The Delicate Quest for Corporate Environmental Sustainability

Executive Summary

This report provides an analysis of Greenheart, family-owned multinational food producers, which after some difficulties was taken over to become Greenheart plus. This analysis is bringing light on different aspects of the decision making that brought Greenheart to be taken over, as well as analysing the decision made by the new management of Greenheart Plus to improve the financial stability whilst preserving a certain level of commitment to sustainability. A particular attention is also brought to the psychological aspects of those decisions in this report.

The report finds that Greenheart fails to address the global dimension of its company despite being very active and innovative in regards of sustainability. Greenheart Plus addresses the financial concerns and re-establish the company focus towards profits, but lost the corporate drive to ensure sustainability. The recommendations discussed are aiming to find an economically sustainable commitment to environmental sustainability:

• Creating a corporate sustainability technical department.

• Encouraging backwards integration.

• Opening dialogue with local authorities to proactively improve sustainability.

The analysis conducted was limited to the decision and bias regarding the organisational structure and sustainability aspects of the case study. More attention could be brought to the politics, sociology or personality/values aspects of the case.

Table of Contents

1 INTRODUCTION 4

2 GREENHEART SUCCESS AND RAPID DECLINE 4

2.1 STRUCTURE, DECISION AND POLITICS IN GREENHEART 4

2.2 PSYCHOLOGY