutions if corrective measures and considerations are not pursued. Abrupt changes in laws and regulations of the land regarding institutions of business nature leads to adverse effects to the whole society. Changes in expectation of standards by the public also affect production mostly making them costly. Such changes include increase in taxation and customer shift in preference of costly goods. This forces the business university to increase the cost of acquiring educational services leading to a total impact of increased cost of leaving. Energy supply and use mostly leads to depletion of the ozone layer, air pollution, radioactivity and forest destruction. With the persistent rates of environmental degradation so as to acquire energy the future generation is at risk of adverse health effects and lack of ample supply of energy. Almost all energy resources affect the environment through emissions hence efficiency of energy should be applied to lessen emissions of chemical substances into the environment. Minimum energy utilization should also be emphasized to discourage less forest destruction and environment. Activities such as planting of trees should be a great strategy to be applied by the university so as to protect the natural forests which also conserves and revitalizes the air. Energy conservation has being a great debate globally since it displays a major concern by its adverse effects to the environment. The use of renewable energy has being introduced by various industries so as to ensure maximum utilization of energy (Gifford 2004). The university can achieve sustainability by applying energy saving modes of transmission. This can be through investment of energy products and systems that use less power and renewing of energy form emissions in systems so as to lower the levels of energy usage. Solar energy should be highly recommended where possible since it has less effect on the environment compared to other sources. Education and sensitization of the community on the need to minimize energy wastage should also be undertaken. This will enable the achievement of energy sustainability by the university and its community. The university can discourage carbon dioxide emissions by reducing and sensitizing the community on unnecessary drives. Education and investment on minimum heat emissions in energy usage by both the university and community should also be encouraged. Agricultural activities should also be embraced to reduce emission of carbon dioxide from the ground. Construction as a development landmark in the university should promote sustainability. The construction of buildings and facilities should be of great plan considering future generation in matters such as sewerage systems; water and electricity supply. The facilities built should encourage development of lifestyles and encourage business harboring (Pryor 2003). The university should sensitize the community on methods of construction and house planning so as to achieve standard buildings and house plan in both the institution set-up and its environs. Affordable construction instruments should be availed through research so as to avoid substandard buildings by the less fortunate in the community. Affordability will also lead to low costs in construction hence ensuring sustainability for the members of the nation in future construction. Sustainable construction will not only involve low costs but also the use of water and energy efficiency materials. National planning policies should be exerted to individuals as they undertake constructions. The policies in construction should be of sustainable development which gives guidance on how the planning system can encourage sustainable design and construction. Sustainable construction includes the reduction in carbon emissions and energy wastage during construction activities. In this case the university can contribute to the national goal of planned construction by abiding in the plan drafted and also sensitization through education to the public on sustainable construction methods. The methods involved should involve the use of standard products and processes that reduce emissions of carbon and wastage of energy. Construction companies should also be engaged by the university to ensure environment protection through production of environmental friendly products in construction. The houses and facilities built should consider energy efficiency as residents will be able to save energy through use of installed energy saving systems and devices (Stokke 1991). Demographics sustainability involves without negatively affecting the ability that the future generation might need to acquire their basic needs. An increasing population also sets pressure on the available resources which results to exhaustion of energy resources that inherently lead to environment degradation. Hence control of populations is required so as to harmonize the utilization of resources. Factors such as family planning education and sensitization should be done by the university so to ensure preservation of resources through prevention of exploitation as a result of huge population. High population can lead to rising cost leaving and diminishing returns. As a university population control methodologies should be widely studied in terms of the risks involved in the increasing or decreasing population. In both cases the nation should be aware of the repercussions so as to take corrective measures to control the population. Relations should be maintained by the university and other institutions with the government in decisions that might affect the whole public. The decisions to be discussed should be on means of acquiring revenue and its allocation. The university should also invest in ample research on the means to curb sudden changes in economy which force the government to make adverse economic decisions. Research may be in form of detecting risks which are likely to attack the economy and the ways of managing the risks. Customer changing trends should also be observed so as to enable sell relevant products all times. This will engage research in developing product utility periodically. In the world of day to day discovery, institutions face a risk of becoming extinct due to introduction of new technology, system and materials. Institutions have to invest in risk management for such turn-outs of events. Introduction of cheaper ways of production of goods and services has led closure of old companies that could not catch up with the competition. This has led to trends of institutions investing in product and services sustainability through ample research of improving the product and making them less costly. Most entrepreneurs have being successful since they have majorly come in to fulfill the customer satisfaction gap. Edinburgh Napier University should highly invest in economic and markets sustainability so as to educate the business owners on ways to improve their products and services in line with technological advancements in the business sector. Promotion of small businesses should be invested in as they are the major contributors to new business developments. The university can be part of growth by conducting ample research in entrepreneurship so as to improve the small scale businesses. New systems and technologies can be easily adapted by the university compared to individual. Such adaption enables study of the presented technology and eventually thought to the many institutions. The university should invest in a research centre for learning which will lead to a more informed nation. The research centre can invest in production of biofuel forms of energy for households so as to get fuel solutions which are environmental friendly. Research could also lead to efficient transport planning and operations to reduce on unnecessary fuel combustion that causes emissions. Sustainable engineered transport devices can be discovered through ample research; this will include vehicles that consume less fuel or carry out less combustion. Reduction, reuse, and recycling of waste should be a culture embraced in the university disposal mechanism. The same should be sensitized to the community on waste management. This assures maximum utilization of resources and securing environment from waste disposals. The university should fund and support in kind work of improvement of environment. Activities such as tree plantation and construction of water reservoirs that require financing can be supported by the university. Though it may seem costly the university has to extend its help so as to set the pace on the need for environmental sustainability. The university should invest in small and medium enterprises growth since they have a promising impact in the development of the economy of the nation. Low carbon housing constructions should be a major focus in its construction and also in sensitization of the community so as to reduce carbon emissions. The university should increase its level of community engagement so as to reach a sustainable environment. It should serve as a center of reference in most matters of sustainability of the economy, environment, technology and demographics. A lot of education is mostly expected from learning institutions hence the university has no choice than to invest in a lot of research and development. Sustainability advancements can be improved periodically by Edinburgh Napier University. It can annually review the progress of the sustainability measures undertaking so as to get the feedback on the progress. This can be through use of the base year when a certain measure began to be enforced. For example, the year in which minimization of travels should be recorded after which it is compared to the other in terms of improvement in fuel consumption. This comparison will enable a clear measure of improvement in sustainability measures. References Baker, S. (2006). Sustainable development. London: Routledge. EU sustainable development strategy: a test case for good governance : position paper of the European Consultative Forum on the Environment and Sustainable Development.. (2001). Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the Euuropean Communities. Elliott, J. A. (2002). An introduction to sustainable development (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. Gifford, C. (2004). Sustainable development. Oxford: Heinemann Library. Pryor, K. J. (2003). Sustainable development. South Yarra [Vic.: Macmillan Library. Sourcebook on sustainable development. (1992). Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada: International Institute for Sustainable Development. Stokke, O. (1991). Sustainable development. London: F. Cass in association with the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), Geneva. Sustainable development. (1993). Bradford, West Yorkshire, England: MCB University Press in association with the International Land Management Research Centre. Sustainable development: bridging the research. (2005). Islamabad: SDPI ;. Read More