Process Business Improvement
Introduction
Application of sustainability programs to education sector is often characterized with a variety of challenges that often undermines its successes despite of the advantages that are associated with such programs. Various advantages, disadvantages and challenges can therefore be attributed to the application of Mission Zero sustainability approaches taken from Interface to Auckland University of Technology (AUT. The advantages experienced as a result of the application of Mission Zero initiative by the university will be important in improving its productivity while the disadvantages will work against the productivity of the organization. Challenges on the other hand will hinder the implementation of the Mission Zero by the university. Hence for successful implementation of the Mission Zero program there is a need for the university to come up with appropriate solution that can help address the challenges faced during the implementation of the sustainability program (Yarime et al, 2012). This paper identifies some of the advantages, disadvantages and challenges of applying the Mission Zero sustainable program to AUT as well as the identification of the solution to address the challenges.
Advantages of Applying Mission Zero
Through the application of Interface sustainability approaches, Auckland University of Technology will be able to reduce its operating costs. The Mission Zero initiatives are aimed at elimination of waste and reduction energy and water consumption. These initiatives lead to the organization incurring reduced cost due to the reduction of consumption of energy, water and waste (Wiek at al, 2012). Using renewable sources of energy such as energy from biomass, solar and wind provides the organization with cheap and sustainable source of energy. This will lead to significant cost reduction for the institution hence improves its productivity. Elimination of waste materials from the institution will also contribute to the reduction of operations cost incurred by the organizations. This is because the university will use its waste materials in productive ways that improves its productivity. Its will also ensure that the organization incur low cost in waste management and disposal programs hence improving its productivity.
The interface’s Mission Zero initiative will also enable AUT to develop competitive advantage over other learning institutions. Promotion and establishment of sustainable practices in an organization is significant towards the creation of competitive advantage in the market place (Beeton et al, 2008). The demand for sustainable products around the globe is on the rise hence many organizations and individuals will be interested in institutions that promotes sustainability. Auckland University of Technology will be able attract students and employees from around the globe due to their responsibility and effort of establishing and promoting practices that encourages sustainability. This will lead to the growth of the institution hence increase its productivity.
Auckland University of Technology will also be in a position to attract and retain staff and students through development and implementation of policies that are compatible with the students and employees concerns. Attraction and retention of staffs and students will also be as a result of creating an enabling environment where all the university members collectively participate in initiatives aimed at meeting of the sustainability objectives through innovation, sharing of ideas and best practices. This will attract employees and students to the university.
The initiatives will also encourage research and development in Auckland University of Technology since the students and staffs will be encouraged in implementing new methods of ensuring that all the activities and products of the organization are sustainable. Research and development programs can also attract funding from organizations that are interested in sustainable development programs hence the university will be able to get funds for its sustainbilty programs.
The program will also ensure that the university receives support from the local community. This is because sustainability issue has become an important concern in the community hence promotion of sustainability programs will enhance the relationship between the university and the community. This will help facilitates the implementation and realization of the objectives of the organization.
Disadvantages of Applying Mission Zero
One of the major disadvantages of the Mission Zero approach to Auckland University of Technology is that it can compromise the quality of education in the institution. The staff and students might put more emphasis at efforts that are aimed at attaining sustainability at the expense education programs. This can result to low education quality and standard at the university leading to in adequate skills and knowledge from the university graduates. This can make university students become less attractive to employers due to the low education standards in the university.
Another disadvantage is that the Mission Zero approach will be time consuming and costly to the Auckland University of Technology. The organization will have to spend huge amount of money on investments that supports the initiatives such as research and development programs. This will cost the AUT huge amount of resources in terms of money and time hence increases its cost in the short term period.
It can also lead to abolishing of some courses which are important but considered as not compatible with objectives of the Mission Zero sustainability program. For example, the courses that are offered by the university such as medicine and engineering require the use of some non renewable materials which are difficult to substitute. The university can be forced to abandon the courses so as to comply with the objective of Mission Zero. This will be a set back to students and professionals who are interested in pursuing such courses.
Challenges Faced by AUCT
Auckland University of Technology can be faced with a number of challenges when implementing the sustainability program in its operations. Lack of adequate funds is one of the major challenges that the organization will encounter. Sustainability program requires a huge capital to be used in various investments that are geared towards supporting the programs. Sustaiblity programs such as Mission Zero require organizations to invest heavily in new infrastructures that support sustainable programs, new skills, and new production process (Beeton et al, 2008). It will require the organization to come up with new products such as new sources of energy so as to meet the Mission Zero objective. The organization will find difficulty in raising the amount of capital required for sustainable investment. This can affect the successful implementation of the Mission Zero program by Auckland University of Technology.
Lack of cooperation among relevant stakeholders can also hinder the implementation of the Mission Zero program by Auckland University of Technology. This is because Auckland University of Technology being in education sector has various stakeholders with different interest. The stakeholders of the university include employees, government, suppliers, community, students and other academic organizations. The stakeholders of the university must consider the interest of their customers before adopting the program. Some of the stakeholders might reject the sustainability initiative hence negatively affects its implementation. Sustainability program for education institutions requires the coordination of all the stakeholders of an organization such as employees, suppliers, customers, community and government (Sobhani et al, 2010). Failure by one or more stakeholders will lead to the program failure hence it will prove difficult for the university to convince the entire stakeholders to adopt the program in their business processes.
Some of the resources that are used by the university in their learning process are also difficult to substitute with renewable products. Modern university education requires the use of modern techniques that involves the use of equipments and materials such as computers and equipped laboratories and libraries (Nierop, 2008). These require the use of resources which are not necessarily renewable and also difficult to substitute. This provides the AUT with a challenge of substituting such materials and equipment so as to ensure a sustainable environment within the organizations. Redesigning of all courses at the university to be compatible with a sustainability program is also difficult. Some courses such as engineering and medicine might need some learning materials that are not environmental friendly and difficult to substitute. This will hinder the successful implementation of the sustainability initiative by the university due to the inability to substitute some learning materials that does to not conform to the sustainability requirements.
Solutions to the Challenges
Auckland University of Technology can use a variety of ways to address the challenges it faces when implementing the Mission Zero program in its operations. Appropriate strategies should be put in place to facilitate the implementation of the sustainable program as well as reduce the challenges of the program implementation. One of the solutions to the challenges is engaging relevant stakeholders of the university in the program through a proper and formal communication channel (Pesonen, 2003). This will educate and raise awareness of the sustainability program to all the stakeholder of AUC hence facilitates its adoption and implementation process. The university should put emphasis on educating all the relevant stakeholders on the importance of adopting sustainability in their business processes and also show its commitment towards environment and social responsibility.
The university should invest in research and development programs to facilitate the innovation of new ideas that will help it to come up with products that are sustainable. The organizations should ensure that its research and development programs are adequately equipped with the necessary resources so as to come up with products that support Mission Zero. Substitute products for non renewable products are only possible if there is adequate research by organizations. The research team should be made up of a combination of various stakeholders of the university such as suppliers, employees, students and government to ensure that all the issues of the stakeholders are addressed by the team.
The organization can also solicit funds for its sustainability program from various sources such as non governmental organizations that supports sustainability. This can be made possible if the organizations seek partnership from various organizations that are interested in sustainable products. The university should also liaise with the stakeholders such as suppliers to come up with cheap production and distribution processes hence reduce their cost. This should be done along the supply chain hence enable the university to save some money due to a reduction of its operations and materials cost. The extra funds realized as a result of savings can be used in sustainability investments programs and products.
References
Beeton, S., Bergin-Seers, S., & Lee, C. L. (2008). Environmentally sustainable practices of Victorian tourism enterprises, Sustainable Tourism CRC
Nierop, P. (2008). Inventory of innovative practices in education for sustainable development, Danish Technolgy Institute
Pesonen, H. (2003). Challenges of integrating environmental sustainability issues into business school curriculum: A case study from the university of jyvaskyla, finland. Journal of Management Education, 27(2), 158
Sobhani, F. A., Shahbuddin, A. S. M., Amran, A., & Rahman, S. (2010). Challenges of sustainability education: The case of private universities in bangladesh. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 2(5), 231-248.
Wiek, A., Farioli, F., Fukushi, K., & Yarime, M. (2012). Sustainability science: Bridging the gap between science and society. Sustainability Science, 7, 1-4.
Yarime, M., Trencher, G., Mino, T., Scholz, R. W., Olsson, L., Ness, B., . . . Rotmans, J. (2012). Establishing sustainability science in higher education institutions: Towards an integration of academic development, institutionalization, and stakeholder collaborations. Sustainability Science, 7, 101-113.
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