DEVELOP WORKPLACE POLICY AND PROCEDURES FOR SUSTAINABILITY

 

 

 

 

 

DEVELOP WORKPLACE POLICY AND PROCEDURES FOR SUSTAINABILITY

 

TASK 1

MacVille Policy and Procedures

Table of Contents

1. Macville’s Sustainability Initiatives ____
2. Best practice models ____
3. Shortfalls in existing policies ____
4. New policy requiring development ____
5. Personnel requirements for policy change ____

5.1. The change champions                                                                                    ____

5.2. The change ambassadors                                                                                ____

5.3. The implementers                                                                                            ____

5.4. Senior management                                                                                         ____

6. Revised Policy ___
7. Macville’s Sustainability Initiatives

The initiatives taken by the MacVille’s was to protect and develop the resources of the business. The manager Seamus MacVille has observed that the work is not aligned and sustainable in the company so he decides to maintain it. The current needs of the people are met and future generation needs are provided. The environmental policy should be always there in large organizations. The sustainability initiatives of MacVille’s will be decided with environmental issues, and with the protection and law of the environment. They have adopted many sustainability policies for the benefits like the service of air conditioning is re-programmed and it can be used in the office hours only. (Leal Filho, et al.,2019). The initiative was taken by every employee in the sustainability development by turning off the air conditioner while leaving. By adopting the written and formal sustainability policy there are many reasons for the benefits of the company:

1) The performance is determined by the sustainability and the allowance of its set of objectives and agreed on a strategy.

2) The direction sense is established.

3) The accountabilities and responsibilities are highlighted in the company by implementing practices sustainably.

4) The company commitment shows and provides the marketing tool in sustainable development.

5) The eco-friendly lights can be used by the organization.

6) There should be employee encouragement for using the transportation of public.

7) Post-consumer waste should be used like paper products (Leal Filho, et al.,2019).

2. Best practice models

The associations of the industry have supported and promoted the specific system of the industry in the business sector for the best sustainability models. The participation and engagement are increasing of the stakeholders in the business practice and for delivery and decision-making in public policies. The communication is improved in this, and the community support is wider, the useful ideas and data are gathered, corporate reputation or the public sector is enhanced, and sustainable decision-making is provided. The stakeholders are customers, government agencies, regulators, employees, investors, suppliers, and local communities. In this policy, the appropriate strategies are included and at all work stages for minimizing the use of the resource, toxic materials reduction, and the use of hazardous chemicals, and employing the approaches of life-cycle management (Pedersen, et al.,2021).

The waste assessment is the way for improving the performance of the current environment and a better understanding will be there for gaining efforts and value. There are the following points that can be helpful in the waste assessment: –

1) Improvement in purchasing – The waste output and resource use will be reduced by the improvement in purchasing. Recycled materials also help in reducing waste and landfill waste.

2) Improvement in storage – The things which you need only that you store. The money can be saved by the management of good inventory. Make storage areas labeled clearly, clean and uncluttered. In storage, the materials are ensured not to be contaminated, collect, or mixed with the rainwater. There should not the leakage from the underground and storage tanks.

3) Conserving energy – If the energy consumption is reduced that it can help in saving money and greenhouse gases can also be reduced that are caused by the fossil fuels burning. At the workplace make sure the lights are off while leaving and use lighting products that are energy-saving if possible (Etzion, 2018).

4) Reducing waste – In the other businesses, the recycling of the segregated waste is done in the products. There are the main 3Rs that are recycled, reuse, and reduced. If there will be less pollution the waste will be less and it will cost less and the effort in making the products will also be reduced.

3. Shortfalls in existing policies

Business planning is an integral part of the organization’s sustainability commitment and the reflection of developed policy as the opportunity in the business. When the consultation is done with the stakeholders, a plan is developed, and acceptance is gained then the policy that is developed you can start and it will help in the further guidance. If the main focus of your organization is recycling then the procedures and policies can be written for the team. These steps can be helpful in the shortfall:

Step1 – Target materials identifying – The sustainable materials should be identified before the use that it is energy conserving or not and to see the resource management in that process.

Step 2 – Program designing – For implementing the plan and for reducing the cost of the program the designing is mandatory for the proper implementation and reduction of waste in the program by designing.

The policies are documented when many businesses begin their earnest journey. For the work, the appointment of a sustainability coordinator is there for coordinating the initiatives of sustainability and reporting to the senior manager in the company. The other responsibilities can behold by the sustainability coordinator. The communication of the proper information with the employees should be there for effective plans and with a clear explanation. Onboard, the stakeholder should be there for the company’s benefit and their ideas can be genuinely listened to. In the organization, awareness can be created among the customers, employees, and stakeholders about the policies (Shawe, et al.,2019).

4. New policy requiring development

For developing the environmental sustainability policy, the identification of the policy by the organization about their applying can be on the project, one work area, and the whole organization. There should be the determination towards the integrated approach in the organization about focus and sustainability on the particular aspect which can be environmental, social, or corporate aspect. The environmental aspect should be focused more. For implementing the ESP, the ISO 14001 principle is used. The compliance of policies, treaties, regulations and environmental laws by the organization is there. In your organization, the applied laws are determined by the environmental impacts and environmental aspects identifying with its activities. On the local, state, and commonwealth levels the environmental issues are identified in the Australian laws. (Holliday, et al.,2017).  In the businesses the legislation is applied in the Victorian state include:

Environmental protection act 1970 – This act is outcome-oriented, the pollution preventing and environmental damage is aimed. The quality objective of the environment is set for meeting the place programs. The overtime is involved in the act for keeping pace with the best practice in the world and with the regulation of environment protection and for community needs meeting. The key aims of this act include:

1. management of the holistic environment and sustainable use.
2. for ensuring community input the consultative process is ensured and programs and goals are the key drivers in the protection of the environment.
3. For environmental protection, the cooperative approach is encouraged (Singh, 2015).

State environment protection policies – These policies include sustainability in the water, waste, noise, groundwater, and land and air.

Health act 1958 – this act was given by the health ministry for protecting, promoting, and improving public health.

Planning and environment act 1987 – this act was passed for providing the urban planning framework and for land development use in the Victoria state. This protection and development of land also provide the interest in the long-term for the Victorians.

National Environment Protection Council (Victoria) Act 1995 – this act is to ensure people are protected from pollution, noise, water soil, and air whether they are from Australia or not. From the measures of National environment protection, the NEPC objectives are achieved. There is the establishment of pollution control for water, air, and land with some legal responsibilities.

The environmental policy that every company needs for complying is water conservation, waste reduction, sustainable ways of working with customers and suppliers, reduction of greenhouse gases, and energy conservation. The improvement in this process should be continuous and the management system should be developed for the environment. The management system of the environment should be adequately resourced. The pollution should be minimized, efficient production should be ensured and there should be a communication facility (Zhou, et al.,2019).

5. Personnel requirements for policy change

5.1. The change champions

5.2. The change ambassadors

5.3. The implementers

5.4. Senior management

If the progress is documented then the progress analyzing time has started. The investigation of the failure and success needs to be there and analyzed for determining why the goals are not achieved. Behind the success, there is the particular person who is the impetus. Take some actions on the people that are not following the procedures and policies. There should be smoothness in running the business. For people, the extra work is created by the procedures in the systems. from the expected outcomes, the results are compared and continuously revised and monitored critically. Data is collected based on the report and the TRACE report is constructed. The principles are incorporated in the TRACE reports are –

Transparency – the data interpretation is facilitated and documentation is organized.

Relevance – the needs are served by the reporting in the organization and decision making in aids.

Accuracy

Consistency – consistent procedures and measures are implemented for making the overtime comparisons.

Entirety – The definition of the boundaries should be cleared and relevant sources should be included.

The procedures and policies are modified for the improvements ensuring:

1) the demand should be made that the new policy is to be abiding by the workers in the no guarantee case then only the new policy will be obeyed.

2) Sustainability procedures and policies are processes that are continuously evolving and changing.

3) The relatively recent sustainability is practiced because, theories, technologies, and new techniques are presented constantly.

4) When new techniques and strategies are employed for sustainability improvement, the update in the documentation accordingly is very important (Crow & Jones.,2018).

6. Revised Policy

Some of the initiatives that MacVille introduced are the use of paper should be reduced, tender calls sustainability, cleaning products which are green certified, procurement of furniture, product handling should be safe, collaborations with supplier used and end-of-life mobile devices management, the project introduced should be smog-free, a solar balloon that brings electricity to disaster zones are introduced, building green, robotic bees which leads to a bright future, etc. Net-zero emissions manufacturing and sector of transport development, the infrastructure of EV charging, planting a tree, reduction of waste, pollution control, unprivileged communities protection, etc. (Kagan, 2014).  Come into force for implementing sustainability. For introducing initiatives it is important to know for a specific facility what sustainability actually means, also particular, countable goals and motives development, data collection on the current status of goals, action steps created to implement change, communicating to staff and building users about the plan, action steps implementation. The government also promotes initiatives for sustainability and funding for it on the other hand MacVille also does the same. Air-conditioners will be used only in the normal business hours, they are programmed to be automatically switch on and off. The staff has given a responsibility of switching off the lights, etc before leaving (Hansmann, et al., 2012).

• it will be made mandatory to switch off the lights at night when not in use.
• using recyclable paper from the waste.
• staff should be encouraged for using toilets’ dual flush capabilities.

Other initiatives are in the form of saving energy to reduce carbon emissions by using less energy, less eating of meals, using reusable alternatives, going paperless for reducing paper use, recycling and reusing things, growing one’s own production, donating unused items.

By being intentional about sustainability one can think about it by conservation of water and electricity, chain supply, recycling program development, management of chemicals, purchasing energy-efficient products only, developing sustainable work policies (Asche, et al., 2018).

Three models of sustainability include ecological, social, and environmental factors. The best practice model covers all the three aspects which practice in support of ecological, human, and environmental health and vitality. These resources which should be used optimally are finite and should be used wisely keeping in mind long-term practices and consequences. Sustainability basically means meeting the needs of the present time without letting it be for future generations. The models imply and are meant as people, the planet in which we are living, and gains that can be derived from the things available. We can say it depicts the working on long term approach and make full utilization of the available resources. It can be achieved by various activities like encouraging employees for using public transport, using eco-friendly lighting, switching to recycle products and post-consumer waste paper, its products, and packaging. One has to be involved in the said community to adopt the policy. One can start it by water conservation, walking more and driving less, less consumption of energy, buying and using recycled products, locally grown vegetables can be purchased, combat or reduce air pollution one can join environmental groups, less waste creation, more trees plantation, etc. MacVille make sure that their company understand the main concept of sustainability and can recognize what does it actually means to the company, discuss it with the relevant stakeholders, able to set the required goals, and be committed to them, making systems and processes accordingly, and at last tracking the whole progress made, communicating the actions, and meeting the target expectations (Martine & Alves, 2015).

The shortfalls and the challenges faced are due to CO₂ emissions global warming is at its peak, polluted air, contaminated water, oceans, seas, and inland waters are polluted, transitions of slow energy, renewable energy, and its insufficient share, uncompromising harms in food production. An issue that one can face in sustainable development can be the substitution of capital for one another up to which extend. If the substitution is possible, then there will be depletion of others. Problems like extreme levels of poverty, instability in politics, depletion of natural resources due to environmental deterioration, climate change threat, heavy growth in population, marginalization, serious diseases like HIV, Malaria, Dengue, etc. sometimes there is a shortage of resources and other factors that causes the shortfall in sustainability. One should focus on less or zero wastage, natural regeneration, efficient resources, a fair and secure society, no emissions. Sustainable development is the key priority for MacVille. This company has encouraged strategic elaboration for climatic change, development in technology, subsidies environmental impacts, and sustainability indicators (Chang & Cheng, 2019).  Various negative consequences of the economic activities, serious health issues, depletion of the ozone layer, from loss of habitat there is a decine in biodiversity, inequality due to introduction of new technology. There come many conceptual and practical barriers in the process of sustainability and it is very complex and broad. Therefore it is necessary to link all the three economic, social, and environmental aspects in a balanced way then only one can attain sustainability in the real sense. Equal distribution of present resources and allocation of the same wisely is very important to prvent the shortfall. We can say that the development of the present era should not affect the upcoming generation.

The development of the existing policy is as important as introducing the new by making them perfect and modified according to the need and requirement. It will lead to more quality output of goods and services. Creating a fit-out for the policy will work as a first step towards the development, management of energy, conservation of water and its efficiency, effective use of energy, going digital and prefer digitalization, less waste creation, engagement, and awareness of employees. For up-gradation of the existing policies, it is important to ensure that the development should be done in the right way of right things with the right resources. There will be a balance between the substance used and the process. The key points to keep in mind which needs to be improved are there should be no poverty, no hunger, no serious diseases, healthy life and well being, education quality should be best, energy should be affordable, clean and drinking water, economic growth, and a suitable decent job, there should be innovation in every sector, industrial development, good infrastructure, equality, etc. to attain the maximum there should be development and modification in the present scenarios in order to be sustainable and not leaving a burden for the upcoming generation. There should not be any compromise for the future generation in order to make the present better, there will be a major area for development. All the factors that need to be improved should be kept in mind and then proceed further. MacVille focuses on innovation along with improvement in the area of the requirement that will make sustainability more meaningful. There should be modifications to attain the maximum benefits out of the policies introduced.

Some personnel requirements in order to improvise the existing policies can be sustainable production of the sustainable quality product. By implementing a recycling program, energy conservation within the office, promoting paperless office and go digital, supporting reen vendors, reduction by reusing of resources, conservation of human energy, and encouraging sustainable transportation. Optimum utilization of resources and protecting the available resources from degrading will be the key highlight throughout. Investing in natural and available capital, productivity through radical resources, redesign of ecology, consumption of the available resources and energy should be responsible, economic service and flow. Macville is focusing on all the factors required in the office for sustainability like introducing automatic lights, staff for switching off lights when not in use, encouraging and making employees aware about sustainability, and introducing the activities in the office and thereby in their daily life. Focusing on the policies that are needed to be established in the office in order to attain sustainability. MacVille is very dedicated to being sustainable and attaining a good level of it making it obvious in office to be sustainable by introducing various policies and responsibilities. Creating general awareness among employees to be efficient and effective while using the resources like less wastage, saving energy and water, less use of paper, or going paperless can be some of the basic things to keep in mind. Using public transport, increasing productivity with the given resources and makes the full utilization of them without wasting them (Leal Filho, et al., 2019).

Changes to the existing sustainable policies should be in favour of the environment, culture, and economy. Sustainability helps the organization in better decision making which in turn helps an organization to mitigate risks, efficient and effective attainment of objectives. Procurement of natural resources and ame them utilized in an optimum manner. To prevent environmental disruption one needs to adopt sustainability, avoid unreasonable use of resources. Sustainability acts as a link between the financial and non-financial activities of a company and also helps in cutting costs. Nowadays not only the government but the company’s by their free will introduce sustainability in their organization. It not only benefits the environment, individual, and economy but also the company in many ways. There should be a continuous improvement in sustainability one can attain it by ensuring the plan is clear about its objective and target, keeping in mind an individual needs, ideas, and their performance, building commitment towards the set plan and make employees engagement in it, providing training regarding the required subject, motivating employees for working hard to attain the goals. By choosing a small and easily manageable improvement plan one can attain continuous improvement, asking for ideas, views, and feedback of the employees and make them involve in the discussion before introducing the policy, be open and accept the feedback, conducting self-assessment for improvement, and working as a team will give a continuous improvement in the existing policy. There should be an end target in the mind that needs to be achieved, communicating them to staff and the relevant stakeholders, having a good working framework, educating employees about sustainability by spreading awareness regarding the topic, making it a responsibility, and enhancing the communication by making the employees included and valued. In order to attain maximum sustainability, it is important to know about sustainability, its importance, needs, and gather information regarding the said subject. Creating a sustainability report stating the company’s goals in it, listing the company’s policies regarding sustainability and its activities, providing a status report, and at last summarizing and recommending improvements required. While planning sustainability in the business environment by talking and engaging the workers, commitment towards it with collaborating the whole staff, measuring the goals and reports and finally educating about it and communicate it to the relevant persons (Lin, et al., 2017).

To attain sustainability in the office one needs to recycle as much as possible like recycling a piece of equipment that is not in use, less consumption of energy and available resources, avoiding the use of paper as much as possible, reusing paper again, and again. Overall there should not be any unnecessary use of available resources it will help in saving costs and resources available (Osburg & Lohrmann, 2017)

 

 

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