BSBSUS501 Develop Workplace Policy and Procedures for Sustainability

Discover how to develop workplace sustainability policy Know how to communicate workplace sustainability policy Learn how to implement workplace sustainability policy Understand how to review workplace sustainability policy implementation Gain skills and knowledge required for this unit.

For development of sustainability policies and procedures, RTO can collect the information from different primary and secondary sources. To create best and suitable policy for the organization, they have to conduct research for both primary and secondary sources of information.

Primary sources:

• The Regional Training Organization can gather the information by conducting survey and interview of staff members from all the levels of organization.
• Stakeholders are key components of the sustainability policy development process. They can provide the valuable feedback on the organizational environmental practices, which are already used at workplace. It will conduct the interview with the external stakeholders, like; suppliers and customers (Epstein and Buhovac, 2014). In this, suppliers can provide the information about development of products and present trends and accessibility of the products, which are environmentally sustainable.

Secondary Sources:

• As secondary sources, the organization can examine the current systems and processes and it can check that any other data or information, which is stored in the environmental policy, like; completed forms, audits and data on regulations and different legislations.
• The organization will have access to the annual reports and official websites of other companies, which include their procedures, methods and policies, which they are using to ensure the workplace sustainability. It can help them in creating and adopting new and relevant processes to the organization (Bebbington, Unerman, and O'Dwyer, 2014).

Other sources:

• The organization can conduct an audit, which will help the organization in establish that which laws or regulations are related to the business and work practices of organization. It is a good point to start for recognizing both direct and indirect environmental effects of business operations of organization. This audit plan may examine various areas; types of business operations, location of office building, number of employees, levels of energy usage, possible impacts on environment, types and level of emissions, environmental strategies, which are already in use by the organization and the level of commitment to environmental sustainability. After identifying this information, the organization require checking with all the environmental bodies and authorities to create if there is a need to obtain permits or licenses for complying with the regulations and legislations of environmental sustainability (National Geographic, 2015).
• Furthermore, the organization will check with the industry and government bodies to know about the level of regulatory and legislative compliance.
• It will look for the best practice guidelines for environment protection.
• The organizations can contact to the energy and water providers for taking information regarding the sustainability. For instance, Every Drop Counts Business Program of Sydney Water is a voluntary scheme, which can be incorporated in the organization’s business. They can use the best practice guidelines also.
• After obtaining this information, the organization will set the standards for business activities and develop the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) accordingly, which will help the organization in capturing the sustainable practices.

In this way, the organization can gather the relevant information by using primary, secondary and other sources and developing these processes.

1.1 Develop scope

Scope of the workplace sustainability policy refers to how largely the policy will implement within the organization. It will determine that whether it will be implemented across the entire organization or within a particular division. This section will determine that what this policy will include. It may implement daily work practices, involvement of environmental friendly contractors and suppliers. It will cover the following processes;

Recycling

Workplace produces millions of tons of waste materials every year, like; printer cartridges, paper and other equipment. So, the organization will implement the recycling process to recycle the waste, which can decrease the demand for new material. It can cut the costs of organization and emission of CO2 from factory. This process can provide the recycling cans with the marks of what can be reused in the organization (Price, Pitt, and Tucker, 2011).

Reduction of resource usage

The organization will reduce the use of physical resources and it will promote the use of electronic documents, which can help them in saving the costs and wastage of paper. If the paper will be used, then it can print on double side with the small fonts. In addition, it will reduce the plastic waste. They will motivate to use the tap water in the place of disposable bottles of water.

Reduction of hazardous substances

The organization will adopt a hazardous substances management policy. It will make efforts to restrict the use of harmful substances. If in any business, it is necessary to produce or use these substances, then they will be used with the precautions (Shin, Curtis, Huisingh, and Zwetsloot, 2008).

PR 2: Overview of the issues

In this organization, the management will create the sustainability policy with many objectives; like; conservation of natural resources, restrict the emission of hazardous substances and pollutants and establish a clean and clear workplace. In order to create this sustainability policy, the organization will address some specific economic activities, like; extraction of raw materials, manufacturing process, which includes transport, maintenance and packaging and services, which generate the waste emission and pollution. These are important as they have large impact on the natural environment and its components. For example; extraction of raw materials from the natural environment needs energy and water (Crane and Matten, 2016). Production and manufacturing process cause the wastage and consume the energy.

In the process of developing the sustainability policy and procedures, the whole system of organization will function with the view to enhance the environmental performance of an organization. This sustainability policy of the organization will outline all the sustainability considerations in the business operations, with a plan of how it can prevent the environmental issues, which are arising from the organizational activities. This policy of the organization will help the organization in meeting with the environmentally related laws and regulations, saving money in the terms of usage and wastage recycling enhance the efficiency of the supply chain and enhance the image among stakeholders.

 1.2 Develop policies and procedures

• Recycling

In order to develop this process, the Registered Training Organization (RTO) will create a Corporate Social Responsibility policy to manage the waste and other emitted substances. In developing the corporate sustainability policy, the organization will set a program with different stages. It indicates the guiding principles and vision to external and internal stakeholders. According to a research, it was concluded that it is necessary for an organization to develop a recycling policy to become environment-friendly (Benn, Dunphy, and Griffiths, 2014). This organization will create formal recycling policy. This policy will include following procedures, such as;

1. First, the policy will include that what will be recycled, like; card board, paper and plastic, because these are the common things, which are included in the recycling programs of most of the large organizations.
2. After deciding on the recyclable things, they will be collected in the recycling plans and sent to the factories for handling them properly. It happened sometimes, all the products are not considered as recyclable materials.
3. The organization can consider many factors which play an important role in determining the recyclability of the materials at the facilities. These factors may be, such as; food contamination, packaging and designing of products, which include the materials which cannot be recycled as a sole unit and other materials that can’t be managed with the tools and techniques, which are used at recycling premises.
4. The organization will try to increase the recycling rates, which can be done by considering its major factor. The major factor in attaining the high recycling rates is the strong assistance for sustainability efforts at all the levels of organization, throughout the production process and all the employees. The employees can play an important role and can make the differences between failure and success of this recycling program of the organization.
5. After determining the recyclable materials, the solid waste materials will be converted into new products. This will be done in a way that the product may lose its original identity. Then, these products can be used for achieving the organizational goals.

• Reduction of resource usage

In this Go Green Simulation, efficient utilization of resources is very important part of the sustainability of business. Reduction of the consumption of fuel costs and energy will decrease the costs and enhance the environmental sustainability. In order to develop the policy for this, RTO will use a systematic approach for reducing the usage of physical resources and energy and fuel (Lehrer and Vasudev, 2011). This systematic approach to resource usage will assist the perspective organization in achieving big savings in the areas, which they are required. In this context, the organization will use competitive systems and sustainable practices, which can offer the tool and techniques to perform following procedures;

1. In this process, first the organization will measure and analyze the usage of resources and find the scope for improvement.
2. After that, it will install and apply the water and energy efficiency improvements in its business operations.
3. The next procedure includes the procurement of vehicles with more efficient fuel.
4. The organization will make efforts to avoid the use of physical resources, like; paper, printing papers and use the e-document. It will in turn reduce the waste generation and divert the waste.
5. With these processes, RTO will provide more sustainable products and services and it will try to reduce the travelling for business meeting and use the technologies for remote meetings.

All the above-mentioned procedures will assist the organization in contributing in protecting the environment from the emission and pollution of waste materials.

• Reduction of Hazardous substances

For the organization, it is very important to reduce the use of hazardous substances. The organization will use an effective Hazardous Substance Management Policy, which includes the international regulations on harmful substances, like; REACH and RoHS (Donnely & Proctor-Thomson, 2011). It will replace the use of these substances with other materials. This process will include following procedures;

1. In this process, the organization will use promote the slogan about the hazardous substances, i.e. “do not accept, do not utilize and do not deliver”. The organization will promote this campaign throughout the different stages of production.
2. It will set hazardous substances management guidelines, which specify some of the most harmful elements, which are used in the business activities.
3. After identifying the substances, it will assess their impact on environment.
4. The team will monitor the chemical and hazardous substances in the production or manufacturing process.
5. The elements, whose usage requires to be monitored and for which the focus needs to be provided to safety, human health etc. the organization will not restrict the intentional use of these substances. These will be used with proper precaution (McKinnon, Browne, Whiteing and Piecyk, 2015).

Thus, after establishing the scope and collecting the information, the organization will develop the sustainability policy. In this process, it is very important to include effective strategies in the sustainability policy at all the levels of the procedure for minimization of the resource utilization, reduction of hazardous substances and using the life cycle management methods.

1.4 Develop implementation plan for policies and procedures

This is where the organization will create an implementation plan for the sustainability policies and procedures. In this stage, the organization will create effective strategies for implementing these policies and processes.

1. Recycling

• Reduction of the quantity of solid waste generation
• Reuse of the material for its original objective
• Compost the materials, which cannot be recycled and reused.
• Dispose the solid waste, which cannot be recycled, reused or composted.
• Provide all the divisions with the collection facility of recyclable products.
• Maintain the records of recycling activities. It will be done by management shall of the organization.

For managing these activities in the organization, it will give the responsibilities to the community environment division and facility management division (The British Assessment Bureau, 2010).

Key Performance indicators:

• Reduction of wastage by diverting the site
• Increase the rate of recycling

2. Reduction of usage of resources  

• Reduce the usage of energy, water and materials
• Motivate the employees to use the e-documents
• Conduct training program for the employees to learn about the use of computers and technology
• Select the materials, tools and equipment for improving the condition of environment and health of employees.
• Make sure that each and every employee is using the recycling and waste handling programs
• Reduction in the unnecessary utilization of resources and supplies

For the implementation of these activities, the organization will give responsibility to its employees.

3. Reduction of hazardous substances

• Provide effective disposal services for hazardous wastes
• Restrict the use of hazardous substances
• If the usage of these substances is necessary in production process, then use the substances with proper precaution
• Handling of the biological wastage according to the regulations

The organization will give the responsibilities for these activities to the facilities management shall and production department.

1.5 Seek approval with policy and procedures plan

Upon the receipt of the feedback from your Manager, make the necessary adjustments to your implementation plan. Also, attach the email exchange with this Manager.The manager of the organization reverted with some modifications in the policy, which is shown in the below email’s screenshot:

Communicate Workplace Sustainability Policy

In this task, you will deliver a session to inform users of the policy, on how to implement the procedures into their workplace.You are not required to insert any responses here. You will be observed by your assessor using the Observation Check Sheet. Please see your Student Assessment Guide for more information.

In this task, you will record results in the workplace with your implemented policies and procedures.

Record results with implementation of policies and procedures

The implementation of this policy resulted success in many areas, such as;

• Investment is made in the energy efficient technologies
• Usage of water is reduced, where possible
• The organization is able to attract more customers and external stakeholders after this Go Green Simulation
• Institutionalization of the waste paper collection plan throughout the workplace and officesProper handling of toxic and hazardous substances
• By this, the organization is contributing in the corporate social responsibility and supporting to the community and natural environment.
• Minimization of the harm to natural environment

Upon the receipt of the feedback from your stakeholders, attach the email exchange with these stakeholders:

Email to Stakeholders:

There are some variances and gaps in the sustainability outcomes and actual performance, so team has sent an e-mail to shareholders to get their feedback. The screenshot of that email is given below; 

4.2 Identify and analyse issues with the implementation

 4.3 Modify policy and procedures  

• The organization will gain the input from staff on the environmental friendly activities
• It will conduct a survey and checklist with the external and internal stakeholders
• The organization will choose SWOT analysis or ranking systems for developed policies and procedures.
• It will create a sustainability statement, which clearly explains the major target of the policy and who are accountable for this. 

References

Bebbington, J., Unerman, J. and O'Dwyer, B. eds., 2014. Sustainability accounting and accountability. Routledge.

Benn, S., Dunphy, D. and Griffiths, A., 2014. Organizational change for corporate sustainability. Routledge.

Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.

Donnely, N. and Proctor-Thomson, S., 2011. Workplace sustainability and employee voice. Readings in HRM and sustainability, pp.117-132.

Epstein, M.J. and Buhovac, A.R., 2014. Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring corporate social, environmental, and economic impacts. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Kristina & Kohl, 2016, closing the gap between sustainable strategy and implementation, retrieved from https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/bridging-sustainable-strategy-implementation-10187.

Lehrer, D. and Vasudev, J., 2011, May. Evaluating a social media application for sustainability in the workplace. In CHI'11 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 2161-2166). ACM.

National Geographic, 2015, Corporate Social Responsibility, retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.org/sustainability-policy/.

McGain, F., Story, D., Kayak, E., Kashima, Y. and McAlister, S., 2012. Workplace sustainability: the “Cradle to Grave” view of what we do. Anesthesia & Analgesia, 114(5), pp.1134-1139.

McKinnon, A., Browne, M., Whiteing, A. and Piecyk, M. eds., 2015. Green logistics: Improving the environmental sustainability of logistics. Kogan Page Publishers.

Price, S., Pitt, M. and Tucker, M., 2011. Implications of a sustainability policy for facilities management organisations. Facilities, 29(9/10), pp.391-410.

Shin, D., Curtis, M., Huisingh, D. and Zwetsloot, G.I., 2008. Development of a sustainability policy model for promoting cleaner production: a knowledge integration approach. Journal of Cleaner Production, 16(17), pp.1823-1837.

The British Assessment Bureau, 2010, Sustainability Policy Tips, Retrieved from http://www.british-assessment.co.uk/guides/writing-a-sustainability-policy/.

Yun, R., Scupelli, P., Aziz, A. and Loftness, V., 2013, April. Sustainability in the workplace: nine intervention techniques for behavior change. In International Conference on Persuasive Technology (pp. 253-265). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.