Lemonade Stand Sustainability

A major problem facing the Lemonade Stand is a lack of focus on sustainability. In order to operate sustainably, managers at the Lemonade Stand must partner locally to improve their social and environmental impacts. One way in which employees can make a positive social impact would be to combat racism by supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. The Lemonade Stand can do this by putting the BLM symbol on the front of the store. This would raise customer awareness of social issues and signify that the Lemonade Stand is an advocate for social justice.

One way employees at the Lemonade Stand could improve their environmental impact would be to source their ingredients from sustainable suppliers. The three main ingredients that go into lemonade are water, sugar, and lemons/lemon juice. Water is widely available and can be filtered to increase the purity of the lemonade. Because sugar must be processed, managers at the Lemonade Stand are restricted to buying prepackaged sugar from the local supermarket. Therefore, the best way to sustainably source ingredients would be to support sustainable agriculture by partnering with a local farmers market. Rather than using lemon juice, the local farmers market can supply fresh lemons which would save water and other ingredients that go into some lemon juice brands. Sourcing from a local farmers market would contribute to the end goal of a fully sustainable business.

Another way in which employees can improve the Lemonade Stand’s environmental impact would be to eliminate waste. Sourcing actual lemons rather than lemon juice eliminates plastic lemon juice bottles from the production process. However, plastic cups are another big source of waste. One way in which the Lemonade Stand could eliminate plastic cups while also making more money would be to partner with a reusable water bottle company. By selling lemonade in reusable bottles, the Lemonade Stand can sell more lemonade to customers who would be more willing to pay a higher price. Furthermore, the Lemonade Stand could put their own personal brand on the reusable bottles to spread the word about their sustainable practices to potential customers. Selling lemonade in reusable bottles will support the business strategy of making more profits and contribute to the long term sustainability strategy of going zero waste.