Environmentally Friendly Business Process

Eco-friendly practices should form part of every business organization. Consumer awareness on anything green; from products, services, packaging to green business practices  is pushing businesses to go green,. However, they should not only be treated as a green marketing slogan or practice only up to "packaging" of products and services. They must be deeply ingrained in business culture to be sustainable.

environmentally friendly manufacturing protects the planet from exploitation and conserves natural resources. Products are made from sustainable materials, while waste is reduced through remanufactruing, reuse and recycling. Besides being a friend of the earth, being eco-friendly can reduce a business' costs through reduced energy use, for example, or lower transportation costs. According to Solusource, some companies never start plans to go green because the process seems intimidating. Just start with simple steps.

Energy Audit

Solusource recommends adopting energy-efficient practices that cut costs instantly. Conduct an energy audit to find where improvements can are necessary. Replace HVAC filters, and replace incandescent bulbs with CFL fixtures. Use caulking and weather stripping to prevent air leaks from the outside. Use programmable thermostats to reduce energy waste and save money. You can hire a consultant for a larger energy retooling. Marlyn Nutraceuticals reports that shade trees surrounding its Phoenix facility naturally lower internal heat by as much as 10 percent.

Renewable Energy

Use renewable energy. Renewable energy is energy generated from resources that are replenished naturally, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, biomass and geothermal heat. Build your own source of renewable green energy on your business' premises. Many states offer tax breaks and incentives for businesses who do, and some businesses receive compensation for energy they generate and contribute back to the grid. You can also purchase green energy at rates slightly higher than traditional fossil fuels. Marlyn Nutraceuticals uses solar roof panels so that the sun heats the plant’s water while a NASA-developed, ceramic roof coating protects the plant from excessive heat.

Waste Reduction

Reduce waste. EcoBrains points out that manufacturing always involves raw materials, but not all parts of raw materials are needed. Some businesses need only one or more parts of a raw material, but the rest is thrown away. This discarded raw material can harm the environment. Make use of leftovers, dispose of them properly or remove them from your manufacturing process altogether. Garrett Moulding, a manufacturer of picture-frame mouldings, with plants in Santa Cruz, California, and Carrollton, Georgia, reports that it recycles and reuses its wood and aluminum byproducts by donating sawdust to farms and ranches for landscaping and animal bedding, by donating its wood scraps to college art departments, by reusing cardboard boxes and by turning discarded papers into environmentally friendly packaging materials.

Conserve Water

Implement a water-efficiency program to conserve water and to save money on buying, heating, treating and disposing of water, the U.S. Small Business Administration advises. The local water company can audit your facility to recommend ways to conserve water and minimize discharges to sewers and waste water. Conserve water using the best available technology, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's WaterSense protects, and water-saving equipment utilities, the administration says.

Other Considerations

The University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension notes that "eco-friendly" products are made of environmentally-friendly materials, including recycled materials or "rapid renewables," such as bamboo, which grows very fast, or are made of wood from a local forest that doesn't necessitate high transportation costs. Products that have gone through very little processing, such as granite benches, stone pavers and handmade products, are considered eco-friendly, because they need very little energy for manufacturing. Eco-friendly products are also made as little as possible from harmful chemicals and toxic compounds, such as wood preservatives or creosote, volatile organic compounds, chlorine and PVCs. The products also serve multiple purposes. An example of an eco-friendly product is a cloth bag made from jute or hemp that can be used for numerous tasks, such as bagging groceries and carrying books, and lasts for years.

other than that,we can use BPM tools to make environment friendly business process.It is clear that IT is a key tool in corporate efforts to go green. But while the prevalent focus is on IT power consumption, don't overlook what business process management (BPM) software can do to help you support the environment while generating significant cost savings. 

Reduce paper
BPM software proves to be highly effective in the quest to eliminate paper because it not only lets you create online forms and documents, it also lets organizations incorporate those online documents into automated processes that remove the need to manually route and track paper. As a result, BPM eliminates the cost and environmental burden of paper, while at the same time allowing for more effective governance and control.
The average U.S. office worker is estimated to use a sheet of paper every 12 minutes and dispose of 100 to 200 pounds of paper every year. BPM software can serve as the common platform for eliminating paper and automating processes throughout organizations.
Take the City of New Orleans. In 2008, it used BPM software to take its contracts management process online, automating the processing of more than $1 billion worth of contracts. In the absence of process automation, each contract would have moved by manila folder through eight offices. It had typically gone from one stakeholder desk to another's through inter-and intra-office mailings, often with inefficient tracking and delivery methods.
Beyond the paper savings of online forms and documents, organizations that have aligned BPM with enterprise architecture (EA) efforts have facilitated the electronic documentation of the processes, which otherwise would result in volumes of paper being consumed and stored. That lets organizations create graphical models of all processes, complete with annotations and documented interdependencies. Paper is largely eliminated and it becomes easier to maintain processes and keep them current, reducing the overhead of ongoing compliance and resulting in more accurate "virtual documentation." 

Reduce fuel and transport
Reducing paper also cuts down on the amount of physical transport required to share information. The ability to complete and submit forms online eliminates the need to mail documents such as applications and purchase orders. In addition, because BPM allows for the automation of human-intensive processes sind the movement of mission-critical paperwork online, knowledge workers are able to review, annotate and collaborate online, reducing the frequency of business travel. Think of the savings from an environmental perspective lower transportation emissions, less fuel usage, and less wear and tear on the physical infrastructure that supports these activities.
Tetra, a global manufacturer of aquarium products, used BPM to move its engineering change-request process online. The solution enabled the organization to not only eliminate paper and costly mail between offices, but also allowed engineers, scientists and other knowledge workers in a variety of locations to collaborate on product changes online. Before BPM, one change request could include drawings of 50 parts and generate an exponential amount of paperwork to process the request.
With BPM, all documentation is online, and multiple, geographically dispersed users can simultaneously review the product folders and subfolders.
According to a recent Barclaycard study a typical business person will travel approximately 7,200 miles per year beyond their daily commute - that's the equivalent of 3.1 tons of CO2 emissions per person, per year. With more than 200 million trips per year attributed to business travel in the United States, the total environmental savings from reducing travel by a modest 20% through online collaboration and process automation could be staggering.

More efficient manufacturing
On the manufacturing front, duplication of work and processes can lead to excessive costs and inefficient resource usage. The idea of lean manufacturing as a protocol was originated by Toyota in the early 20th century, but new technologies are letting manufacturers identify process interdependencies and take a broad view of manufacturing process optimization.
Once the product leaves the manufacturing floor, process automation solutions such as BPM enable companies to increase control over both internal and external processes such as purchase order/invoicing, logistics, and transportation and trading partner integration. Shortening transportation routes by limiting movement and resources use and converting manual, paper-based procurement and payment processes into automated electronic transactions between manufacturers, partners, retailers and customers leads to significantly reduced environmental impact.
In addition, a proper understanding of your supply-chain network, related assets and interdependent processes that is well documented in an EA tool can help identify and eliminate duplicate resources, excess overhead or inefficient distribution channels. Leveraging a tool will enable increased visibility and analysis and correcting these issues could eliminate buildings, machinery and inefficient transportation routes, all of which contribute to a more environmentally and economically sustainable business model.
Supply-chain benchmarking and sustainability efforts, combined with process automation, can yield sustainable carbon-footprint reductions through more optimized paper and fuel consumption, reduced physical overhead and less raw material and resource usage.

Adding it up
Industry needs to embrace environmentally sustainable business practices because it is the right thing to do and because governments will likely force the issue through new regulations and requirements. You can wait for the mandates or proactively improve your operations in ways that will positively impact the environment and deliver measurable cost savings and a long-term platform for sustainability.
Implementing a common technology platform for business process management and enterprise modeling will enable you to go green in more ways than one.

References
-Mooney, Laura, 2008, Going green with BPM tools,Published by Network World Inc.
-http://smallbusiness.chron.com/making-manufacturing-processes-ecofriendly-38937.html

Bussiness Process Shariah in Capital Market

Investment is basically the active form of Islamic economics. In Islam every treasure there is zakat. If the property is left in place, then gradually be consumed by zakat. One of the lessons of this charity is to encourage every Muslim to invest his money in order to grow.

Dalam Islam investasi merupakan kegiatan muamalah yang sangat dianjurkan, karena dengan berinvestasi harta yang dimiliki menjadi produktif dan juga mendatangkan manfaat bagi orang lain. Al-Quran dengan tegas  melarang aktivitas  penimbunan (iktinaz) terhadap harta yang dimiliki. Dalam sebuah hadits, Nabi Muhammad Saw bersabda,”Ketahuilah, Siapa yang memelihara anak yatim, sedangkan anak yatim itu memiliki harta, maka hendaklah ia menginvestasikannya (membisniskannya), janganlah ia membiarkan harta itu, sehingga harta itu terus berkurang lantaran zakat”.

           Kaidah yang digunakan dalam bermuamalah adalah semua boleh dilakuakan sepanjang tidak ada dalil yang melarangnya.Dengan demikian manusia diberi kebebasan untuk menciptakan berbagai pola perniagaan sepanjang tidak bertentangan dengan syariah. Dan kegiatan pasar modal termasuk didalam kelompok muamalah, sehingga transaksi dalam pasar modal diperbolehkan sepanjang tidak ada larangan menurut syariah. Adapun transaksi yang dilarang menurut syariah adalah :
1. Penawaran palsu
2. Penjualan barang yang belum dimiliki
3. menyebarluaskann informasi menyesatkan atau memakai informasi orang dalam bentuk memperoleh keuntungan
4. Investasi pada perusahaan yang tingkat hutangnya lebih dominan dari modalnya.
5. Margin trading berbasis bunga
6. penimbunan

Pasar modal pada dasarnya merupakan pasar untuk berbagai instrumen keuangan atau surat-surat berharga jangka panjang yang bisa diperjualbelikan, baik dalam bentuk utang maupun modal sendiri.Pasar modal merupakan salah satu pilar  penting dalam perekonomian dunia saat ini. Banyak industri dan perusahaan yang menggunakan institusi pasar modal sebagai media untuk menyerap investasi dan media untuk memperkuat posisi keuangannya. Menurut Irfan Syawqy, secara faktual, pasar modal telah menjadi saraf finansial dunia ekonomi modern. Bahkan, perekonomian modern tidak akan mungkin eksis tanpa adanya pasar modal yang terorganisir dengan baik.

            

           Pasar modal memiliki peran sebagai sumber pendanaan bagi perusahaan yang membutuhkan dana, Sumber pendanaan suatu perusahaan dapat diperoleh dari internal dan eksternal. Dari internal bersumber pada laba yang diperoleh perusahaan dari kegiatan usahanya, selain itu dapat pula diperoleh dari pinjaman pemegang saham (pemilik perusahaan). Pinjaman ini dapat berbasis konvensional (bunga) atau berbasis syariah yang meninggalkan unsur bunga (riba).
Pendanaan eksternal perusahaan dapat diperoleh dari :
1. Hutang (debt) baik jangka panjang ataupun jangka pendek.
2. Setoran modal (equity)

        Hutang jangka pendek dapat diperoleh dari pasar uang, yaitu sektor perbankan baik yang konvensional ataupun yang berbasis syariah. Sumber pendanaan dari hutang jangka panjang dan ekuitas dapat diperoleh dari pasar modal melalui penawaran umum. Dipasar modal perusahaan dapat melakukan penawaran umum obligasi (hutang jangka panjang) atau penawaran umum saham (ekuitas). Penerbitan obligasi dapat dilakukan dapat dilakukan dengan basis konvensional, yaitu menerbitkan obligasi yang menggunakan sistem bunga, atau dengan berlandaskan pada basis syariah, yaitu menerbitkan obligasi syariah atau lebih dikenal dengan nama sukuk. Karakteristik dari efek obligasi, baik konvensional ataupun syariah adalah adanya jatuh tempo sehingga pada saat jatuh tempo, penerbitnya (emiten) harus mengembalikan dana kepada pemegang efek tersebut.  

Prinsip-prinsip Islam dalam muamalah yang harus diperhatikan oleh pelaku investasi syariah (pihak terkait) adalah:

1. Tidak mencari rizki pada hal yang haram, baik dari segi zatnya maupun cara mendapatkannya, serta tidak menggunakannya untuk hal-hal yang haram.
2. Tidak mendzalimi dan tidak didzalimi.
3. Keadilan pendistribusian kemakmuran.
4. Transaksi dilakukan atas dasar ridha sama ridha.
5. Tidak ada unsur riba, maysir (perjudian/spekulasi), dan gharar (ketidakjelasan/samar-samar).

Berdasarkan keterangan di atas, maka kegiatan di pasar modal harus mengacu pada hukum syariat yang berlaku. Perputaran modal pada kegiatan pasar modal syariah tidak boleh disalurkan kepada jenis industri yang melaksanakan kegiatan-kegiatan yang diharamkan. Pembelian saham pabrik minuman keras, pembangunan penginapan untuk prostitusi dan lainnya yang bertentangan dengan syariah berarti diharamkan.

referensi :
http://www.reksadanasyariah.net/2008/08/investasi-dalam-perspektif-syariah.html
http://zonaekis.com/konsep-dasar-pasar-modal/

Perbedaan Ekonomi Syariah dan Ekonomi Konvensional

Ekonomi syariah adalah ilmu pengetahuan yang membahas masalah-masalah ekonomi rakyat berlandaskan nilai-nilai islam. Ekonomi syariah atau sistem ekonomi koperasi tidak sama dengan kapitalisme,sosialisme, dan ekonomi negara kesejahteraan (welfare state).

Perbedaan ini disebabkan karena islam menentang eksploitasi oleh pemilik buruh yang miskin dan melarang penumpukan kekayaan. Islam juga menentang sistem eksklusifisme pada dunia ekonomi,yang umumnya membenarkan salah satu pihak menguasai semua unsur ekonomi.  Hal itu dapat memblokir serta menusuk perekonomian dan produksi, merampas hak-hak ekonomi yang bersifat menghalangi terciptanya proses kesejahteraan sosial

Perbedaan ekonomi syariah dan ekomi konvensional juga dapat dilihat dari perjanjian kreditnya.Pada ekonomi konvensional, perjanjian kredit dikenal dengan adanya perjanjian baku, yaitu perjanjian yang dibuat sepihak dan dipersiapkan terlebih dahulu oleh pihak bank tertentu sebelum nasabah mendatangi bank tersebut. Sedangkan pada ekonomi syariah,perjanjian pembiayaan mudharabah atau sistem bagi hasil tidak mengenal perjanjian baku, akan tetapi perjanjian dibuat oleh kedua pihak antara bank dan nasabahnya.

Pada ekonomi kovensional,dikenal adanya sistem bunga sebagai komponen provitnya. Dimana dalam sistem bunga ketetapan pembayaran bunga ditetapkan pada waktu akad,dengan melihat bahwa setiap kegiatan usaha akan selalu menghasilkan keuntungan.Besar kecilnya bunga tergantung dari jumlah uang yang dipinjam oleh pihak bank. semakin besar nasabah meminjam uang, maka semakin kecil bunga yang ditawarkan oleh bank.Begitu juga sebaliknya, semakin kecil uang yang dipinjam nasabah, maka bunga yang ditawarkan akan semakin tinggi. Dengan demikian, pembayaran bunga tetap, meskipun nasabah dalam menjalankan bisnisnya mendapatkan keuntungan yang berlipat ganda atau tidak.

Sedangkan di dalam ekonomi syariah,instrumen provitnya berupa sistem bagi hasil. Dalam sistem bagi hasil,penentuan besar bagi hasil ditentukan pada saat akad, dimana pembagian keuntungan berdasarkan kedua belah pihak,antara pihak nasabah dan pihak bank. Besarnya hasil bagi ditentukan berdasarkan jumlah keuntungan yang diperoleh,Bila terjadi kerugian akan ditanggung bersama sesuai dengan porsi modal. Dalam sistem bagi hasil jumlah bagi hasil meningkat seiring peningkatan keuntungan yang diperoleh.

Perbedaan yang utama antara ekonomi islam dan ekonomi konvensional adalah :

Pertama,secara epistemologis ekonomi Islam dipercaya sebagai bagian integral dari ajaran Islam itu sendiri, sehingga pemikiran ekonomi Islam langsung bersumber dari Tuhan.

Kedua,ekonomi Islam dilihat sebagai sistem yang bertujuan bukan hanya mengatur kehidupan manusia di dunia, tapi juga menyeimbangkan kepentingan manusia di dunia dan akhirat. Ini membawa implikasi dari aspek normatif: apa yang baik dan buruk, apa yang harus dilakukan atau dihindari bukan semata-mata dilihat dari aspek efisiensi sebagaimana dikenal dalam ekonomi konvensional, melainkan bagaimana agar tindakan di kehidupan duniawi juga menghasilkan imbalan di akhirat.

Ketiga,sebagai konsekuensi dari landasan normatif itu, sejumlah aspek positif atau teknis dalam ekonomi konvensional tak bisa diaplikasikan karena bertentangan dengan nilai-nilai yang dibenarkan oleh Islam.

referensi :

http://www.anneahira.com/jurnal-ekonomi.htm

http://www.anneahira.com/perbedaan-ekonomi-syariah-dan-ekonomi-konvensional.htm
http://devilmycry4.wordpress.com/2010/11/04/membandingkan-ekonomi-islam-dengan-ekonomi-konvensional/

Business Process

Business Process is a set of activities that are structured by humans or systems which are involved in the inside or outside an organization, in order to solve a problem to achieve the goals / business outcomes for customers or for an organization. 

There are some general characteristics that are considered must-have business processes are :

1. Definitive: A business process must have limits, inputs, and outputs are correct.
2. Sequence: the business process should consist of activities that sequence  according the space and time.
3. Customer: A business process must have a process result receiver.
4. Value added: The transformation that occurs in the process should add value to the recipient.
5. Interrelated: A process can not stand alone, but must be related in an organizational structure.
6. Cross Function: A process generally includes several functions.

Often,the owner or person responsible for the performance and ongoing development of a process also regarded as a characteristic of business processes.

There are three types of business processes :

1. Management process, the processes that controls the operation of a system. Examples such as the Strategic Management
2. Operational processes, the processes which includes the core business and create the primary value stream. For example, purchasing process, manufacturing, advertising and marketing, and sales.
3. Supporting processes, the processes that support the core processes. Examples such as accounting, recruitment, help center.  

Business Process that quality can eliminate errors, delays minimize, maximize asset utilization tailored to the capacity demand, ease of understanding, easy to use, customer focused and adaptive to changing needs, provide competitive advantage to the organization

Source :
- http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proses_bisnis 
- http://pipiew.wordpress.com/2007/11/29/proses-bisnis/ 
- http://blog.trisakti.ac.id/informazi/2010/03/22/pengertian-proses-bisnis/