Integrating Sustainability Into Jewelry Business - Case: X - Jewelers
Gurung, Priyanka (2019)
2019
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2019122727900
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2019122727900
Tiivistelmä
Sustainability is an evolving concept and, in order for businesses to become sustainable, it is essential to constantly improve activities of their value-chain accordingly. A sustainable business considers potential impact of their product, process and activities on the ‘triple bottom line’ of sustainability – environment, society and economy and makes gradual efforts to place these factors in complete harmony.
This study is inspired by the current environmental and ethical movements, where companies should be aware of their business’s impacts on both internal and external environments as well as comply with arising regulations. Instead of solely focusing on ‘greening’ of businesses, importance should be given to applying the Circular Economic concept from the beginning of the business process to succeed in the long-run. Another area highlighted by this study is sustainable level of natural resources use for jewelry production and, the current state and future scarcity of precious metals relevant to the case company’s jewelry business. Natural resources are limited and thus, it is important for businesses to find innovative designs and production methods to reduce waste, reuse by upcycling the end-of-life (EoL) components as well as acquire materials from alternative sources while leaving positive ecological footprints.
This study analyzes all the possible impacts of the case company’s jewelry business by considering the total product life-cycle. It includes important sustainable models – CE / Upcycling, LCA and LSCA as well as empirical results to guide the case company’s jewelry business towards the sustainable path. The results of this research is believed to be valuable in other businesses’ context as well.
This study is inspired by the current environmental and ethical movements, where companies should be aware of their business’s impacts on both internal and external environments as well as comply with arising regulations. Instead of solely focusing on ‘greening’ of businesses, importance should be given to applying the Circular Economic concept from the beginning of the business process to succeed in the long-run. Another area highlighted by this study is sustainable level of natural resources use for jewelry production and, the current state and future scarcity of precious metals relevant to the case company’s jewelry business. Natural resources are limited and thus, it is important for businesses to find innovative designs and production methods to reduce waste, reuse by upcycling the end-of-life (EoL) components as well as acquire materials from alternative sources while leaving positive ecological footprints.
This study analyzes all the possible impacts of the case company’s jewelry business by considering the total product life-cycle. It includes important sustainable models – CE / Upcycling, LCA and LSCA as well as empirical results to guide the case company’s jewelry business towards the sustainable path. The results of this research is believed to be valuable in other businesses’ context as well.