Realizing Sustainability: Exchanging Concepts for Solutions

Abstract

Global climate change is becoming a visible global issue. Many sectors of our society are taking on the challenge of mitigating climate change through sustainable practices. The business community in particular is tackling the challenge. Sustainability may be defined as doing things today that do not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. However, the business community has a distinct definition of sustainability. Many companies view “sustainability as an opportunity to gain a competitive edge and create tangible, economic value,” (Sommer, 2012, p. 3). Because our review of the literature demonstrated that businesses have a significant influence on trends in society, we wanted to further explore sustainable business as a platform for global and local climate change mitigation. Our project analyzed the interplay between business practices and sustainability on a local scale. We are working with a Missoula business to develop and implement, where possible, a specific sustainable business plan, which is realistic, affordable, and coincides with the goals of the business. We are working closely with the business to analyze current business practices, identify barriers in the environment that may prevent sustainable practices from being implemented, develop a current carbon footprint analysis, and look into local best practices for comparison. We also developed a survey to augment our work that was administered to local business owners to assess their understanding of sustainable business practices. This project will provide a proposal of business practices that equips the local business with ideas on how to implement sustainable practices into their current business operations