Question

Please answer the following question:s 1. Comment on the common thread initiative. Will it be successful, in your opinion? 2. Can organizations effectively manage environmental issues while making a profit?

Answer 1

1) The common threads initiative taken by Patagonia is a great one which inolves conscious buying by the customers and recycling and reusing the material to the extent possible to have a more sustianable business model. Since there is now greater awareness about sustainability and businesses are being judged by investors as well as customers on the basis of their triple bottom line performance which includes performance on environmental friendliness, so the initiative is likely to succeed.

2) It is definitely possible to make profil while being environmenally sustainable. In fact most of the processes or initiatives which improves the sustainability portion of the business model also cuts down drastically on the costs, through process innovation, use of alternate raw materials etc. and hence improves the profit margin quite significantly.

3) Patagonia is a company which puts lot of emphasis on having a positive impact on environment and this is likely to be the differentiating factor for the company and would help it in developing a reputation and a captive customer base which would be loyal to the company. Thus its efforts would definitely bore fruit and the company would remain sustainable in the future.

4) Yes customers do care about preserving the environment. For example, When people found out about the Volkwagen scandal and that their cars emitted far more toxins into the atmosphere than was permitted, not only did the company faced a reputational damage, its sales also decreased thus showing that people do indeed care for the environment.