Report On Sustainable Development

Product or Process Selected

The product selected in this assignment is the car tires. Michelin is one of the world’s leading tire manufacturing company along with Bridgestone and MRF as their competitors. Their objective is to contribute in the advancement of mobility by making ground breaking innovations keeping in mind the respect of their foundation morals, customers and most importantly environment.

Brief description of the scope of product or process

The scope of the paper is to look at some of the practices associated with sustainability concerning the company’s practices within the market. Nowadays, the things that are happening across the globe in terms of consumer goods and production into the market, companies tend to look at the internal traditional approaches with an additional exemption of the life cycle of the product. This usually happens when the companies are measuring the manner in which their products interfere with the environment. The future alignment and growth of companies largely depend on priorities of consumers (Elliott, 2002 p. 45). On the other hand, companies are under pressure to ensure that their products have the capability of creating sustainability. This pressure does not come from the consumers alone but also from the stakeholders, suppliers, retailers and the government. The natural resources are becoming scarce and companies are also in need of having long-term sustainability in the manner in which they create their business models and approaches in order to have a total impact on the issues happening on the environment. The companies have taken all their energies in ensuring that their priorities are built on sustainability, which has become the driver for change for companies. Their aim is to mobilize their transactions towards transforming their businesses to have a future growth.

Framing of Product or System in a Sustainable Development Context

It has been established that the right way for companies to ensure sustainability is achieved is through end-to-end life cycle approach. The first manner in which this can be achieved is through identifying the drivers of the environmental impact. This implies that companies should in a position of establishing a baseline that makes them understand the drivers of the environmental impact, which is differentiated by the geography, and the category of the company (Elohimjl, 2000 p. 74). An example can be given to countries using electricity will have a larger consumption of carbon dioxide that countries using nuclear for their energy. This will give the company the opportunity of using the right forces in terms of influencing the environment.

Supply

The first issue they look at is in the field of supply. As the company takes consideration of supplies, they examine the manner in which inputs can be created by the company. For instance, in the agricultural companies will always start by looking at how the products are grown. This would mean that they would look evaluate if the water was appropriate and if the land used for the product is appropriate (Gifford, 2004 p. 45). When looking at the animals, one should ensure that the animals are raised in the manner that they would not interfere with the environment. They will also ensure that the chemicals used are safe for the environment.

Retailer Distribution

They will also take into consideration the retailer distribution. According to numerous companies, this is an establishment of the outbound logistics. However, there comes a time that companies overlook these restrictions and focus on improving the life cycle. The impact created in the environment by the retailers and distributers is provided in terms of refrigeration and energy (Gifford, 2004 p. 51). The major retailers can be pressurized to minimize their environmental impact from all manners in which they carryout they transactions.

Consumer Use

When it is a question of looking at sustainability through consumer use, everything will depend on the type of production. The environmental impact in this case usually takes place when the consumers are using the product. For instance, food products are used when they are cooked or chilled, grooming products will be used after they are heated or boiled in water and products used for cleaning can be inform of machines and hot water (Gifford, 2004 p. 55). Individuals might think that companies should distance themselves when it reaches this point, however, this is a different case as companies will impact the use of these products through the design of the products and their marketing.

Disposal

It is this part of disposal that numerous companies have been questioned in regards to their practices. The consumers are influenced to create an impact to the environment in terms of disposal through the company’s choice of packaging type, size, weight, labeling and the initiatives carried out in the promotion of reuses and recycling (Gifford, 2004 p. 60). For the maintenance of this wide range of activities, companies are required to invest heavily on resources instead of looking at the traditional approaches that are used in sustainability. If the money involved is more then the returns are expected to be more. The companies are given the opportunity of examining these impacts from a global perspective in terms of the geographic regions. This is a sustainable approach, which is also standardized and powerful.

Manufacturers

The role of manufacturers or industry in developing a sustainable product is very vital. Keeping in mind the use of technology, innovation and research and development the industry play a key role in producing such products which are environmental friendly. As the world is becoming more and more industrialized on day to day basis the challenges of producing environmental friendly products are also increasing and environmental pressure is also increasing such as emission of harmful gases and wastes from industries which has a global and local impact on the environment. Keeping this in mind the Michelin Company has revised its manufacturing policies more towards being environmental and eco friendly.

Government/Regulators

The government is responsible for the social and economic growth of a country. To do this the government uses its industries to improve its trades with other countries. Sustainable development at all levels helps the government to achieve its economic growth goals. The government regulates the industries to produce environmental friendly products and maintaining the process of the production environmental. The government passes law which is to be followed by all the industries. These law prevent the industries from omitting hazardous wastes and gases from their plant during the production process. As government is the higher authority everywhere they have the right to pass such rules and have the right to implement them all around.

Attitudes of other relevant parties

The non government organizations or the NGO’s also play key role in maintaining sustainability. The NGO’s related to environmental issues keep track of all the industries which produce harmful waste while production. They report the issue to the relevant authorities if there is any industry not following the regulations imposed by the government.

Current attitudes of Pressure Groups

Pressure is being generated on the Michelin tyres from its competitors such as Bridgestone and MRF. These companies are also using new product development techniques to ensure sustainability of their products. As a result of this the competition has increased over the years to produce more environmental friendly and sustainable products. The competitors of Michelin are using state of the art technology to produce eco friendly products also these competitors have a huge name in market especially the sports world of automobile.

Design Opportunity Matrix

Design Opportunity A
Using environmental laws: use of environmental law will improve on the product creation and the sustainability of the product as well. The use of environmental law means that the products being produced by the Michelin Company comply with the international standards of environment and hence their production does not affect the environment in any harmful way. Production of eco friendly products would ensure that the organization is on correct path of adopting sustainability.

Design opportunity B

Use of skilled manpower: using skilled manpower means that better and quality product creation. Skilled manpower who has knowledge of product sustainability is the most important asset for an organization in many ways. Skilled manpower ensures that the product created is going through Environmental friendly processes during its production. It also ensures that the product is manufactured according to the international standards of quality and safety without any harm to the natural resources and environment hence ensuring 100% sustainability.

Design Opportunity C

Competitive attributes: it ensures that organization is competent enough with its competitors. As all the organizations in today’s world are moving their industry towards producing sustainable products Michelin is also facing tough completion from its competitors. The biggest competitor of Michelin is Bridgestone. Both the organizations over the years have opted for improving sustainability for their products. Bridgestone compared with Michelin has a bigger market as they are more famous in the automotive sports world and their products are more sustainable compared with its competitors. On Michelins behalf it is important to give growth to the sustainability in order to achieve its corporate goals.
(b) Position A, B and C in the matrix below.

Process Flow Diagram of Life Cycle (Cradle to Grave)

Matrix of Life Cycle Stages and Sustainable Development Impacts
Scoring Matrix of Sustainable Development Impacts
Opportunities Matrix

Bibliography

Baker, S. 2006. Sustainable development. London: Routledge.
Elliott, J. A. 2002. An introduction to sustainable development. London: Routledge.
Elohimjl, . 2000. Sustainable development. München ; Mering: Hampp.
Gifford, C. 2004. Sustainable development. Oxford: Heinemann Library.
Pryor, K. J. 2003. Sustainable development. South Yarra [Vic.: Macmillan Library.
Sustainable Development Policy Institute. 2005. Sustainable development: Bridging the research. Islamabad: SDPI.