ENVS825 Sustainable Development: Introductory Principles and Practices

Question:

Critical Evaluation Report

Critically evaluate a sustainability report of either a private company, NGO or government agency/department/council. Your evaluation is be structured as a workplace report based on the headings below.

You are to describe the main areas of sustainability material to your chosen organisation (context relevant); assess whether the report forms part of an integrated strategy for your organisation or simply sits as a separate sustainability report; and evaluate the areas where the organisation is strong and where actions need to be prioritised. 

You could also choose to evaluate a national voluntary report of a country on its progress to the SDGs. Your evaluation report will include recommendations based on the conclusions from the evidence presented.

For example, you may be providing a report to the executive of the Coles Group on their 2019 Sustainability Report (https://www.colesgroup.com.au/sustainability/?page=sustainability) and how this may inform their ethical sourcing of goods then relate this to their corporate strategy and supporting governance frameworks.

The report must follow the headings and structure below,

Title - A good title is able to quickly communicate the contents of the brief to the reader that is relevant to their institution and role

Executive Summary - is a shortened version of the full report and must be less than 1 page. It highlights the purpose of the evaluation, key questions, research methodology, evaluation findings, conclusions and recommendations. It should contain enough detail to be a stand-alone document

Background – This will form the basis of the introduction to your report. It is a brief summary that contextualises the issues relevant to your organisation. It will state what the project’s aims and how this will be undertaken. You may also like to include what are the impacts of the evaluation, relevance to the organisation and how it may contribute to the organisation’s longer-term sustainability.

Purpose/Objective - It is a statement of why the assessment is needed, how it may impact or benefit the organisation. It must clearly state the project’s aims and objectives.

Methodology – This should be brief and clearly define what methods of research (Quantitative / qualitative) were used, what documents/reports were referenced, how was the sampling undertaken and analysed.

Key Findings – This should consider: the relevance of your work to the organisation; whether your analysis has been effective with respect to the aims and objectives; what is or would be the impact of your analysis (time scales - short to long term, institutional scales - inter and intra organisation).

Conclusions – your key findings

Recommendations - be specific and directional (that is what should the organisation do and when)