Definition of corporate sustainability strategies
Corporate sustainability strategies ensure that sustainable development activities aim at social, environmental, and economic dimensions (Baumgartner & Rauter, 2017, pg.82).
Corporate strategy is whereby an organization focuses on long-term stakeholder value by looking at the social, environmental, economic, cultural, and ethical dimensions of doing business. It seeks to ensure that it provides justice and does not harm society by doing what is morally good and acceptable.
Three pillars of corporate sustainability
Corporate strategy is rooted in three pillars, including the environmental, social, and economic pillars. The environmental pillar is the most acted upon in companies, and it seeks to save the environment by reducing carbon footprints. The social pillar is related to the people that the business affects, whereby organizations are required to get support and approval from stakeholders, employees, and the society in which it operates. The economic pillar is about the business making profits by complying with good governance and risk management.
Key lessons learned during the crisis which could help shape Disney’s strategy
One of the key lessons learned by Disney is that environmental degradation increases the risk of pandemics. Although the origin of COVID-19 is unknown, coronavirus is known to result from genetic recombinations that lead to new genotypes (Haddad et al., 2021, pg.1). Disney Company 2020 waste generation was 152,048 tonnes (Bakolia, 2021). This waste is toxic and may lead to harmful health and environmental effects (Mănoiu & Antonescu, 2017, pg.102). Therefore, Disney should ensure that they balance their economic opportunities with uncertain environmental harm (Kelland, 2019). This is in line with Disney’s strategy to reduce waste and lower the impact of its products.
During the COVID-19 outbreak, different stakeholders, including governmental and non-governmental organizations, came together to help contain and find a cure for the virus. The crisis has demonstrated that the world has a significant potential to form collective action in times of emergency (Harring et al., 2020, pg.8). The world can also unite to enhance sustainability. Disney needs to unite with other players in the sustainability strategy, including governmental and non-governmental organizations, and work together to enhance sustainability.
COVID-19 significantly impacted the consumer product and retail companies’ sustainability strategy by 56%, which shows that they had not foreseen the possibility of a virus pandemic in planning a sustainable future (The Business of a better world, 2020, pg.10). Even though the World Health Organization had reported on the possibility of an outbreak, these companies had not considered a virus outbreak in their plans (Maxmen, 2021, pg.499). Disney’s corporate sustainable activities should be made based on the world’s challenges and the future challenges that it may have.
How Disney’s core principles can be explored to bring a more sustainable strategy
Disney should focus on other parts of sustainability, such as social responsibility
Disney has most of its sustainability strategy rooted in the environmental dimension. However, the COVID-19 crisis demonstrated that organizations should consider its human resources(Robitaille & Kerrigan, 2020). The COVID-19 crisis has made it clear that communities, employees, and customers are important sustainability segments (Wang & Huang, 2021). Disney should seek to have a sustainability strategy for its social environment that will take care of the social interests of the relevant groups of stakeholders.
Disney should strive and seeks more players to accomplish its environmental goals
The effects of climate change, biodiversity loss, air pollution, and ocean contamination can already be felt worldwide (Manisalidis et al., 2020, pg.2). Some areas are already experiencing cyclones, which has affected their economic and physical lives (OECD, 2020). Due to globalization, diseases can be easily spread from any part of the world within a short period, so Dinsey has to ensure it does not pose any health risk t the people by including healthcare in its strategic sustainability plan.
How notions of sustainability and purposefulness can help businesses to operate in the overall current context
Sustainability
Although implementing environmental strategies may be quite expensive for a business, it has paybacks to help the business save costs (Patowary, 2019). The initial implementation stage is only expensive for a certain period, and then when the environmental sustainability program picks, it becomes cheap and more profitable to run businesses (Sharma, 2020, pg. 326). Additionally, implementing sustainable strategies in an organization is very helpful because it shows the consumers that the organization cares about their wellbeing (Nur Utomo, 2019, pg.3108). Additionally, these strategies help mitigate the risk of uncertain events in the future.
Purposefulness
Purpose-led companies have a higher productivity and growth rate than other companies (Islami et al., 2020). These companies are more innovative and have low employee turnover. A report on Forbes by Salem-Jackson (2022) found that purposed-led companies are 30% more productive than their competitors. When a company is purposeful, it affects all people in society, including employees, shareholders, the government, and society (Aziz, 2020). Purpose-led companies also attract top talents because they want to work with companies with meaning to society (Burton & Freeman, 2020). These include the employees, shareholders, the government, and society.
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