 Understand how business activity affects the environment.  Appreciate the importance of short-term environmental effects, such as the impact on traffic congestion, air and noise, smell, water pollution and recycling.  Appreciate the importance of long-term environment effects such as climate change and resource depletion.

 Amazon’s core business is the sale of books, it buys books from publishers, stores them in warehouses and sell them to customers.  It uses the post to get the books to the customer.  The supply chain for the business is quite long, starting with forestry business cutting down trees for the paper, the manufacture and dying of paper, printing and dying of the books, all ends up with the book being delivered to the customer.  All this has an impact on the environment

 The impact on the environment can be split in to:-  Short-term impacts and  Long-term impacts...  Working with the Amazon example..

 Producing and selling books has a number of different short-term effects on the environment:-  Traffic congestion  Air, smell, noise and water pollution

 When books are distributed, there is an impact on traffic congestion, the growth in internet sales has meant a growth in the number of miles travelled by delivery vans, every time a book is delivered it adds to the congestion on the roads.  Traffic congestion means longer travel times, less economy, higher fuel consumption and a bigger impact on the environment.  Equally, customers have to travel to supermarkets to buy products.....

 Businesses contribute to air, noise, small and water pollution either directly or indirectly  Eg, Amazon relies on internet sales for most of its business, the internet needs a computer which in turn needs electricity which causes air pollution in its generation. The vans Amazon use to deliver the books cause noise pollution to the local residents.  Different businesses have different effects, think about farming...pet food producers...petro chemicals...

 Producing and Selling books has a number of long-term effects including:-  Climate Change and  Resource Depletion

 One of the major challenges facing the world today is climate change – global warming.  This is caused by the emission of too many ‘green house’ gasses, CO2 and methane.  Burning fossil fuels cause the greenhouse gasses, trapping the warmth and the temperature rises, causing polar ice to melt and seas to rise and changes to where crops can be grown in the world.

 This refers to the use of resources in production which reduces the amount available.  Many resources are renewable – they can be grown again or reused, or can b e used to generate electricity, wind or solar power  Some resources are non-renewable – they can not be used again, like coal or oil.  Oil is used to power the cars that deliver the books for Amazon, oil will eventually run out!

 Many businesses are now more aware of the effect of their operations on the environment and have put steps in place to help reduce the effects of their business on the environment.  Laws, like planning have helped to reduce emissions and businesses can be fined, in law for breaking the laws.  Activities have/can also be restricted by governments to help reduce global warming!

 In the UK, businesses are affected by laws on waste management and recycling.  The three largest sources of waste are construction, mining and quarrying and agriculture, between them they account for 2/3 of the waste generated.  Waste is anything that is discarded by households, businesses or government agencies and waste management describes the whole process of how waste is managed. (cont..)

 This includes:-  How waste is collected and stored at the place it is produced,  How it is transported from that place,  What happens to the waste once it arrives at a disposal site.  Waste management is about reducing the amount of waste generated as well as recycling.  Many types of waste can be recycled

 Waste management is about reducing the amount of waste generated in the first place.  It is also about recycling...  Old newspapers and books can be recycled into paper, old wood can be made in to animal bedding or landscaping, glass can be recycled or reused in making bricks, sports turf or insulation.  Recycling, however comes at a cost..to be worthwhile the benefit of recycling needs to be greater than the cost.

 For waste to be recycled on an economic basis the waste needs to be separated where it is collected or generated, households need to separate waste, builders need to have different skips, for companies like Amazon, they need to have recycling points and skips for the waste they generate.  Increasingly manufacturers are being forced to design their products which will allow them to be recycled, the EU has regulations that affect the manufacturer of cars to say that they should be easy to recycle at the end of their lives and should not use harmful substances!

 Customers are putting pressure on some businesses to be more environmentally friendly, magazines are now printed on recycled paper due to customers, supermarkets are stocking more ‘organic foods’ as customers see this greener.  Businesses that can persuade customers that they are more environmentally friendly that their competitors can gain a competitive edge.  They can use their ‘eco friendly’ reputation to build public relations

 Environmental concerns can represent a business opportunity.  There may be businesses created to help make energy saving or renewable products.  These include solar panel producers and, wind farm electricity as well as the businesses that install or fit them.  Some businesses create products that reduce pollution.  Any one heard of ‘carbon trading’ yet?

 Can you make a 5 minute resource to explain all that to someone else in the class.  It could be a mindmap, PowerPoint, factsheet, memory board, cartoon.... Whatever you want.  You also have only 15 minutes....  GO, GO, GO

 Complete the review questions