Video Transcript: Lecture 4

Hello everybody. Welcome to lecture four. We are going to be discussing  sustainability today, so that is a good one, right? I mean, that's certainly  something that has been part of in the United States, that's been part of a  national conversation. It certainly is part of the international conversation. But I  think it's important to recognize that sustainability crosses many different areas,  and it's not just environmental, but we will focus on environmental as well as  some of the other areas. So looking forward to this lecture and looking forward  to our time together as we are right in the thick of these lectures. So keep in  mind that first couple we just talked about, kind of what is international business. Then we then we talked a little bit about some of the statistics around the  staggering statistics around the international business. Last module, we focused on culture, and talked about Hofstede and certainly some of the elements of  culture and why it was important to have a global mindset. And now we move  into sustainability, and then we're gonna get into some economic forces and  things like that, and and that is where we're going next. But let's start with  sustainability, shall we? Let's not get a hold ahead of ourselves. And by the way, from a company perspective, I really enjoy the company that we will be  discussing this module briefly. It is, it is a company that I certainly enjoy their  products as you as you will be able to figure out. But anyway, I just want to go  ahead and talk about sustainability, and we'll get to that portion later. So let's  remember that the concept of sustainability is critically important. There are  certainly different types of sustainability, so don't think of sustainability as just  environmental sustainability. The definition of sustainability is pretty simple. It  means maintaining something. So if you think about maintaining something as  definition of sustainability, you can see that sustainability goes beyond just the  environment, but it's talking about everything. Maintaining something is  sustainability. So talking about economic sustainability, you have to do things to  maintain your business. And environmental way, you got to do things, etc, etc.  So thinking about sustainability as maintaining something is a good start, but  that's certainly not as nuanced as the definition can get. So most sustainability  definitions talk about meeting the needs of the present without compromising  future generations abilities to meet their needs. And that's why you hear this talk  about the environment a lot. If we burn out our resources now, our future  generations will not succeed. That's so you can think about that in terms of  sustainability. To be sustainable, companies need to consider how they do  business and change the way they manage things. For example, with  environmental sustainability, one of the things you can think about if you're a  paper company, is, if you cut down a tree, you plant a tree, right? So every tree  you cut down to make paper, you then subsequently plant a tree. And that will,  that will help ensure that the future, that there's trees for the future, that your  business continues to be sustainable, that future generations will have the right  levels of oxygen and everything else that they need. So that's one example in a 

business content context, sustainability goes beyond environmental. It also talks about social sustainability and economic sustainability, which I talked about a  little bit. So sustainability talks about conservation and savings, but it's more  than that as well. It's understanding the entire supply chain, and we're going to  talk about that in the context of the company I picked as well, because they  have made some bold statements with regarding their sustainable practices  when it comes to their supply chain, when it comes to even their customers  using their products. So in order to achieve sustainable principles, they need to  there needs to be an understanding of the entire life cycle of the product and.  Assessment of that life cycle, so understanding the entire product. So this is  getting a little bit ahead of myself, but I have a computer that is apple. I note my  case, which I used for this class. And I have a Apple phone, and I have an Apple Watch in my bag over here, I have an Apple iPad, and when I get home, I will be watching my Apple TV. I think you see my point. When I go to work, I'll be  listening to my Apple home pod, etc, etc, etc. So in order for Apple to consider  sustainable practices, which, again, this is the focus of the company this week,  they have to consider the product from cradle you'll hear the term from cradle to  grave. They have to consider the product from cradle to grave. So they need to  understand that if you're concerned about an environmental footprint, designing  technological products that require replacement annually is not going to help  help the environment, and that understanding the role of finding finite resources  is important. So it is a balancing act, right, because ultimately a company needs  to sell well, depending on the company, right, their service related companies,  which we talked about, the important service committee, but for Apple, they  have services, but they also have tangible products that I pointed out all over the place, right? So for Apple, they need to think about and they need to understand that if they make a product that's going to break every year, like if this watch  broke every year and it was only supposed to last a year, then they need to do  that to make money. But they also need to know that that's a very taxing on the  environment, that's very taxing on people economically, that's that's very taxing  in a whole host of ways, plus the social impact of making that kind of decision as well. So So Apple is thinking about these kind of things, and they are going to go 100% carbon neutral for all the products they offer. And that's not just for the  products that they offer in their supply chain, but that's when the products get to  me and you and others that those products will be carbon neutral as well. So  they're doing this through reduced packaging, which some can argue the merits  of that but, but certainly some of the things they're doing there energy initiatives  and also the importance of recycling and reuse and the incentive, incentivizing  people to do that, you can see with this plastic bottle that this is obviously taxing  on the environment as well, even though pure life, you know, certainly has a  planet on there. But there are some initiatives that are doing that as well. So  there are companies that that like carpet manufacturers, that are using old 

plastic bottles to make a make carpet. So that's a good use, that's good for the  environment, and it's a good use of the product. And they are, they are doing  things like recycling old products, like plastic bottles to make new products.  There's also people who are have businesses where they're incentivizing and  incentivizing people to turn in their plastic bottles, which then are used to create  products, and in return, they are getting a gift card with money on it that they  can spend to buy things or get credits for things and things like that. So there's a lot of work being done by a lot of companies to to make sure that this plastic  bottle does not go to waste. In fact, I just noticed that this has all recycle symbol  on it as well. There are ways to measure sustainability within companies. It's a  little bit tough, to be honest with you. It's kind of hard to measure sustainability,  but there are ways to do it. And you know is, what index, what criteria are you  going to use to measure sustainability within a company? So there are tons out  there the United Nations is doing. There's this Global Reporting Initiative, carbon disclosure project, and others that are frameworks that are used to measure.  Sustainability, the Carbon Disclosure product, a project provides a way to report  frameworks for sustainable water use and a reduction of greenhouse gas  emissions. So the notion of footprinting, which is measuring the carbon footprint  as well as well as the water footprint, which is more difficult to measure the  water footprint, but, uh, but certainly measuring the carbon footprint is  something that that we are familiar with, but this carbon disclosure project is  also looking at the water footprint as well. So what are the characteristics of an  environmentally sustainable business? So what do you think I'm going to go  silent for a minute and let you think about that. So some of you may have  thought about the fact that a environmental sustainable business recognizes  that there are limits to resources that there's you know will eventually run out of  trees or water or soil, and that same business also recognizes the impact of  social issues which lead to sustainable practice. For example, Shell Oil has has  been accused and has been certainly been, has been trying to make some  improvements, but Shell Oil has environmentally destroyed regions of the world, particularly in Africa, when it comes to the region and has had a major negative  impact. So certainly, shell is learning from those practices of taking advantage of certain government structures and also questionable environmental practices.  So that is something they're learning from, and their sustainability score and  their environmental score is quite well. So in addition to limits environmental  sustainable businesses recognizing that interdependence exists between  sustainable practices. So outsourcing has implications for the community.  There's an impact on the environment because of increased travel to deliver the  goods and services. There's an impact on the local economy by taking those  products out of the local economy and and there is an economic and also a  societal impact for outsourcing. So there's this, this author. Her name is Barbara  Kingsolver, and she wrote this book called it, I think it was called Animal 

vegetable miracle, something like that. If you look up Kingsolver and look up  animal vegetable miracle, it'll come up and in it, what she did was she was  concerned about her family's environmental impact on the world, among other  things, so she made a commitment to stay and buy local and to grow her own  food. And for a year, her family lived off the Earth, lived off the local resources.  And then, you know, a couple of the other farms in the area as well, but basically lived off of the local resources and made a commitment to reduce the amount of  energy that they use to get their food. And when you talk about sustainability,  that is obviously a portion of sustainability as well. So obviously, recycling this  plastic bottle is important. But if I recycle this plastic bottle, and then it gets put  on a trip a truck, which is driven from where I'm at now, and then it gets on a big  boat, and then it's taken across the pond to England, where then it gets on a  plane, and then it goes here, and then it does this, and then it does this, and  then it does this. That's a bigger environmental impact than keeping this bottle  local. So that's something to keep in mind as you're thinking about sustainability, as you're thinking about sustainable practices, and you're thinking about those  kind of things, understanding that products come from somewhere, and there's  impact on where they come from is important. There is a stakeholder model for  sustainable business practices. So traditional model of serving the shareholders  is an abandoned is abandoned for an approach that favors the stakeholders. So  traditionally, you know, there's been an economic argument and a discussion  around the fact that shareholders are the people who a company serves, and  the new model is saying, No, that's not necessarily true, that we're also serving  stakeholders, and stakeholders play a vital role. So in this model, there's  increased transparency, because it's saying that society at large plays a role,  and they are a stakeholder in whatever a company is doing. For example, if a  company comes in and completely decimates the environmental in a region  environmentally, or there's a nuclear plant explosion, or whatever, then that  obviously affects the stakeholders as well as the shareholders. So profit driven  motives may not be the only reason to have your business, is the point that I'm  trying to make. So, you know, I guess the questions around that is, what is the  purpose of a company? I mean, there's problems with that approach. What is  the purpose of the company? Who does the company serve? That's that's a  legitimate question. Company, are they there for their owners, or are they there  to generate wealth in the community? Are they there to do good in the  community? What is the role of a country? And these are difficult questions that  have that certainly companies are grappling with now, particularly in the United  States, companies are grappling grappling with these issues when it comes to  social justice and things like that, and what role to play politically, and what the  role of the company is in providing those kind of initiatives. So that is something  that is currently being grappled with, is, what is the role of a company, and what  role does the company play in societal sustainability. Let me just say not to get 

political, not to involve myself in any of that. But what I will say is that I think this  is a good conversation for companies. Is what is their responsibility to the to the  general wharf aware welfare of their stakeholders, not just their shareholders,  and as a citizen, if I'm living in so I live near a beach, and if I'm living near a  beach, and, you know, somebody comes in and destroys the beach, so I cannot  company comes in and destroys the beach so I cannot Enjoy the beach  anymore, I'm going to be pretty upset. So thinking about sustainability, it comes  down to resources. So let's define some terms. There are natural resources,  which you know would be things like water, thinking about it from an energy  perspective, there are resources that are natural from the sun, like solar power  and not there. Those are all renewable sources, but non renewable sources that are natural, would think be things like oil or petroleum. So you hear the talk a lot  about protecting our reserves, protecting our natural resources, protecting and  there's a finite amount of our natural resources. Well, that's talking about non  renewable things like coal or petroleum, oil. There is a significant push toward  renewable energy. As many of you know, using solar power is certainly one,  hydroelectric power is another, and the reason for these is that they are  renewable. But there is a problem with this approach. For instance, I live in an  RV full time. And if I were to get a renewable like, like if I were to put a solar  panel, which would charge the batteries in my truck, which I don't have a truck  like that, but if, but if I did, and I had a truck that was completely electric power,  and I charged it from solar, I would, and I was pulling an RV I would not get the  range needed to to be able to travel to and fro. So scientists are working  diligently to tackle some of those issues and reduce our dependency on non  renewable energy sources. So let's see what else? No, that's it. So now I'm  going to turn to discussing one of my favorite companies and some of the things that they are doing from a sustainable practice perspective. So give me a  moment to There we go, to turn on my screen, and you can see here that that  they have several products that they are selling. If you if you want to get a Mac,  you can an iPad and Apple Watch. I'm not going to go through all them now,  remember. That we talked about both goods and services, that was from an  earlier lecture. I would like to point out that that Apple does both they offer  services, and you can see that here with Apple TV, and then they also offer  goods and products. But what I really want to focus on is looking at, whoops,  forgive me, what I really want to focus on is looking at the business. So let's look at the environment. We're carbon neutral, and by 2030 every product you love  will be too. So that means they're reworking on how it's designed. So if you think about some of the things that we just discussed in the lecture, we talked about  that cradle to grave concept, where you have to consider the entire life cycle of  a product. And Apple is showing that here as well. That goes from how it's  designed, how it's made, how it's shipped, how it's used, how it's recycled. Apple does have a plan. They have a video, which I recommend you taking the time to 

watch. We're not going to watch it now, but let's see, so you can watch that and  see that, and then learn more about their their program. So what they're doing  using renewable energy, increasing efficiency, avoiding direct emissions,  investing in natural based solutions. And they talk about their plan for that. They  talk about why. And they talk talk about a lot this is, this is pretty cool. Talks  about the evolution of the iMac and it talks about how they're getting they're  getting closer. This is clever marketing, and that is the one less thing. If you  remember Steve Jobs, you may not remember but Steve Jobs famously  announced one more thing. And that's kind of been their call. When they release new products, they go one more thing. So this is talking about one less thing,  which is pulling out the chargers, which I think I made reference to as well,  which could be, which could be pretty controversial, but they're not including  power chargers anymore as well. So this is a little bit about Apple, about their  commitment. You know how they're going to become waste free, how they quit  using certain products. And then you can see that they even have a vice  president of environmental policy and social issues. So they they are taking it  very, very, very seriously. And then they have product reports, which I will show  you this real quick. I won't read you the whole thing, but I will. I just realized I'm  scrolling pretty fast. I'm sorry about that. And you can see here climate change,  resources and smarter chemistry, and they talk about this as all part of their  plan. So Apple is a global company. It is an international company. It certainly  has a lot of manufacturing in China. China is critical to their model. But in  addition to that, they are also focused on sustainable practices, and  sustainability is something that is very important to them as a company. So with  that, I'm going to close this in prayer, and then we will talk about lecture five,  which is political forces that have an impact on global trade. So Dear Heavenly  Father, thank you so much for our time together today, Lord. I thank you for  everybody taking the time to watch this lecture and think about what we talked  about when it comes to sustainability, and how sustainability is not just  environmental sustainability, but it's also economic sustainability as well, and  social sustainability. Lord as our class as a third of the way done. I pray that that  the students have been able to take the things that, that you have wanted them  to learn Lord, and that we have taught them and they will be able to use it in  powerful ways for you and for your kingdom. So Lord, I ask for a special  blessing to the individuals in this class. I pray that you will help them to have a  wonderful day and a wonderful week that you will calm their mind and spirit, if  something is on there that you will help them to know that you are Lord and  Savior and that you are in chargeable And Lord, I pray that we will be good  stewards of the resources you have given us in Jesus. Name. Amen. Thank you  for joining me in prayer as we conclude the lecture four. I just want to let you  know that in lecture lecture five, we are going to be talking about some of those  forces that we talked about before, and we will talk about political forces and 

what impact they have on global trade. So look forward to you joining me back  for that lecture, and I hope you have a wonderful day. Thank you.