39 SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production – Eurogroup

Group Reflection

In exploring Eurogroup SAC’s story and its innovative approach to eco-friendly packaging, we found a powerful example of how businesses can lead for social good. Our story highlighted the emergence of the utilization of recycled, eco-biodegradable, and compostable materials in the non-western packaging industry. From writing this story, we gained new insight into the emergence of sustainable business practices in less developed economies. We also expanded our knowledge of the intricacies of recycling, including the biological and chemical processes that various stakeholders explore to address global contamination. It was also really interesting to learn about plastic bag policies and their importance to society. Furthermore, we learned how companies can make huge contributions towards SDG’s by doing simple but effective work that focuses on objectives other than profit maximization. It set a standard for the triple bottom line and how one can easily incorporate these changes into their business for the greater good of the world and the people. The interview emphasized their dedication to reducing plastic waste and fostering innovation within the packaging industry, resonating with our shared values of corporate social responsibility. Eurogroup SAC’s commitment to sustainability isn’t just philanthropy; It goes above and beyond, integrating environmental responsibility into its core operations.

This story resonates deeply with our academic understanding of sustainability. It reaffirms that businesses can wield influence beyond profit, driving positive change in society and the environment. It challenges the traditional notion of business objectives, expanding our perspective on the significant impact companies can have on broader social and environmental issues. Contrary to many beliefs, e.g., Milton Friedman (Chandler & Werther, 2023, p.83), this story has shown new insight into how a business can manage other contributing factors than just a business being profit maximizers. When the founder spoke on how the business works, we learned that CSR can also stem from the private sector and that companies can be benevolent when it comes to doing good in the economic world. This brought us closure, made us happy, and restored humanness within us, as many companies focus on profit-maximizing and show little interest in ESG.

From the interviewer, we can learn how to manage and micro-manage a business. From this experience, we learned a new way to contribute to the environment by utilizing research and business. ECM-biodegradable and compostable products are found to be much more environmentally friendly than microplastic. Microplastics can leak/consume into marine and wildlife, in the long-term impacting humans when consumed. We, as a group, now know that when potentially starting a business how to care about ESG and use specific methods, but also as people how to care about the environment. Avoid using microplastic materials and use more biodegradable substances. This information can go a long way for people and the global world.

This exploration prompted personal reflections about our future roles as business professionals. It reminded us that our decisions carry weight, influencing social and environmental outcomes. It inspires us to seek innovative, sustainable solutions in our future careers. Additionally, what we learned in our classes made us have a more introspective view of the ecological momentum global trends are portraying and how we’re impacted heavily by these. We now consider that our knowledge regarding climate change has increased vastly as well as what businesses are doing and reacting towards it. Ultimately, this experience has bridged the gap between theory and practice, illustrating the tangible impact businesses can achieve in fostering social good and environmental stewardship, shaping our future approach to responsible business practices.

The way we conducted the story writing was challenging since we all were not used to doing a full online teamwork across the globe, however, past communication and time issues, we were able to produce and make an appealing story and poster for the AIM2Flourish activity. The most difficult part of the project was the communication given the time zones and the personal schedules we had as a group, given relatively about a 6-hour difference between certain people. This made setting group meetings difficult and responding to each other’s text messages occasionally difficult due to the fact of one being busy in the morning or at midnight. Nevertheless, we managed to have improvised time fixes to be able to get into the meetings or communicate with our fellow members. What worked for the group was being able to communicate with each other and share work. Being able to use Zoom and orchestrate meetings went a long way. Being able to use apps such as WhatsApp helped us keep in touch. Websites such as Google Docs where we can read each other’s work and add-on writings at any time helped us understand project materials and were conventional for the time zone difference.
We believe the AIM2Flourish project gives us a set example of what we should all follow and have in the present and future goals. In particular, this interview has shown us a consummate level of a triple bottom line(3BL) one should follow in their company and future endeavors. The AIM2Flourish project has made us wiser by bringing insight into our future goals and even making us greater people.

Individual Reflection

Ricardo: This experience has nourished my understanding of what recycling means. Since I was a kid I always thought of recycling as putting non used materials into a large container, pressing them and some chemicals would make the materials reusable again. Now I know I was far away from what actually happens. The AIM2Flourish experience provided me with the opportunity to watch and learn from a future increasing necessity which is the sustainable recycling and packaging business. It was quite shocking to see these aspects of society coming from a country were there’s not much attention given to good recycling practices as well as environmental wellbeing and I’m personally happy to see that there are action takers in the market solving this future problem by anticipating biodegradable and recyclable products to aid with global warming and climate change.
In terms of the production and communication within the making of the story we encountered some technical difficulties as well as global time zone issues, however, we worked our way out of it and were able to produce an interesting workpiece for our story and poster. It was actually entertaining to have this project with new people, and it excited our way through the assignments. I felt that my coursework plus this experience have enriched my learning and comprehension of the actual state of climate change actors.

Alex: The AIM2Flourish assignment provided me with the opportunity to work and learn alongside students from other countries whom I would have never met if not for this project. This assessment enabled me to enhance my understanding of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how they can be employed by businesses through their innovations. More specifically, I learned about how Eurogroup SAC employs the SDG “Responsible Consumption and Production”, “Climate Action”, and “Industry Innovation and Infrastructure” by using recycled, eco-biodegradable, and compostable materials to manufacture their packaging products. I also learned how to collaborate in a virtual team setting spanning time zones, cultural, and national boundaries. For example, arranging meetings proved to be difficult given different team members not only had varying schedules but were in different time zones. I learned that to overcome this challenge, we held a group meeting at the same time every week to make coordinating our schedules easier and less complicated. Exchanging information and collaborating on work also proved to be a challenge. In response to this, we divided up tasks so that we could work on the project on our own time and used platforms such as Google Drive to share documents and work together simultaneously.

Masechaba: The Aim2flourish assignment taught me more about the SDGs and how companies are actually trying to implement them. This also showed that as much as a company tried to meet these SGD’s we as society and individuals need to also be of assist .
The assignment teaches you more about group work and working with the different individuals from different countries, background,and society. It was a great experience, especially with the delegation of the task every Friday week .