ATL Activity 2 - The World Counts (climate change)

Take a look at The World Counts website to see how the earth’s average temperature is continually rising. According to the website, if no action is taken to tackle the global problem of climate change, temperatures could increase by 5 degrees by 2100. Use the website to help answer the question below.

What are the economic implications of global temperatures rising by around 5 degrees within the next eight decades?

 ATL Activity 3 - The Coca-Cola Company

Coca-Cola is the world’s most successful consumer drinks company. However, this also means the company is the planet’s largest plastic polluter. Read this BBC article about Coca-Cola’s impact on the environment, and answer the questions that follow:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50175594

This task can also be useful for the CUEGIS assessment.

1. Coca-Cola was once associated with “teaching the world to sing”. According to the author, what is it being increasingly associated with today?

   Plastic pollution and childhood obesity

2. Who is the global chief executive of the Coca-Cola Company?

   James Quincey

3. How many plastic bottles does the Coca-Cola Company produce each year?

   Over 100 billion plastic bottles!

4. What does the company aim to achieve by 2030?

   To recover every plastic bottle for every one the company sells, and to use 50% of this for new bottles (an example of cradle to cradle manufacturing)

5. What is Coca-Cola’s annual sales revenue?

   Over $40 billion (that equates to $109,589,041 in sales revenue every day of the year!)

6. What are the largest growth areas for the company?

   Zero-sugar versions of Coca-Cola and the company’s water and juice drinks

7. When did the UK government introduce its sugar tax?

   2016

8. If Coca-Cola reduced its use of plastics by 5%, how many plastic bottles would be avoided in the production process?

   500 million fewer bottles (which is the same as saving 1,369,863 plastic bottles per day of the year, or a staggering 57,077 plastic bottles each hour of the day, every day)

 Case Study 4 - Prada

Read this article about luxury brand Prada’s “Re-Nylon” project, which aims to replace all of the company’s nylon products with recyclable ocean trash by the end of 2021. Whilst many luxury brands continue to use the finest leathers, silks and cashmeres from around the world, Prada’s efforts to invest in sustainable alternatives has led the business to use ocean plastics and fishing nets to make its bags. Prada’s Re-Nylon bags range from US$1,550 to $1,790.

 Case Study 5 - France bans waste foods

In 2016, France became the first country in the world to ban supermarkets from throwing away unsold food products, such as fresh bread, fruits, vegetables, eggs, fresh milk and other perishable goods. Instead, supermarkets are required to donate the food items to charities and food banks.

 ATL Activity 7 - Population trends

Take a look at this website (Worldometers.com) with some fascinating live data, including the size of the world’s population, as well as the populations of the world’s 20 largest countries (by population size). Click here to see the information on this website, which clearly points to the importance of social sustainability.

 ATL Activity 9 - Sustainability goals and business functions

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Business operations are bound by the rules, regulations and laws of the countries in which they operate. Prior to the agreement on the 17 SDGs in 2015, member states of the United Nations focused on the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These were originally planned to be achieved by all 193 UN member countries by 2000 (hence the name). However, the target for achieving the MDGs was extended to 2015, prior to UN members adapting the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Get students to work in pairs or groups of three to summarise the MDGs and the SDGs. Importantly, they need to be able to apply these sustainability goals to business organizations and business functions. Ask them to evaluate the implications of these goals on business operations (they may choose to use a PEST or STEEPLE framework for this.

 ATL Activity 10 - The importance of green credentials

Read this interesting article from phs about the importance of green credentials and how businesses can improve their green credentials.

Green credentials refers to the credibility of a business in terms of its ecological sustainability, which will also have a direct impact on its economic sustainability. For example, a business which actively engages with the three Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle) is likely to have better green credentials than firms that do not. The three Rs is a simple framework that can be applied across the board to businesses of all sizes in all industries.

It is increasingly challenging for organizations to ignore business ethics, sustainability issues and considering the environmental impacts of their operations. Sustainability is of growing importance to customers and governments around the world.

Read the article above and consult any other resources to answer the two questions below:

1. Why are green credentials important?

2. What are the main ways suggested in the article to help businesses to improve their green credentials?

 Case Study 8 - Tourism, planet, people and profits

With the growth in tourism across the world, many business opportunities are created. However, this creates potentially huge threats to the three pillars of sustainability. The case study refers to Venice, but could equally apply to other highly popular tourist destinations.

Rialto Bridge, Venice, in northeastern Italy

Venice, Italy is a popular city destination for tourists who come from all over the world for the well-preserved architecture (worthy of UNESCO World Heritage status), the waterways, canals, gondolas and bridges of the historic centre, the art culture evident in museums, palaces, the opera and churches.

Increased transport routes, low-cost airlines, cruise ship visits, and the growth of affordable accommodation options, like Airbnb, have helped to create many new business opportunities and increase tourism in Venice. However, its popularity has grown to the extent that it is widely recognised as suffering from overtourism. This means that there are too many tourists for Venice in order to sustain the area (with a population of around 262,000 people) without a worsening of conditions. Some 20 million people visit Venice each year, which averages out to around 54,800 visitors per day (although this easily reaches an estimated 100,000 visitors per day during the peak season). Furthermore, tourists concentrate in hotspot sites within the city, such as the Rialto Bridge and St. Mark’s Square resulting in extreme congestion.

Environmental consequences - the threat to ecological sustainability

Litter, congestion and noise pollution are all obvious by-products of tens of thousands of tourists visiting Venice each day, especially in the historic centre of the city. Air and water pollution are also problems caused by the thousands of boats and water taxis used to ferry tourists around.

Water and noise pollution caused by boats in the canals

Cruise ships are also thought to increase erosion from their wake  and alter the water channels due to their huge water displacement. These issues have caused what is known as Venice’s ‘sinking’ problem, which is related to subsidence as well as rising sea levels. Although this is not a direct result of tourism, the masses of tourists put additional and perhaps unsustainable stresses on the city’s infrastructure and services which are trying to cope with the subsidence and flooding.

Socio-economic consequences - threats to social and economic sustainability

Local residents are used to living in a highly popular tourist destination and of course there will be numerous economic benefits from the tourism industry, including job opportunities and higher sales revenues from local and foreign tourists. However, the disadvantages include over-dependence on tourism, erosion of other local business and trades, higher prices (inflation), including increased property prices. Indeed, the local property market is now so distorted that there is a lack of affordable rental properties as landlords can earn more money from holiday rentals through Airbnb, for example. This has led to a declining local population, who have been pushed out of the city.

The decline in the quality of the tourism experience is another ‘self-inflicted’ consequence of overtourism in Venice. The views of the city's historic architecture, traditional cultural experiences and boat rides along the canals and waterways are in danger of being ruined by the very presence of the tourists themselves (in huge and growing numbers).

Ultimately, the idea of sustainable tourism is built on the basis of economic sustainability (profit), social sustainability (people) and ecological sustainability (planet) in the framework of a circular economy. Sustainable tourism requires such an approach so that the use of resources can be reduced, recycled and/or reused for further productive use in the industry. Essentially, a circular economy is based on the principles of the preservation and restoration of scarce resources so that once they are used they  can be reused in the production process rather than being discarded as waste and/or generated as pollution.