Environmental Sustainability: The Case of a Multi-Business Packaging Organisation in South Africa
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Keywords
Environment, Sustainability, Circular Economy, Environmental Objectives
Abstract
South Africa contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and is vulnerable to climate change's effects on health, livelihoods, water, and food. The South African Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF) supports an equitable transition to a low-carbon economy and a climate‐resilient society protected for the benefit of present and future generations. The increased awareness and requirement to protect the environment has resulted in a growing demand from environmentally conscious customers for suppliers to practice the triple bottom line that requires a balanced approach to managing people, planet, and profit. Organisations therefore must have clear environmental objectives that must be aligned with the strategic goals of the organisation, to ensure better, utilisation of the organisation’s resources, management of cost, and management of the organisation’s environmental culture.
Organisations implement Environmental Management Systems (EMS) to evaluate, eliminate and mitigate their impact on the environment to improve their environmental performance. This study was conducted across three business units of a South African packaging organisation that aimed to ascertain the environmental sustainability status of the organisation. A mixed quantitative and qualitative research methodology was used to gain an understanding of the current environmental sustainability initiatives of the organisation and the challenges that the organisation faced towards achieving its’ contribution towards environmental sustainability.
The results of the research indicated that the organisation has environment management systems that support environment sustainability, however, there is room to further improve their environmental performance.
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