Reference no: EM133517836 , Length: word count:1200

Implement and monitor environmentally sustainable work practices

Assessment Task 1: Written Questions

Question 1. Identify one internal information source and one external information source that can be used to identify sustainability improvements that a company could make. For each source, explain how this source can be used to develop the sustainability policy.

• internal information source is company meetings where employees can share their knowledge, perceptions, and ideas about sustainability issues and improvements. This source can be used to develop the sustainability policy by involving the staff in the decision-making process and identifying the current practices and challenges within the organisation.

• external information sourceis advice from government agencies that provide relevant environmental and sustainability legislation, regulations, and codes of practice applicable to the organisation. This source can be used to develop the sustainability policy by ensuring compliance with the legal requirements and standards, as well as accessing funding or support programs for sustainability.

Question 2. Outline the purpose and scope of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). Give an example of how a business would have to modify its business practices to conform to this legislation.

• The EPBC Act is Australia's main environmental law. It aims to protect and manage the environment, biodiversity, and heritage places of national and international significance.

• It covers environmental assessment and approvals, protects threatened and migratory species, and integrates the management of natural and cultural places.

• A business would have to modify its practices to conform to this legislation if its activities are likely to have a significant impact on any of the matters protected by the EPBC Act. For example, a mining company would have to seek approval from the Minister for the Environment before starting a project that could affect a listed threatened species or a World Heritage site.

Question 3. Outline the purpose and scope of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme. Give an example of how a business would have to modify its business practices to conform to these regulations.

• The National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) scheme, established by the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 (NGER Act), is a single national framework for reporting and disseminating company information about greenhouse gas emissions, energy production, energy consumption and other information specified under NGER legislation.

• The objectives of the NGER scheme are to:

• inform government policy.
• inform the Australian public.
• help meet Australia's international reporting obligations.
• assist Commonwealth, state and territory government programmes and activities, and
• avoid duplication of similar reporting requirements in the states and territories.

Question 4. Describe how complying with the Australian Packaging Covenant voluntary code of practice could affect the way a company does business.
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• The APC voluntary code of practice could affect the way a company does business in several ways, such as:

• The company would need to follow the Sustainable Packaging Guidelines (SPGs), which are a set of 10 principles that help evaluate the environmental performance of packaging 3.
• The company would need to submit an annual report to the APCO, detailing its progress and achievements in implementing the SPGs and meeting the APC targets.
• The company would need to pay an annual fee to the APCO, based on its turnover and the amount of packaging it uses or supplies.
• The company would benefit from accessing the resources, tools and support provided by the APCO, such as online training, workshops, case studies and networking opportunities.
• The company would enhance its reputation and competitiveness by demonstrating its commitment to environmental sustainability and social responsibility.

Question 5. Describe how complying with the Australian Ecolabel Program voluntary code of practice could affect the way a company does business.
• Complying with the Australian Ecolabel Program voluntary code of practice could affect the way a company does business by:

• Reducing environmental impacts of their products or services, such as greenhouse gas emissions, water use, waste generation and toxicity.
• Improving market competitiveness and customer satisfaction by offering products or services that meet high environmental standards and are independently verified.
• Demonstrating social responsibility and legal compliance by adhering to the code of practice and its ethical principles.

Question 6. List at least four environmental and resource sustainability measurements that a company could use to establish sustainability benchmarks.

• Ecological footprint: a measure of how much biologically productive land and water an individual, population or activity requires to produce all the resources it consumes and to absorb the waste it generates.
• Environmental Performance Index: a global ranking of how well countries perform on high-priority environmental issues in two areas: protection of human health and protection of ecosystems.
• Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: a measure of the amount of carbon dioxide and other gases that trap heat in the atmosphere that are released by an organization, sector or country.

Question 7. Describe three purchasing approaches that can contribute to sustainable work practices.

• three purchasing approaches that can contribute to sustainable work practices are:

• Choosing suppliers committed to sustainability: This means selecting vendors who have environmental and social responsibility policies, certifications, or initiatives in place, and who can demonstrate their positive impact on the supply chain.
• Using less of what you already have: This means finding ways to reduce waste, reuse materials, repair equipment or recycle products in your organization, and encouraging your suppliers to do the same.
• Taking a "Total Cost of Ownership" approach to what you buy: This means considering not only the initial price of a product or service, but also its environmental and social costs over its entire life cycle, such as energy consumption, maintenance, disposal, or recycling.

Question 8.Give an example of a supply chain consideration that can contribute to sustainable work practices.
• example of a supply chain consideration that can contribute to sustainable work practices is to embrace the circular economy. This means designing products and processes that minimize waste, reuse materials, and extend the life cycle of resources. By doing so, a company can reduce its environmental impact, save costs, and create new business opportunities.

• Another possible example is to communicate your expectations with suppliers. This means sharing your sustainable policies and standards with all the parties involved in your supply chain and ensuring that they comply with them. By doing so, a company can improve its reputation, avoid legal risks, and foster trust and collaboration with its suppliers.

Question 9. Describe how a business can use sustainability indicators to measure quality assurance. Of sustainability indicators are:

Following ways are used to measure the quality assurance of sustainability.

• Conformity: the degree to which the business complies with the rules and regulations of its industry and country.
• Use of materials and performance: the amount and type of resources used by the business and the efficiency and effectiveness of its outputs.

• Effects: the positive and negative impacts of the business on the environment, society, and economy
• Supply chain and product life cycle: the sustainability practices of the business's suppliers, distributors and customers, and the environmental footprint of its products from cradle to grave.
• Sustainable system: the integration of sustainability principles and values into the business's vision, mission, strategy, and culture.

Assessment Task 2: Resource usage identification

Task summary
You are required to review a case study company's work practices to determine whether they comply with their Sustainability Policy and Procedures. You will then discuss their report with stakeholders and request input from other experts.

Instructions

Carefully read the following:

Blue Healer Consultants (known as Blue Healer) specialises in leadership consultancy and offers a range of services to assist companies to assess leadership behaviour of existing managers and performance metrics. They also design and implement customised leadership programs based on the assessment. Services are offered Australia-wide.

The company employs a General Manager, an Administration Manager (you), 4 Principal Consultants, 3 Senior Consultants, two Administration Officers and a Receptionist.

As Administration Manager, you are responsible for the office area as well as two meeting rooms.

Blue Healer has recently adopted a Sustainability Policy and Procedures and each area manager has been requested to determine how these will impact their work team's activities.

The CEO has indicated that Blue Healer does not want to incur any additional costs in implementing the Sustainability Policy and Procedures. If any additional resources are necessary, management expects that an itemised budget will be submitted to them before resources are approved and allocated.

Currently the organisation has the following issues and practices:
• There is older style florescent lighting throughout the building. These lights are often left on after the workday has finished, and the cleaners turn them off when they have finished with their work.
• There are no formal energy usage procedures for staff or signage to remind staff about these.
• The company does not have a policy for purchasing equipment and buys equipment when required; often purchasing whatever is on special at the time.
• There are two company vehicles. Both vehicles are now five years old and need to be upgraded.
• Staff buy stationary requirements on an ad hoc basis, often resulting in large stocks of items such as notepads and A grade printer paper.
• Kitchen waste is often thrown in the general refuse bin
• There is a waste bin and recycling bins, which are often used incorrectly.
• The office is cleaned once a week by contract cleaners who use regular cleaning products.

Question 1. Develop a Sustainability Improvement Report.
Review the following websites and take notes on sustainability targets that would be appropriate for the case study organisation.

Conduct further research using the Internet or any other source of information to identify the company's sustainability obligations and how these can be met.

Using your research and analysis, develop a report on your area of Blue Healer to present at a senior management meeting. Your report should include the following:
• An introduction: state the purpose of the report and summarise the current organisational sustainability practices.
• Identify the environmental regulations that apply to the organisation
• Describe, and analyse, procedures that would assess Blue Healer's compliance with the environmental/ sustainability regulations
• Explain at least five environmental and resource efficiency systems and procedures that could be relevant for the Blue Healer.
• Describe at least three benchmarks for environmental and resource sustainability that could be relevant to the organisation
• Outline at least three common environmental and energy efficiency issues within the industry in which Blue Healer operates
• Review the case study information and document the current resource usage of your team members.
• Document your team's work processes as set out in the case study information and identify at least three ways of reducing their environmental impact.
• Document the company's current purchasing strategiesas set out in the case study information. Analyse these and determine at least one way that each could be improved.
• Evaluate the company's costing strategies and determine whether these can be changed to ensure that the company take sustainability into consideration.
• Discuss possible strategies for ensuring that resource efficiency continues to occur.
• Set efficiency targets for your team

While conducting the research, be mindful that many organisations require external assistance in determining the best ways to improve their sustainability. Find,and document, at least two environmental specialists that could perform this task for Blue Healer. They should operate in the same state or territory as your RTO. Include their name, website address and a summary of the services they offer.

Develop an action plan to show at least six actions that will be completed by your team over the upcoming 12 months.
The action plan should show the priorities of actions as well as timelines and responsibilities.

Use the Sustainability Improvement Report Template to guide your work.

10. Send an email to the CEO (your assessor).
The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.
It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment and ask for the place, time and date of the meeting with key personnel and other stakeholders (your assessor and at least two other students).

Your assessor will advise you of the date and time of the meeting.

Attach your Sustainability Improvement Report to the email.

11. Participate in a meeting with key personnel and other stakeholders.
Discuss your Sustainability Improvement Report with the meeting attendees, clearly explaining the information and your ideas.

At the meeting, encourage the stakeholders to provide input into the strategies to improve the company's sustainability and how to implement these.

During the meeting, demonstrate effective communication skills including:
• Speaking clearly and concisely
• Using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding
• Asking questions to identify required information
• Responding to questions as required
• Using active listening techniques to confirm understanding

Before concluding the meeting, ask for the participants' approval of your report and its action plan.

12. Revise your Sustainability Improvement Report.
Following the meeting, revise your briefing report to reflect the feedback you received during the meeting.

Save this version of the document as Revised Sustainability Improvement Report.

13. Revise the Sustainability Policy and Procedures.
Implement the changes to the company's costing strategies by reviewing the Sustainability Policy and Procedures to reflect the feedback you received during the meeting.

Save this version of the document as Revised Sustainability Policy and Procedures.

14. Send an email to all meeting attendees (your assessor).
The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should outline the feedback provided at the meeting and how that has been integrated into the Sustainability Improvement Report.

Attach the following to the email:
• Revised Sustainability Improvement Report
• Revised Sustainability Policy and Procedures

15. Seek input from specialists (your assessor).
You are required to seek input from at least two sustainability experts
You will do this by writing an email to the specialists you documented in your Sustainability Improvement Report.

Give an overview of the organisation and the sustainability improvements that have to be made.

Ask them for their feedback about what?

Assessment Task 3: Performance improvement implementation

Task summary
Students are required to implement two of the activities on their Sustainability Improvement Report action plan: an inspection of the work areas they are responsible for, and an information session with their work team.

Assessment Task 3 Instructions

Complete the following activities:

2. Undertake an inspection of the work area (your RTO facility).
Your Sustainability Improvement Report has been approved and you are now required to implement strategies identified in your action plan. This includes an inspection of the workplace to identify environmental sustainability and resource usage issues and to identify and report on possible solutions.

You are required to undertake an inspection of the areas of the Blue Healer Consultants' office that are your responsibility. For the purposes of this assessment, this will mean you carrying out an inspection of the RTO facility where you are being assessed.

Prior to undertaking the inspection, use the internet to determine which tools and techniques will help you to determine whether improvements can be made to current practices. Note that any improvements should relate to the efficiency targets you documented in your Sustainability Improvement Report.

Record at least 3 actual or potential environmental sustainability and resource usage issues that you found during activity one.

Use the environmental sustainability and resource Usage Record Template to record your findings.

One of the tools you will use is an electricity consumption measurement device that will be provided by the RTO. Use the instructions provided and/or the internet to determine how to use the device provided. Then measure the energy consumption of at least three of the RTO's workstations; energy consumption.

Note that you are not required to undertake an extensive audit of the RTO's workstations' energy consumption. You are required to demonstrate your ability to measure team members' energy usage. Use the device provided by the RTO and the Current energy usage table in the Usage Record Template to demonstrate how to do this.

Your assessor will advise you of the date and time of the inspection and will observe you conducting the inspection.

3. Develop a sustainability presentation.
In order to present the company's new Sustainability Policy and Procedures and your Sustainability Improvement Report to your team, you are required to develop a PowerPoint (or another presentation program) presentation.

Your presentation should include the following:
• A summary of the company's Sustainability Policy and Procedures. This will include a description of how sustainability recommendations are to be made and how approvals for changes should be sought.
• The changes you made to the Sustainability Policy and Procedures. Informing your team that the company's costing strategies now includesustainability as a primary consideration, you are implementing these changes within your team and the company, so make sure they understand what it means for them.
• A summary of your Sustainability Improvement Report, including the action plan
• A summary of the inspection you performed in the previous activity, including the team's current energy usage you measured.

As the team's manager, you will be expected to integrate environmental and resource efficiencies into the other tasks that they carry out. Consider how this can be done and include a slide that explains your suggestions.

You are also required to discuss ongoing monitoring and improvement activities that the team will be undertaking in the future. Include at least one slide on each of the following:
• Team activities to measure current resource usage
• Continuous improvement strategies to improve the team's sustainability performance. You should point out that the training session itself is part of a continuous improvement strategy that will ensure that all members of the team understand how they can improve their sustainability performance.
• Change management techniques that will support the team's sustainability performance. You should point out that the training session itself is a change management strategy that will help improve the team's sustainability performance.

Use the notes section of the presentation program to help you remember content when you are presenting.

Save this file as Sustainability Presentation.

4. Send an email to your assessor.
The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.
It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment and ask for the place, date and time of your presentation.

Attach your Sustainability Presentation to the email.

16. Deliver a sustainability training session for your team.
At the outset of the presentation, indicate that the team will be able to ask questions during and at the end of the presentation and may offer suggestions for additional strategies.

Clearly deliver your presentation content using the slides you have developed.

When you have summarised the Sustainability Policy and Procedures and your Sustainability Improvement Report, discuss your findings from your inspection.
Ask the meeting attendees for their suggestions for improving their environmental and resource efficiency management.
Encourage them to identify more energy efficient ways of doing their jobs, and evaluate these strategies in the group.
When you ask the meeting participants about their own resource usage practices, keep in mind that they are actually colleagues roleplaying members of your team, not Blue Healer employees. So, when you question them, make it clear that you are also asking for an honest reply to your questions as it applies to them in real life. As well as taking note of their responses, open up discussion about why they use resources in the way they do and whether they have considered changing this.

Your team members should understand their own role in achieving sustainability improvements.

Take notes on these discussions to assist you in the next activity.

As well as present the information, you are required, in the role of Administration Manager, to solve problems that arise during the meeting, so pay attention to the issues raised by the group and try to find solutions to each.

During and after the presentation, demonstrate effective communication skills including:
• Speaking clearly and concisely
• Using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding
• Asking questions to identify required information
• Responding to questions as required
• Using active listening techniques to confirm understanding

You will be assessed on the quality of your presentation skills as well as the presentation itself.

17. Update your Sustainability Improvement Report and action plan.
Following the meeting, revise your report and plan to reflect the feedback you received during the meeting.

Add the work team members' energy usage that you measured during the meeting to the section in the Current usage section of your report. Analyse this information and determine at least three methods of changing their usage to reduce their environmental impact.

Save this as Updated Sustainability Improvement Report
When completed, submit your updated report to your assessor.

Assessment Task 4: Sustainability activities review

Task summary
You are required to report on outcomes of the implementation of their Sustainability Improvement Report by analysing data provided.

Carefully read the following:

Assume that the Sustainability Improvement Report you developed has been implemented, as well as findings from sustainability inspections and reports in other areas of the office. Sustainability initiatives that have been implemented include:
• Energy audit and all recommendations implemented including signage about energy use (e.g. switch off lights at night, turn down brightness, turn off taps)
• Recycling policy introduced, and three more recycling bins introduced.
• Green purchasing policy developed (on staff intranet, email sent to staff to advise).
• Green transport policy developed and implemented (on staff intranet, email sent to staff to advise).
Assume also the following sustainability targets:
• Reduce electricity consumption by 20% within six months.
• Promote awareness of sustainability initiatives amongst all staff members
A staff survey (results provided in Survey Results), as well as an energy audit have been undertaken.

The results of the energy audit are as follows:

Actions implemented:
• Replaced halogen downlights with energy efficient downlights and transformers.
• Connected to natural gas, converting to an energy source with one-third of the greenhouse gas emissions of electricity from coal
• Replace electric storage hot water heater with instant solar hot water
• Replaced air conditioner with a more efficient inverter unit.
• All of the interventions cost a total of $4,800.
Prior to energy audit:
• Annual energy bill: $2,415 a year
• Annual greenhouse emissions: 18 tonnes a year
Six months later:
• Annual energy bill: $2,275 a year
• Annual greenhouse emissions: 14.3 tonnes a year
One year later:
• Annual energy bill: $1,800 a year
• Annual greenhouse emissions: 10.2 tonnes a year
Note: Four new staff members were employed in the last six months may account for increase. Energy targets were not adjusted to account for the new staff.

Complete the following activities:

5. Develop a sustainability implementation report
You are required to review the results of the staff survey and the energy statistics provided.

Based on your review, develop a short report that outlines:
• Analysis of staff survey results and achievements against targets
• Analysis of energy audit data and achievements against targets
• Recommendations for additional actions that need to be taken based on the data above.
• Recommend new efficiency targets
• Summary of the success of the sustainability policy and procedures based on analysis.
• Updates to the company's Sustainability Policy and Procedures to account for recommended improvements.

Use the Sustainability Implementation Report Template to guide your work.

18. Send an email to stakeholders (your assessor).
The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

The email text should briefly explain the purpose and contents of the report and promote the strategies that have proven to be successful.

Attach yourSustainability Implementation Report to the email

19. Send an email to your team (your assessor).
You have been given permission to implement a system that rewards individuals, or the whole team, when sustainability targets have been reached. The rewards should cost no more than $200 per year for each area of the Blue Healer.

Consider what rewards could be appropriate for your work team and describe these to your team. Inform the team whether they have earned the reward(s) based on the evaluations you made in your Sustainability Implementation Report.

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

Note: You have to do only 2,3, and 4