Sustainable business is an evolving term introduced into the world economics due to rising concern on environmental conservation and the role of entrepreneurs in the environmental changes. The business fraternity has a responsibility to the society and obligation to comply with the government regulations on sustainable practices. These initiatives should not be forced on concerned entities but should be appreciated as the most appropriate system of creating a sustainable practice guide that will exploit the present environmental resources without interfering with the future ability of the next generation to utilize these resources when they are needed. This subject has necessitated changes in the education sector to consider, through theoretical frameworks, possible ways that a sustainable business can be achieved (Wells 2013). Therefore, sustainability can only be solved when agreement and cooperation between the business community, government, society, and the education sector.
Businesses as the leading contributors to environmental depletion cannot exist without the consumers who cannot understand or appreciate the products produced by the production sector without the active role of marketing. According to Silk, (2006), business exists for two primary reasons, and these are to create consumers through marketing and to be innovative. The creation of consumers involves an understanding of the consumer needs so that the business can be able to create value; the process of value creation involves being innovative (Silk 2006). Thus, the entrepreneur must be educated on the consumer consumption trend and needs and use this information to innovate new products, which then must be distributed; and if the appropriate customer does not exist, it must be created through an educative marketing strategy. These two roles place the business industry as the special group to implement their tool of education and innovativeness to educate the society to adopt sustainable practices. Businesses should undo what they have done by re-educating society and invent new products that will be in line with sustainable practices.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The food industry has suffered much wastefulness. The Food Agriculture Organization (FAO) had an agenda of reducing food wastage at its formation in 1945, but this plan has not been realized (Parfitt, Barthel and Macnaughton, 2010). The food industry has created a consumer trait based on the concept of buy-consume-waste-buy. This vicious cycle necessitates the continuous use of raw materials in the production line, wastage of natural resources such as land and so on and these results in net wastefulness which threatens the life of earth and its ability to sustain the ever-growing population. The result of the marketing plan has been the creation of a careless consumer, one whose needs is not satisfied but are created by the very means intended to satisfy them. Factors such as urbanization, contraction of the agricultural land, dietary transition, and globalization of trade have led to increased wastefulness and overexploitation (Parfitt, Barthel and Macnaughton, 2010). Accessibility is the underlying factor that initiates the path to the general loss; farmers can produce more, commodities are readily availed at the cities and towns, and the global market has been reduced into a small village enabling trade making it easier to satisfy a need without realizing the burden of production and the consequences of wastefulness. Therefore, consumers can obtain what they require easily and thus become wasteful having the assurance of obtaining again. A continuation of these trends will ultimately lead to depletion of environmental reserves and pollution resulting from processes producing ready food, which is against the global agenda of sustainable practices.
In conclusion, the business sector has a moral obligation to satisfy the consumer needs for a sustainable environment, and safe products. Marketing strategies should be revised to create the right consumption culture by encouraging less and wise use of food and other materials, adoption of renewable strategies and the introduction of innovative products that will help in the process of transforming the society's erroneous habits.
Bibliography
Parfitt, J., Barthel, M., and Macnaughton, S., 2010. Food waste within food supply chains: quantification and potential for change to 2050. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 365 (1554), pp.3065-3081.
Silk, A.J., 2006. What is marketing?. Harvard Business Press.
Wells, G. ed., 2013. Sustainable business: Theory and practice of business under sustainability principles. Edward Elgar Publishing.
