Identification of Sustainability Initiatives in Anglo American Plc - Case Study Example

Sustainability: A Case Study of Anglo American Plc Name Institution Course Date Sustainability: A Case Study of Anglo American Plc Introduction Sustainability has become an area of increased interest for organizations. Dillard, Dujon, and King (2008, p. 2) define sustainability as the policies and practices adopted by a business to minimize negative environment impacts and promoting social and economic wellbeing of the society. Because of the increased importance of sustainability in the present day society, businesses are increasingly making sustainability an integral part of business model. Sustainability is currently seen as a source of business competitive. There are typically three pillars of sustainability under the triple bottom line (TBL) model namely economic, social and environmental sustainability. Goldie and Furnass (2005, p. 16) suggests that a company needs to balance the three to ensure sustainable development. Anglo American Plc is one of the companies that have recognized the importance of sustainability and made it part of the company’s business model (Anglo American 2016). This paper analyzes Anglo American sustainability initiatives and their authenticity and proceeds to analyze their contribution to enhancing positive social and human outcome for human resources. The third part of the paper will analyze the ways in which the outcome of the initiatives might differ for the same initiatives in a different business context. Identification of Sustainability Initiatives and Their Authenticity Anglo American Plc is one of the leading mining companies in the world. The company was founded in 1999 and has grown to become a global brand with operations in South Africa, Colombia, Australia, Colombia, Venezuela and China (Anglo American 2016). Like most companies in the mining industry, Anglo American understands that its operations impacts on the society and the environment and has adopted a number of initiatives that seeks to promote sustainability. According to the case study, Anglo American sustainability initiative is in the area of promoting the health and wellbeing of its employees and the population in the areas where it operates. The triple bottom line (TBL) model states that sustainability requires advancing economic, social and environmental wellbeing (Goldie and Furnass 2005, p. 41). However, this case indicates that Anglo American has focused mainly on the area of social sustainability. HIV/Aids are one of the health problems that affect the employees and the communities where Anglo American Company operates. Therefore, the case indicates that the company has taken it upon itself to promote social sustainability by focusing on the promotion of health and wellbeing of the people in its areas of operation by fighting HIV/Aids epidemic. The company started its fight against AIV/AIDS in 1990 by coming up with the company’s HIV/AIDS policy that recognized that HIV/AIDS is an epidemic that it needed to tackle to promote the health and wellbeing not just of its employees, but also their families and the communities. The company has been tackling HIV/AIDS particularly in South Africa where the disease has reached an epidemic level through campaign that focuses on promoting voluntary counseling and testing. The case indicates that the firm provide education programme to the employees and the community by sensitizing them about HIV/AIDS and the measures that they need to take to avoid contracting the virus. To promote testing, the company has set up VCT centers in the company and in the community, where employees and the community can be tested and educated about the disease. Other than just promoting voluntary testing, Anglo American Plc also provides support, care and treatment to those found to be HIV positive. The case indicates that the company operates two fully equipped clinics nearby that are served by professionally trained nurses. For employees and the community members found to be living with the virus, the company provides free antiretroviral drugs and nutritional supplements to help them live a healthy and normal life. Additionally, the company understood that, to address HIV/AIDs in the company and the community, providing employees and the community with the means with which to protect themselves was critical. In this regard, Anglo American distributed 23,000 condoms every month to the surrounding community as was the case near colliery. The use of condoms and femidoms promoted good health and wellbeing of the people by ensuing that HIV-negative individuals are protected and that partners of HIV-positive individuals are protected. Authenticity of sustainability has been a debatable issue. The authenticity of sustainability has been a controversial issue and the debate has been driven by the wave of sustainability involvement in the recent past. There are a section of scholars and business analysts that feel that most companies do not promote sustainability out of their heart, rather as a marketing strategy or because the law requires them to do so (Dillard, Dujon, and King 2008, p. 14). In the case of Anglo American Plc, however, the company’s move to promote sustainability by fighting HIV/AIDS was driven by the fact that the company truly believes in sustainability principles. From the case, it becomes apparent that Anglo American invested in the fight against HIV/AIDS because it believed that it is important for the wellbeing of the people and the community. Statistics indicate that HIV/AIDS had reached an epidemic rate with the life expectancy reducing to just about 52 years. Therefore, as a company that operates in South Africa, Anglo American felt it necessary to promote the good health of the population by fighting this health scourge. Besides, there is no law that compelled the company to promote sustainability, especially in the areas of health. Moreover, Anglo American Company has been investing in many other areas of sustainability, such as environmental sustainability through production of “green” call because it believes in sustainability policies, which is well defined in its sustainability policy statement (Anglo American 2016). Contribution of Initiatives to Enhancing Positive Social and Human Outcomes for Human Resources The relationship between sustainability of human resource management (HRM) has become an area of increased focus of most studies. Although many people believe that there is no connection between sustainability and HR, Dujon, Dillard and Brennan (2013, p. 9) indicate that the nexus between the two is important. Lynnette McIntire, of the UPS Sustainability Working Committee stated the relationship between sustainability and HR is important for the success of an organization. In explaining the importance of sustainability in HR, McIntire highlighted five areas where sustainability and HR functions intersect, namely training, engagement, employee communication, sustainability-focused volunteering and waste reduction in the talent acquisition process (Weinreb 2012). Therefore, the HIV/AIDS health initiative undertaken by Anglo American has profound social and human outcomes for human resources. Anglo American being a mining company requires steady supply of skilled and non-skilled labor to ensure productivity and success of the company and competitiveness. However, this is not possible when the population that it relies on for labor is affected by diseases. HIV/AIDS in particular has serious negative impact on human resource of a firm as it results in lower labor supply, declined productivity through absenteeism, increased turnover rates, higher healthcare costs, and higher replacement costs and befit payments and decreased purchasing power of the population. As such, investing in the health and wellbeing of the population by fighting HIV/AIDS epidemic impacted positively on the Anglo American human resource since it ensured that HIV/AIDS scourge was addressed, thus resulting in emergence of a healthy population that ensured steady supply of productive human capital for the company. At the same time, the initiative impacted positively on the HR of the company as it resulted in decreased turnover and absenteeism, decreased replacement costs, and healthcare costs, as well as benefit payments, while resulting in increased productivity of the employees which was critical for the success of the company. How Outcomes Might Differ For the Same Initiatives in a Different Business Context Nongovernmental organizations have a strong focus in promoting sustainability by focusing on social, environmental and the sustainability of the world as a whole. Social sustainability is one of the areas that quiet a number of nongovernmental organizations emphasize. They try to promote social sustainability by promoting the health and the wellbeing of the people Dillard, Dujon, and King 2008, p. 73). Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is an example of a nongovernmental organization that promotes social sustainability by fighting HIV/AIDS (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2016). Similarly to the nongovernmental organizations, Anglo American Plc has taken an initiative to promote social sustainability by fighting HIV/AIDS in South Africa and globally. However, the differences in outcome for the health initiatives is that, where as nongovernmental organizations, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation participate in the fight against HIV/AIDS without profit motive or gaining directly from the initiative, Anglo American company though engage in the fight against HIV/AIDS because it is part of the company’s sustainability policy, it also engages in the initiative with the aim of benefiting from it by getting the labor supply and the market for its products. For instance, part of the reason for the company’s investment in the fight against HIV/AIDS in South Africa was to be able to ensure that it get a healthy workforce for its mining operations. By contrast, since nongovernmental use mainly volunteers, their move to fight HIV/AID would be purely to promote the health and wellbeing of the people and not to benefit from it directly, according to Dujon, Dillard and Brennan (2013, p. 81) Conclusion Sustainability has important practice that businesses are investing in not just because the law requires them to do so, but as a source of competitive advantage. Anglo American is an example of a mining company that has made sustainability part of its policy as seen through its fight against HIV/AIDS that aims to promote social sustainability. As indicated, fighting HIV/AIDS would impact positively on the company’s HR by ensuing steady supply of healthy and productive human capital. However, the outcome of the initiative differs with that of nongovernmental organizations since NGOs aims is not to profit from such sustainability programmes. References Anglo American 2016, Sustainability, viewed 9 September 2016 http://www.angloamerican.com/sustainability Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (2016). HIV strategy overview, viewed 9 September 2016 http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Health/HIV Dillard, J., Dujon, V., & King, M. C 2008, Understanding the social dimension of sustainability. Routledge, Sidney. Dujon, V., Dillard, J., & Brennan, E. M 2013. Social sustainability: a multilevel approach to social inclusion. Routledge, London. Goldie, J., & Furnass, B 2005, In search of sustainability. Csiro Publishing, London. Weinreb, W 2012, When sustainability meets human resources, viewed 9 September 2016 https://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/07/22/when-sustainability-meets-human-resources Read More