Sustainability and the Balanced Scorecard Essay Example for Free

Sustainability and the Balanced Scorecard Essay Practices that are good for the environment and society may appear to have a negative impact on corporate profitability, but use of the balance scorecard can result in a clearer picture of the relationship among sustainable practices, corporate strategies, and profitability. This article explores three ways that sustainable practices can be incorporated into BSC and discusses issues that should be considered when selecting sustainability related measures, targets, and goals. It also examines ways to enhance both internal and external reporting of sustainability-related performance. Adopting green operating practices is certainly good for the environment, yet the implications of such practices for a business’s profitability may be viewed as both positive and negative. On one hand, by contributing to product differentiation in the market- place and enhancing organizational image to investors and customers (both current and potential), green practices may increase a company’s profitability. On the other hand, green practices may actually reduce profitability because of extra costs that result from implementation and continuation of sustainable practices. For example, installing solar panels on a building may lower monthly electricity bills, but, concomitantly, the reduced electricity bills may be more than offset by the high purchase and installation costs associated with the panels. The sustainability concept now runs rampant in business literature, but, unfortunately, there is no agreed- upon definition of sustainability or its underlying tenets. â€Å"Sustainable† or â€Å"green† practices will be found throughout the operations of a business. These practices can be included in the design features of an organization’s buildings, vendor  selection in the supply chain, production of goods and provision of services, and packaging features and distribution elements of those products and services, and the practices will be a significant consideration in a product’s ultimate disposal. The BSC typically reflect four interrelated perspectives of a company: financial, customer, international business prowess, and learning and growth. Each perspective has a series of performance measures, targets, and goals that reflect the firm’s long-term strategies. The financial perspective takes the viewpoint of the company shareholders and typically uses traditional financial measures such as operating cash flows, return on investment, and changes in operating income over time. The customer perspective addresses product and firm differentiation strategies as well as value creation from the viewpoint of the organizations client base. The international business processes perspective includes measures of the efficiency and the effectiveness of the firms operations. The learning and growth perspective focuses on the creation of organizational value through employees and innovative practices. The first method is to add a fifth perspective to the BSC. It may be the simplest approach for companies that want to emphasize sustainability as a key corporate value or a critical strategy. The sustainability perspective consists of social and environmental performance indicators that link with the other four BSC dimensions and highlights the importance of social, environmental, and economic responsibility as a corporate goal. This approach could allow management to establish less definitive measurements without compromising organizational aggregation. The second approach is sustainability-balanced scorecard (SBSC). A separate SBSC is an appropriate for many companies such as those existing BSC but want to measure or integrate sustainability without the disruption and cost of adopting a full-scale BSC. SBSC include the following four perspectives: sustainability, stakeholders, processes and learning. The sustainability perspective would emphasize the triple bottom line of economic prosperity, environmental quality, and social justice. The stakeholder perspective would  incorporate measures of business ethics, labor practices, and impact on society. The processes perspective would focus on specific organizational external and internal processes products, tools, and systems. The learning perspective would stress organizational synergy, training, and research and development. A strength of the SBSC is that a well-defined corporate sustainability strategy is not essential to its development. The third is integrating sustainability measures throughout the four perspectives. Management has to both define the metrics that are important in measuring progress towards organizational sustainability objectives, and how sustainability (or lack thereof) will affect the future. Incorporating new measures are important the firms financial well being as customer satisfaction, manufacturing cycle efficiency, and patent-generating research and development. The integration method also works well for companies that have adopted a more all-encompassing definition of sustainable practices that includes environmental, health, and social aspects. This article relates to accounting class because of the topics covered such as sustainability, triple bottom reports, return on investment, and balanced scorecard. The article concludes with developing sustainability metrics. These provide tangible guidance to how the strategies implemented help create shareholder value. There are three ways that sustainable practices can be incorporated into the balanced scorecard: adding a fifth perspective to the BSC, a sustainability-balanced scorecard, and integrating sustainability measures throughout the four perspectives. My perspective is, I know how important it is to be not only more â€Å"green† today, but as cost effective as possible. The three methods don’t look too complicated to be implemented. The article states at the end that companies are being pressured by stakeholders to become more transparent, and such transparency is becoming the norm rather than the exception. The 2008 KPMG international survey of corporate responsibility reporting found that, in 2008, nearly 80% of the worlds largest 250 companies issued some type of responsibility report. These responsibility reports included governance, ethical, environmental and social issues. It is now more important than ever to go green.

Contemporary History in Anil’s Ghost Essay -- Literary Analysis

There is always a problem of historical inaccuracies in fiction. When certain historical events become a part of the narrative (especially when these events are controversial), it is important to understand what they mean in the author’s conception of history and reality in general. Far more important is to understand their place in this conception when we see that the author’s depiction of facts is unusual and what he does seems to be not the reflection of existing reality but the deconstruction of a different one. Terrorism, civil war, separatism – it is hard to remember the themes that would be more complicated and controversial in the modern world, because questions like these never have a certain answer. Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost is a good example of a novel that deals with the most important problems of contemporary history. Anil’s Ghost, first published in 2000, and is dedicated to events of Sri Lankan Civil War. Michael Ondaatje claimed in interviews that his book is not â€Å"just about Sri Lanka; it could be Guatemala or Bosnia or Ireland† (Scanlan 302) – so it can be suggested that the author is trying to describe not this particular conflict, but the situation in general. In another interview Ondaatje says: â€Å"Anil's Ghost is a more faithful or more nonfictive version. It's a fiction. It is a novel, and it is also a point of view† (Coughlan). Sri Lanka is mentioned as one of the places in which the war â€Å"always seems to be there, and nobody goes to it anymore† (Champeon). The conflict that still takes place is set between the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist group. Different issues state that at the moment the number of victims is about 80.000 people. The action takes place at the end o... ...every country with the similar circumstances and not only in Sri Lanka. The experience of civil war is reconstructed in destinies of main characters – everyone of them has his personal tragedy and deals with it the way he can. And when neither the executioner nor the victim can be identified, it becomes important to give the identity to at least one of the murdered. It has to be named, and the problem has to be named, too. Through the historical situation the author tries to show us the necessity of personal choice in the times when there is no choice for the nation or the whole country. Anil’s ghost is many different ghosts – ghost of innocent people, who disappeared or died, ghost of the past, which has to be dealt with; ghost of Sarath, who finally becomes a martyr. And these ghosts don’t seem to be Anil’s only. In some reasons they belong to each other.

Point paper

A program is a series of steps to be carried out for goals to be accomplished. In other words it is the group of activities directed towards achieving defined objectives and targets. A target audience is a group of people that are targeted by business organization, advertising campaign etc. for appealing there product.Waterfront job requires well knowledge in respect of protection of ship and protection of environment. It also included as how to avoid fire danger, prevent corrosion and electrolysis, follow safe procedures during fueling etc. So handling of all these activities require well equipped knowledge with the working of waterfront. Thus, from the above points it is clear that the position of person working as a waterfront is highly technical and risky as person is always play with his life while performing any of his duties.A pilot program includes the creation and use of new business associate classification. This program helps to distinguish different class of people on the basis of certain factors. There is lots of scope in waterfront job as there is growing interest in this field and new ideas are generating everyday. The course in relation to this undertakes a long apprenticeship training which makes the person expert in his field and to face any difficult circumstances. The persons undergoing this training are in great demand due to their special feature of job and also provide them opportunity to grow big in the respective industry. It is very appealing to young peoples who are adventurous in nature and always ready to take the risk. The job provides lots of scope for promotion in their field to members.If a person wants to grow his position into big and great, waterfront job provide a lot opportunity to achieve the target. The person holding the position as waterfront is in great demand due to function performed by Waterfront fitness Specialist working with various ships is to provide fitness assistance for physical program.As stated in the ques tion that less persons are going on training under this area. His indicates that the job is not much focused or paid attention but takes in him immense scope for attracting more and more person for training. The sum of money received in this job is very handsome due to its risky behavior but this special feature helps to increase the people for training. The position of waterfront is earlier seen in west coast but in recent days east coast are also actively involved for training position. The people are more and more becoming aware of the advantage of score in respective field comes to undergo training.The person acting as a trainer to attract more and more individuals in this job around the world a person is needed a four year degree from authorized university with a major in exercise physiology, physical education or related field. Must possess current fitness certification like (American College Sports Medicine (ACSM), Cooper Institute of Aerobic Research, National Strength and C onditioning Association, American Exercise Council (ACE) or other nationally recognizing certifying agencies. In depth knowledge of the principles of training to be imparted is needed. Ability to perform maintenance and minor repairs of fitness equipment are extensive oral and written communication skills.There is lot of scope of this course in university and colleges as young peoples study there and always willing to take risk at any cost. The money in this job is quite handsome; this will drag the attention of students. Therefore it is very successful to launch this internship program in the universities due to fresh environment and enthusiastic manner. The internship program time period is very long and very deep practical knowledge is imparted to the persons. With this training they become quite confident to take their task in effective manner. Thus, it is easily conclude that initiating of training program in universities and colleges is quite successful by dragging attention o f maximum numbers of person for training.Generally the company imparting internship program hire the same persons whom they provide training by providing effective job according to their area of interest. So they trainer can tap the resources from local universities and colleges by set up an internship program in the campus of university and hiring them for job increase the personnel in the respective field. With the internship program it is possible to appoint individuals after their program is completed and put qualified individuals on the areas and ships. The students completed their graduation can opt for this training at their own campus and after depositing the specified fees. The providing of training at university and college campus is very intelligent decision to tap the young talent in this field which is emerging field. This provides immense help to students who doesn’t know a bit about this training and course, so it is very convenient for them to take deep knowle dge of the course.Therefore, the above mentioned program is immensely helpful to the entire newcomer trying to take any such internship training or program. The success is guaranteed of providing training to students by trainer by its unique feature and freshness of the job. So the decision to impart training for waterfront job is very correct and very successful.REFRENCEReferred to sites:-1.   http://www.baycrossings.com/Archives/2001/10_November/working_waterfront.htmWorking   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  WaterfrontDated 19th September 2007

Animal Cells and the Membrane-Bound Nucleus