Sustainability on Olin Clayton, Mo

Sustainability Project

Due Date: Friday, November 20, 1:00 p.m. Eastern 

Submit either a .doc/.docx or pdf file in the Canvas assignment

Note: Make sure to submit your assignment on time. Late assignments are not accepted and will earn zero points. You do not have to wait for the deadline – you can submit whenever you believe your assignment is ready, and you can upload an updated file at any point until the deadline. “Technical difficulties” and “apparently Canvas did not work” are not acceptable reasons for not submitting your assignment on time.

Overview: This project entails reviewing a Fortune 500 company’s best practices in sustainability and then writing, in your own words, about those practices. Each student will be assigned a Fortune 500 company to analyze and report on and each student will submit an individual project in Canvas.

This project is designed to enhance your knowledge of what is meant by sustainability as currently practiced by large corporations. As you do your research, look for your assigned company’s sustainability or corporate social responsibility (CSR) report that shares the organization’s best practices and results concerning sustainability.

While searching for information or reports on company websites, you will realize that companies use different terms while talking about sustainability. Here are some terms you might come across (this is not an exhaustive list): sustainability, corporate social responsibility, social responsibility, corporate citizenship, community well-being/engagement, social impact. Moreover, most companies have a separate diversity & inclusion section and a diversity & inclusion report. 

If your assigned company does not have a downloadable sustainability/CSR report, look for information on the company website. If your assigned company does not provide information about one of the required elements, address this in your paper, rather than leaving the reader to wonder whether you merely overlooked this part of the assignment (e.g., explore and report on what a competitor does and note how your assigned company could improve its implementation/reporting).

Deliverable: 2 pages report. Use complete sentences, not bullet points.

Paper Content and Format (40 points total):

Introduction (3 points): In the introduction, provide a brief overview, in your own words, of what your assigned company does (products, sales volume, number of employees, geographic reach, etc.) and list its current (2020) Fortune 500 rank.

Sustainability (20 points): Take the triple-bottom line perspective as your basis. Research and understand what your company does to contribute to the three pillars of sustainability. In your paper, report on their best practices. Questions to answer are given below. Beyond your company’s best practices, I am interested in how you perceive them and think about these practices and how you think they contribute to the triple bottom line. 

• Planet: What steps does your assigned company take to improve its impact on the environment? How are these initiatives related to the UN sustainability development goals?


• People: What steps does your assigned company take to improve its impact on the people? How are these initiatives related to the UN sustainability development goals? Note: Please realize that all initiatives that affect stakeholders such as employees (e.g., diversity & inclusion), communities, society etc. can be considered in this section.


• Profits: What are the economic impacts of your assigned company’s sustainability initiatives? How are these initiatives related to the UN sustainability development goals?


• Circular economy: To what extent does your assigned company operate under the circular economy model? Explain.


• Reporting: Does your assigned company produce a comprehensive sustainability report? What key metrics does your company report? Do they set targets for their commitments?


• Awards/certifications: Has your assigned company been recognized by anyone (awards, citations, certifications) for its sustainability efforts? Describe.

Conclusion/Summary (10 points): Finally, discuss your takeaways from your analysis of your assigned company’s best practices. What do you think your company does well? What could it improve on? What are your recommendations for improvement?

Citations (2 points): Include citations to properly credit your source material. Citations also help the reader to seek additional information about your assigned company’s efforts, if desired.

Following the guidelines (3 points)

Do not forget to include the Academic Integrity Pledge (if you forget: -2 pts)

Note: Citations and Academic Integrity Pledge are NOT included in the page count.  

Deliverable Guidelines:

• A typed, electronic document (single-spaced); must be .doc/.docx or pdf (all other file types are NOT acceptable)


• Write your paper in your own words.


• 2 pages


• Margins on all 4 sides: 1”


• Type: 12-point font; Times New Roman or Calibri


• Include an appropriate title


• Your name


• Your assigned company’s name and current (2020) Fortune 500 rank


• Your assigned company’s website URL


• Bold headings delineating all sections noted above (see a template below)


• Cite source(s), as relevant


• Grammar, spelling and attention to detail are always important – check your document carefully


• Do not forget to add the academic integrity pledge


• DO NOT copy/paste from company sites. Plagiarism of any kind will earn your project a zero.


• Save your file with the following naming scheme: LastName FirstName Sustainability Project.doc/docx Example: Smith Mary Sustainability Project.doc

Note: You must upload your file via Canvas as noted above; do NOT copy/paste your document’s text into the assignment’s comments box, and do NOT email your project to anyone on the Teaching Team. Any file type other than .doc/.docx or pdf will not be accepted (you will receive an error message from Canvas if you try to upload any other file type in the assignment). If you do not use Microsoft Word and do not know how to save your document as a .doc or .docx file, you may wish to visit one of Penn State’s IT Service Desk locations well in advance of the due date in order to learn how to submit an acceptable file.

Sustainability Project Grading Rubric

This project is worth 40 points of your overall course grade. The partial credit for different parts of the report are as follows:

Introduction – 3 points

Sustainability – 20 points

Conclusion – 10 points

Citations – 2 points

Following the guidelines – 3 points

Naming your submission file properly – 2 points (LastName FirstName Sustainability Project.doc/docx Example: Smith Mary Sustainability Project.doc)

We will use the following grading guidelines: