Environment Responsibility And Performance Of Unilever Corporation Environmental Sciences Essay

Environment Responsibility And Performance Of Unilever Corporation Environmental Sciences Essay Consumers today are progressively watchful and very particular with the social performance undertaken by all the large corporation on the behavior of the corporation conduct their operations. As we all know, social performance of a corporation is heavily stressed upon and the public have a high expectations on the companys corporate social performance (CSR). (Golob, Lah and Janccaroniccaron 2008) For an Anglo-Dutch multinational corporation like UNILEVER that owns many of the worlds consumer products brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products also faces some consequences and some potential for the environment harm as their business operation. This assignment will be talking about the Corporate Social Responsibilities of Unilever and impacts in relation to the environment. On February 10, 2010 Unilever had been penalize and fined for $1.3 million by the California Air Resources Board for illegal consumer products sales between year 2006 and 2008. The Air Resources Board imposed a penalty on Unilever because of the fumes from the AXE Deodorant Bodyspray for men failed to meet the states clean air standard for volatile organic compounds (VOCs).(Unilever Axes Air Pollution) The deodorant spray had contaminated the air in California with the VOC used as a propellant. These emissions can cause ground-level- ozone or known as smog. When these emissions get in contact with the ozone, it can cause lungs irritation, lungs cancer, coughing and some other asthma symptoms. (Dimitri Stanich 2010) Till now almost 90% of the California citizens still breathe in unhealthy air. Other than that, on March 2001 Hindustan Unilever (HUL), a subsidiary of Unilever had been caught red-handed when the Greenpeace and Palni Hills Conservation Councils uncovered a dumpsite which contain 7.4 tonnes of mercury waste from Unilever thermometer factory. (Nityanand Jayaraman n.d.) These highly toxic mercury wastes had polluted several populated tourist resort of Kodaikanal. Besides that, HUL also dumped behind the factory wall onto the slopes which leads to the protected nature reserve of Pambar Shola. According to the data provided by Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) approximately 1.3 tonnes of toxic mercury had already leaked into the Pambar Shola sanctuary over 17 years. (Indo-Asian News 2003) The soil on the factory premises had also been contaminated by another extra 366kg of toxic mercury. As we all know with a little amount of mercury, such as 1gram, which set down annually in a lake can contaminate the lake which is as big as 25 acres in long term. After t he mercury had been deposited for a extensive years, it will probably convert into a deadlier form from a toxic metal into methyl mercury and released into the environment. Any human being or animal which get in touch with the mercury will cause some severe disorder of the nervous system and also defects. (Nityanand Jayaraman n.d.) Unilever had always been the largest soap and detergent producers and also held huge number serious cases about water pollution offences. For example, Crosfield Chemicals -Unilever Chemical Factory in Warrington had been fined  £35000 because of leaking 50 tonnes of sulphuric acid into the sewage system during year 1990. (The Ethical Consumer Guide to Everyday Shopping n.d.) Also, in 1991, the Unilever Company was convicted for the water pollution offences by the River Purification Board. (Shashank Saxena 2009) Unilever factory was closed down for a period of three months because the contents of the sulphuric acids emission are above the World Health Organization(WHO ) limits. The case for Unilever Unilever is the first Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) Company who takes up and implements paper sourcing policy in order to achieve the sustainability goals. This means that the company is trying to source all its products by using the materials which recycled and sources from a sustainably managed forest within a specific time frame. (Anne Marie Mohan 2010) Sustainable paper and board packaging sourcing policy are one of the Unilevers main aim to increase and maximize the company business in the mean time trying to help the environment by reduce the impacts. Unilever is trying to approach with its suppliers to source 75% of its paper and board packaging from materials which are recycled or from forest which are well managed by year 2015; Unilever also try to push it to 100% by year 2020. (Raz Godelnik 2010) The company also delivered a preference to the Forest Stewardship Council certified which requirement for paper from virgin sources. Unilever will also accepts international sc hemes as long as it is under the framework of International Management Citification standards and they must follow the strictly the policy. Unilever it trying to gain awareness of the consumers and public that they are promoting a development of certified forest in the world. All the suppliers which pass through the scheme will appear on the packaging of Unilevers brands. So as we all can see that Unilever is trying to promote a forestry practice which is more sustainable and in the mean time help to fight deforestation and climate change by the responsible of sourcing of these materials. (Anne Marie Mohan 2010) Another important part which is Unilever practice to protect the environment is the Unilevers water approach Sustainable Water Integrated Catchment Management (SWIM). (Catherine Dowdney n.d) The SWIN principle is developed with the help of UK sustainability organization. Water is vital to all sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and also human consumption. The SWIN principles include a useful approach to help Unilever and its partners to make sure that the community water partnership they engage in are effective and successful. Unilever had already adopted four villages along the Brantas River when the Clean Brantas Project was launched in July 2001.Unilever had also work corporately with the NGOs and other government agencies in order to further improve the process of sanitation system, tree replanting and environmental awareness. As a result of these hard works and initiatives, the river now can generate income for the villages through a small scale of fishing, farming and cu ltivation of Java Noni fruit crops for export. (Catherine Dowdney n.d) A Unilever plant in Ontario, Canada, has an ongoing campaign to improve the energy efficiency in order to cut down on the rising and unpredictable energy consumption. This plant in Ontario produces margarine and vegetable oils products which require a high energy expenditure costs. In order to achieve a 6% reduction of energy consumption per year, the plants energy teams has implemented and invest in a new technology called reverse osmosis (RO) system that would enable an improvement in the efficiency of the steam plant operations. (Cost savings and reduced environmental impact through lower energy and water consumption 2009) By changing the previous system to the RO system, the plant had consumed 13million gallons less municipal water and also 8% less natural gas. The plant also cut down the 240,000 pound volume of chemical into the sanitary sewer. The city of Toronto grants $50,000 incentive to the plant because RO system qualified for decreased water consumption and a $14,000 ince ntive grant from the local gas utility. According to Unilever, the project has lead to the company reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1.6 million tonnes as well as cutting other greenhouse gases. (Cost savings and reduced environmental impact through lower energy and water consumption 2009) Unilever factories in South Africa had been converting the food waste into compose to be used in the communities and also reducing the amount of waste to be sent to the landfill. In the past all the food waste was send to the landfill and dumped there but now is helping to fertilize the agricultural products and generate income for the poor in South Africa. When the project triple R( reduce, reuse and recycle) launched in 2005, all the Unilever Foods factories in Pietermaritzburg and Durban deliver all their waste materials to the municipal compositing facilities to be further process and used. During year 2004 and 2006, the amount of food waste sent to landfill in Pietermaritzburg and Durban was halved and the cost of disposal was also decreased by a third. (Composting waste material for community gardens 2010) On the contrary, Unilever Brazil has devoted to recycle laminated packaging materials such as toothpaste tubes. It has start corporately working with other 5 small companies to collect and find a use for the materials. When food and drinking box, envelope and toothpaste tubes are manufactured, a small amount of plastic are cut off and removed. (Recycling consumer waste 2010) The waste material are collected and combined with a laminated consumer waste and compressed in a special oven. The materials can be shaped into different shapes and sizes. These substances can be used to produce or manufacture furniture and building materials. The first and ever product produce was food tiles, since then the materials has been used to manufacture products such as floor tiles, tables, chairs. Unilever Brazil had been using these materials to equip on the community projects. Unilever had been encouraging consumers to recycle their laminated waste packaging at the community recycling centers. (Recy cling consumer waste 2010) Concluding Remarks In conclusion, the social performance of Unilever in relation to the environment has been mixed. Although Unilever does good things to the environment, they also did some bad horrible things to the environment in India. As we all know the main objectives for all the business is to maximize the profit for their shareholders and stakeholders. So, what is the point that you take a good care of the environment but the company is making losses? If the company need to pollute it in order to make profit then just do it, but after that the company must remember to solve the pollution problems because it is the companys main income. The society will forget all the companys bad things when the company provides benefits for the public. I believe that Unilever corporate social responsibilities are balance. They may be the one who pollute but in the mean time they are also the person who clean up all the mess and put it into original state. ( 1683 words)

Exemplification Essay: Bulimia Nervosa :: Expository Exemplification Essays

People with bulimia nervosa consume large amounts of food and then rid their bodies of the excess calories by vomiting, abusing laxatives or diuretics, taking enemas, or exercising obsessively. Some use a combination of all these forms of purging. Because many individuals with bulimia "binge and purge" in secret and maintain normal or above normal body weight, they can often successfully hide their problem from others for years. Lisa developed bulimia nervosa at 18. Like Deborah, her strange eating behavior began when she started to diet. She too dieted and exercised to lose weight, but unlike Deborah, she regularly ate huge amounts of food and maintained her normal weight by forcing herself to vomit. Lisa often felt like an emotional powder keg--angry, frightened, and depressed. Unable to understand her own behavior, she thought no one else would either. She felt isolated and lonely. Typically, when things were not going well, she would be overcome with an uncontrollable desire for sweets. She would eat pounds of candy and cake at a time, and often not stop until she was exhausted or in severe pain. Then, overwhelmed with guilt and disgust, she would make herself vomit. Her eating habits so embarrassed her that she kept them secret until, depressed by her mounting problems, she attempted suicide. Fortunately, she didn't succeed. While recuperating in the hospital, she was referred to an eating disorders clinic where she became involved in group therapy. There she received medications to treat the illness and the understanding and help she so desperately needed from others who had the same problem. Family, friends, and physicians may have difficulty detecting bulimia in someone they know. Many individuals with the disorder remain at normal body weight or above because of their frequent binges an purges, which can range from once or twice a week to several times a day.

Case Study: Xerox Essay

Q 1: How would Xerox define Diversity? How has the definition changed over the years? A 1: Diversity means more than race and gender. Diversity means creating an environment where all employees can grow to their fullest potential. The first chairman of Xerox, Johnson C. Wilson had the commitment to diversify. Chairman Wilson took proactive steps to create a more diverse workplace in response to race riots in the 1960s. He called for increased hiring of African Americans in order to achieve equality among its workplace. Throughout the 1970s Xerox established an internal affirmative action office and began to hire significant number of minority employees. Xerox placed an emphasis on the advancement of minorities and females in the 1980s. It was during that Barry Rand, an African American, was named the first minority president of a division. In the 1990s sexual orientation was included in the company’s Equal Opportunity policy. Xerox has 50% of its workforce made up by women and minorities. Of that 50%, 48.2% are Xerox’s senior executives. In 2007, Ursula Burns was named the first African American female president of Xerox Corporation. The definition of diversity was changed by Anne M. Mulcahy. She said Diversity was the key to success. Diversity breeds creativity. Companies ruled by a hierarchy of imagination, and filled with people of all ages, races, and backgrounds challenge each other’s underlying assumptions, freeing everybody from convention and orthodoxy. In summary: According to Xerox, diversity is more than just race/gender/numbers. It is about inclusion! By including people of all ages, races, and backgrounds,  Xerox can create a place where employees can grow to their fullest potential with their different ways of thinking, perceiving, and creating innovative solutions. They believe diversity=innovation=success. Over the years you can Xerox maintain their strong focus on diversity. In the 60’s they hired African Americans to improve equality in the workplace. In the 80’s they continued hiring minorities AND women, and in the 90’s hired many of different sexual orientations. Q2: What are the seven reasons why Xerox should be motivated to diversify their workforce? Illustrate how Xerox shows it values its workplace diversity. A: 1.Diversity means different ways of thinking, perceiving, and innovating. Innovation is the reason they are at the top of their industry. 2. Diversity creates productive people. Hiring people of different minorities and backgrounds improves equality and enhances individuality and increases productivity. 3. Diversity is highly respectable. In today’s day and age, America has become very diverse. And to diversify one’s company along with the country will result in respect. Xerox has been named one of the Top 10 companies by Fortune, Forbes, Working Mother, Latino Style, and Enable magazines. 4. Diversity spurs creativity. To enjoy work, feel included, express individuality, and use owns different outlook enhances creativity among employees. 5. Diversity instills commitment. Xerox values diversity from entry-level positions up to the highest seat in the house. With a female African-American as the president encourages employees that anyone can do it and commitment is powerful. 6. Diversity serves as an inspiration for other companies. Diversity for Xerox is inspirational. Their logic and beliefs for diversity truly benefits them and their employees and it is evident through their success and ranking. Diversity in the workplace represents the real world: a place of different religions and beliefs but they all have the same skills, high work ethic, and devotion. 7. Diversity has been working and going strong. Because of success with diversity, Xerox should continue focusing on it. They have a 100% rating on Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index and its Best Places to Work survey. Illustration is a chart: This chart demonstrates diversity in the Xerox company. 3. Xerox defies the leaking pipeline phenomenon. The leaking pipeline is something that explains that women don’t have enough senior positions in the workforce, and then leave before they have the opportunity to receive them. Xerox defies this because they, from the beginning, have been committed to the idea that whoever is right for the job, regardless of background, gender, or sexual orientation, will get the job. This commitment not only enables women to reach those higher positions, but also gives them the motivation to keep working hard and not abandon the business out of fear the company might not promote women. 4. No one can argue that Xerox has not taken major strides towards diversity within their corporation. After all, Xerox made history when Ursula Burns succeeded Anne Mulcahy as its chief executive officer (CEO) in July of 2009. This transfer of power marked the first time ever that a female CEO of a Fortune 500 company was succeeded by another female. As historic as this female to female hand-off was, what made it even more remarkable was that fact that Ursula Burns is also an African-American. With this in mind, one may naturally ask, â€Å"How do women and minorities within the upper management of other Fortune 500 companies compare to Xerox?†. In order to answer this question with authority, our group sought out many reliable sources such as established magazines, think tanks, and websites devoted entirely to the task of tracking, analyzing, and encouraging the idea of diversifying our corporate world. Moreover, since our case and its’ questions were published in 2012, we found it best to compare the other companies to Xerox as they stood in 2012 as well. Lastly, our group also assumed that â€Å"the highest levels of each organization† refers to the corporations’ CEOs and their board of directors. According to the Huffington Post, in 2012 only eighteen (or 3.6 percent) of the five hundred chief executive officers comprised of the Fortune 500 corporations were women1. Of these eighteen eighteen women, only one other was of a minority status – Indra K. Nooyi of Pepsico. Mrs. Nooyi is of Asian/Pacific descent, more specifically, Indian. Hence, with this data we can gather that in 2012 the number of minority women CEOs in the Fortune 500  was a mere two. Comprised of these two were one African-American, one Asian-American, and zero Hispanics. In total, less than one half of one percent of the Fortune 500 CEOs in 2012 were held by minority women. This startling statistic proves that women and minorities are extremely under-represented in the Fortune 500 CEO class. With women occupying eighteen percent of the CEOs positions of 2012’s Fortune 500, the remaining eighty-two percent of positions were occupied by men. Minority men fared better than their female counterparts, but not by much. With a little bit of algebra and data obtained from The Center for American Progress2, one can calculate eight men of Asian descent (1.6 percent), six men of Hispanic descent (1.2 percent), and three African-American men (0.6 percent) held the titles of CEOs within the Fortune 500 of 2012. The four hundred sixty-five (93 percent) residual positions were all held by Non-Hispanic white males. When we expanded our search to include all of the board members for each each of these companies we were greeted with slightly better news. According to Missing Pieces: Women and Minorities on Fortune 500 Boards the report published in 2012 by the Alliance for Board Diversity (ABD), women and minorities combined accounted for 13.3 percent3 of all of the Fortune 500’s board members in 2012. The ABD ranked Xerox as the 35th most diverse board that year. Xerox cares about diversity and it shows. There are many things that other corporations can do to increase diversity in their workplace. For example, human resources personnel can host recruitment events in ethnically diverse areas, such as inner cities. Placing ads in cultural papers, leaving fliers at different churches, and participating in a job fairs may also lead to finding more diverse candidates to apply for and fill their needed positions. With a more diverse staff, more companies can expect an influx of ideas, new talents and perspectives, and increased returns on investments.

Evaluation Plan

The history of quality management in the private sector shows an interesting evolution along two dimensions. First, the dominant orientation has been broadened from the product to the total system of production and delivery, and from product-related criteria to external criteria (for example, the environmental impact of products and production processes). Second, an evolution of views and practices has taken place concerning the involvement of various types of actors.These developments point to an increasing complexity of the quality management function. Therefore, the first aim of this paper is to examine the implications of this evolution for the professionalization of this function. (Dick 2001) The private and the public sector have, with respect to quality management and evaluation, followed their own lines of development. Even the key concepts–quality management and evaluation–have a different meaning, especially with respect to the relation between diagnosis and i ntervention.However, their basic question is the same: how can we assess realized performance and use the results to improve future performance? Besides, the boundaries between the private and the public sector are blurring more and more (Godfroij & Nelissen, 1993) and both sectors try to learn lessons from the other. Therefore, the second aim of this paper is to explore the relevance of the above mentioned questions for evaluation in the public sector.The relevance of private sector evaluation approaches for public sector organizations should be related to similarities and differences between the two sectors with respect to their targets and success criteria, their client systems, products and services, influence of stakeholders, and requirements with respect to public accountability. For example, compared to private enterprises, the products and services of public organizations are often less concrete and specific, and processes have to meet criteria other than technical efficienc y.For public organizations, the set of relevant stakeholders is more differentiated, client systems are often more diffuse and anonymous, and feedback processes from client groups can be more indirect and complicated. Because of these differences, public organizations have to be appraised by other and often more complex standards than do private organizations, such as equal accessibility, equity, and democracy. This suggests that public sector performance has to meet more diffuse and diverse criteria, and can be judged less easily.(Airasian 2006) On the other hand, the required performance of public organizations can be regulated quite explicitly. Procedures are often defined more clearly, with a view to accountability and democratic control. And because governments today have huge financial problems, financial criteria are often very specific. Thus, clients, products, and processes of public organizations are often clearly defined, qualitatively as well as quantitatively.Furthermor e, private enterprises also have to take into account more than just economic and technical requirements and often use quality management systems, which pay attention to internal social factors as well as societal claims and standards. Thus, the contrast between public and private organizations is only limited. In the field of evaluation, the challenge is basically the same, although public sector evaluation can be more complicated.For private enterprise, the market is supposed to be the most effective and efficient mechanism for the selection between good and poor performers. The price mechanism combines quality and efficiency criteria and reflects the added value of the products or services in the eyes of the buyers. Thus, at an aggregated level looking at profit figures is a clear and simple way of evaluation. This method has, however, little explanatory value.In order to discern causes of underperformance, quality-related factors and efficiency-related factors should be assessed separately. While efficiency evaluation looks at the cost-generating activities, quality evaluation–the focus of this paper–starts with the product itself. The evolution of quality management in the profit sector started many decades ago as quality control at the level of the finished product–defining quality standards at the product level and comparing the product characteristics with these standards.It took some time before the idea gained ground that the performance (profits) could be raised significantly by shifting attention to the steps in the production process where product deficiencies (and costs) are generated. This brought into vision the distinct process phases as well as the employees contributing to the process. Quality management began to pay attention to the role of the actors involved in production and distribution processes, and to the system of primary and supporting processes as a whole. It is now widely accepted that quality management shou ld have a broad scope: total quality management. References Airasian, P., Gay, L. R., Mills, G.. (2006). Educational Research: Competencies for Analysis and Applications (8th ed.). Dick, W. & Carey, L. (2001). The systematic design of instruction (5th ed.). Chapter 12. Longman Publishing Group. ISBN: 0321037804. Godfroij, A.J.A. and Nelissen, N.J.M. (Eds.) (1993). Verschuivingen in de besturing van de samenleving, Bussum, Dick Coutinho.

Types of War essays

Types of War essays American Revolution: Fought as a Limited War meaning the primary objective was to overthrow Britains political system and to be resolved by a treaty. Basically, the wealthy Americans did not want to pay the taxes Great Britain was levying upon them. The political structure did not change very much. The ability to run for office and vote still remained with the wealthy land owners. Civil War: Originally hoped to be fought as a Limited War, Lincoln came to realize the only way to save the state of the Union was to fight a Total War. A war in which the objective was to conquer and destroy the enemy became the outcomes objective. You can consider both wars revolutionary and civil in their definition. The Revolutionary War was fought against friends and neighbors based on their allegiance to the King. People that fought side by side in the French and Indian War were now pitted against each other during the Revolutionary War. The Civil War brought about much more change in the political structure than the Revolutionary War. A two party system was put in place, and the 13th, 14th, and post-war the 15th amendments were passed that abolished slavery, granted citizenship to all persons born in America, and gave every male citizen the right to vote and be elected. Neither war was fought based on the primary focus of slavery. The Constitution, which came about because of the victory in the Revolutionary War, did very little to address slavery other than to consider slaves property and provide cause for a slow emancipation of slaves by exercising a tax on them to begin in 1808. The Civil War only became an issue to concern slavery when Lincoln realized that to win the war and achieve the primary objective of preserving the union was to abolish slavery which in turn would debilitate the Souths ability to support the war. By not having slaves, the South would not have the resources to con ...

Leadership and Team Building Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Leadership and Team Building - Essay Example Different circumstance thus results in different leaders as such relative situations. According to this, an effective leader must offer the best solutions for the prevailing situation. Situational theorists, on the other hand, dictate that the best leader must develop a team that provides the best course of action based upon the relative situational variables (Coggins, 2009). This follows the understanding that every situation is different from the other and therefore requires a unique set of actions. Behavioral theorists dispel the notion that leaders are born. They believe that leaders are made and the process depends on the behavior of the leader. People see their leaders as role models and would, therefore, like to see admirable qualities in the leaders. This way, they develop teams consisting of obedient members who therefore achieve the success required of the projects. Participative theorists explain that leaders should consider the input of others in their group thereby appreciate the contribution of their followers. Such motivate creativity thereby developing the right mental states in the team members. The management theory of leadership bases its importance on the supervision, performance, and organization of a group. An effective leader must, therefore, be capable of organizing his or her group thereby achieves the successes required of such teams. Relationship theory of leadership lay more importance on the interaction between leaders and their followers (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2011).

Di box Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Di box - Lab Report Example The basic function was to enable the sound engineers to lay long lines of three core balanced cable between musicians and the engineer, who might be seated at the far end of the venue. In order to send him proper and noiseless signals, one would require balanced lines with high impedance. But the electric guitar, bass guitar, electric keyboard or the drum machine outputs are all unbalanced and low impedance outputs of around 50 kilo ohms. In order to convert it into impedances of around 3 kilo ohms, DI boxes are employed. They basically consist of an impedance matching transformer. A transformer consists of two coils – the primary and the secondary. The number of turns in each actually determines whether it is a step-up, a step-down or just an isolating transformer. Having a transformer also serves another very important purpose – isolation between the input and output signals. This helps to keep the expensive musical instruments out of the way of damage by the intrusio n of unwanted electrical impulses such as an accidentally switched on phantom power in the mixing console. In DI boxes, however, a step-down transformer is used. The number of turns in the primary coil is more than in the secondary coil. Therefore lesser amount of current is induced in the secondary coil, resulting in a mic level output (around -30dBV), from a line level input (around -10dBV).