The preceding years have been marked with stark warnings of the outcomes of inaction against climate change. For instance, the American wildfires were recorded to raze approximately 9 million hectares, destroying hundreds of human lives, a probable 200 million of wildlife, and costing billions of dollars in damage (Compere, 2020). However, American businesses and investors have prioritized other agendas, including climate change. The surging rise of the information economy has been linked to unsafe digital security issues that should be addressed. Furthermore, circular economy and resource efficacy have been a foundation for debates as companies focus on handling such trends. Therefore, this paper aims to assess a circular economy and resource effectiveness as the novel trend in sustainability that has been witnessed in the American business.
The Sustainability Trend and its Integration: Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency
Circular economy and resource efficiency approaches are complementary strategies that companies use to achieve specific results. For instance, considering the comprehensive nature of the circular economy framework, the model is central to boosting resource efficiency to increase value preservation circles (Compere, 2020). In resource effectual companies, raw materials are utilized sustainably and economically. This allows organizations to save on the cost of production influenced by demand for more raw materials and low-quality products.
On the contrary, a circular economy concentrates on recycling and restoring materials into the value chain rather than changing them to waste. The American Council for an Energy-Effective Economic statistics indicates that by 2050 energy adeptness will reduce the American greenhouse gas emission and energy consumption by 50 percent (Compere, 2020). This will drive the American economy to realize climate objectives and provide energy reserves valued at $700 billion (Compere, 2020). American businesses are expected to shift to the necessities and tackle functioning footprint competencies by boosting their resource output and reducing resource exploitation. However, this is central to domains such as water, energy, gas emissions, and wastes, notably plastics. Therefore, the circular economy and resource efficiency sustainability trend has been pivotal in contemporary American businesses as they aim to reduce plastics.
Integration
The integration of the circular economy and resource efficiency approach has been advocated particularly in the American businesses to enable them to reduce plastics. Approximately 400 American enterprises have endorsed the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, which entails a circular economy where plastic wastes are eliminated. The integration of the sustainability approach can be achieved by introducing evaluation equipment to help make manufacturing more efficient and reduce the loss of raw materials. Equally, the instruments incorporated operatively will help save energy and natural resources by gauging the energy content and natural resources required for producing a specific product.
The approach will enable businesses to understand their manufacturing operations and manage them effectively to achieve sustainability goals. Similarly, companies that use these instruments will permit their consumers to optimize their procedures, end-product quality, and resource efficiency. Consequently, the customers will have the mandate to support the sustainability approach by reviewing how their brands can reduce plastics in the end commodities without compromising quality. With such circular economy and resource efficiency solutions, electronic products clients plan and apportion production resources, comprising designing of packages and shifting to wireless connectivity enabled gadgets, particularly ear pods. Therefore, the integration of circular economy and resource efficiency necessitates cooperation from firms and their consumer markets to realize the established objectives.
Stakeholders’ Involvement
The involvement of stakeholders plays a critical part in the realization of the sustainability objectives. The stakeholder participation in the plan will assist the business in identifying stockholders’ expectations and improve their satisfaction (Salvioni & Almici, 2020). In this case, it is fundamental for the managers to avert prospective negative impacts influenced by the absence of active conversations. This strategy can be actualized through primary mapping and categorizing of stakeholders and the consequent assortment of effective methods of communication (Salvioni & Almici, 2020). The effective techniques that should be used to ensure stakeholder contribution involve parameters such as informing, monitoring, advocating, passiveness, and consultancy. Therefore, the circular economy and resource efficiency trend entail engaging relevant shareholders in circular approaches centered on an incorporated strategic communication plan. Such an approach aims to integrate various stakeholders in achieving the business’s strategic objectives.
APPLE
The electronics and electrical manufacturing industry has been the key player in the environmental sustainability goals. The opportunity factor of the SWOT assessment of Apple Inc. highlights the relevant prospects that are available for the company. Opportunities are the extrinsic aspects centered on the industry surrounding them. The circular economy and resource effectiveness trend present an opportunity to expand the Apple Inc. distribution channel (Zeng, 2021). This approach improves its previous weaknesses in the supply of its products, comprising tablets and smartphones. However, the purpose of the sustainability drift is to reduce plastic waste. Therefore, this SWOT evaluation aspect demands modifying the technological echelon’s distribution and packaging strategy. This dynamic has influenced Apple Inc. to develop new product lines that are purposed to help the company realize the requirements for circular economy and resource efficiency. For instance, the technological echelon has replaced wired smartphone earphones with wireless ear pods.
In addition, the firm has reduced the packaging of its products by selling them separately, such as earphones. Finally, the latest iPhones, notably the 10 and 13, are designed without the home button, as in the case of the iPhone 6 (Zeng, 2021). This tailoring aimed to improve efficiency and reduce packaging to meet global environmental sustainability demands. Therefore, from the assessment of the aspect, the novel plans made by Apple Inc. in its packaging and product designs were a reflection of the realization of the circular economy and resource efficiency purpose.
References
Compere, L. (2020). Five sustainable business trends to watch for in a critical year | Reuters Events | Sustainable Business. Web.
Salvioni, D. M., & Almici, A. (2020). Circular economy and stakeholder engagement strategy. Symphonya. Emerging Issues in Management (Symphonya. Unicusano. It).
Zeng, L. (2021). An Analysis of Apple’s Internationalization Strategy. International Journal of Frontiers in Sociology, 3(17). Web.