Sustain

In a new era of business, the word Sustainability maps the core values and the responsibilities of organisations towards its own and the social well beings. The concept is being accepted by more firms in order for them to sustain their business operations. A report by the World Commission on Environment and Development was published in 1987 named, Our Common Future, The aim was to address the problem of the conflicts between environment and development targets by defining a term of sustainable development (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, Our Common Future):

“Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

The definition of sustainability above suggests that there may been more complications compared to its simple definition. Norgaard (Norgaard, 1994, p22) concludes that “it will be difficult to define sustainable development in an operational manner in details and with the level of control presumed in the logic of modernity.” It will be important to identify in every aspect so as to achieve a balance objective in terms of economic, environment and social aspects throughout an organisation.

The three main elements affect the importance of sustainability for the case of Sanford Limited, a fishing company in New Zealand. In the discussion below as cited from (Holmberg, 1992; Reed, 1997; Harris et al., 2001)

Economic: “An economically sustainable system must be able to produce goods and services on a continuing basis, to maintain manageable levels of government and external debt, and to avoid extreme sectoral imbalances which damage agricultural or industrial production.”

For the case of Sanford Limited in the economic aspect cited from (Sanford’s Sustainable Development Report 2007, 2007, p62), the long-term future of the company will ensure economic success resulting in a long-term benefit to its stakeholders. Sanford also aimed to make sure...