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Sustainability and Metrics - Coggle Diagram

- - - - This means looking at a product’s life from design to disposal, including all the resources required.
      - Recognising that raw materials and human resources are subsystems of any production process may provide a helpful perspective.
        
        Similarly, the product or service itself is a small part of much larger social, economic, and environmental systems.
      - Managers also need to understand that the inputs and interfaces between the hiring or laying off employees can be expected to have moral implications for internal systems (within the organisation), as well as socioeconomic implications on systems beyond the firm
      - Alongside this, managers understand that the systems immediately under their control interact with systems below and above them, more informed judgements regarding sustainability can be made.
    - - Those that do not often have unidentified or ambiguous ownership (sunshine, air, airspace) or are held by the public. Such resources are often referred to as being in the common.
      - Resources held in the common are often misallocated. Examples include depletion of fish in international waters and polluted air and waterways.
        
        Solutions
        
        Moving some of the common to private property (e.g., selling radio frequency spectrum)
        
        Allocation of rights (e.g., establishing finishing boundaries)
        
        Allocation of yield (e.g., only a quantity of fish and be harvested)
    - - One way to think of sustainability is to consider the systems necessary to support the triple bottom line of the three Ps: People, Planet, and Profits.
        
        People – Companies are becoming more aware o how their decisions affect people, not only their employees and customers but also those who live in the communities in which they operate.
        
        Most employers want to pay fair wages, offer educational opportunities, and provide a safe and healthy workplace. So do their suppliers. However, globalisation and the reliance on outsourcing to suppliers around the world complicate the task.
        
        Alongside this operations managers must consider the working conditions in which they place their own employees.
        
        This includes training and safety orientation, before-shift exercises, safety equipment, and rest breaks to reduce the possibility of worker fatigue and injury.
        
        must also make decisions regarding the disposal of material and chemical waste, including hazardous material to avoid harm to employees and the community.
        
        Planet – when discussing the subject of sustainability, our planet’s environment is the first thing that comes to mind, so it understandably gets substantial attention from managers.
        
        The overarching objective for operations managers is to conserve scarce resources, thereby reducing the negative impact on the environment.
        
        To gauge their environmental impact on the planet, many companies are measuring their carbon footprint, which is a measure of the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused directly and indirectly by an organisation, a product, an event, or a person.
        
        A substantial portion of GHGs is released naturally by farming, cattle, and decaying forests and, to a lesser degree, by manufacturing and services.
        
        The most common GHG produced by human activities is carbon dioxide, primarily from burning fossil fuels for electricity generation, heating, and transport.
        
        Profit – Social and environmental sustainability do not exist without economic sustainability, which refers to how companies remain in business.
        
        Alternative measures
        
        Profit
        
        Intellectual property
        
        Employee moral
        
        Risk Profile
        
        Company valuation
        
        To support economic sustainability, firms may supplement standard financial accounting and reporting with some version of social accounting, which can include brand equity, management talent, human capital development and benefits, R&D, productivity, philanthropy, and taxes paid.
- - - - In the circular economy, resources are used for as long as possible and then recover and regenerate to the maximum possible value at the end of service life.
      - Managers can implement the circular economy through
        
        product design
        
        The decisions that are made during this phase greatly affect materials, quality, cost, processes, related packaging and logistics, and ultimately how the product will be processed when discarded.
        
        During design, one of the goals is to incorporate a systems view in the product or service design that lowers the environmental impact.
        
        Such an approach reduces waste and energy costs at the supplier, in the logistics system, and for the end user
        
        Product design teams also look for alternative materials from which to make their products
        
        Product designers often must decide between two or more environmentally friendly design alternatives.
        
        production processes
        
        Manufacturers look for ways to reduce the number of resources in the production process.
        
        Opportunities to reduce environmental impact during production typically revolve around the themes of energy, water, and environmental contamination.
        
        logistics
        
        As products move along in the supply chain, managers strive to achieve route and delivery networks, just as they seek to drive down operating cost. Doing so reduces environmental impact.
        
        Management analysis (such as linear programming, queuing, and vehicle routine software) help firms worldwide optimise elaborate supply-chain and distribution networks.
        
        To further enhance logistic efficiency, operations managers also evaluate equipment alternatives, considering cost, payback period, and the firm’s stated environmental objectives.
        
        end of life
        
        Products with less material, with recycled material, or with recyclable materials all contribute to sustainability efforts, reducing the need for the burn or bury decision and conserving scarce natural resources.
        
        Firms can no longer sell a product and then forget about it as they need to design and implement end-of-life systems for the physical return of products that facilitate recycling or reuse.
- - - - Commercial homebuilders are required not just to manage water runoff but to have a pollution prevention plan for each site.
      - Public drinking water systems must comply with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act’s arsenic standards, even for existing facilities.
      - Hospitals are required to meet the terms of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which governs the storage and handling of hazardous material.