Company Sustainability Policy Assignment

1A -

The company’s sustainability policy aims to create a more environmentally friendly office atmosphere.

The company also believes that though social programs, employees and society can have better performance at work and healthier personal life.

Solar panels will be installed in order to use green power – energy generated from renewable sources.

A replacement of equipment such as old machines, computers and air conditional system, will be fulfilled according to the Green Office Guide

It was developed the program Friday for Fun which consists in every Friday employee can dedicate 2 hours of their working hours to dedicate their time to a charity or a community work.

1B -

Stakeholders

• employees at all levels of the organisation
• investors

Investors can be consulted regarding financial implications (financial plan to install solar panels and modern equipment, as mentioned above) and the benefits to the organization in terms of increased efficiency.

• local community
• Customers
• Suppliers

1.C -

The strategies that the company can use for minimizing resource use:

• Create posters and newsletters

To notifying staff about the recycling points stalled in the company (paper and card; glass; plastic; batteries; aluminium) and also alert them to the real necessity to print documents (to minimize use of paper and printer cartridges).

The strategies that the company can use to reduce toxic material and hazardous chemical use:

• Replace toxic material

Toxic material can be found in several places inside an office – like electrical equipment or acids, poisons and solvents. For that reason, environmentally friendly products (the ones that use natural resources) will have the priority to be bought and to be used.

• Set computers

Set all the computers as saving on printers in order to save more ink and tonners.

1.D -

Regarding recommendations for the best policy options are based on immediate effect.

The company believes that:

• through seminars and practical exercises about recycling properly the materials used in the work place, it will be possible to succeed in a short time (the seminars should take 30 minutes
• the strategy is: 1 seminar per week during one month), low cost (each seminar (material and staff) costs $200 – total in one month $800) would be highly likely to be effective.

1.E -

• Gradually replacement of hazard and chemical products

In order to demonstrate that this organization is committed to sustainability, and also to build a positive reputation and to create a new culture of innovation, all the hazard and chemical products used will be gradually replaced for environmental friendly and natural ones, like non-toxic paints.

• Solar Panels

Solar panels will be installed so it will be possible to use clean energy.

All the procedures will be registered so the staff can consult them whenever they need, as well as training will be provided to guarantee the higher efficiency.

1F-

• Staff meetings

Regarding to implementation process, meeting will be set up with all the staff and lately with other stakeholders.

With the staff meeting:

Firstly, will be discussed sustainability in general and then what the company aim. In order to achieve that, it will be necessary to break the sustainability implementation in phases and create a calendar for that.

• Phase One

Phase one: involve all the staff and the seminars of “Recycling” and “How to more with less” will be ministered.

The goal in phase one is to involve all the staff and start to create a new atmosphere and new culture. Duration: 1-2 months.

• Phase Two

Phase two: all the hazard and chemical products used will be gradually replaced for environmental friendly and natural ones, like non-toxic paints.

Duration: 2-3 months.

• Phase Three

Phase three: A survey (staff members and stakeholders) will be creating to measure the growth of awareness of sustainability.

2A –

The company will promote the workplace sustainability policy in order to get support, recognition and build a good reputation and strong links with all stakeholders.

Several benefits will come out, like:

• Reduce costs

Reduce some costs with the solar panel installation and use these savings elsewhere, e.g. bonus payment to the staff.

• Commitment and Sustainability

It will be added a link in the existing website to communicate stakeholders about the commitment and proposes about sustainability. Newsletters will be issued to all staff and stakeholders to keep them updated.

The company will be involved with the community projects. So every two Fridays the employees can use 2 working hours to dedicate to community projects.

2B –

It is important to be specific when inform those involved in implementing the policy of the outcome the company expects, because the targets must be achievable and measurable.

If the company sets too many goals, it would probably cause confusion and the targets won’t be achieved.

In the strategy that the company can practices for minimizing resource use, e.g. minimize using of papers and tonners, the company aims to reduce in 60% the using of papers and as consequence, minimize the using of tonners and inks. The current purchase of papers is 100 boxes per month. So, the company expects to purchases 40 boxes of papers in nearly future.

Some activities will be developed in order to achieve the targets, e.g. all computers will be set to print double sides. Also, scrap papers will be placed in easy location so staff can take notes.

Posters and notes will constantly be created to remind all the staff the real necessity to print documents. All the department leaders will give them practical examples so we can achieve the goal.

Responsibilities of supervisor on implementing target?

3 A –

Procedure is a group of directions, commands or instructions informing how to do something. It can contain who is responsible for what actions, places (where) and timing (when).

E.g. Every staff member who get into the kitchen area must use gloves and hair protection. / The recycle bins must be taken outside the building every Thursday at 4:00 pm.

Fig: Communication procedure developed for sustainability policy.

To communicate this procedure, a simple and clear flowchart was created and will be presented on the side of recycling bins. This procedure is to inform every staff member, or anyone who is in the building in order to keep the office organized.

3 B –

Continuous improvement is an ongoing effort to improve products, services or processes. These efforts can seek “incremental” improvement over time or “breakthrough” improvement all at once.

To do this, the staff must suggest potential improvements or adjust procedures or the way they do something. It is important that supervisors be helpful with the mistakes, also approachable and encourage their team to suggest and try new things.

What qualities???

3 C –

Please find here a list of all tasks that need to be done to track continuous improvements in sustainability:

• Regular inspections / audits;
• Set a meeting with the staff every Thursday afternoon (and ask them for suggestions/ways to improve);
• Create a suggestion/complain form;
• Make a reward for staff, according to their performance (incentive them);

In order to assign people to those tasks, no large team will be needed. One person must be responsible for writing a check list or step by step of procedures to audit. It will be important to highlight what procedures are not getting completed and what procedures are completed accordingly. A manager or a supervisor may be enough to be responsible for that and also for setting meetings and write down the suggestions/feedbacks.

Every first Monday of each month, our suggestion/complaint form will be send out to staff members and all stakeholders involved. All the forms must be analyzed and all the positive feedbacks or good initiatives must be rewarded, in an informal ceremony every last Friday each month.

4 A –

The company might have to give feedback to stakeholders regarding every complaint or suggestion; Audits; Changes to every procedure; rewards or disciplinary actions.

Regarding complaints or suggestions, all staff members and the customers would be interested.

For audits, government and customers – to check if every procedure is getting accordantly.

Rewards or disciplinary actions – staff members and the community that could be affected by the decisions and suggestions made.

4 B –

When success is investigated it must be researched firstly, all the positive feedbacks received, as well as what procedures are getting accordantly. Secondly, if the staff is being reward. If yes, it means that you are succeeding.

Positive feedback: All positive feedback received from customers is checked and analyzed. We can segregate the best part of sustainability practices that customer admires. Success can be measured through customers view by analyzing feedbacks.

What procedure?

Why people are being rewarded?

When you investigate areas for improvement, you should research what procedures are not being completed accordantly, all the negative feedback – that will show you what are the main complain and who are making them. Also, you have to check if these complains are being made regularly or not. You may find some barrier on the way, e.g. lack of staff motivation, incoherent procedures or even lack of communication pf procedures to staff members. To remove these barriers, you can use some strategies to succeed. Firstly, it is important to train properly the staff team (this will make them more motivated and confident); Promote the reward structure could be the second step, followed by highlighting the staff progress.

4 C –

Trend is a general direction in which something is developing or changing. In other words, it is a pattern or general tendency appearing in the data. For example, you can find that people are making more suggestions because they want to be rewarded for their initiative, you can say that people are happy to be part of that.

If you have found any problems, the first thing to do it is try to eliminate the need for a procedure. Check if it is possible to remove it or replace them for new procedures that can be more clear. Also, it is important to check if all staff understood he procedure and how to do it, as well as if all of them are capable of fulfilling the procedures.

Skills and Knowledge Activity

Green Office Guide

Green Office Guide is a joint initiative of Commonwealth, State, and Territory government agencies - “a guide to help you buy and use environmentally friendly office equipment”, according to their website. In another words, they can help you buy environmental friendly equipment in order to reduce the operating and environmental costs. Some examples are: Save up 80% on your electricity bills; halve your paper and tonners bills; leave 50 trees in the ground; involve your staff in doing something for the environment, and as a consequence, you can enhance you company’s profit.

The project also provides the company really valid information and suggestions, what equipment to choose and why; what benefits the company and the environment will have; how to implement procedures so you succeed, are only few examples.

The most valuable information about Green Office Guide applied in this document was regarding the staff members. A part from technical information about the right equipment, the project affords how to communicate these changes to your staff member in a clear and simple way. They make it clear how important is to introduce to your team the power management features into your office, training them so it is possible to use the equipment correctly, and of course, you have to remember how important is to give staff feedbacks on their progress and achievement.

Green Purchasing

Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) or Green Purchasing refers to the gaining of products and services that have a minor or reduced effect on human health and the environment when compared with competing products or services that serve the same purpose.

This comparison can consider raw materials acquisition, production, manufacturing, packaging, distribution, reuse, operation, maintenance, and disposal of the product or service. Green purchasing is also known as environmentally preferred purchasing (EPP), environmentally responsible purchasing, green procurement, affirmative procurement, eco-procurement, and environmentally responsible purchasing.

Some benefits of Green Procurement are:

• Brand Image
  An organization that has gone green is seen as a good corporate citizen. This increases its image in the eyes of the public.

• Customer Satisfaction
  An organization that goes green in response to customer concerns increases its levels of customer satisfaction, a key point in customer retention.

• Cost Reduction

Going green can reduce the following costs, among others: hazardous material management costs; operational costs; health & safety costs (which often come in the form of liability insurance and expensive settlements).

The most valuable information about Green Procurement applied in this document was regarding cost reduction and the replacement of hazardous material, e.g. products that has solvents as ingredient, to products that have the same purpose, but have natural elements.

Major Activity

This company has established the Environmental Policy based on the principles and guidelines set in the Green Office Program.

Philosophy

The Company recognizes that global environmental protection is a vitally important business issue. By utilizing our technological expertise and creative talents in the industry, we seek to contribute to the promotion of sustainable development.

Furthermore, while observing all environmental regulations in our business operations, we are actively chasing environmental protection activities on our own initiative. Through our individual and collective actions (with all staff members and the community help), we will continuously attempt to defense a rich natural environment for future generations.

Principles

• We help customers and society reducing the environmental impact of our business activities and improve environmental efficiency with advanced technologies, environmental friendly equipment.
• We proactively promote environmentally conscious business activities to help the environment, community and economy harmoniously.
• We strive to reduce the environmental impact of our products throughout their entire lifecycle.
• We are committed to conserving energy and natural resources, reduce, reuse and recycle materials.
• We seek to reduce risks to human health and the environment from the use of chemical substances and waste.
• We encourage our employees to work on global environmental conservation such as recycling and eco-friendly materials, and preservation of biodiversity through their work and activities to be role models in society.