Develop Workplace Policy and Procedures for Sustainability

This document provides information on developing workplace policy and procedures for sustainability. It covers the legal requirements, industry standards, environmental initiatives, and stakeholder engagement. It also discusses the role of managers in promoting sustainability and the skills required for effective communication. Additionally, it outlines strategies for promoting and communicating the policy to employees and ongoing awareness of sustainability initiatives.

DEVELOP WORKPLACE
POLICY AND PROCEDURES
FOR SUSTAINABILITY

QUESTION 1
a) List and describe the law formulated requirements and codes of practice (or industry
standard)
Ans. Governance
It is a system for the legal registration of an organization. It gives legal status to the organization
and gives them some government rules and regulations which should e followed.
Human Resource
It contains the leave policies and safety acts of the organization. It includes the annual leave act
1973, long service leave act 1976 and occupational health ans safety act 1989.
Practice Issue
It contains various acts like children and young people act 2008, charitable collection act 2003,
crimes act 2900, discrimination act 1991, disability services act 1991, education act 2004, human
rights act 2004 etc.
b) Identify a relevant industry association for your company. Provide the overview of
environmental initiatives that have been developed for your industry?
Ans. The relevant industry association for the organisation will be strategies for the future. The
environmental initiatives for the development of industry are:
 To save and develop the environment of the industry for future a proper hygiene
 To provide sanitary facilities to the employees.
 Planting more and more plants in the surroundings of the companies office.
c) Identify the source which will be needed in contact to obtain more information. List contact
details and the type of information they can provide that will help you develop your policy.
Ans. 1. Federal Statistical Agencies
These agencies gives information about the work characteristics and firm characteristics.
2. Technical Department
They gives us the information about how much internet is used and what are the technical
changes made in the organization.(for example- blocked sites).
(d) sWhy is the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 so important?
Ans. This act is important because it saves the world heritage properties, migratory species,
national heritage properties, wetlands of international importance, the great barrier reef marine
park, nuclear actions etc.
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e) Complete the questions asked below. You should reproduce the table to allow for
complete responses.
Stakeholder Their role in development of
your organization
sustainability policy
Consultation Method
you would use
Suppliers Fast Delivery Of Goods,
Opening New Retail Outlets
everywhere in the world
Focus Group
Union and Industry Association The makes a connection
between the employees
demands and companies
offerings.
Surveys
Community The communities takes the care
about different sectors of the
organisation.
Online information and
feedback
Employee The growth of the business is
made only buy the maximum
efforts made by its employees.
Team Meetings
f) For following two describe how you would promote initiatives associated with
workplace sustainability policy:
Ans. (a) Employees
For employees, the time to time growth, learning and passion among the employee must
be made.
(b) Communities
The environmental factors are concerned by the communities.
g) What information SWOT analysis give you to help you develop an effective
sustainability policy for the organization?
Ans. It helped in guiding the external and internal partners of the organization.
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h) Describe your role in helping the organization show and enhance the commitment to the
environment and sustainability of the organization.
Ans. Taking the responsibilities of the of cleanliness of the workplace.
i)Your organization is about to introduce a new policy to reduce power usage. What
are some promotional activities you could do to raise awareness.( List any three activities ).
Ans.
▪ Automatic power saving mode in the PC
▪ Turn off lights when not in use
▪ Use of energy efficient light bulbs
Question 2.
(a) What issues should be considered in defining the scope of the policy?
Ans. The use of electricity should be minimized and Disposal of waste should be done
properly by the employees. The employees should use the raw materials which are recyclable or
reusable in the nature. Use of harmful chemicals and materials such as plastic must be banned in
the organisation.
b) What source of information would have been accessed in planning the policy?
Ans. The sources of information accessed in the planning policies are Surveys within the
internal business information, Information from the HR teams that the employees are
maintaining cleanliness in the workplace, Survey done among the sweepers and cleaning staff of
the organization to get the result about the changes made in the organization regarding the
cleanliness of the organization.
c)What legislation, codes of practice and standards have been considered?
Ans. The legislation, codes of practices and standards which have been considered are
WHS /OH&S.
d) List the stakeholder who would have been considered in the developing the policy
Ans. The stake holders who have been considered in the development of the policies are
Environmental Groups , Health and Safety, Government, Human Resource, Public relations, Non
human, local authorities and local government, maintenance, local people, Media and planning
teams.
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e) Does the policy reflect the organizations commitment to sustainability and the
environmental? If so, why? If not, why?
Ans. Yes, the policy reflects the organization commitment to sustainability and environmental
because there were many initiatives taken by the organization to motivate its employees to make
contribution towards the waste disposal and energy savings.
Question 3.
(a) Why it is important for the stakeholders to know about your sustainability policy?
Describe the consequences if this is not done.
Ans. As the stakeholders are the part of the organization, who shows interest in the companies
strategies and development plans, they all will get effected by the sustainability efforts of the
company. This effects the global market and the stakeholders have to link to the economy of the
environment. The individuals are ultimately effected by the multinational co operations business
strategies and sustainability efforts, as environment sound practices improve water quality and
natural resource reserves.
(b) List atleast skills a manager needs to have to communicate effectively. Give example
then list at least five tips for developing the skill.
Ans. Make a strong network
The manager have to make a very strong network within the employees working in the
organization. The message must get circulated at its fastest. The network of spreading messages
must be very accurate and trust able for the employees.
Writing Better E- Mails
In the world of digitization, every messages is conveyed through the e-mails. So, the
format of writing an e-mail must be clear in the mind of each employee. A better email contains
the date and time of the message written. The starting of the e-mail will be with greetings. The
main body should contain the exact message which has to be forwarded to the employees. The
main body does not contains the long text. Only exact information should be written in the text
body. At the end the name of sender, their designations, company name and their contact number
must be written in the end. When the mail is ready to send, the subject should be written at the
top where the option is provided.
Improve Written Communications
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The language used in writing the mails, Number of words used in forming the message.
Proper use of all the full stops, comma's, brackets etc. must be made when writing a message.
The language used in writing the messages must be clear and understandable by the receiver.
There should not be any grammatical mistakes, a proper use of all the references and citations
must be done while writing something. The receiver should be able to understand what the
communicator wants to say in the message given by them.
Get Your Points Across
The points and ideas present by you should be clear and understandable by all the
employees of the organization. The person who is presenting should focus on what you want to
say to get your point across, you should focus on what the other person wants to hear from you.
It will be more effective in getting the point a crossed.
Learn To Speak In Public
Some people have the fear of speaking in public or in group. They get hesitate and insure
while keeping their points in front of the group. This can cause a big problem for the employee
because if they are unable to speak in public, they will not be able to put their points and
suggestions in the meetings. This can result in employees demotivation.
Manage Old Workers Effectively
The old workers who are at the verge of retirement, reduces their working capacities. So
to make them motivated towards their work and to bring maximum output from the employees,
organizations remains in touch with them and they keep an eye on all the works and task
performed by them are effective or not.
c) Imagine you are establishing your new busniess. Introduce sustainability policy for your
organization. Outline.
i. The key internal stakeholders
Ans. The internal stakeholders should get engage in such activities at very early stage. They
should the manner in which the stakeholder are going to engaged. The proper strategies and
plannings should be made for the engagement. The stakeholder should decide the context and
frequency of the communities and report on the findings.
ii. The key external stakeholder
Ans. The external stakeholders should take care of the transparency, trust, consistency, ambition
and accountability. The external stakeholders are encouraged to find out corporate survey
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respondents ranked transparency, two way dialogue, mutual respect and trust as top attributes for
effective management.
1. What you would include in a presentation to the staff in your area in relating to the
policy, the procedures and activities to be carried out; the impact staff and the
responsibilities that they will have to take on board in terms of quality assurance;
ensure you incorporate any WHS issues in your response.
Ans. In the presentation to the staff in the area in relating to the policy, the procedure to be
followed out will be :
 The Act
It establishes the legal requirements.
 Regulations
These are more specific rules that must be followed. The non- compliance can result into
prosecution, a prohibition notice, an improvement notice and in some states on spot fines.
 Codes of practice/ Guidance Notes
This provides information on how to comply with rules set out in the regulations.
(d) Outline the presentation to your supervisor and or stakeholders and note any comments made.
Attach the comments to your outline and indicate whether you would adjust the outline in
response to the comments
Ans. Identify them and watch them closely
It is important to identify the stakeholders and watch what work they are doing in the
organization. This will help a lot to understand what the organizations are actually doing in the
market.
Listen to what they say
The employees should listen to their supervisors very carefully and follow all the guidelines
they are providing to them.
Meet Them One On One
Meeting every employee and the supervisor will make the pressure less.
Question 4.
a) Describe the three to four strategies you would use to promote and communicate to new policy
and procedures to the 2,000 employees who are now located to one building.
Ans. 1. E-mail
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An e-mail will be sent to every employee of the organization to make them aware about
the new policies.
2. Verbal Announcements
The HR team will announce the employees verbally by standing in front of the employees
groups.
3. Holding the staff meetings
Conducting meetings for the employees in which the mentors or supervisiors will guide the
employees about new policies.
b) What strategies would you recommend for ongoing awareness of the initiatives that have been
put in place?
Ans. The lights will always be turned off when it is not in use. All the PC's will be activated
with the automatic shut down system when it is not in use. This will help in saving of power and
electricity. The taps in the washroom will be the sensor taps which will automatically turned off
when the person removes their hand from bottom.
c) Suggest four relevant key performance indicators that maybe put in place for employee.
Ans. Separate dustbins have to be placed for different kinds of wastage. The employees will be
provided with notepads having lines in both the sides so that they completely use it. Digital
facilities like video callings and cold callings will be provided to the employees so that expense
of visiting the clients in personal is avoided. Many CSR activities such as planting the plants
must be done by the organization.
d) Select one of the initiatives from the bulleted list and complete a table similar to the following.
Ans.
Green Initiative A positive paper program in which staff have
to use both sides of a sheet of paper to make
note book out of used papers.
Outcome Expected Use of paper is minimized in the organization.
Activities to be undertaken Providing notebooks to the employees which
have lines to write on both the sides of the
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paper. Using the unused papers of old notepads
Responsibilities Making the use of every sheet or paper
provided to the employees. The supervisor
should check the notepads papers that they are
used fully.
Question 5
a) Procedure development managing in order to implement sustainability initiative at work place
In order to manage development of a procedure to implement a workplace sustainability
initiative three strategies can be used such as:
 Reduction of energy used i.e. by reducing use of energy at least by 15 percent. It will be
applicable on all the employees of an organization that uses facilities of an organization that
consumes energy.
 Green purchasing i.e. by purchasing equipment’s that are sustainable and green in nature. It
will be applicable on all the employees of an organization that works under company’s
purchase department.
 Waste reduction i.e. by reducing production of waste by at least 50 percent which would be
applicable to all the members of an organization.
This was development of a procedure to implement a workplace sustainability initiative can
be managed.
b) Environmental initiative procedure
Environmental initiative procedure consist of various points such as:
 using electronic mediums rather than paper in order to deliver updates or notes.
 Reusing envelops and folders.
 Placing recycling boxes under the table and emptying it on weekly basis.
 Switching of facilities after use that consumes power.
 By using all the equipment’s that are sustainable in nature.
c) Three mechanisms for communicating the procedures and ways in which one can ensure that
everyone understands the procedure
Mechanism for communicating procedures are:
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 First and one of the most basic mechanism of communicating procedure is through website
of an organization. All the required information related to the procedures will be uploaded
and explained on the company’s website so that employees can directly read and understand
the procedure.
 Second is by distributing procedure guide where all the information related to procedures
will be printed such that it can be easily be communicated so that it can be easily understood
by everyone who reads it.
 Building a committee is also another mechanism through which procedures can be
communicated. These committees will also ensure that everyone understands the procedure
in a better manner.
d) Three strategies that can be used to implement CIC for environmental sustainability
Three strategies are: First is to change regulations of legislation in compliance. Second is
to monitor and evaluate procedures and policies so that if any kind of improvement or
adjustment is required then it can be done. Third is to introduce new initiatives so that efficiency
can be improved, ecological footprint can be reduced according to the new initiatives.
e) Ways in which continuous improvement cycle (CIC) can assist in improving resource
efficiency
CIC is an approach that helps in improving every step quality. This cycle can help in improving
efficiency of resources. It can be done in five main steps:
 First is to identify targeted process
 Second is to identify process suppliers and customers
 Third is to establish desired performance goals
 Fourth is to develop an action plan to achieve the goals
 Last is to evaluate and establish ongoing goals
f) Internal recording system or tools and ways in which it can help in environment progress
measurement
three main examples of internal record systems are: internal compliance review, auditing and
product database. All the three types of internal recording system can be used to measure
environment progress in many ways such:
 Internal compliance review can be used to record and review organization’s environmental
progress or changes associated with it.
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 Auditing can be used to evaluate environmental management system or compliance for
implementation of environmental gaps.
 Product database can be used to store and review all the products and their details so that all
the products or their biproducts that are harmful for the environment can be identified and
changes related to it can be identified.
g) explanation of link between recording systems and reporting system as well as quality
assurance.
Recording and reporting system are systematically used to evaluate progress and outcomes
of programs so that program performance can be monitored in a better manner. Both reporting
and recording system are directly linked to each other as both the systems helps in maintaining
the overall quality and increasing quality assurance of a program as till recording system won’t
record required data of a program till that time reporting system cannot evaluate progress or
outcomes of a program due to which quality assurance will be decreased.
Question 6
a) Implementation procedures to let people know about procedures they need to follow
Implementation procedure can be developed in following ways:
 By ensuring that more employees cooperate with each other.
 By offering something which is appreciated by the employees so that they can participate in
communicating about the procedures other people need to follow.
 By ensuring to whom the procedure will be applied to mostly.
 All the changes made should be consistent and should be written.
 By making sure that all the changes of new procedures are explained to all the employees in
a better and efficient manner so that employees can communicate it to other in a better
manner.
b) Strategies one would use to monitor the policies and procedure for tracking and recording
performance and ensure the organization regularly improves resource efficiency
Strategies to monito0r policies and procedures are: checking implementation of procedures and
policies. Checking usage of facilities that uses electricity. Checking reduction of water resources.
By checking usage of increasing in green purchasing.
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c) Assign responsibility for tracking improvement in sustainability approaches
there are various kinds of tracking tools that can be used to assign responsibilities such as:
project management software can be used where all the task and resources required for it can be
specified and based on this information responsibilities are assigned to the users. Then meister
task can be used where task management and project monitoring is done in an easy and efficient
manner so that responsibilities can be assigned in a proper and efficient manner.
Question 7
a) Explain the importance of providing stakeholders with result /outcome following
environmental policies implementation and the procedures. Discuss some consequence for
not doing this.
Providing stakeholders with outcomes of environmental policies and procedures
implementation will help in increasing understanding and achievement of desired results of
implementation of environmental policies and the procedures. Involved stakeholders will be able
to identify all the flaws, pros and cons of current policies and if any kind of improvement is
required then it can be done. If stakeholders are not provided with the outcomes or results then it
can directly/indirectly affect effectivity of a program.
b) Importance of investigating success or otherwise sustainability policy
It is important for both small and large organizations for sustainability policy success
investigation as it helps the organizations in incorporating better corporate culture, increase
reliability of procedures or products and gather long term profitability. Through this
organizations can also measure their contribution in increasing overall environment quality.
c) Provide the description of the steps one would take in evaluating to performance of a policy
implementation.
 First of all an evaluation form should be developed where all the measurement criteria’s are
specified.
 Then all performance or policy measurement criteria should be identified on the basis of
which evaluation is to be done.
 Then guidelines should be set for evaluation
 Then on the basis of above steps evaluation should be done and on the basis of evaluation
improvement expectation should be suggested.
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d) Describe the report one have prepared for senior management to document outcome in
relating to a workplace sustainability policy initiative.
Reports prepared for senior management to document outcome in relating to a workplace
sustainability policy initiative are:
 Formal compliance reports: these reports are presented to external authorities.
 General compliance reports: these reports are generated from internal records like workplace
audits and inspection, breech and review reports.
 Regular target achievement reports: These reports are mainly used for considering overall
efficiency and progress of the organisation as a whole, and for each of the relevant
departments or operational areas.
 Board reports: these reports are mainly used for showing legislative compliance, financial
savings as well as expenditure arising from the sustainability policy
e) Explain the outcomes of policy initiative.
 Evaluating risen awareness of policy initiatives so that on the basis of which environmental
practises can be encouraged.
 Resource utilization can be improved which will further help in increasing environment
sustainability.
 Increase in green purchasing
In order to visualize the progress:
 Evaluating increase in environment sustainability.
 Checking waste reduction percentage
f) Policy implementation and monitoring and associated procedure is important. Relevance as
such the monitoring risk minimization?
It is important to monitor policy implementation because it helps in examining
effectiveness and effect of the policy on the organization. It also helps in identifying changes that
are required to be made in the procedure or policy. All the changes are done after reviewing the
procedure and policy and then based on this if it is required to revise the policy then it is done. It
is related to monitoring risk minimization as it helps in measuring effectiveness of these policies
so that all the risk associated with such policies or procedures can be identified and minimized.
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g) Role of KPI in performance monitoring and ways it can support continuous improvement?
KPI helps in reviewing overall business performance and monitoring overall performance
of the individuals. These indicators also helps in bringing continuous improvement within
individuals and business like aligning organizations daily work with their strategic goals.
h) Outline the option one would take when it has been determined that a policy needs major
modification.
First of all identify the areas where changes are required to be done. Then if highlight all the
required changes and according to the feasibility of the policy make changes. Before
implementing those changes evaluate the changes and risk associated with it. One the basis of the
results make changes.
i) In relation to workplace sustainability policy it has been agreed the changes to procedures need
to be made to overall performance improvement of the policy.
Close monitoring approach can be used for overall performance improvement of the
policy. With the help of this approach awareness can be generated by improving all the required
changes in the policy and risk associated with it can be reduced.
j) 2019 target in waste reduction
Jan Feb March April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
20% 20% 21% 22% 23% 24% 24% 26% 28% 30% 32% 34%
Steps for waste reduction are:
 Conducting a waste assessment
 Based on waste assessment, developing a waste reduction plan
 Focusing reducing, reusing and recycling waste at workplace.
 Applying tools to measure current energy efficiency at workplace
 Based on this again reviewing waste management procedure.
Question 8
a) procedure followed by Karen for documenting paper usage.
Procedure followed by Karen to reduce paper usage was: Motivate her team members to
use both sides of a paper and whenever possible use single sided paper. Thinking before her team
members print i.e. if required only then print and if electronic copy can be used then use it.
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b) How might one provide feedback to the staff about new paper recycling policy outcome
 Through one to one interaction feedback can be provided to the peoples about new paper
recycling policy.
 Giving presentation to the team members about their previous and current paper usage and
effectiveness of paper recycling policy.
 Focusing and explain individual efforts of the team members about their efforts for paper
recycling policy.
c) Develop the new procedure that can improve records on paper purchasing and use.
 Focusing on electronic copies or communicating electronically rather than using a paper can
help in saving paper purchase and use.
 Making all the online receipts or bill legal so that team members can use electronic copy of
the bill or receipts.
 By sending all kinds of notices or documents online either through emails or online drives or
through online portals so that paper usage can be reduced.
 Using both the sides of the paper whenever possible and print only when required.
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