Literature Review

     “The Performance Frontier: Innovating for a Sustainable Strategy" by Robert G. Eccles and George Serafeim discusses how companies have adopted sustainability. They discuss how even though most companies now have sustainability programs, they lack a sustainable strategy. Businesses are cutting carbon emissions, reducing waste, and saving energy, but all of this is done based on social pressure that the public has demanded in the last decade. To endure a strategy, companies must address the interests of all stakeholders: investors, employees, customers, governments, NGOs, and society. Companies also need to increase shareholder value while improving their environmental, social and governance performance. An example of a company that has reached these strategies is AstraZeneca. 

     AstraZeneca's sustainability strategy is beyond compliance and environmental cost leadership. They apply the concept of beyond compliance by going above what they are asked to do regarding regulations and laws in order to provide its customers and shareholders with a better product and service, as well as providing services and offering medicine to people who otherwise would not be able to receive it. AstraZeneca also uses an environmental cost leadership strategy as they use innovation in more environmentally friendly technologies and processes in order to lower their costs and become a more sustainable business.

        AstraZeneca is in Stage 4 of sustainability, meaning they have changed and developed a new business model, and are providing medication and aid to people all over the world. AstraZeneca has changed the way their supply chain is structured and overall changing its business model and structure in order to be a more sustainable company. They have redesigned their facilities in order to make their business more sustainable and as eco-friendly as possible. One way they did this was by establishing solar energy farms in order to power their facilities. AstraZeneca also changed its supply chain in order to bring it to higher standards of sustainability and ethical practices. They monitor their supplier's water usage, energy usage, and waste usage to track and maintain certain levels of each. They are also continuously running audits to make sure their suppliers have the right standards and controls in place to keep their high standards.
     "The Business Student's Guide to Sustainable Management" by Petra Molthan-Hill was a brilliant resource we used in understanding sustainability, specifically the Triple Bottom Line (TBL). The Triple Bottom Line emphasizes the importance of people, planet, and profits; companies not only focusing on their "bottom line," meaning profits or losses, but also their impact on our planet and society as a whole, especially stakeholders. We used Molthan-Hill's definition of the TBL to determine if AstraZeneca's sustainability strategy follows these guidelines.