Free «Global Citizenship» Essay

Introduction

The end of the 20th century was marked by the variety of the global cataclysms and disasters as well as the rapid negative changes in the environment caused by human activities. The awareness of the possibility of the global catastrophe has led the international community to the conclusion that the key values of the social and business development should be reconsidered. Thus, nowadays, the issues of the corporate and social responsibility (CSR) imply the most important aspects for the efficient business performance. In fact, the customer, social and environmental responsibility as well as sustainable development of the companies are supposed to be among the key competitive advantages of the businesses to gain customers’ loyalty and respect. Taking into account the aforementioned items, the following paper is aimed to provide the analysis of the non-financial performance and sustainability strategies of Innocent Drinks as well as assure the recommendations for the company’s further development and improvement.

Company’s Overview

Innocent Drinks is the UK based company established as the joint venture by Richard Reeds, Jon Wright, and Adam Balon in 1998. The company produces the variety of the natural juices as well as healthy drinks aimed to preserve the customers’ health as well as provide the pleasure of the delicious taste. Not being the first who thought of making fruit drinks, the Innocent Drinks and its idea of 100% naturalness and lack of any preservatives perfectly has fitted into the rapidly growing momentum of organic products market. Nowadays, Innocent Drinks are sold in the various outlets and supermarkets, being one of the most favorite drinks of the U.K. customers (O’Reilly, 2014). In fact, the creative marketing as well as efficient promotion and advertising strategy helped the company gain popularity not only in the UK but also expend into the international market. The key values of the company’s performance imply to be natural, responsible, entrepreneurial, generous, and commercial.

Sustainability Strategy Principles and Their Application

The concept of Innocent Drinks corporate and social responsibility is based on the key role of the businesses in the solutions of the society’s interests in the process of their business performance. In fact, such a commitment of the company’s performance includes not only the statutory obligation of Innocent Drinks to operate in accordance with the legislation but also implies the company’s desire to assure the high life quality of workers, their families, society, local community, and ecological friendly performance.

In fact, the social responsibility of Innocent Drinks is based on the multi-level structure. The basic level of Innocent Drinks performance and sustainability strategies implies the timely payment of taxes and salaries, the extension of the working staff etc. The second level implies the creation of the appropriate working conditions and the assistance of the employees in their personal life issues, including the improvement of the professional skills, preventive treatment, development of the social opportunities, etc. The highest level of Innocent Drinks corporate social responsibility is based on charity.

The aforementioned facts prove that policy of the corporate social responsibility of Innocent Drinks is based on the several aspects of responsibility and implies the following:

• The environmental responsibility;
• The responsibility to the community as a whole;
• The responsibility to employees;
• The responsibility to consumers;
• The responsibility to partners.

The products of Innocent Drinks are made from the entirely natural and organic products. The company strictly monitors the compliance of the partners and their performance with the standards for working conditions and environmental protection. The products’ packaging fully complies with environmental standards while the release of carbon dioxide is controlled at all stages of production (Mintel, 2010). It means that Innocent Drinks strives to reduce the waste of the resources in processing and production, retaining the natural resources of the earth and raising the standards of living around the globe. This is performed through the constant seek of opportunities aimed to minimize the hazardous impact of the company’s performance onto the environment and preserve ecology.

In fact, to reduce the carbon impact, Innocent Drinks assures the following:

• The use of as little as possible material for each package.
• The use of the recycled and renewable materials.
• The provision of the close loop processing and use of easy recyclable packaging materials.
• The decrease of the negative environmental impact based on the deliberately usage of materials without the high rate of carbon content.

In fact, Innocent Drinks has done a lot to improve the package, and this process has been continuing. In 2003, it initiated the use of recycled plastic food in the company’s small bottles. In 2013, the company saved more than 1,000 tons of plastic producing the plastic bottles from the recycled plastic. Finally, the organization checks the key suppliers of packaging quarterly tracking the indicators of energy and water consumption and emissions. To support the development, the company is actively involved into the discussions and forums devoted to rPET industry. Along with WRAP, Innocent Drinks seeks to find the long term solutions not only for the company itself but also for everyone who uses recycled plastic (Innocent, n.d.).

The supply system of Innocent Drinks is carried out by third parties. However, the company cooperates only with suppliers who share the desire to leave the world behind in the best condition and conduct business responsibly. It is extremely important for the company to share the same values with suppliers. Together, they are constantly working on reducing energy and water consumption as well as on increasing the redistribution and recycling of waste. Annually, Innocent Drinks makes a list of the company’s objectives, quarterly monitoring the processes and discussing its efficiency. The company is working on projects that will help achieve the set sustainability goals. Nowadays, the production implies the processing of more than 80% of dry waste. In addition, most of the liquid waste is recycled to the anaerobic (conversion of organic waste into biogas by bacteria) or animal feed (Hymen, 2010).

Although the company has the most advanced system of forecasting and low losses of finished products with a short shelf life, sometimes it faces an excess of drink. In this case, there is no better use than to give them to the needy. A few years ago, Innocent Drinks started working with FareShare, a charitable organization in the UK, which supplies food and drinks to the socially vulnerable and unprotected people (the homeless, the elderly living below the poverty line etc). In fact, people with low income usually suffer from the lack of useful food as they cannot provide themselves with quality and well-prepared meals. Every day, 51,000 people use the services of FareShare. It is hard to carry out the logistics; however, it is worth of it. In 2013, Innocent Drinks passed FareShare equivalent of 200,000 servings of fruit, striving to increase this proportion from year to year (Innocent, n.d.).

Innocent Drinks is significantly concerned with the environmentally friendly power affects at all levels of the production and consumption of food, including the place, time and way the food was produced and delivered as well as how much garbage is left at the customers’ homes after it has been eaten. In fact, Innocent Drinks seeks to do everything possible to reduce the impacts associated with the production of the company’s products. The balance between the impact on the environment and quality food is the basis of the company’s ecological strategy as a whole, as well as the basis of its new product development process.

The tithe of the company’s profits is donated to the charity needs to help countries that grow the company’s fruits and care about the environment.

Existing Challenges and Recommendations

The existing challenges of Innocent Drinks performance and sustainability strategy imply the possibility of the increases in the raw material prices. In fact, the Innocent Drinks is directly influenced by the supply of the high-quality fruits, while the fruits harvest and supply are affected by the climate changes. It means that the climate change is supposed to be the key challenge of the company. Thus, to overcome it, the company is recommended to promote the ecologically friendly performance of the humanity.

Another challenge of Innocent Drinks implies the tough competition within the market. Tropicana Products owned by PepsiCo are the key competitors of Innocent Drinks (PepsiCo, n.d.). Over 60 years of experience within the juice market is the key advantage of Tropicana Products. Thus, to overcome it, the company is recommended to use its creative marketing as well as to introduce the customer loyalty programs. In addition, the performance of Innocent Drinks significantly depends on the changes within U.K. legislation as the key market of the company’s performance.

Conclusion

Corporate social responsibility and sustainability are the important elements of the business development. Innocent Drinks is a perfect example of the sustainable company. The products of Innocent Drinks are made from the entirely natural and organic products. In addition, the company participates in the FareShare charity program to help those in need. However, the company is faced with competition and the increase in the raw material price challenges.