FINAL TERM EXAM ASSIGNMENT

An Article on Sustainable Development Topic

LIVE A SUSTAINABLY LIVING TO EMBODY THE GLOBAL
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Name

: Sri Wahyuni

NIM

: 15201023050

Class

: 23/Reg/CC

Subject

: Corporate Social Responsibility

Lecturer

: Ms. Ida Bayuni

Jakarta 2016

Anti-Plagiarism Policy
I certify that the attached assignment is my own work and that any material
obtained from other sources has been acknowledged.
I grant permission to the London School of Public Relations to make
copies of my assignment for assessment, review and/or record keeping
purpose.
I note that the London School of Public Relations reserves the right to
check my assignment for plagiarism.
Signed (Sri Wahyuni)

Date ...........

LIVE A SUSTAINABLY LIVING TO EMBODY THE GLOBAL SUSTAINABLE

DEVELOPMENT

We have not inherited the world from our fathers. We are borrowing it from our
children. A quote from Lester Brown, a reminder for us that we have responsibility to
preserve the world and maintain the sustainability of living on the earth, for our children
and our next generation.
The importance to live a sustainably living has become a global concern and it is
enhanced by the United Nations in the form of the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs). These SDGs were formulated to overcome the global issues of climate change
and poverty as they are linked to each other.
Climate change will have direct and
immediate impacts on the poor and will make poverty
reduction more difficult. It puts millions of people's lives
at risk, and traps poor households in food insecurity and
poverty. As a result, climate shocks disproportionally
affect the most vulnerable people at risk of hunger,
especially women and children.
Furthermore, Wu Hongbo, UN UnderSecretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs said that the issue of sustainability is
one that belongs to everybody because the issue of our environment and the depletion
in resources is one that will affect generations to come, regardless of location.
The way it is currently, with consumption and production, and with the everincreasing population, the planets resources will not sustain unless something is done
to change the way we treat our planet. If the world exceed its two-degree warning limit
and become a lot warmer, then the consequences could be more natural disasters,
poverty and famine.
In order to prevent this, governments and businesses from across the world need
to work together to ensure sustainable development ensuring that economic growth
doesnt come at the expense of the planet.

The Unilever Sustainable Living

Plan (USLP) is one of a concrete example
of sustainable practice. It aims to avoid
the adverse environmental impact from
the companys growth, as well as to
enhance the positive social impact of the
company. As within time, sustainable
development now doesn't always refer to
environmental

sustainability

or

other

green topics. It also needs to take

economic and social sustainability into account in order to fit within the parameters of
sustainable development.
Since 2015, these three core areas were identified as the as the Three Bottom
Line of Sustainability Development: Profit, People and Planet.

What is the importance of sustainable practice?

As explained above, the worlds resources are finite. Growth that is unmanaged
and unsustain will lead to increased poverty and decline of the environment. We owe it
to future generations to explore lifestyles and paths of development that effectively
balance progress with awareness of its environmental impact.
In order to preserve the future, we must appreciate the interconnectedness
between humans and nature at all levels. Sustainable development practices can help
us doing this, and through education and building awareness, preserving the future is
within everyones reach.
Sustainable development as defined from the book of Our Common Future, also
known as the Brundlant Report (1987), saying that Sustainable development is
development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs. The idea is to create a system that is
"sustainable", meaning that something can keep going indefinitely in the future. As an
approach, sustainable development conveys the idea to developments which take finite
resources from the earth into consideration.
2

Unilever Indonesia understands the

importance of the sustainable development
practice and The Unilever Sustainable
Living Plan (USLP) is now addressing a
wide

range

economic

of

challenges

development,

related

to

environmental

protection and social development.

Economic Development
Currently many areas of economic
growth are reliant on natural resources and
land development. Economic sustainability
places monetary value on these limited resources in an effort to use them fairly among
the people of the world. Economic sustainability also relies on the idea that by shifting
the dependence of the economy on these resources and valuing them properly, people
in developing countries can have a better standard of life. In this case, as sampled by
Unilever, they empowered the farmers to have sustainable farming so the farmers can
improve their livelihoods.

Environmental Protection
Environmental sustainability is the most commonly recognized type of
sustainability. This term includes a wide variety of environmental issues of current
concern. In general, environmental sustainability seeks the use of renewable natural
resources over non-renewable resources. It also encourages individuals to make
changes in their personal lifestyle to create a smaller carbon footprint, reducing their
impact on the global scale. Common environmental initiatives such as recycling are also
included under the heading of environmental sustainability.
Unilever Indonesia through their USLP commits to halve the greenhouse gas
impact to their products, to halve the use of water on their products, to halve the waste
associated with the disposal of their products and commits to supply all the agricultural
raw materials from sustainable resources.
3

Social Development
Social sustainability concerns itself with factors that affect the well-being of
people and their governments. Therefore, social development includes area such as
food production, food security and poverty.
The concerns on social development include the disproportionate impact that
poverty has on women and children and how to empower groups of people living in
poverty to improve their welfare. It also related heavily with education and working with
groups and individuals to provide information that encourage sustainable development.
One of the ongoing projects from USLP called Project Sunlight: Supporting
Healthy Futures for Children is a collaboration project with Save the Children. This
project is a call to their consumers to take action to create a better future for children in
Indonesia.
Unilever tries to reach out people in particular who have real stake in creating a
brighter future, such as mothers, youth and children, in the hope that their actions would
inspire optimism and behavior change in others. This is also to proof, though women
and children often regarded as vulnerable people, as a matter of fact, with proper
education and empowerment, these group people could have the power as the agent of
change in creating a brighter future.
Unilever also believes that every child has the right to be healthy, because health
is an asset to start a better life and gives them a chance to fulfill their potential and
achieve their dreams. Therefore, Unilever ensures that children will always have access
to basic health needs, such as proper sanitation, primary health care and good nutrition.
The Project Sunlight is also a means to inspire the public to adopt a more
sustainable way of life and create a brighter future. It offered an unprecedented
opportunity for people to participate at all levels in making a tangible change to
childrens lives. Surprisingly, within less than 2 months of its launching in November
2014, Project Sunlight had gathered 8 million supporters, who joined the campaign
through various forms of community participation as shown on below chart:

If we all live sustainably, could we change the world?

If we all live sustainably, could we change the world as a better place to live
with? I believe we could. But I admit that to start living a sustainable lifestyle will give a
hard time to everyone. To start living a sustainable lifestyle means that you have to
change your current behavior and habit and this is not an easy way to do.
We have been pampered by the advancement of technology which makes
peoples life easier in term of lifestyle. The closest examples are home appliances and
motor vehicles. We dont realize (or actually we do but just dont care?) that the
residential electricity consumption from the home appliances contribute to the worlds
greenhouse gas emission as well as the motor vehicles. Another example, because of
our busy life, ready-to-serve foods in packaging is the best choices to buy rather than to
cook the fresh ones. These after-used packaging will obviously increase the number of
non-organic waste in earth.
Here in Jakarta - and also in almost major cities in the worlds developing
countries- heavy traffic, pollution from vehicles, increased number of concrete buildings
and less green areas, trashes, junk foods, poverty are the main causes of problems and
city chaos. These conditions describe well why the sustainable development goals were
formulated and need to be achieved.

You dont have to be a politician, or a business man to change the world. You
can start from the smallest scale, its from yourself. Challenge yourself to start using the
electricity wisely, walk or bike to any nearby places it reduces the gas emission, use
shower instead of bathtub it saves water, or even become a volunteer for Project
Sunlight for example. There are lots of activities you can apply to start a sustainable
living.
As practiced by Unilever, they are now delivering their USLP commitments by
working with suppliers on sustainable farming and improving livelihoods, reducing waste
and emissions in their factories, offices and logistics operations, aligning product
innovation with their sustainability mission and encouraging consumers and
communities to live more sustainable lifestyles.

But, is doing it alone enough to make changes?

After you have changed your own lifestyle and succeed to challenge yourself to
start a sustainable living, do you see the world changed as well? Do you see your
neighborhood changed as well?
You cant change the world by living simply all by yourself. You might have
changed at home. You might have changed your own lifestyle and start to live
sustainably, but there is something more. In the long-term, these changes will achieve
very little. We have more miles to go and individual change is too slow to achieve the
objective ahead. So, whats next to do?? You should be able to inspire other people,
your co-workers, your neighbors and your community, to change their lifestyle as you
do. There is something else we can do together.

How to contribute in sustainable development?

Participate in local politics. If you have interest in politics, you can contribute
by voting, signing petitions or even supporting protest to any law or policy which against
sustainable development. For example, when the local government allows developer to
build more malls and office buildings without allocating more green areas.
Educate. Teach your children to live sustainably. Make them understand on what
youre doing. Be a mentor or tutor. Share your values through your social media and
6

blogs, or you can even disseminate your own newsletters to your neighborhood or
community. This is to make sure that the next generations will not make the same
mistakes we did by actively guide them to a better way.
Why targeting
to
and
A

the

youth

children?
survey

conducted

by

Unilever shows
that

children

are

the

motivation

for

parents to live
greener for the sake of the childrens future. Children are optimistic and have natural
enthusiasm. They see possibilities, though they realize the major problems in the world
but they are still optimistic to the planets future. They inspire parents to act. And most
important children have the faith that together we can make world the better place.
Form groups. Join groups or causes on sustainability topics. If you cant find any
groups or causes that suits you, make it happen by yourself. Bring people together to
learn, to share, to talk and most importantly, to act! For example, form a gardening
group that brings together people who enjoy growing their own food.
Support organizations. There are large entities that doing great things already
regarding the sustainability development. But sometimes, they can only do less due to
lack of funding. Help them with your time, your money, your donations and your ideas.
Be a volunteer, become a board member, attend events, offer your home as a meeting
place or do a number of other things to help.
Encourage your company to do what you do. Be a voice in your company
write a CSR plan, start a corporate giving program. Find unique solutions to business
problems that are positive for the world. Convince your company that they will have a
sustainable business when they support sustainable development. Ask your company to

give time and money to important causes. Inspire them to deliver more in the way of
world change.

Lets actlets do it together!

Now, since you have the knowledge on sustainable development, the importance
to live sustainably, to inherit a better place to live to our children, we come up with the
questions: are you ready to be the agent of change? Will you soon to start living a
sustainable live and share your values to other people?
You must be aware that being an agent of change will give you hard times.
People may think you are freak, odd or alien for being an eco-people or sustainablepeople. In America, some people even experience to live in a community where
sustainable living was violently discouraged. Anyone who recycled was evil,
communist, and un-American, and if you did anything to try and reduce your
environmental impact, people would think you definitely were out of your mind.
Sometimes people just kept their mouth shut about their environmental positions, for
fear of some kind of hostile response.
My point is that for many of us, trying to encourage others to live more
sustainably is not always easy. Being the only one who seems to be doing anything to
lessen your impact on the environment is very frustrating sometimes. But thats the
challenge! As Melinda Epler says on her blog: Green, frugal, sustainable, simple,
healthy, happy... No matter what we each call it, we come together here to support and
learn from each other. We are preserving our planet with our lifestyles. We are creating
sustainable communities for our children. We are living the lives we want to live.
Remember, no action on climate change means no end to extreme poverty. So, lets
act...lets do it together!

References:
http://www.iisd.org/topic/sustainable-development
http://www.sustainabledevelopmentinfo.com/what-is-sustainable-living/
http://www.environmentalscience.org/sustainability
http://www.globalstewards.org/sustainable-lifestyle.htm
https://www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/
http://1greengeneration.elementsintime.com/?p=1321
http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2015/09/why-should-you-care-aboutthe-sustainable-development-goals/
https://www.wfp.org/climate-change