Sustainable Business Practices Essay

Sustainable business practices refers to business ventures that do not damage the natural resources so that the activities of such businesses leave the resources intact to be used by the generations that will come after the current generation is gone. This paper elaborates on such businesses and the reason why we need to adopt such ventures.According to Sullivan (2007) a sustainable economic activity does not cause harm to the environment and people because it does not include any solid substances in its products and services, unlike other activities that require raw materials which are processed to make the final product which results in a lot of environmental degradation.Sustainable economic activities integrate elements of sustainability in every step of making decisions. Secondly, they introduce green products and services with the aim of facing out non-green products and services. Organizations that participate in green activities still make their intended proceeds.The above practices have been adopted because man has realized that if he continues polluting the environment, the earth would eventually become inhabitable because some of the waste that is derived from industrial processes damage the ozone layer which means that the rays of the sun will land on humans and other living creatures directly, and in the final end man and other living beings will die.It is also important to note that if human economic activities are not regulated the very few natural resources that are left will diminish because people are not doing anything to replace the resources they have used so far. That’s why governments are regulating the felling of trees. Initially people were encouraged to plant at least two trees for every tree that was cut down but since most business people don’t bother to conserve the natural resources, governments have decided to monitor the use of natural resources (Anderson, 2006).According to Rennie (2008), there are quite a number of organizations that have commendable contributions towards paperless operations. For instance Google introduced electronic books to ensure that learning materials should not be necessarily be made from papers. This means trees should not be cut down because writing materials are manufactured from trees and thus trees should now be left to serve their intended purposes because an alternative has been found.If more nations embrace this technology, the culture of cutting down trees for industrial purposes will come to an end. In fact more people are supporting electronic books because they don’t get damaged like books made from papers and the students can use them at their convenience without having to carry bulky bags of books.

Besides, green house gases contribute to global warming which does not allow the earth to retain warmth from the sun. If humans continue to use raw materials the deposits of those materials will become exhausted in future and hence the successive generations will find it difficult to manufacture goods and services due to lack of natural resources.Sustainable business practices include waste management programs which ensure that the environment is not polluted. This can be done by recycling of waste to avoid polluting the environment. For instance, plastic paper bags should be avoided because they don’t decompose hence should be replaced by those that are made from recyclable materials.The practices are very efficient because they reduce the cost of production. For instance if a publishing firm wanted to print a book it would cost more if the book was published in papers rather than when its published electronically. Due to globalization most organizations are opting to go for electronic transactions because they don’t interfere with natural resources. Moreover electronic transactions are fast and less tedious. Previously when most transactions were written on papers organizations found themselves with huge work loads.For instance, in most government offices and hospitals the records were kept in filling cabinets which means when a file was required the clerks took more time to retrieve that particular file. Today things have changed because records are stored in computers hence they are easily retrieved.Penfield (2008) explains that nearly all operations are done without using papers including communication which in the previous decades relied on letters which were sent through the postal office. In such cases, letters could take several weeks before they could reach their intended destination and their confidentiality was not reliable because they could be opened by the post office employees.The invention of mobile phones has almost faced out letter writing because telephone conversions are fast and reliable. Some mobile operators have introduced paperless top up with the aim of avoiding accumulation of waste papers.Another sector that has the potential of exercising sustainable business practices is the transport sector. Experts have invented bio-fuel for automobiles because the current fuel which is derived from oil pollutes the environment when it is used in vehicles and other engines. Bio fuel is obtained from plants and it does not pollute the environment because it does not contain carbon dioxide.This argument is very true because plants contain oxygen which they obtain from the sun and hence fuel obtained from plants is least likely to be harmful to both humans and the environment (Penfield, 2007). Additionally using plants to generate fuel will live the present oil deposits intact.In conclusion, all businesses should identify ways of carrying on their economic activities without causing any damage to the environment because if the environment is damaged it will not be possible for humans to exist on this planet.A keen observation of weather patterns indicate that the pattern has changed hence it’s not easy to predict weather and it is obvious the irregularity in weather patterns have been caused by human activities. Therefore businesses should not only focus on making proceeds but also on how they can conserve the environment. This can be done by using materials that are recyclable.