Discuss the TBL/CSR position of your organization using web pages, internal documents, 10Ks, etc. In other words, what can you find out about your organization’s TBL/CSR footprint?
Note: If you are not currently employed full time in an organization, please use: 1) a personal organization of which you are a member, or 2) an organization where you work part-time, or 3) identify a target organization that represents where you would like to work. An organization is broadly defined as a profit, non-profit, or government.
Keep Employer Name As “John Deere”**-4 to 5 paragraphs needed
TBL/CSR Means?
Corporate Social Responsibility:
The responsibilities that businesses have to the societies within which they operate. In various contexts, it may also refer to the voluntary actions that companies undertake to address economic, social, and environmental impacts of their business operations and the concerns of their principal stakeholders.
Triple Bottom Line:
Businesses should measure their social and environmental impacts to determine their bottom lines much like they do for finances.
• Triple Bottom Line and Corporate Social Responsibility both look to promote Social and Environmental responsibility within businesses.
• Corporate Social Responsibility primarily details what economic, social, and environmental issues impact their stakeholders, and how the business looks to address those issues.
• Triple Bottom Line is similar to Corporate Social Responsibility but takes it a step further by trying to quantify and measure the social and environmental impacts of a business and report them out like they do with financial reports.
• If you can quantify and measure the social and environmental issues you can evaluate how well you are living up to those initiatives.
Sample Answers:
Example 1:
John Deere is a heavy machinery manufacturer based out of Moline, Illinois. The company carries the majority of market share in the Agricultural manufacturing sector and is in the top three in Construction manufacturing. I am currently employed within the company’s General Ledger as an accountant so I don’t get to see our machinery in action, but I do tune into quarterly earnings calls where the company fills stakeholders in on its sustainability efforts.
Deere is very conscious of how they can manage their TBL/CSR by maximizing profit, social good, and environmental impact. Profits over the last three years have been rising due to structural reorganization, which enables it to provide further social/environmental good.
There are a few different ways that Deere enables itself to promote social good. The first being that the company is conscious of global conflicts. Once Russia declared war on Ukraine, Deere recalled its shipments to Russian dealers and also stopped further shipments. Deere took a stance against the undue aggression Russia was imposing on Ukraine. This sent a message to all of Russia and created an opportunity to take a sociopolitical stance for the better. Further, in 2020 John Deere invested $36.7 million in different community citizenship efforts (Reference attached URL).
Deere has put forward efforts over the last 15 years to develop technology that reduces the inputs needed for the machinery’s use. An example on the agricultural side is creating technology that can detect plants in the field so it can minimize pesticide run-off and overall inputs put onto crops. This not only save farmers money, but it also lessens environmental impact from decreased runoff. As of 2020, Deere managed to recycle 78% of its waste and 28 million pounds of material was recycled through manufacturing.
Overall, it is not hard to find different ways that John Deere has put forth an effort in the TBL/CSR realm and I am proud to work for a company that is able to drive such strong efforts.
https://www.deere.com/assets/pdfs/common/our-company/sustainability/sustainability-report-2020.pdf
Example 2:
I work for John Deere as a Facilities and Grounds manager at Seeding. I have only worked for this company for four years, but it is obvious that Deere has built a strong foundation as a world leader in their industry. Deere employs 69,600 employees in 16 countries with equipment operations and manufacturing, 13 countries with parts distribution, and 40 administrative offices globally. Deere operates nearly 80 million sq. ft. throughout the world and their equipment is sold in over 100 countries around the world.
John Deere prides themselves on giving back to the communities in which they work in through investments, recycling, and reducing their carbon footprint. Deere has invested $36.7 million in citizen efforts, recycle 78% of their waste, reduced 19% of greenhouse gas Emissions since 2017, and 32% of global electricity is sourced through renewable energy.
John Deere not only is invested in the sustainability of their company, but also their customers as well. They understand the challenges that their customers face in farming and construction. They have geared their technology towards creating a product that allows customers to become more effective in their day-to-day operations. For farmers they understand that there are many variables that cannot be controlled with weather, so Deere has developed a sustainability program that allows farmers to Manage, Prepare, Plant, Protect, and Harvest their crops.
John Deere has also focused heavily on the construction industry as well. One technology that has really allowed customers to become more efficient is the “Grade control technology”. This product alone allows users to be much more efficient and has shown up to 90% reduction in transported materials per job, which also reduces up to 60% of CO2 emissions per job as well.
I believe that John Deere is continually looking for opportunities to make a positive impact on the environment and within their communities as well, which make a huge impact on the TBL.
https://www.deere.com/assets/pdfs/common/our-company/sustainability/sustainability-report-2020.pdf
Example 3:
I work at St. Ambrose University in the admissions office. In my opinion, the University has taken active steps to become a sustainable business leader in our community and sets a positive example for students to live cleaner lives post college. We have taken proactive steps such as having recycling bins in every office and residence hall, switched our light bulbs to be low light, have AC and heating units on timers to auto shut-off during non-business hours. In my office, we have auto shut-off lights as well. Additionally, we have a few important organizations on campus as well: The Sustainability Committee which includes a few faculty members, and our Green Life and Enactus clubs are student led organizations. These organizations are important to our campus because they review our current practices and make recommendations on how we can improve. When we renovate older buildings, we reuse as many parts as we can. If we do not have a need for the materials on our campus, then we donate it to local organizations that do need it. Naturally, we have a commitment to support the bees on our campus and we have officially become a Bee Campus USA which is aimed to support natural pollinators and reduce the use of harmful pesticides.
All of these actions our campus has taken is to help reduce our carbon footprint on the planet, to better serve our community through reusable products, has saved the university money by not using so many resources and most importantly, has educated students and other business leaders in our community to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Here are few resources to review:
The St. Ambrose Sustainability Commitment page: https://www.sau.edu/about-sau/sau-values/sustainability
The SAU Bee Campus USA announcement: https://www.sau.edu/sau-is-now-an-official-bee-campus-usa
SAU Green Life Club: https://www.sau.edu/student-life/clubs-and-organizations/greenlife
SAU Enactus Club: https://www.sau.edu/student-life/clubs-and-organizations/enactus
Take the SAU Sustainability Pledge: https://sau.wufoo.com/forms/x1c9kobf0cf7jrq/
