Hello, my name is Andrew Kim. I created this blog to fulfill requirements for CUNY SPS Sustainability and Green Business course. When I first signed up for the course, I saw the word ‘green’ and thought this course would be about how businesses can stay environment friendly. I glossed over the word, ‘sustainability,’ thinking that it would hold similar meaning as ‘green.’ Going green definitely has much to do with sustainability, but that is not all sustainability is about, I realized as I was reading about Hershey in the first chapter of our textbook, Triple Bottom Line. In fact, I am still trying to fully understand what sustainability entails for businesses and also for my life. When I googled the word sustainability for business, it gave me this this piece of puzzle to helping me understand better: “Business sustainability is often defined as managing the triple bottom line – a process by which companies manage their financial, social and environmental risks, obligations and opportunities. These three impacts are sometimes referred to as profits, people and planet.” So I did not realize that there are people and profit components of the word sustainability.

I read that Hershey overlooked the ‘people’ part when the 500 foreign student workers protested about their work conditions, and there were multiple accusations regarding child labor in their cocoa farm. Hershey may have been neglecting the well being of their workers in pursuit of financial profit.

This is when I realized that sustainability also has to do with stakeholders’ happiness. Running a business is not just about maintaining good profit but also preserving the environment as well as the well being of the people. Essentially, the goal of sustainability is to sustain the world so that the next generation can sustain their lives in it. I found the following sentence in the WorldBank website: “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” I only have a superficial knowledge of what sustainability for now, but as the semester progresses and I gain more information on the topic, I hope to gain more pervasive understanding of this word. I also wonder what impact this would have on my life as well and what impact I can make in the world.