Critical Analyses Of Sustainability: Pros And Cons

1.0 Introduction

Nowadays, sustainability has become an extremely topical issues in the modern 21st-century society as the world population continues to grow and technology evolve (Martin & Schouten, 2012). The concept of sustainability was brought to the attention of humanity during the 20th century. Sustainability is focused on meeting the present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Sustainability is getting essential for all organisations from different industries. Unilever made sustainability as a part of its company identity. Unilever is a-Dutch consumer goods company that makes as well as sell around 400 brands in more than 190 countries. They have 26 sustainable living brands including Dove, Lipton, Hellmann’s and Seventh Generation.

2.0 Critical analyses of sustainability and how it influences consumers

2.1 Sustainability

“Sustainability is a vision of the future that provides us with a road map and helps us to focus our attention on a set of values and ethical and moral principles by which to guide our actions” (Munier, 2005). Sustainable development and business sustainability, formulate from the understanding that the conciliation among the economic, environmental and social pillars is a must.

2.2 Pros and cons of being sustainable

2.2.1 Pros (Advantages)

There are many advantages of being sustainable, they are lower environmental impact and guarantee of a better future. Lower environmental impact means that develop the economy without compromising nature. For example, reducing the emissions of gases that led to acid rain and global warming. Becoming a sustainable business helps increase productivity and reduce costs. Reducing costs includes energy-saving strategies such as turning of unnecessary lights. Apart from that, the sustainable business also attracts employees and investors. People nowadays especially younger generations, like to be associated with the positive. They do not want to be linked to companies that are involved in social welfare scandals and ecological disasters.

2.2.2 Cons (Disadvantages)

Every coin has two sides, there are also cons of being sustainable. Being sustainable may cause unemployment in some areas. Changes in preserving the ecosystem may cause several industries to reduce their activities. This will cause unemployment to people who work in a single industry or sector.

2.3 Factors that influence consumers’ behaviour and decision making

2.3.1 Theory of Reasoned Action

Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) was proposed (Fishbein & Azjen, 1975). The theory of reasoned action is concerned about individual attitudes and behaviours as determinants of human action. In TRA, behavioural intention can be explained by the attitude towards behaviour and subjective norm. In this report, the theory of reasoned action (TRA) will be use as the base model to investigate consumers’ behaviour toward sustainability.

2.3.2 Factors influencing consumers’ behaviour

The intrinsic factors that sustainability influence consumers’ behaviour are they take care of themselves, take care of the community and take care of the environment. Consumers that care for oneself are possessing a healthy lifestyle. They will prefer to purchase products that are eco-friendly, locally grown or produced food and plant-based diets. Consumers’ will have positive behaviour towards organizations that are involved in community services and contribute to the community. These organizations will improve brand awareness. Moreover, consumers that care their environment will consider where and under what conditions the product they want to buy was produced. They will make sure the product they buy is environmentally friendly. Companies that practice sustainable habits will lead to have a good brand image and competitive advantage. Consumers will likely to buy products and services due to the brand image.

3.0 Unilever’s Sustainability Effort

Unilever’s sustainability effort of The Sustainable Living Plan identifies three big goals: ‘improving health and well-being’, ‘reducing environmental impact’ and ‘enhancing livelihoods’.

3.1 Improving health and well-being

Unilever’s approaches to achieving this goal include improving health and hygiene, as well as nutrition. Unilever sets a mission of helping more than 1 billion people to improve their health and hygiene by 2020. Unilever also set a mission of meeting the highest nutritional standards by 2020.

3.1.1 Health and hygiene

Unilever had reached 1.24 billion people in 2018, where 635 million people are via on-ground programmes, 587 million people via handwashing TV reach through their programmes on handwashing, safe drinking water, sanitation, oral health, self-esteem and skin healing.

3.1.2 Improving nutrition

Unilever improves nutrition by controlling the nutritional standards of their food, reducing salt level of their food and sugar level for sweetened tea-based beverages, as well as containing 250 calories or fewer per portion for packaged ice cream.

3.2 Reducing environmental impact

Unilever are reducing environmental impact by controlling the greenhouse gas emission across the lifecycle, water associated with consumer use of their product, and agricultural raw materials sourced sustainability. Unilever also target to reduce 50% of waste associated with the disposal of their product. Unilever successfully reduced 52% of Carbon Dioxide emissions from energy per tonne of production, reduced 44% of water abstraction per tonne of production, reduced 97% of total waste sent for disposal. Lastly, they have over 600 million euro of energy costs avoided via eco-efficiency since 2008.

3.3 Enhancing livelihoods

In order to enhance livelihoods, they are contributing to help drive fairness in the workplace, advancing opportunities for women and developing an inclusive business.

They have continued to embed human rights focusing on the 8 salient issues in their human rights report. Unilever continued to work on their fair compensation framework which includes their commitment to a living wage. Safety performance improved to 0.69 accidents per million hours worked. Unilever also contributed to let 1.85 million of women enabled to access initiatives aiming to promote safety, develop skills and expand opportunities. Unilever also enabled access to initiatives aiming to improve agricultural practices or increase incomes for 746,000 smallholder farmers, and 1.73 million small-scale retailers.

3.4 Unilever’s competitor: Procter & Gamble

Procter & Gamble focuses on environmental sustainability. P&G involve in conserving water, eliminating waste, preserving our climate, renewable energy in their plants. P&G views sustainability as an opportunity for business growth and not just as a responsibility. However, Unilever believes that sustainability is not a “business-as-usual” approach, they decouple business growth and sustainability for the environment.

4.0 Recommendations for the company

Although Unilever has done a lot in sustainable practices and sustainability programs, but it may also improve on the connections between consumers and the product. Unilever may also introduce more campaigns and programmes to raise awareness about its sustainable programs. Unilever need to change operations in a particular country. It should improvise a country-specific approach. It helps the company to achieve more sustainable goals.

5.0 Conclusion

In conclusion, sustainability might have pros and cons, but its advantages bring positive impact to the environment, social as well as economy. It is important for organisations to have sustainable practices. Sustainability helps an organization to drive values for its business, stay relevant to consumers as well as strengthen its relationship with stakeholders.