Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
4
Politics
(political activity, boycott call, genetic engineering, anti-social finance,
company ethos).
5
Product sustainability
(organic, fair trade, positive environmental and/or sustain-
ability features).
There are two types of ethiscore. For companies the score can range from 0 (bad)
to 15 (excellent) and for products 0 (bad) to 20 (excellent), based on combining the
company ethiscore with a score for product sustainability. Points are deducted for
criticism of company performance - for example, on workers' rights or animal
testing - and added for positive product attributes - for example, fair trade or
organic. An example of the value of such a system can be found in a study of the
effects of large corporate takeovers on the performance of smaller ethical enterprises
such as Ben and Jerry's, Pret a Manger, Green and Black's, The Body Shop and
Rachel's Organic. In each case, the bigger corporation wants to improve its brand
image by incorporating the ethical business, but in each case reviewed, the smaller
organization's company and product ethiscore dropped, in some cases quite consider-
ably. The rating of the ice-cream manufacturer Ben and Jerry's, for example, fell
from its pre-takeover rating of 13 to 1.5 following its capture by Unilever (Teather,
2007). Significantly, possibly as a result of this type of criticism, many large companies,
including Unilever, have considerably revised and reformed their social responsibility
and sustainability practices and some, such as Nike, are successfully moving towards
developing more ecocentric transformational business and marketing strategies
(Borland and Lingreen, 2013).
Jugaad
: creativity, frugal innovation and resilient ingenuity
Jugaad
is a Hindi term meaning an improvised solution born from ingenuity. For
the authors of
Jugaad Innovation
(Radjou, Prabhu and Ahuja, 2012) this translates
further to mean doing more with less, seeking opportunity from adversity, seeking
simple solutions and believing in what you are doing. Jugaad is closely associated
with an improvised solution, but since the 2008 financial crash the idea seems to
have gone global, attracting major corporations from all over the world. The basic
idea is that at the root of these improvised solutions is a creativity that should not
be systematized or made rigid by management systems that identify and prescribe
specific steps, stages and actions. There is a flow and naturalness to jugaad that
resonates with the more creative juices of the sustainability debate and the need to
conserve resources rather than to flagrantly expend them in high-status R&D exercises.
Total Quality Management systems such as Six Sigma and similar were, and are,
designed to deliver predictability to organizations. For instance, the Six Sigma website
states that 'it is a disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating
defects . . . in any process - from manufacturing to transactional and from product
to service'. There is now a need to go beyond this if the uncertainties and risks of
unsustainability are to be addressed effectively. Predictability in such circumstances,
especially when major changes can occur swiftly, can impede action, development,
creativity and learning. There needs to be a greater degree of flexibility, fluidity and
creativity than a more prescriptive process can offer. Social media has democratized
innovation and communication to some extent and this in turn has led to a greater
degree of flexibility and a changing of mindsets, of thinking and perception.
