4 SDG 2 Zero Hunger – Bravo Restaurants

Group reflection

What is social good? It is what benefits the most significant number of people in the most extensive possible way (Investopedia). Investopedia explains that capitalism-based social good should not exist only to provide maximum potential returns for shareholders but also to serve the common good. One way to do this is to partner with the government or other agents to solve social problems and inspire their employees to help society (i.e., clean air, water, healthcare, etc.). Overall, every business should be driven by social good to ensure that it serves the common good. Bravo Restaurants was aware of their consequences and did everything to ensure they were helping the earth become a better place.

Our story business, Bravo Restaurants, became aware of a need to assess how they conducted their business. There were consequences that affected the environment. They became aware of such issues related to the overuse of water in brewing their beer and going overboard with the use of plastics, Styrofoam, and other non-biodegradable items.

According to the interview, Dan Murphy explained that the corporate leaders were surprised at the high water bills connected to their new brewery at one of their Gino’s East restaurants. We could see that Bravo’s initial motivation was probably related to cost and not the environmental impact. They realized that water was a precious commodity only after seeing how much water the beer brewing activity increased their usage. This sparked awareness of other things that Bravo might change, including the overuse of plastics and other non-biodegradable items. The next big step for them was eliminating such items from their restaurants.

With each revelation from Dan Murphy, the team grew to appreciate the effort this small family-run restaurant corporation was making for the social good. Their efforts did not stop with plastics, but also included increased recycling efforts combined with an objective to help the communities where their restaurants are located.

We had been learning an overview of sustainability in the business world during several of our business courses in college. This project focused on the specific reasons for a particular business to include awareness and attention to supporting sustainability. COIL has reinforced our learning about sustainability and how every business has the potential to include such a goal to promote a common good.

This project involved analyzing a connection through a concept called Triple Bottom Line. According to Sustainable Review, TBL is a framework that considers not only the financial performance of a business but also how the business impacts the environment. Triple Bottom Line is concerned with three elements– people, planet, and profits. The program Aim2Flourish was introduced to us through this project. None of us had heard of this website, so we were more than surprised at the number of stories of businesses worldwide that take these three elements and connect them to measuring the true success of their sustainable businesses.

Although we were aware of the increasing popularity of environmentally friendly companies, our interaction with sustainability was limited to choosing to recycle at home, not use plastic bags, or use glass containers instead of plastic ones to help the environment. We also learned about the various technological businesses that help promote a healthy environment on Earth. We had no idea of how huge the concept of sustainability issues was and has taken over the consciousness of business leaders throughout the world. The project really opened our eyes.

Researching and reporting on Bravo Restaurants’ sustainability efforts has educated us as to the responsibility each of us should take concerning doing our part to care for our environment. It is not enough to just “let the other guy do it.” We hope that in the future, as business leaders, we will choose to use this vital tool to ensure our businesses are not only profitable, but benefit society and the environment.

In addition, exploring Bravo’s story has made it clear to the team that we need to be aware of our ability to work for a cleaner environment just as Bravo partnered with the Alliance For The Great Lakes to protect available water sources. As future business leaders, we should choose methods of limiting our consumption levels to avoid wasting our resources. We also recognize the effort Bravo made to recycle waste to also conserve the environment.

Taking business courses in college introduced us to the concept of sustainability. Through participating in the COIL Project, we have learned to take sustainability beyond one’s own nation and see how it should also be an element in businesses throughout the world. One nation working on sustainability goals will have an impact. However, taking the practice worldwide would have an even greater impact on the environment. This particular project focused on the specific reasons one business became aware of the impact of how their business affected the environment. They then turned their attention to taking necessary actions that support sustainability.

In addition, we learned of opportunities that exist to also help businesses connect with other organizations in society. This effort opens doors to new avenues of awareness in relation to setting sustainability goals.

The information we learned through our college coursework on sustainability was a good resource for our team. The information was used to develop appropriate and targeted questions during the interview with our business representative.

Our appointed team leader had to exhibit exceptional organization, communication, and coordination abilities. We, as a team, required the leader’s efforts to set up regular meeting schedules that worked with each team member’s personal calendar.

In addition, the team was kept on track by the leader’s ability to organize tasks and keep to the required project schedule by communicating meeting agendas. In turn, this helped each team member keep track of meeting dates, times, and agenda items. This advanced planning also gave the team members time to ask follow-up questions prior to the virtual meeting. The group leader also had to manage the assignment’s requirements to send reminders prior to submitting copies of meetings (videos), screenshots, and a full transcript of the interview meeting to professors.

Overall, because the project was well-organized, the team was kept on schedule. Everyone was allowed to participate to the extent that they were willing. Some members performed more than others.

Because this was a cross-cultural experience, it demonstrated that all students have a lot in common around the world. Unfortunately, working on a world team project has the same issues as working on a team project within your own local university. We encountered the same issues…trying to coordinate schedules (only this time it involved different time zones), getting all team members to not only attend the weekly meetings, but also have individuals go outside of their “comfort zone” to speak up at meetings. Just like within local college team projects, communication is key. There was also some confusion regarding additional requirements on the Aim2Flourish website that were not addressed on the outline that had been provided by coordinators.

There was a lot of positive energy on our team. However, there is always room for improvement. Yes, working on a world team does have the same issues as a regular team project. There were times when there was a lack of communication from teammates to the group regarding certain people’s inability to attend the scheduled meetings. This was despite the fact that they agreed in previous emails that the date and time would fit with their schedule.
Once the schedule was confirmed to all members by the team leader and the Zoom link had been provided, some teammates did not show up and did not communicate any conflict prior to the meeting. Overall, even with this obstacle, we treated each other with respect and all interaction was polite. The team is proud that by working together, we were able to move forward and still meet our goal.

Individual Reflections

Daniel: My cross cultural experience in this activity gave me the opportunity to meet good people that I would not otherwise have met. It opened my eyes to how students can always find common ground when given a challenge or goal that must be accomplished. Working as a team and knowing that others have your back in such an activity as this, relieves the stress of having to do all the work by yourself. We all knew the objective and were able to understand each other because we were all able to speak English.
Being team leader, I found two areas in this cross cultural dynamic to be challenging. One was scheduling meetings. Our team not only had to figure out scheduling a meeting on Zoom around multiple college course schedules, but also take into consideration the nine hour difference for Kenya. This was an issue that kept communication difficult as often the Americans and Canadians were awake, but Kenya was ready for bed or asleep or vice versa. In addition, we were also thrown a curve ball in November when the United States changed their clocks for daylight savings. The second challenge that added difficulty to communicating and participating in virtual meetings was the different levels of familiarity in using programs.

Samuel: The cross cultural dynamic was lesser challenging considering me as a student in Kenya and my team colleagues as the different time zones would favour us as well as inconvenience as on other particular days. Most often, our zoom schedule meetings were actually after our classes as for Jackline and I therefore we did get time. We had no communication challenge, luckily enough all of us could converse in English. Have gained much and more so established good relationships with my teammates, expounded on my research capabilities and enrich in more.

Sam: The cross cultural dynamics did not become apparent immediately when we met as a group though I eventually understood there would be some challenges our group would face. The most apparent issue we faced was to do with time zones/ time changes and its impact on our ability to properly schedule meetings and have consistent attendance. The language barrier (or lack thereof) was not as much of an issue than I first thought it would be and we were able to effectively communicate when working together. It is hard to build a team assembled from people who will never meet in person and have cultural differences and expect them to work together in an effective and organized manner in such a short period of time especially with infrequent contact. We had some confusion over communication methods and debate about which was best and ended up agreeing to communicate by email and zoom calls which slowed down some communication between meetings due to the nature of email and the infrequency in which they are checked by some. Overall, our team chemistry has grown and we were able to adapt as a group.