BSBSUS501 Develop Workplace Policy And Procedure For Sustainability

Specifications

You must provide:

• an interim report
• revised and new policy and procedure documents
• an implementation plan.

Your assessor will be looking for:

• evidence that you have reviewed all legislative, regulatory and organisational documents and identified shortfalls in current practice or current organisational documentation
• evidence that you have reviewed current organisational usage and accurately reflected the case study information to develop an implementation plan that complements organisational requirements.

1. MacVille sustainability initiatives

There are policies and procedures that are relevant to sustainable practices. These policies and procedures are:

• Anti-discrimination, Anti-bullying, Anti-harassment
• Workplace Health Management
• Risk Management.

All these polices relate to the sustainable practices in term of environmental, economic and socio-political. Anti-discrimination and Workplace Health Management are some of the socio-political initiatives that have laws and legislation to be complied with by the organisation. Risk management indicates areas where the economic could be impacted by injury or ineffective performance. These risks must be resolved to prevent any loss or damage to the business. However, the manager also notice there is not enough environment control for conserving resources. Therefore, some recommendations has been provided to the team to implement these inanities. These are comprised of:

• Reprogramming of all air-conditioning services
• Switching off light at night
• Better sorting of recycle paper from general rubbish
• Encouraging staff use of dual flush capability toilets

Other documents that can be used to implement these process can be based on:

• The business plan
• The marketing plan
• Strategic and operational plan
• Risk management strategy
• Financial document

2. Best Practice Models

In this report, the most concern issue is to conserving the energy.

• Examine the equipment: For the purpose of energy saving, the firm must determine which equipment can be disconnected at certain times. Furthermore, MacVille can also install humidity control systems in refrigerators to reduce the temperatures by 2 to 4 degrees.
• Lights setting: Replacing existing current light with more energy efficient ballasts to reduced energy use by 40 percent.
• Turn up the thermostat: implement a dress code for warm weather that encourages employees to dress comfortably for warmer temperatures and set the thermostat in workspace 78 degrees Fahrenheit during work hours. Raise it to 82 degrees Fahrenheit when occupied. The energy savings are significant. Raising the thermostat a single degree can save 2 percent of the air conditioning costs.
• Regular maintenance: perform regular maintenance to keep heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems running more efficiently. Maintenance activities can save up to 30% of fan energy and up to 10% of space conditioning energy use.
• These practices must be based on different programs such as findamentals of sustainability and approaches to sustainability, business ready energy efficiency programs, or sustainable coffee programs.
• Relevant legislation and by laws that must be met are Sustainable Planning Act 2009, Waste Reduction and Recyclying Act 2011, and Work health and Safety Act 2011.

3. Shortfalls of Current Policies

A review based on the current usage of resources are conducted to gain an insight of potential of changes to organisational performances. MacVille previously reviewed the operations and the result were the resource usage was not aligned with the sustainability practices. The expenses report shows the water and electricity usage are within the acceptable range. However, it is considerably high according to Seamus MacVille. It could cost the business in the long term. Therefore, new implementation is needed to minimise the cost at minimum allowance. This includes the air-conditioners and lighting system reconfiguration.

Furthermore, the rate of water, sewerage and electricity is low when compared to the Photocopier and Printer and wastage. The high wastage is the result of ineffective recycle system. More recyclable paper are used, less waste could be expected. MacVille is considered to be disadvantage on the waste removal service in both recycle and general rubbish. Therefore, enhance the photocopier or limit the use of normal toner and paper may be the solutions. Meanwhile, better waste system could be implemented within the firm to reuse the paper sources and maintain the expense economically and environmentally.

Reviewing the MacVille press release, the new policy to form the new work team is a great idea. However, there is missing of affirmative action. Eventually, the executive of problem solving and identify is difficult to proceed. Moreover, the training sections carried out by the team is insufficient. It leads to the unsuccessful achievement of energy saving. For example, one of the new team policies is to encouraging the last staff member leaving each day to turn the air-conditioning off. However, it is barely done since how the staffs know whenever he or she will be the last one exit the building. It must be a procedure for the staff to follow to prevent all conditioners is left running 24 hours per day. On the other hand, for the affirmative action policy, there is no section for the energy saving. It means the energy saving is the organisational responsibility not the employee’s.

4. New Policy and Procedure

The policies and procedures that require development are:

• MacVille Operations – usage of equipment and services
1. Procedure:
1. Air-conditioning is switched off automatically by digital devices after closing
2. The air conditioners must be switched off manually by the store manager if continue running after hours
3. Turning off unnecessary light is responsible for staff and store manager
4. Store manager must check the light system and turn them off after hours
5. Photocopier and printers only for organisational use
6. All toilets are dual flush capability
• Waste management – waste control management
1. Procedure
1. A recycle bin is available for recycle items such coffee cups or drink cans
2. A separate recycle paper is available only for paper recycle and reuse
3. General rubbish is available for costumers and staffs
4. Bins are coded with colour and label
5. Bins must be checked and empty when it is full by staffs

Dress code policy must be revised to ensure the staff to wear comfortably during work. It could reduce the use of air-conditioners. Higher degrees means more energy saving. Another development is to reuse of all paper for printing. Double sided printer could be enhanced. The scope of these changes is to clearly identify and summarise the new documents that will help to develop the policies and procedures. This will ensure MacVille’s policies and procedures to be implemented for the future development. The propose documents including implementation plan and monitoring chart are available in the Appendix D.

5. Personnel Requirements

First, it is the manager to access and analyse different respects of current policies. It requires the manager to check realistically to observe how the business performs. Complying with the local legislation, the manager could advise the team and discuss about the possibility of the new policy or revised one. On the other hand, the manager will announce the revised policy and plan different training section for staffs to comprehend with these policies.

Then, the new sustainability team is the main personnel for the policy revisions. The work team is required to develop materials to inform and educate clients and the general community about MacVille’s sustainable activities and encourage participation in activities and practices that lead to better environmental outcome. On the other hand, the team must work as a group of highly skilled individual to investigate the problems and find the best solutions to solve the problems. Revising or writing the new policies could be applied. Yet, these must have permission from the managers.

Finally, the employees must complied and have duty to understand and follow all the policy. It is requirement for the staffs to attend any training section provided by the new work team for personal benefit as well as improving organisational performance. The store managers are part of the manager team to supervise and observe the staffs. Any wrong performance could be noticed and informed to staffs for better work.

6. Implementation Plan

7. Continuous improvement

MacVille should monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the new policies and procedures through a monitoring plan.

Based on the policies and procedures that have been developed in the appendix, the effectiveness of its impact will be monitored. The performance of employees will be observed practically and supervise frequently. The plan is to reduce the usage of energy, water and waste. It can be achieved through minising the use of photocopying, air-conditioners, and dual toilet. These must follow the sustainable practices which are being promoted by the Sustainability team.

The procedure of monitoring is as followed:

• Set up credit limit for weekly printing
• Save up the Photocopier register
• Check the air-conditioners status every day. If it is left running for past 24 hours, the store manager has the responsibility to report to the business manager.
• Check the light system every. If light is switched on over, the store manager has the responsibility to report to the business manager
• The sustainability team has responsibility to check the use of resources every day
• Business review the report weekly and resources usage bill monthly
• Discussion with staffs if the performances do not align with the policy
• Better communication or revised policies are needed
• Implementation is recommended.

The business review report must include these information for further monitoring and future implementation references.

8. Conclusion

In conclusion, this report presents a development plan of policies and procedures relevant to the sustainable practices of MacVille enterprises. The monitoring plan will ensure the effectiveness of these practices in term of triple bottom line environmental, economic and socio-political sustainability. It is recommended that the new policies and revised ones must be continuously developed for better sustainable performance.

Case study

Seamus MacVille, the Business Manager of MacVille Enterprises has reviewed some of MacVille’s operations and has observed that resource use in the head office is not aligned with sustainable work practices being promoted by the Sustainability Team. He realises that this is at least partly due to existing MacVille policy and procedure documents not reflecting current business sector requirements. Some of the initiatives Seamus wants to see implemented include:

• re-programming of all air-conditioning services in the head office to be only active in normal business hours:
  • currently air-conditioners are manually switched on and off
  • It is the responsibility of the last staff member leaving each day to turn them all off - this is rarely done, and most commonly all air-conditioners are left running 24 hours per day.
• lights being switched off at night
• better sorting of recyclable paper from general rubbish
• encouraging staff use of dual-flush capability of toilets.