TOPIC 1
● Business organizations are expected to develop and implement sustainability policies.
What might be covered in the scope of a sustainability policy?
- A policy is a set of basic principles that describe how an organization intends to
address a problem. Policies communicate the association between the
organization's mission and values and its daily activities. Companies and
government agencies are now under fire than ever to meet their environmental
obligations. A sustainability policy outlines your company's commitment to
ethical and ecologically responsible operations (Snook, 2021). The nature of the
organization's sustainability policies is determined by its input and output
requirements, which include simple actions like lessening water and energy use,
increasing the use of clean energy, preventing pollution and damage to the
immediate environment, and reducing waste/increasing recycling.
● It will be necessary to guide our sustainability information from a number of sources. List
10 sources that could be useful.
1. The department of the environment controls activities relating to:
a. The sea
b. Importation
c. Heritage issues
d. Hazardous waste
e. Fuel quality
f. Mining
g. Coal
h. Prevention and restoration
2. National, state, territory, and local governments which have
responsibilities for matters of state and local significance
3. Industry groups
4. Legislation that covers the assessment and approval process for national
environmental and cultural concerns
5. World's best practice report, with regard to sustainability
6. The environmental protection agency (EPA) in each state or territory
7. Research papers
8. A range of different media and reporting services
9. Specialist sustainability practitioners, advisors & consultants
10. Education departments, TAFE’s and universities
— ALTERNATIVE ANSWERS —-
○ Government agencies of the Philippines:
1. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)
○ Environmental organizations in the Philippines are doing their best to improve the
country's environment and offer a healthy atmosphere for its population (Our
Endangered World, 2021):
1. Philippine Business for the Environment
2. Centre for Sustainability PH Inc.
3. Haribon Foundation
4. Forest Foundation Philippines
○ Websites to bookmark if one is interested in learning more about sustainability:
1. Mother Nature Network (https://www.mnn.com/)
2. Grist (https://grist.org/)
3. Earth Easy (https://eartheasy.com/)
4. Soil and Water Conservation Society (https://www.swcs.org/)
5. Sustainable Sources (http://sustainablesources.com/resources/)
● Who should be consulted within an organization when developing useful policies and
what valuable insights can they provide?
- The organization's managers, supervisors, and workers should all be consulted.
Managers have a significant outward emphasis (to the world outside the unit),
whereas supervisors have a more internal focus (on the work of subordinate
employees) for implementing the manager's directives (UC Berkeley, 2022). Both
are able to deliver meaningful information since they have a strong knowledge of
the arrangement between them. This understanding comprises past, present, and
future corporate practices, goals, operations, and environmental interactions. They
also have a good understanding of the company's vision, profit expectations in
relation to the environment, ethical beliefs, current policies and procedures, and
methodologies for establishing and implementing new or updated policies and
procedures.
● When analyzing and evaluating information, how do you determine what is appropriate
to incorporate into organizational policies?
- The policy of the organization clearly outlines acceptable behaviors, represents
the organization's values, and shapes the organization's cultural structure. Thus,
the content of a policy is determined by your organization's mission and
objectives (Enaohwo, 2020). As an example, relevant values and ethical standards
should be articulated in the policies, as well as what needs to be accomplished
(goals). Customer demands and expectations, the organization's goal and
objective, employee values, the financial impact, the relevant regulations that will
be covering the policies, and community and societal expectations should all be
considered when developing such policies. Most importantly, the company must
determine how its sustainability policies will address the three dimensions of
sustainability: environmental, social, and economic.
● What are the benefits of analyzing information and consultation insights when
developing policies and what needs to be taken into consideration?
- Employees must adhere to organizational policies in order for the firm to run
properly. Some are intended to provide staff with guidance and help. Others try to
safeguard the company from legal liability and warn employees against particular
actions (Milano, 2021). Upon analyzing information and knowing consultation
insights, one is knowledgeable of developing policies. How the policies will be
implemented, who will implement them, and when shall they be implemented are
some of the basic considerations that should be thought over. Additionally, the
way the staff will be informed, the monitoring and evaluation of the
implementation, identification of the compliance requirements, and the following
support the staff might need are also considerations that follows developing
policies.
● What are the elements that should be included in an organization's sustainability policies?
- Policy and procedural results that have been agreed upon
- Timelines and costs of policy
- Indicators of performance
- Activities to be carried out
- Responsibilities delegated
- Processes for keeping records, reviewing them, and improving them
- Organizational systems and procedures with common sustainability issues which
are a variety of difficulties that affect their long-term viability.
Moreover, sustainability policies should be well-structured, incorporated into strategic
and operational plans, based on reliable data, backed by appropriate information management
systems, and reviewed on a regular basis to guarantee currency and relevance.
● Explain continuous improvement and how it applies to resource efficiency.
- Continuous improvement is a method of incrementally improving products,
services, or processes over time in accordance with recognized policy criteria.
Moreover, this traditional method entails continuously improving each step of an
existing process in order to enhance quality, speed, yield, or profit (Hillier, 2016).
People's efforts and utilities are used to convert raw materials or components into
finished goods. Many procedures are employed, by-products are created, and
emissions to the air, water, and land are released. To maximize material recovery
and reuse, manufacturers must have a better understanding of each step of their
processes and supply networks. In practice, this necessitates a decrease in
complexity, consumption, and cost, as well as ongoing development. These small
changes help elements like logistics and material usage, which has a positive
impact on the entire environmental footprint.
TOPIC 2
● Explain how a business can promote its workplace sustainability policy, and its expected
outcomes, to key stakeholders.
- According to Rice & Atkin (2011) Public communication campaigns include
tactics for influencing the knowledge, attitudes, and conduct of large groups of
people in a range of areas, such as politics, pro-social behavior, environmental
issues, and health outcomes. Purposive attempts to inform, persuade, or inspire
change in behavior in a relatively well-defined and large audience, generally for
non profit benefits to individuals and/or society at large, usually within a given
time period, using organized communication activities involving mass and
online/interactive media, and often supplemented by interpersonal support, can be
broadly defined as public communication campaigns. Henceforth, it is necessary
to create a communication and advertising campaign. This would inform
stakeholders, elicit their support, and ensure that new policies or advancements
are well-received. A public awareness campaign will explain the workplace
sustainability policy, what it entails, and what the desired consequences are.
Employees and other stakeholders who will be involved in implementing the
policies, procedures, and practices must be informed about their roles and
responsibilities, as well as the implementation and monitoring processes and
procedures that will be followed to ensure that the key performance indicators
(KPIs) are met.
● What are the resources needed to implement sustainability policies?
- Copies of the legislation and regulations
- External consultants and experts
- The internet
- Sustainability research papers/results
- Advice from gov. Agencies (Department of Agriculture, Water, and the
Environment)
- Advice from peak industry bodies
- SWOT, PEST, PESTLE analyses, etc.
- Information about benchmarking and the world’s best practice
- Media Releases and programs related to sustainability.
- ISO standards
- Technology sources
● What information should a procedure for implementing a sustainability policy contain?
- Proper reporting on sustainability hazards
- Environmental duty of care steps
- Measurement and assessment of air quality
- Management of noise control
- Prevention of pollution
- Sustainable procurement/ green or environmental purchasing
- Waste stream/ waste management steps/ management of e-waste
- Recycling
- Product reuse
- The application of the environmental management system (EMS)
- Using the EMS
- Conducting an EMS audit
- Meeting sustainability KPIs
- Emissions (toxic and non-toxic)
- Carbon footprint and reduction measures
- The degree to which the organization actively participates in
- Socially responsible investment, transparent accounting and reporting
- Corporate substantiality
- The degree to which the organization is able to deliver goods and services in a
sustainable manner
- Fair treatment of employees, ethical business practices and appropriate
community interactions and support (locally and globally).
● How can you support the implementation of a sustainability policy?
- We can aid in the implementation of workplace sustainability policies by making
appropriate resources available, informing employees and other stakeholders,
collecting feedback from stakeholders, which should be analyzed and used to
make necessary adjustments, and addressing employee queries and concerns. In
addition, new management practices should be implemented as needed, and
training, coaching, and mentoring should be made available as needed.
● What systems will help track continuous improvements in sustainability approaches and
who should be responsible for monitoring them?
- Business organizations can use reports, including annual reports, to provide
insight into how their environmental, social, economic, and governance policies
are linked with their core business strategies. Information that is relevant to the
organization is recorded and can be accessed as needed through recording and
reporting procedures. Each organization will have an information system to store
the data and information needed for planning, everyday operations, and continual
sustainability improvement tracking. In connection, the process of monitoring the
environment's quality is known as an environmental monitoring system. These
can be created to collect and manage environmental impact data as well as an
organization's social duties in a methodical way. Furthermore, the employees
must understand who is in charge of collecting data, entering it into the system,
and preserving data and information integrity.
References
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Read!
SweetProcess. Retrieved March 21, 2022, from https://www.sweetprocess.com/how-to-
write-a-policy/
Hillier, G. (2016, August 24). Working collaboratively to develop resource efficiency.
CPI.
Retrieved March 21, 2022, from https://www.uk-cpi.com/blog/working-collaboratively-
to-develop-resource-efficiency
Milano, S. (2021, August 16). The Role of the Organization's Policies. Small Business
Chron.com. Retrieved March 21, 2022, from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/role-
organizations-policies-68191.html
Our Endangered World. (2021, October 11). 12 Environmental Organizations in The
Philippines.
Our Endangered World. Retrieved March 21, 2022, from
https://www.ourendangeredworld.com/organisations/environmental-organizations-in-the-
philippines/
Rice, R., & Atkin, C. K. (2011, February 23). Communication Campaigns.
COMMUNICATION.
10.1093/OBO/9780199756841-0055
Snook, A. (2021, August 5). Policies and Procedures in the Workplace: The Ultimate
Guide
[2021]. i-Sight. Retrieved March 21, 2022, from
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UC Berkeley. (2022). What's the difference between a supervisor and a manager? |
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