Creation And Implementation Of A Sustainable Development Strategy In The Coconut-based Organic Substrate Industry In Sri Lanka

Sustainable development at the level of company is “trendy” today. For a longtime, sustainable development appeared as a mantra for ecology extremists, not takinginto consideration the so-called priority objectives (e.g. sales growth, marketdevelopment), and the constraints (e.g. cost control, competition) influencing themanagement of a company. In general, companies used to see sustainable developmentas a marketing tool and managers tended to consider it as an inefficient constraint intheir day-to-day work. However, there was a shift in the comprehension of sustainabledevelopment. Successes involving sustainable development are being more and morecommon, and top managers tend to increasingly understand sustainable developmentas a means to increase the operational efficiency of an organization, to improve itsmanagement, and to promote positive impacts on stakeholders. Nevertheless, theworld of sustainable development continues to lack a clear and shared understanding.The civil society, as well as companies, is still lost among the various terms,definitions and practices attached to sustainable development (e.g. corporate socialresponsibility, social responsibility, environment social and governance).The manufacturing of growing medium for greenhouse cultivation is boomingtoday with the rising issues of disparities in access to food, increased food commodityprices, and challenges in future food production due to climate change. Hydroponicgrowers are looking for ways to produce their crops at a lower cost and with theminimal environmental, social and safety constraints. Biogrow Lanka provides tailor-made products for this industry, using natural and organic solutions based on SriLanka’s largest natural resources: coconut. BL is willing to implement a sustainabledevelopment strategy and related actions to promote its business and products, but alsoto improve its brand image in the frame of its penetration of the individual growersmarket. The individual growers market is more mature regarding sustainabledevelopment than the professional growers market.This thesis has multiple objectives: to provide an introduction to the differentterms and definitions attached to sustainable development; to present an application ofa sustainable development approach on a company operating in a developing country; and to detail and propose actions led or to be implemented in the frame of a sustainabledevelopment strategy for the company.This study will detail the methodology used to define BL new sustainablestrategy, based on the different tools of sustainable development (e.g. United NationsGlobal Compact, ISO26000, Global Reporting Initiative) and on a thorough riskanalysis of BL activities. This risk analysis provided interesting findings regarding thecompany’s priorities in terms of commitment and action. For example, considering themultiple gaps in BL’s management of health and safety and its exposure to legal andhuman capital risks in this regard, health and safety constitute one of BL’s mainchallenges. The basis of BL SD strategy is finally composed of5main areas of action:Environment, Employees, Suppliers&subcontractors, Customers, and Localcommunities. These areas of actions are then supported by commitments hold by BLCEO, objectives, indicators and an action plan. Without these instruments a strategywill neither be efficient nor lively. But processes and systems are not sufficient.Difficulties were encountered during the implementation of the actions due to the lackof maturity of the corporate culture on sustainable development, the availability ofmanagers to help developing projects during the busy season, and the lack of data andtools to conduct clear assessments of BL products’ carbon footprint or LCA. It is acomplete change in management that is proposed in this thesis, integrating sustainabledevelopment issues and components in the day-to-day organization, in themanagement, teamwork and decision-making process. A whole new corporate cultureremains to be installed at BL, although the first seeds were planted during the missionconducted at BL. Great challenges are ahead of BL to enable the continuity of thestrategy thanks to proposed tools and the management appears responsive to theinitiative.As regards the implementation of sustainable development, we should notconsider that only processes and systems should be put into place. Changing thecorporate culture is the best way to ensure the continuity and evolution of a sustainabledevelopment strategy.