Future Considerations And Practices In Sustainability Essay For Banking.

Sustainable Practices in the Banking Industry

Question:

Identify sustainable practices in an industry, country or region. Take the same steps as in Assessment 2 (below) except apply them to a broader context.

1. Select an organisation that you can easily access information about.

2. Identify its sustainable practices – these may be human, physical environmental or other.

3. Discuss them in detail.

4. Comment on their value to the organisation and other relevant stakeholders.

5. Describe how you will measure this value.

6. Critically appraise future prospects for the organisation, if appropriate.

7. Reconcile the sustainable practices with the literature/theory and/or best practice.

Present market and business scenario in world is more integrated and developed with proper attention towards the commercial and economic attributes towards the different aspects of the business and bank’s perspectives. The companies are more attained towards the market and consumer proposition towards the specified market. In that respect, companies need to be more integrated and prepared with the sustainable environment. The Banking industry is taken here for understanding the sustainability options and those are obtained within the future considerations for the bank objectives (Westpac, 2015). The industry is also considered and interrelated to the perfect attainment to the different prospects of business for attaining the sustainable market and consumers. There are different sustainability activities been integrated and developed within the bank’s activities and those are integrated within the different sustainable and applied preferences.

Sustainable practices of the Banking industry have tried to indicate and integrate the different strategic agenda and those are to be approved and indicated within the processes of the banks. The banks have tried to indicate and demonstrate the issues, which are to be more applied within the consumers, employees and the community as a whole, and thus the sustainable environment and challenges are to be responsive to those factors (Westpac, 2015).  The sustainability in business and processes are already employed within the banks and those are to be applied and delivered within the particular processes like the screening and evaluating suppliers, employment and lending practices etc. The banks have tried to identify and respond to the issues and risks which are to be applied and developed within the business and stakeholders (Carroll  and Buchholtz, 2014).

The future prospects of the banks are to be also involved and developed within the emerging issues, those are to be identified and optimized within the business, and stakeholders and the new strategic issues are to be converted within the business processes for understanding and anticipating the emerging issues and trends. In that respect, the future integration to the different strategies and business processes are to be implied properly (Pond, et al, 2014).

The sustainable and perceived business practices are to be delivered and demonstrated within the different areas like employee and customer practices, governance and ethics, environmental care and involvement of the community. The principles are also integrated and aligned within the significant global initiatives and those are to be promoted towards the business practices in international and global regions (Xie, etal, 2014). The banks have integrated four major areas within the sustainability business propagation and those are like responsible banking and investment to the consumers, sustainable products and services, employee management, suppliers and corporate governance, and lastly but most importantly environment.

Future Prospects

There are codes for banking practices, which are voluntary code of conduct, and those are processed and accessed towards the member banks within Australia. These codes are important to set standard of the good banking services to the banks which are to be dealing with individual and small and business customers which are to be integrate with the customers and stakeholders. The code of banking practices were published in 1993 originally and it was revised many times. The codes were changed and prepared in such a manner that it can be integrated and developed within the current business practices and industry conditions, technological and environmental changes and customer demands. The banks have also adopted the codes as per the requirements and those are considered more applicable to the banking solutions in the business.

The banks have tried to present the sustainable products and services within the business and those are initiated to apply to the correct attention to the promotional activities and financial inclusion. The banks also tried to implement the knowledge and help for the financial literacy of the consumers and those are to be provided and developed with proper attention towards the key commitment to the local community and the society as a whole. The banking products and services are to be developed within the women market in Australia and there are the social sector marketing which are to be developed and adapted to the small to big organizations. These organizations include sports clubs to schools to national charities and those are integrated within sustainable operations.

The Banking industry has been selected as and those are related to the understanding and development of the specialized options which are to be integrated and developed within the banking practices and employee management. The banks have valued the employees with the particular experience and skills and those are well recognized within the business operations. The banks have integrated and developed within the gender equity and diversity and those are to be also applied to the correct attention towards the business processes within the bank. The banks tried to provide the flexibility and opportunity to the employees as the people are needed to be more attentive and integrated with specialized options to the personal and group needs and those are to be also adjusted with the longer life span within the organization (Zwickle, et al, 2014). The mangers and the leaders within the banks are also helped and supported by the different activities like mentoring, development and feedback options and those programs are to be more attentive to build the culture with leadership qualities within the bank. The banks tried to be considered as the health, wellbeing and safety of the people and those are to be applied and adopted within the different prospects of the safe and injury free work place and work culture. The bank’s priority and specialization is to be provided significantly and those are to be also considered within the clear practices, policies and procedures, which are essential to include the safety and other aspects to the people in the Banking industry. The systems and policies are integrated and developed within the Australian Standards and occupational health and safety (OHS) legislations and those are to be independently advised with business process intimation.

Voluntary Code of Conduct

The Banking industry has introduced and integrated with the Sustainable Supply chain management or SSCM within the bank’s advisory and policies. In that respect, the sustainable figures and policies of the SSCM are to be applied by the suppliers for integrating better practice towards the bank’s policies and development within the business processes. The codes are applied or not are assessed and scrutinized with the assessment of the SSCM in the companies and suppliers. The banks have tried to attain the diverse supply base and the social procurement within the supplier engagement to the value diversity and encouraging them to be more persistent and intrigued within the bank’s policies.

The Banking industry has tried to introduce the fair and transparent trend in the business and perfect accountability for achieving the proper integration within the business. The operating principles and policies are included with the interests and conflicts within the inside trading, hedging, market disclosure etc within the operating principles. The Banking industry’s sourcing practices are integrated and developed with the full attainment to the developed polices which are to be developed and considered and the assistance to the business units. The banks also recognizes the supplier importance and thus there are more emphasis given on the suppliers to the bank (Lourenço et al, 2014).  The banks also have tried to prevent the money transaction to the money laundering and terrorism activities and thus the bank tried to protect the group’s reputation and business attainments. The banks have ensured the policies, compliances with the trade and economic sanctions and those are to be intrigued and developed within the required practices, and policies and those are required for the organization, consumers and society.  There are effective risk management and risk analysis with a balanced and integrated approach and those are required for ensuring the optimised financial growth for the potential damage and loss within the bank. The bank’s board is also comprised with several policies and legislations and those  are to be applied to the separate and integrated containment both and the stakeholders and the Australian Government and other governmental audits and those are to be applied and integrated with the equal access to  the products and services.

The Banking industry have integrated available environmental approaches and track changes and those are to be more developed and integrated within the proper attention to the environmental risks and processes. The community and society engagement within the different resources and environmental factors are to be properly adopted, developed within the maintained sustainability performances, and innovative approaches by the bank.  There are environmental policies to be adopted and developed within the management of ecological systems and principles and those are to be sustained within the business practices of Banking industry (Childers, et al, 2014). The banks have also considered the resources optimization like the paper importation and usage of paper within the business. In that respect, there were standards and legislations, which help to adopt and develop the sustainable paper sourcing within the group. The banks have also signed and adopted various environmental concerns including policies and frameworks within the business. The banks have integrated and developed the external conditions to the different policies and legislations and those are like the climate partner network, UNGC, UNEP FI, UN PRI etc. The banks have a steady reporting system on the green house gas emissions, travel performances and resource usage and those are to be more illustrated within the sustainability report of the bank. The Banking industry has been the active member in the Carbon disclosure project and those are to be included within the Climate disclosure leadership index. The banks have integrated the different approaches and developments within the climate change and water scarcity problems within different regions and those are properly accomplished within the business integration and business process (Pugh, 2014). The banks have also taken initiative to understand and development of the Australian Bio diversity resources and those are integrated within the business policies.

Sustainable Products and Services

The Banking industry has been more intuitive to the different problems and risks integrated within the expected and unexpected returns within the bank. The banks have admitted to expect like skill shortage within the employees and work forces, which are to be effective on the business and productivity of the bank. There will be also cultural diversity and environmental prospects within the different geographical regions and the banks have plans to expand in the different regions (Albareda, 2014). The bank’s attention towards the different aspects and developments towards the focus shift in the future prosperity and living standards. The banks have plans to attain more earning potential and workplace integration within the business. There will be more focus on direct environmental footprint and managing risks and building capacity. Then there will be sustainable development on the products and services to the consumers and more employee and consumer engagement to be developed and demonstrated within the communication and community statement policies.

Conclusion:

From the above discussion, it can be observed that the Banking industry has been intrigued and responsible for sustainable business management within the organizational context and those are to be more important and developed within the considered services and business attainments. There are different risks and problems analysed and the sustainable organizational prospects to the employees and the people of the bank.

References:

Albareda, L. (2014, January). Business Co-managing the New Global Commons: A Collective Action View of Corporate Sustainability. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2014, No. 1, p. 11924). Academy of Management.

Carroll, A., & Buchholtz, A. (2014). Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management. UK: Cengage Learning.

Childers, D. L., Pickett, S. T., Grove, J. M., Ogden, L., & Whitmer, A. (2014). Advancing urban sustainability theory and action: Challenges and opportunities. Landscape and Urban Planning, 125, 320-328.

Godfrey, S., van der Velden, M., Muianga, A., Xavier, A., Downs, K., Morgan, C., & Bartram, J. (2014). Sustainability check: five-year annual sustainability audits of the water supply and open defecation free status in the ‘One Million Initiative’, Mozambique.

Lourenço, I. C., Callen, J. L., Branco, M. C., & Curto, J. D. (2014). The value relevance of reputation for sustainability leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 119(1), 17-28.

Pond, N. C., Froese, R. E., & Nagel, L. M. (2014). Sustainability of the selection system in northern hardwood forests. Forest Science, 60(2), 374-381.

Pugh, C. (2014). Sustainability the Environment and Urbanisation. UK: Routledge.

Shaw, A., Burch, S., Kristensen, F., Robinson, J., & Dale, A. (2014). Accelerating the sustainability transition: exploring synergies between adaptation and mitigation in British Columbian communities. Global Environmental Change, 25, 41-51.

Wheeler, S. M. (2015). Five reasons why megaregional planning works against sustainability. Megaregions: Globalization’s New Urban Form, 97-118.

Xie, H., Wang, P., & Yao, G. (2014). Exploring the Dynamic Mechanisms of Farmland Abandonment Based on a Spatially Explicit Economic Model for Environmental Sustainability: A Case Study in Jiangxi Province, China. Sustainability, 6(3), 1260-1282.

Zwickle, A., Koontz, T. M., Slagle, K. M., & Bruskotter, J. T. (2014). Assessing Sustainability Knowledge of a Student Population: Developing a Tool to Measure Knowledge in the Environmental, Economic, and Social Domains. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education.