| Course | BUS 733 Transforming the Business (BUS/733) |
|---|---|
| Week | 5 |
| Paper type | Doctoral sustainability analysis |
| Length | about 1,166 words, 4 double-spaced pages plus title page and references |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | University of Phoenix |
| Program | DBA |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for BUS 733 Week 5
Lower Emissions, Stable Bills and Living Towns: Sustainability as the Core of a Rural Energy Transformation
[Student Name]
University of Phoenix
BUS/733: Transforming the Business
Week 5 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Great Plains Energy Cooperative and all details are composites written for a model paper; emission and rate figures are illustrative.
Great Plains Energy Cooperative supplies wholesale power to 22 member cooperatives that serve about 410,000 rural members in Kansas and Nebraska. Its coal plants produce most of its carbon emissions and much of its cost risk. Earlier papers in this series set the vision, mapped the environment, assessed resources and planned the leadership of a plant closure. This paper argues that sustainability is not an add-on to that transformation but its organizing purpose. For a member-owned utility, sustainability means three things at once: cleaner air and lower emissions, bills that rural families and farms can afford and towns that survive the loss of a plant.
Defining Sustainability for a Cooperative
Sustainability is often framed as balancing economic, environmental and social results. For Great Plains, the economic dimension means stable, affordable rates and a sound balance sheet; the environmental dimension means lower emissions, water use and land impacts; and the social dimension means fair treatment of workers, support for host communities and reliable service in extreme weather.
The Natural-Resource-Based View
Hart (1995) extended resource-based thinking by arguing that firms can build advantage through capabilities in pollution prevention, product stewardship and sustainable development, which link environmental performance to competitive position. For Great Plains, the relevant capabilities are integrating renewable energy, managing storage and helping members use energy efficiently. Building them early positions the cooperative for a future with tighter environmental expectations from regulators, lenders and members.
Shared Value
Porter and Kramer (2011) proposed that firms find profit opportunities in meeting community needs, such as health, skills or resource use, so that commercial results and social gains grow together. The cooperative model already aligns owners and customers. Shared value adds a lens for decisions such as placing solar and storage on retired plant sites, which serves members, keeps tax base in host towns and avoids new land use.
Evidence on Performance
Eccles et al. (2014) matched 90 companies that adopted sustainability policies by the early 1990s with 90 comparable firms that had not, and the early adopters had stronger board oversight, more stakeholder engagement and better long-run stock and accounting performance. The study involved publicly traded firms, so its findings apply to a cooperative by analogy rather than directly, but its emphasis on governance and engagement translates well.
Environmental Impacts Today
Coal provides about 58% of Great Plains' energy and most of its carbon emissions, along with sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury and large water withdrawals. Coal ash ponds require long-term management. Wind and solar have lower operating impacts but require land, and their manufacturing carries its own footprint.
Economic Impacts Today
Coal plants face rising maintenance costs, and fuel and rail contracts expose members to price swings. Wind and solar have no fuel cost once built, and declining technology costs have made them competitive in many regions, although tariffs and interest rates affect upfront costs.
Social Impacts Today
The coal plants employ about 400 people and provide significant property taxes in two counties. Members include farms, small businesses and households with modest incomes, many sensitive to rate increases. Reliability during winter storms is a life-safety issue in rural areas.
Projected Outcomes
Under the plan, carbon emissions fall about 75% by 2035 compared with 2025, water withdrawals drop by more than 80% and sulfur and mercury emissions largely end. Financial modeling suggests wholesale rates can stay within 2% per year of inflation, assuming equipment costs and incentives stay near current ranges.
Tradeoffs
Several tensions remain. Keeping gas capacity for reliability means emissions do not reach zero. Wind and transmission require land and can affect wildlife and views. Moving quickly might raise costs if equipment prices are high, while moving slowly extends coal emissions. Workers and towns bear the costs of closure even when the cooperative offers support. Naming these tradeoffs openly builds trust and helps the board decide where to accept compromise.
Reliability as a Sustainability Issue
Winter storms in recent years showed that power failures in cold weather can endanger lives, especially for older rural residents and livestock operations. A sustainable system must therefore be resilient, not only clean. The plan pairs wind and solar with batteries sized for four-hour peaks, keeps flexible gas units available for multi-day cold snaps, winterizes equipment and strengthens transmission ties with neighboring systems. Reliability planners will test the portfolio against historical extreme weeks, not only average conditions, so that cleaner generation does not trade away safety.
Land, Wildlife and Neighbors
Wind farms and transmission lines change rural landscapes and can affect birds, bats and grassland species. The cooperative will site projects on cropland and previously disturbed ground where possible, follow federal wildlife guidelines, curtail turbines during migration peaks and pay landowners fairly. Neighbors who do not host turbines but live near them will receive annual good neighbor payments. Treating land use as a sustainability question rather than a permitting hurdle reduces opposition and protects the cooperative's most valuable relationships.
Sustainability Goals
The cooperative will adopt goals with dates: a 50% emissions reduction by 2030 and 75% by 2035; rates within 2% of inflation; no involuntary layoffs from plant retirements; a community transition fund for each host county; and reliability at or above current standards.
Governance
The board will form a sustainability committee that reviews progress quarterly, and executive incentives will include emissions, affordability and reliability measures. A member advisory panel will review community and affordability decisions.
Reporting
The cooperative will publish an annual sustainability report using a recognized framework, with emissions data verified by an independent firm. Reports will show progress and setbacks, and offsets will be reported separately from direct reductions so that members can see real change.
Financing the Transition
Sustainability also depends on financial health. Great Plains will use low-cost federal rural utility loans where available, refinance coal plant debt to match retirement dates and set aside reserves for ash pond closure. Lenders increasingly ask about climate risk, so a credible plan may lower borrowing costs over time. A transition that drains the balance sheet would push costs onto members and undermine the social goals the plan is meant to serve.
Members as Partners
Member cooperatives will offer energy efficiency programs, rebates for heat pumps and smart thermostats and demand response for irrigation pumps. These programs lower peak demand, reduce member bills and support emissions goals.
Avoiding Greenwashing
Claims will be limited to what data can support. The cooperative will avoid language such as clean or green without numbers and will publish its methods so others can check them.
Research Questions
The case suggests study of how member-owned utilities balance affordability and emissions goals and whether governance practices linked to sustainability performance in public companies have similar effects in cooperatives.
Conclusion
Sustainability gives Great Plains' transformation its purpose: cutting emissions, keeping bills affordable and protecting towns. Theory on environmental capabilities and shared value, plus evidence on sustainability governance, supports a plan with dated goals, honest tradeoffs, board oversight, member programs and verified reporting.
References
Eccles, R. G., Ioannou, I., & Serafeim, G. (2014). The impact of corporate sustainability on organizational processes and performance. Management Science, 60(11), 2835-2857. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.1984
Hart, S. L. (1995). A natural-resource-based view of the firm. Academy of Management Review, 20(4), 986-1014. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1995.9512280033
Porter, M. E., & Kramer, M. R. (2011). Creating shared value. Harvard Business Review, 89(1/2), 62-77.
What the BUS 733 Week 5 instructions ask
In the fifth BUS 733 assignment, doctoral students usually analyze how sustainability fits into an organization's transformation. Common requirements include defining sustainability across economic, environmental and social dimensions, applying theory linking sustainability to performance, evaluating the organization's current impacts, identifying tradeoffs and recommending goals, governance and reporting. Some prompts ask students to compare a company's claims with its actions or to assess sustainability reporting frameworks. Support arguments with peer-reviewed research, use specific measures rather than general commitments and cite sources in APA style. Explain which reporting standard you would use and why. Treat the social dimension, including workers and communities, with the same seriousness as emissions, since transformations that ignore people rarely last.
How this BUS 733 Week 5 example is built
For an electric cooperative, sustainability involves cutting emissions, keeping bills affordable for rural members and protecting towns that host power plants. The paper applies research arguing that environmental capabilities can create advantage, the shared value concept and evidence that firms with strong sustainability governance outperformed peers over the long run. It estimates that the transition cuts carbon emissions about 75% by 2035 while holding wholesale rates within 2% per year of inflation, and it examines tradeoffs such as gas backup and land use. Each target carries a date and a named owner. Recommendations include board oversight, published targets, member-facing reports, community transition funds and independent verification of emissions data.
BUS 733 Week 5 grading rubric: where the points go
Strong sustainability papers treat environmental, social and economic results as connected and show how sustainability shapes strategy rather than decorating it. Faculty credit accurate use of theory, specific and measurable goals, honest discussion of tradeoffs, attention to workers and communities and governance that makes sustainability part of decisions. Evidence linking sustainability practices to performance strengthens the argument when it is described accurately and with its limits. Reviewers look for transparent reporting plans that avoid overstating progress, recommendations tied to the transformation timeline and scholarly references rather than corporate marketing. Clear structure and careful sourcing let readers trust the figures the paper presents, and a short section on research questions shows how the case could inform scholarship.
BUS 733 Week 5 help: mistakes to avoid
Students often write about sustainability in general terms without measures. Set specific targets with dates. Another common gap is ignoring tradeoffs; most transformations involve some tension between cost, reliability and environmental goals, so explain how the organization will balance them. Students also neglect the social dimension. Discuss workers, communities and affordability. Avoid accepting corporate sustainability claims at face value; look for evidence. Explain governance so the reader knows who is accountable. Distinguish real reductions from offsets. Use current reporting frameworks carefully. Check that each figure in the paper adds up across sections. Finally, connect sustainability to the organization's long-term performance and mission so it becomes part of the transformation rather than a separate program.
Related BUS 733 sample papers
Other BUS 733 week samples
- BUS 733 Week 1: Business Transformation and Vision
- BUS 733 Week 2: Complexity and the Global Environment
- BUS 733 Week 3: Resources and Capabilities
- BUS 733 Week 4: Leading Transformational Change
- BUS 733 Week 6: Performance and Measurement
- BUS 733 Week 7: Research on Transformation
- BUS 733 Week 8: Transformation Strategy Paper
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BUS 733 Week 5 questions, answered
What does BUS 733 Week 5 usually cover?
It usually covers sustainability: economic, environmental and social dimensions, theory linking sustainability to performance, current impacts, tradeoffs and recommendations for goals, governance and reporting.
Where can I find a free BUS 733 Week 5 sample paper?
The sustainability analysis for a rural cooperative's energy transition appears above with dated goals and tradeoffs; ask us for a custom draft focused on your own organization.
What is the triple bottom line?
An approach that evaluates organizational performance on economic, social and environmental results rather than profit alone.
What is shared value?
The idea that a firm can earn returns by solving social problems tied to its business, so that commercial results and community gains grow together.
Does sustainability improve financial performance?
Some research finds that firms with strong sustainability practices and governance outperformed comparable firms over long periods, though results depend on the industry, the measures and how well practices are carried out.
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