After you complete your degree, you are hired by The Peddle Power Company to be
ID: 1197235 • Letter: A
Question
After you complete your degree, you are hired by The Peddle Power Company to be their Environmental/Sustainability Coordinator. This is a new position for them, in the past, they have made sure to comply with environmental rules and regulations and considered that sufficient. Your job is to move them to a new level as they would like to be able to take advantage of the renewed interest in “green” products and processes. But they don’t really know how to get there.
Background: The Peddle Power company makes bicycles. They make road bikes, mountain bikes and hybrids. They sell their bikes through bike stores that are owned and operated by others. They manufacture their bikes at one manufacturing plant in Blue Sky, ID. They make their bikes using traditional manufacturing processes. They have not seen any growth in their business for the last ten years and would like to grow by at least 10% per year in both sales and profit and to do this in the most sustainable way possible: environmentally, economically, and socially.
The first task you are given is to write a briefing paper for management that lays out your plan for the next five years. They want to understand your vision for where they should be as a company in 5 years. They want to see what steps you plan to take to assess where they are now, to plan for future changes, and to implement those changes over time. Try to be both idealistic and realistic. If they think your plan is not possible, your job may be at risk. However, they did hire you to transform the company and have given you a chance to lay out a new future for them. Management of the company is your audience for this paper, speak directly to them.
You don’t need to become an expert in bikes or production processes but try and be as detailed as you can. In other words, don’t use vague generalities like “reduce waste”. What type of waste? What is your plan for measuring it and then reducing it? Vague general statements will only put you on the hot seat when you present your ideas to management, think through the steps that you plan to take and layout your concepts so that your audience can see the roadmap.
Explanation / Answer
The The Peddle Power Company envisages the concept of clean technology, to reshape industrial process technologies to prevent pollution at the source.
As a sustainability coordinator, I would highlight the role of bio-technology and industrial sustainability. I would advise to adopt the Life Assessment Cycle which is the best approach to cleanliness. The three main drivers of clean technology are economic competitiveness, government policies, and public pressure which takes on strategic importance.
The adaptation includes state-of-the- art modern process bio-technology that would penetrate into industrial operations. Evaluate the economic importance of bio-technological applications, and explore the versatile range of techniques that have not been used in the past.
The first task is to identify bottlenecks and unmet market needs, develop a strong R&D to study the technical issues that affect wider applications of clean bio-technology. Explain that the future of clean bio-technology relies critically on improved bio-technological engineering.
LCA should define the aims and scope, inventory analysis, and impact assessment. This is of relative importance because of factors like carbon emissions or mercury pollution of soil. The methodology framework should be of high degree, but the task of collecting enormous data could be an arduous task. The concept of clean technology based on biological approach may therefore attract pubic attention and support.
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