6.2 Midterm Exam Kacie E. Diedrich Dr. Jennifer Beaman CSR: 610 Business Ethics and Culture Southern New Hampshire University June 2015 What is sustainability? Sustainability encompasses many different ideals and views. Simply put sustainability means balance. In this course we are looking at the balance between humans and the environment. Thomas Berry writes “to create an ecologically sustainable relationship between the human species and the planet. This is the great challenge of our times. If we fail this challenge, we literally fail in the entire evolutionary experiment of the human species and in the process will destroy much of the evolutionary development of the Cenozoic age of the last 60 million years …show more content…
Sustainable business is essentially one that operates itself while being environmentally conscience. Sustainable business has become the goal in the modern world for how a business manages itself in today’s society. The purpose of this is to ensure reliability in the purpose, satisfaction, and longevity of the business. Starbuck’s Go Green campaign is an example of this. Starbucks declares that they are “green” and strives for building a rapport with local farmers, pioneering the “go green” philosophy, and creating opportunities. With this campaign Starbucks has been able to reduce its operating costs and its carbon footprint. “As a company that relies on agricultural products, we have long been aware that the planet is our most important business partner” (Environment, 2015). Starbucks launched the initiative Coffee and Farmer Equity in 2004. This equity established sustainability standards. “Starbucks ethical sourcing program continued to grow, and in 2008 we set a goal that by 2015, 100% of Starbucks coffee would be ethically sourced through C.A.F.E.” (Starbucks Global Responsibility Report, 2014). With C.A.F.E. in place environmental and social circumstances on farms has improved