INTRODUCTION

In recent years, individuals, businesses, organizations, and various governments worldwide have been working tirelessly to ensure the preservation of environmental components.

Critical environmental resources and Mother Earth resources are gradually depleted due to continuous usage during socio-economic development and activities, which might not be unsustainable in the long term. Assuming a middle cause in this regard necessitates all stakeholders worldwide to emphasize the concept of sustainability. According to the definition proffered by the U.N. World Commission on Environment and Development: "sustainable development is a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." [1]

The concept of sustainability is further broken down into three core concepts or "pillars," which include; economic, environmental, and social. The idea of sustainability often corresponds to the belief that without a paradigm change to the way the earth and its resources are run, it will suffer irreparable degradation. [2] Also, considering the efforts by various governments to ensure sustainability in all its entirety, there are significant commitments been made in some of the countries and regions responsible that are responsible for substantial resources use and waste. For instance, the U.S. Government's American Jobs Plan now includes measures to retrofit energy-efficient homes, electrify the federal fleet of vehicles, including postal vans, and end carbon pollution from power generation by 2035. [3]

Not only are the governments champions sustainability, individuals and businesses are increasingly showing concerns about sustainability practices. Some big corporations like Walmart Stores, Inc. (WMT) have pledged to reach zero emissions by 2040, [4] Morgan Stanley pledged net-zero "financed emissions" by 2050, [5] and Google has also pledged to operate carbon-free by 2030[6]

As a business or company planning to establish itself anywhere in the world, especially in the United States (U.S.), it's essential to show how your business would ensure environmental sustainability in the U.S. and help the government achieve the same. Questions such as How will your business have an impact on the environment? What measures will be used to mitigate the effects? Thus, the new chapter that all business and public plan writers should consider including while writing a business plan for businesses anywhere in the world is the Environmental Analysis Chapter. Aside from writing a business plan, business analysts' roles should now include business environmental analysis, where they conduct environmental research for businesses worldwide by using important environmental metrics to analyze the impacts of such businesses on the environment and suggesting likely ways to mitigate the consequences. For such businesses, ecological sustainability strategies might include the following:

• Utilizing sustainable materials in the manufacturing process
• Optimizing supply chains to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• Using renewable energy sources like solar and wind to power facilities
• The strategies might be different and unique for various organizations; regardless of the adopted strategy, they should tie into the larger business goals and organizational values.

In addition to the above, environmental business analysts can also assist businesses or organizations in energy-efficient computing; power management; data center efficiency; responsible disposal and recycling of I.T. resources; compliance with green regulations and internal policies; green metrics, assessment tools, and methodology; and in environment- related risk mitigation.

Critical Characteristics of Sustainable Products and Services

According to Belz, Frank-Martin in his book "Frank-Martin B. and Peattie, K. (2009).

Sustainability Marketing: A Global Perspective. Wiley, United Kingdom," six characteristics of sustainable products were identified as follows;

Customer satisfaction: using this characteristic, sustainable products or services that do not meet customer needs will only survive in the short term. This is because products or services are being developed to satisfy customers, and anything short of this would only stay short due to available substitutes for such products or services.

Dual focus: compared with purely environmental products, sustainable products should not only focus on ecological significance but should be of social significance to the general public.

Life-cycle orientation: sustainable products are eco-friendly throughout their entire life. It means that from the moment the raw materials are being explored and exploited to when the final product is disposed of, there must be no permanent environmental damage.

Significant improvements: sustainable products should contribute significantly to dealing with socio-ecological problems on both national and global levels or at least provide measurable improvements in socio-ecological product performance.

Continuous improvement: as the state of knowledge, technologies, and societal expectations develop from generation to generation, sustainable products should also continuously improve concerning social and environmental variation.

Competing offers: even though sustainable products and services may still lag behind competing bids, the competing offers may serve as a social and ecological performance benchmark and can be improved accordingly.

The Unbelievable Benefits of Including the Environmental Analysis Chapter in Your Business Plan

1. Early Adopter:

Looking at a business plan and coming across the environmental analysis chapter shows the reader that you are current and well aware of important happenings in the world. It would give you a competitive advantage as a business environmental analyst. On the part of your clients, the ecological analysis chapter will give readers an idea that your company is not oblivious to environmental sustainability goals but is also at the forefront of tackling environmental issues.

2. Success for Business:

By including the environmental analysis chapter in your business plan, the ecological sustainability chapter can help drive business success. As said earlier, individuals, including investors, today use essential metrics using environmental, social, and governance (ESG) to analyze an organization's ethical impact and sustainability practice. Critical factors such as a company's carbon footprint, water usage, waste generation, and so on will likely determine whether or not your business is worth investing in. Organizations should request business environmental analysis while writing the business plan to ensure success.

3. Competitive Advantage:

Companies worldwide should assess and reduce ecological damage to show environmental responsibility. Through rare raw materials and increasing pollution, environmentally friendly management gets spotlighted more and more by the public interest. Consequently, utilizing eco-friendly products or technologies can signify a competitive advantage for your business or organization.

4. Increased Profitability:

Some consumers are willing to pay (WTP) for eco-friendly products, and being a brand known for this quality will significantly earn you a market share and increase your profit. A recent study conducted by Unilever found that 33 % of consumers want to buy from brands "doing social or environmental good," creating an opportunity in the market for sustainable goods. [7]

Disadvantages of not including the Environmental Analysis Chapter When Writing a Business Plan

1. Likely Boycott by customers: with more and more individuals becoming more environmentally conscious, more businesses are using eco-friendly materials in production. Not conducting an environmental analysis chapter in the business plan means likely boycott of such products and services by customers.

2. Reduced Access to Opportunities: most government grants and organizations offering gifts are usually attached to environmental compliance goals, and failing to meet the criteria might affect access to opportunities by such companies.

3. Increased Overhead Cost: considering the total cost utilized in the production of some products from the point of raw material exploration to the final disposal, "going green" or designing a sustainable development can create the need to analyze the business situation from an environmental perspective, looking into ways to redesign operations to use less energy and water, produce fewer emissions, and generate less waste. In the short and long term, it will ensure business uses the least cost during production, which would subsequently reduce profitability. However, not including this chapter by companies in the business plan would lead to increased overhead costs for producing non-environmentally friendly products by such companies.

Suggestions for the Environmental Analysis Chapter in the Business Plan

Communicating your environmental analysis goals to readers under appropriate headings is as crucial as the chapter. Below are suggestions for sub-sections under the chapter when writing your business plan.

1. Environmental Sustainability Assessment and Objectives:

Driving change in any sector involves a critical analysis of a goal, followed by the objectives to be met by achieving the set goal.

Thus starting this chapter with the "Environmental Sustainability Assessment and Objectives" section allow your business to critically assess what environmental sustainability means to your team, company, industry, and client.

What does your business team consider a priority regarding environmental sustainability? For instance, for a company in a restaurant business, using a biodegradable product for its packaging might be a better solution than recycling such packaging material.

To guide this process, consider asking questions such as:

How much waste is the organization generating? Is your product eco-friendly?

Answering these questions will help you establish your company's environmental sustainability objectives.

Upon agreeing on concrete objectives for your environmental sustainability goals, developing a mission statement from the purpose (s) is necessary.

Here is an example of companies with effective mission statements:

Consider the Outdoor clothing brand "Patagonia's" mission which can be broken down into four objectives:

• Build the best product
• Cause no unnecessary harm
• Use business to protect nature
• Do not be bound by convention

In this mission statement, it's clear what the company's values are and how they're executing against them.

2. Environmental Sustainability Standards:

In this particular section, two essential standards will be critically examined to provide what the company is/will do to meet the international standards below:

• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA):

This assessment evaluates and discloses the environmental benefits of products over their entire life cycle, from raw materials extraction to final disposition. Following its standardization in 1997 by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), organizations worldwide have widely used the process of conducting LCA studies.

• Nordic Swan Ecolabel