Business Sustainability Report

The purpose of this assignment is to understand the technologies and use of methods in construction in order to make buildings and household water and energy efficient. The report studies six articles and points out recommendations for the company to incorporate in their project. The recommendations include the use of mains water neutral gardening model, certification of Council of Australia Green Star (GBCA), rainwater harvesting, solar panels installations, installation of Municipal hybrid membrane treatment plant, use of only energy efficient technologies, focus on reduction of carbon emission and construction of green roof.

Running Head: BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY REPORT
Business Sustainability Report
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note

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Executive Summary
The purpose of this assignment is to understand the technologies and use of methods in
construction in order to make buildings and household water and energy efficient. This is a
business report drawn up for Unos Property Development, as they proceed to build their
ambitious sustainable housing project Perth Skies Development. The report studies six
articles and points out recommendations for the company to incorporate in their project.

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Contents
1. Introduction.........................................................................................................................3
1.1 Triple bottom line........................................................................................................3
1.2 Overview of the company...........................................................................................3
1.3 Objective of the report.................................................................................................3
2. Findings & Discussions......................................................................................................4
2.1 Concept of Green buildings.........................................................................................4
2.2 Focus on water efficiency............................................................................................4
2.3 Focus on energy efficiency..........................................................................................4
3. Conclusion & Recommendations.......................................................................................4
4. Reference List.....................................................................................................................5

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1. Introduction
Corporate Social Responsible is the way of organisations accepting the responsibility it
has towards the environment and the society, the resources that an organisation use in order
to achieve the objectives of the business are dependent on the aspects that are often neglected.
The focus of growth and development of the company is the focus, yet it is important to
understand the duties an organisation has towards the People and the planet.
1.1 Triple bottom line
The concept of triple bottom line is coined by John Elkington in 1994. It is a framework
that business organisation to develop a sustainable business model. It is an accounting
framework that helps the company focus on the three Ps: Price, Planet and People. It
challenges the traditional business idea of focusing just on the development of the company.
1.2 Overview of the company
Based in Perth, Western Australia, Unos Property Development has been operating in the
construction industry for 35 years. Over the years the company has gained reputation in the
industry as well as among the stakeholders. The company has been engaged in both
commercial and residential properties. However, the goodwill has seen a setback as the
company has not been observing sustainable building procedure.
1.3 Objective of the report
The purposes of the report are as follows:
• To provide the company with Water efficient recommendation
• To provide the company with Energy efficient recommendation
• To help the company with the Perth Skies Development project

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2. Findings & Discussions
2.1 Concept of Green buildings
According to Rashidi et al. (2015), as more and more the concept of sustainability is
gaining popularity and people are accepting the responsibility they have towards the
environment and the society there has been an improved. Thus giving rise to the concept of
green buildings, it mitigates helps in dealing with the negative aspects of these buildings and
supports the natural environment. Energy conservation and water efficiency are two most
important aspects of green buildings. There are various tools to recognise the efficiency of
the green buildings some of the features considered are: their design, construction, operation
and maintenance in terms of their support to sustainability. In Australia Green Building
Council of Australia Green Star (GBCA, Australia) is one of the leading green building
assessment tools (Zuo and Zhao 2014). In order to analyse the technical aspects of green
buildings the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach is popular in Australia (Zuo and Zhao
2014). Rashidi et al. (2015), suggest that the analysis of the green building evaluation tools it
has been highlighted that energy and water efficiency are considered to be the most important
elements.
2.2 Focus on water efficiency
In Australia there are water restrictions in most of the cities and this has led to households
being more focused on water conservation and efficiency. Use of water efficient appliances
and fixtures, Grey water reuse, rainwater harvesting and stormwater use are some of the
regularly used methods in the Australian household (Byrne et al. 2014). On the other hand,
Rashidi et al. (2015), waste water treatment is one of the most important ways to conserve
water and they suggest that Hybrid membrane treatment technologies have gained
significance in household and municipal water treatment procedures, MRB being the most
common.

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Figure: Municipal hybrid membrane treatment plant flow chart
Source: Rashidi et al. (2015)
2.3 Focus on energy efficiency
McGee (2013), State that though there has been a continuous conscious use of energy
efficiency measures and mitigation procedure, the increasing population and the rising use of
fossil fuel is increasing the greenhouse gas emission. According to the Department of the
Environment and Energy website, about 20% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions is
emitted by the Australian households. This can be reduced with the help of proper designing
and construction elements in the household, increased use of energy efficient technologies
and being more responsible towards energy conservation, incorporating the use of renewable
energy sources such as solar and wind in the house hold. Berry et al. (2014), examines the
state government project in Adelaide, South Australia. They show that the project focuses on
the energy and the water management as well as emphasis on the importance of monitoring
the sustainability. On the other hand the concept of green roof is discussed by Castleton et al.
(2010), reactive cooling method that prevents the solar radiation from reaching the building.
In these buildings the roofs are fully or partly covered with a layer of vegetation which is
called green roof. One of the major benefits of the construction is that it helps in the reduction
of carbon emission and also cools the house therefore reducing the use of the cooling

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systems. Some of the advantage of the process in energy conservation is that the addition of a
green roof to a building can recover or improve the insulation features of the infrastructure,
therefore reduce annual energy consumption. The green roof adds thermal mass which helps
in maintaining a stable temperature all year around (Castleton et al. 2010). Another way in
which the green roof is energy efficient is that it does not cool the interior by making the
outside warm, like air conditioning machines, the green roof does not let the heat to build up.
Household energy use %
Source: DEWHA. 2008
Heating and cooling 40
Water heating 21
Appliances and equipment including refrigeration and cooking 33
Lighting 6
Table: Consumption segmentation of energy by Australian household
Source: McGee (2013)
3. Conclusion & Recommendations
The following recommendation can be concluded form the above discussion which might
be useful for the company to achieve the objective of attaining sustainability of the project in
terms of water and energy efficiency are:
 Use of Mains Water Neutral Gardening model in order to improve the water
efficiency

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 Certification of Council of Australia Green Star (GBCA)
 Rainwater harvesting, solar panels installations in the complex in order to ensure
renewable activities
 Installation of Municipal hybrid membrane treatment plant in a complex in order
makes the residency more energy and water efficient at once.
 Use of only energy efficient technologies
 Focus on reduction of carbon emission
 Construction of green roof

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4. Reference List
Berry, S., Whaley, D., Davidson, K. and Saman, W., 2014. Do the numbers stack up?
Lessons from a zero carbon housing estate. Renewable Energy, 67, pp.80-89.
Byrne, J., Dallas, S. and Newman, P., 2014. Optimising Residential Water Efficiency–
The Josh’s House Project. In Oz Water’14 Conference proceedings. Australian Water
Association.
Castleton, H.F., Stovin, V., Beck, S.B. and Davison, J.B., 2010. Green roofs; building
energy savings and the potential for retrofit. Energy and buildings, 42(10), pp.1582-1591.
McGee, C. (2013). Energy | YourHome. [online] Yourhome.gov.au. Available at:
http://www.yourhome.gov.au/energy [Accessed 27 May 2018].
Rashidi, H., GhaffarianHoseini, A., GhaffarianHoseini, A., Sulaiman, N.M.N., Tookey, J.
and Hashim, N.A., 2015. Application of wastewater treatment in sustainable design of
green built environments: A review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 49,
pp.845-856.
Zuo, J. and Zhao, Z.Y., 2014. Green building research–current status and future agenda:
A review. Renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 30, pp.271-281.