37 SDG 13 – Climate Action – Team 37

Team Reflection

We have chosen two business stories to reflect on and analyze because they both touched on aspects of sustainable business innovations related to SDG 13 that we considered important lessons that we learned during this experience. The story of “Upcycling: Coco Craze” is that of a business which gives a second life to coconut husks which would otherwise end up as waste. Similarly, the story of “The Eco-Eyewear: Lens to a Sustainable Future” gives an ulterior option to plastic sunglasses that would otherwise pollute the environment in the form of eco-friendly wooden ones. Both innovative businesses provide an environmentally sustainable option to combat unsustainable practices and shine a light on the importance of creativity when developing new innovations. Both Innovators in these stories share the importance of promoting sustainability to its community and consumers. Charlene Tia, Founder of Coco Craze stated “The company also encourages its customers to adopt sustainable practices. To reduce waste, customers are informed that the coconut husks vessel can be repurposed as a plant pot, table accessory, or accessory holder once the candle wax has been used.” similarly The CEO of Eco-Eyewear increases their customers’ awareness of their story about sustainability through their one pair of glasses sold one tree planted promise.

Both innovators make important points on the importance of maintaining profit within sustainability and are examples of how it is possible. The CEO of Eco-Eyewear stated that “The challenge was making a unique product and maintaining it profitable while being sustainable.” We think that this statement is particularly impactful because it outlines the difficulty of having a sustainable business in competition with unsustainable ones. Charlene Tia, Founder of Coco Craze Explains that “Coco Craze exemplifies that caring for the environment and conducting business is possible with ingenuity and thinking”, this statement is important to note following the previous one because when combined it creates a clear understanding that even though difficult, sustainable business is possible. Overall, these statements make us feel hopeful for the future of sustainable businesses.

Many of the stories reflected and reinforced our previous knowledge of profitability and sustainability practices. Creating sustainable businesses is often costly when in competition with other businesses who run without regard to climate change or sustainability and focus only on profit with often cheaper methods or materials. This is supported by the statement “Some companies will surely continue to reap profits at the expense of societal needs” (Porter & Kramer, 2011). Subsequently, Sustainable business must be profitable to continue. These stories also filled in a gap of knowledge for some of us members not familiar with the challenges of underdeveloped countries. It showed us how sustainable development innovations can make a large difference not only in regards to the SDG 13 but also to the economy. An article relating to this explains how sustainable businesses that also generate wealth for the community in underdeveloped countries can target deeply rooted societal challenges whilst simultaneously creating economic value (Motilewa, 2016). We were pleasantly surprised by the stories of these businesses as we love to see sustainable businesses that are thriving and profitable even though there are many challenges they often have to overcome.

These lessons learnt from the AIM2Flourish stories have granted us knowledge that we can use in the future, especially within the business world. We have learnt how sustainable innovations can bring about a great positive change to the world, and having these examples of successful businesses who have contributed to these positives changes have given us knowledge and support to back our moral compasses for our future endeavors whether that be starting our own business, choosing what type of business to work for, or simply in our daily lives when choosing the types of business to purchase from. If we choose to start our own business in the future these stories will stay with us and influence us to make sustainable business decisions.
As sustainability is a problem in our society, this course was able to equip us to take that with us in our different countries, to our friends and homes. It starts with us, the change that we come with will be able to influence others to do so until it is a culture. Being committed to sustainability will assist in reducing one’s carbon footprint and the amount of toxins released into the environment, making it safe for us who live in it and future generations to come. When we put our focus on sustainability, the whole world benefits as we will all live in clean and healthy living conditions. Choosing to live a sustainable lifestyle does not mean you will give up on certain things, it just means you’ll live in a better environment which will also have an impact on your well being thus a better world for all.

Individual reflections

Zandra

Personally, I very much enjoyed this experience of being able to work with other people from different cultures during the past few weeks. The experience felt unique as there are similarities between us all with age, being a university student, and what we’re studying, but also differences in our culture. We got the chance to learn about our SDG, and not only how it applies to our own country but each other’s as well. As for communication and time zone challenges, everyone was very respectful when rescheduling if we needed it, and meetings had high attendance. When I missed a meeting myself due to an exam the group was very kind and understanding, which I greatly appreciate. I also felt communication and getting our work done as a group was easier than I expected because we had members who showed great initiative and leadership skills in making sure everyone knew what we were supposed to do that week. Overall, this experience has been very positive as I had the honor of having great teammates who helped me develop a better understanding of cross-cultural communication.

Kimberly

This has been an amazing learning journey. It was a great experience to meet different people with different cultures and perspectives, there are new things I’ve picked up even the similarities in certain cultures. I got the chance to learn about the SDG with my group members, how different businesses and operations are big on sustainability in order to preserve our wellbeing and planet as a whole, I myself knew the importance of decreasing carbon footprint however, I was able to see the degree of importance of it through this learning experience these past weeks. My group members were people who were very accommodative and easy to work with. We were all able to accommodate one another through our timezones and meetings, and there was a case where I was experiencing a blackout thus couldn’t attend a meeting and they were able to fill me in regarding what was spoken about and what was required of me. Due to how well we were accommodative and had a team spirit, we were able to always be up to date with our work weekly and for that I’m grateful to my team members and the opportunity to learn from both them and the work we did week in and out.

References
Porter, M.E. & Kramer, M.R. (2011). “Creating Shared Value: How to reinvent capitalism – and unleash a wave of innovation and growth”, Harvard Business Review (Jan-Feb), pp 62-77.

Motilewa, B. D. (2016). Creating Shared Value: A Paradigm Shift from Corporate Social Responsibility to Creating Shared Value. International Journal of Social, Behavioral, Educational, Economic, Business and Industrial Engineering, 10(8), 2443–2448.