Assessment tasks

1. Select one important sustainability issue of global significance and express this issue in no more than one short sentence (2 marks).
   Note: you cannot select a 'climate change' related sustainability issue as this is the issue chosen for the demonstration example provided in the online discussion.
   
2. Describe the main environmental elements of your chosen global sustainability issue (5 marks).
   
3. Describe the critical social elements of this global sustainability issue
   (5 marks).
   
4. Describe the key economic elements of this global sustainability issue 
   (5 marks).
   
5. Identify two major ethical problems which are strongly connected with your chosen global sustainability issue (2 marks).
   
6. Discuss the two ethical problems identified in part 5 drawing on relevant ethical theory (8 marks).
   
7. Your chosen global sustainability issue presents both significant threats and opportunities for business. Discuss these major threats and opportunities.
   (5 marks).
   

Your chosen global sustainability issue will contain multiple causes of unsustainability and will cause actions which are considered unethical. You are required to propose an ethical and sustainable solution to the problems which underpin this global sustainability issue. This proposed solution should address causes of unsustainability, as well as financial, technological and behavioural barriers to removing these causes of unsustainability 
(8 marks).

Task 1: Deforestation a Global Sustainability Concern:

Deforestation or removal of forests is a critical global concern, as deforestation affects air supply, water cycles, and the land system thereby influencing human lives (Bass 2014).

Task 2: Deforestation and environmental elements:

Elements in the surrounding environment have an impact on the depletion of forests:

1. Politics and Regulation:

If a countries policies are directed towards preserving forests, the nation will create interventions to save forests. For Example, New Zealand makes special attempts to preserve forests. Thus the country would be able to balance the concern. Some of the countries in Africa are focussed on urbanisation to support the economy and create a sustainability issue in preserving precious wildlife and plant life (Pétry 2012).

2. Technological Factors: The technological spirit of a country influences interventions in preserving forests. The depth of deforestation is decided to major extend by the needs of technology.  If technology is focussed on urbanisation and requires huge sites, then various initiatives are taken to remove forests (Vajpeyi 2014). Some of the technology spirits of companies support forest preservation. For example, Easy Jet is concerned with carbon emissions and takes initiates to protect forests (Bass 2014).

3. Social, culture trends and Climate: If the people in a country have a problem in managing forests due to improper fund allocation, then the focus is shifted to deforestation and urbanisation (Pétry 2012).

For example, 40% of the efforts in some of the African countries is to increase urbanisation and hence there is a depletion of forests globally by 20%. The climate naturally influences the preservation of forests.

Thus, deforestation could be controlled with the help of the surrounding environment. The political, social, and cultural factors play a vital role in plummeting deforestation.

(Some parts of the solution has been blurred due to privacy protection policy)