Ethics and Sustainability in Timberwell Constructions

This report evaluates the ethical code of conduct that Timberwell Constructions must comply with to maintain goodwill and sustainability. It discusses economic, environmental, and social sustainability, including financial implications, corruption, energy consumption, impacts on biodiversity, employee turnover, and community engagement. The report follows the guidelines of GRI sustainability reporting standard 2016.

Running head: ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Ethics and Sustainability
Name of the university
Name of the student
Author note

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Executive summery
The purpose of writing this assignment is to present the ethical code of conduct a
business organisation must comply with in order to maintain the goodwill and make the
practice sustainable. The case of Timberwell Constructions is critical, as a former employee
on grounds of economic, social and environmental sustainability has launched numerous
complaints against the organisation. According to the given scenario, Timberwell
Constructions deals in residential constructions across Stanwell Council district. Recently, a
shift regarding employee recruitment and policies has been noticed due to a voluntary
turnover of seventeen employees. At first, while taking about economic sustainability several
financial implications and risk factors has been discussed. Opportunities have been found due
to the change in environment in Timberwell. Moreover, detection of corrupted behaviour
within the organisation as well as anti-corruption policies and practices have been discussed.
The company’s energy compliance policies will be on the central topic of debate while
discussing environmental sustainability. Finally, recent issues of employee turnover have
been judged in respect to social sustainability. According to the GRI standard report,
company’s implication on various sectors of sustainability has been evaluated in the due
course of this report as well.

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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................4
A. Economic sustainability.......................................................................................4
i) Disclosure 201-2 Financial implications and other risks and opportunities due
to climate change....................................................................................................................4
ii) Disclosure 205-3 Confirmed incidents of corruption and actions taken..........5
iii) Disclosure 206-1 Legal actions for anti-competitive behaviour, anti-trust, and
monopoly practices................................................................................................................6
B. Environmental sustainability................................................................................7
i) Disclosure 302-1 Energy consumption within the organisation.......................7
ii) Disclosure 304-2 Significant impacts of activities, products, and services on
biodiversity 7
iii) Disclosure 307-1 Non-compliance with environmental laws and regulations. 8
C. Social Sustainability..................................................................................................8
i) Disclosure 401-1 New employee hires and employee turnover.............................8
ii) Disclosure 406-1 Incidents of discrimination and corrective actions taken..........9
iii) Disclosure 413-1 Operations with local community engagement, impact
assessments, and development programs...............................................................................9
Conclusion....................................................................................................................10
References....................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The paper intends to prepare a sustainability assessment report following the
guidelines of GRI sustainability reporting standard 2016, which has been designed in an ideal
way to report about organizational influence on economic, environmental and social
sustainability (Schaltegger and Wagner 2017). According to the given scenario, Timberwell
Constructions deals in residential constructions across Stanwell Council district. Recently, a
shift regarding employee recruitment and policies has been noticed due to a voluntary
turnover of seventeen employees. At first, while taking about economic sustainability several
financial implications and risk factors will be discussed. Opportunities have been found due
to the change in environment in Timberwell. Moreover, detection of corrupted behaviour
within the organisation as well as anti-corruption policies and practices will be discussed.
According to del Mar Alonso‐Almeida, Llach and Marimon (2014), The company’s energy
compliance policies will be on the central topic of debate while discussing environmental
sustainability. Finally, recent issues of employee turnover will be judged in respect to social
sustainability. According to the GRI standard report, as described in (www.youtube.com,
2018), company’s implication on various sectors of sustainability will be evaluated in the due
course of this report.
A. Economic sustainability
i) Disclosure 201-2 Financial implications and other risks and
opportunities due to climate change
According to the disclosure 201-2 of GRI standard report, as described in
(www.youtube.com, 2018), Timberwell Constructions must include certain information while
framing the report. Due to the mass turnover of employees, the organisation is going through
an organisational change. Therefore, risk and opportunities have raised in different sectors

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regarding business operations, profitability and expenses. At first, a description of risk and
opportunities must be descripted. In the case of Timberwell construction, after confronted
with several complaints lodged by a former employee the organisation decided to change its
employee policies. Worker pay rates has been increased and in order to prevent voluntary
turnover monthly rostered day off has been offered to the remaining staff. These changes
have helped them to dodge future risk of legal allegations from employees and considering
them as the backbone of organisation’s future execution, affirmation on new salary scale will
help to retain them. Here, they are obliged to report about their media campaigns to deal with
negative publicity, as those are intended to create future opportunities for them. The
Timberwell is expecting positive impact out of those media campaigns against the
allegations. In the section of discrimination, the former employee comes with a demand of
$4,400. Further, fine has been added in the area of violating environmental norms. In
response to such accusation, company has been decided to increase the salary scale and
additional off days for employees. Besides, an advanced town planning and rehabilitation
plan have been considered driven by the pressure of complaints which includes further
financial engagements. All these measures to manage risks and opportunities are expenditure
oriented and must be included while framing the report. Not only is that Timberwell bound to
inform their proposed plans and their timeline to ask for necessary assistance.
ii) Disclosure 205-3 Confirmed incidents of corruption and actions
taken
Disclosure 205-3 deals with confirmed cases of corruption within organisation and the
way Timberwell has initiated both preventive and corrective measures against it. In this
section of GRI report, as per (www.youtube.com, 2018), the reference of Dennis’s complaint
will be drawn where he has stated there are five employees and two of the business partners
who offered bribe to council project officers for the organisation’s project development issue.

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After the complaint was lodged; company took immediate action against those five
employees by suspending them without wage. In addition to that, dismissed partnership with
two business consultants as well.
iii) Disclosure 206-1 Legal actions for anti-competitive behaviour, anti-
trust, and monopoly practices
According to the disclosure 206-1, Timberwell is bound to acknowledge legal actions,
which have been initiated or pending against anti-competitive behaviour and violation of
mutual trust among several stakeholders. As per Dennis’s complain to several Government
authorities; Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has initiated a legal
proceeding against Timberwell constructions. The organization has been accused for
misusing market power and exclusive dealings. The behavior has been detected as highly
anti- competitive and is not accepted in terms of GRI standards. The senior executives of
company were found to have certain conversations with contractors and material suppliers
that if they contribute in new project developments, they will have a chance to enhance the
business collaborating with Timberwell. The case is under federal court as Timberwell has
been accused already for preventing new entrants from entering into the market by adopting
such unethical strategic approach.
With the purpose of developing, a positive public image after being accused of
violating global sustainability norms, Timberwell announces to engage financial resources to
engage native communities to talk about community requirement of affordable residential
complexes in their third media release (Charoenkit and Kumar 2014). The proposed projects
will follow environmental guidelines in order comply with sustainability regulations.

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B. Environmental sustainability
i) Disclosure 302-1 Energy consumption within the organisation
The disclosure 302-1 deals with organisational compliance with the protocol related
to energy and fuel consumption. A business, which is not serving environmental
sustainability purposes face difficulties to sustain in contemporary scenario where
environment activists are so particular about not harming the ecosystem while working on
civil infrastructures like residential complexes. The former employee Dennis on grounds of
not complying with global environmental standards lodged the complaint against Timberwell
(Bonnett 2013). In order to impose a justification against the complaint their second media
release announces Timberwell as an energy efficient construction company. Moreover, as per
Ellabban, Abu-Rub and Blaabjerg (2014), they have exposed their plan of consuming energy
from renewable resources, which is going to contribute around 50% of total operational fuel
consumption.
ii) Disclosure 304-2 Significant impacts of activities, products, and
services on biodiversity
Dennis has reported to department of Environment and Energy about Timberwell’s
unethical clearance of critically endangered ecological community coastal grasslands, which
used to occupy 0.45 hectares of land. The company has been asked to compensate by giving
$200,000 as a fine. Further, the significance of that area was high from the perspective of
environmental concern. Therefore, question was raised that an area, which is containing
significant flora and fauna characteristics how can be a part of State planning Scheme.
Acknowledging the bio-diversity of that particular area, under the disclosure of 304-2, the
company has been asked to prepare vegetation management plan, an extended audit program
for contractors and builders and execution of a rehabilitation plan, which will cost no less
than $440,000.

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iii) Disclosure 307-1 Non-compliance with environmental laws and
regulations
Under the disclosure of 307-1 of Global standards, monetary expenses will be huge in
terms of fine. The act of clearing 0.45 hectors of land consisting of significant bio-diversity
and the further responsibility of conducting rehabilitation plan will cost $200,000 and
$440,000 respectively. The occurrence of such negative complaints regarding ethical
considerations of a business organization makes their image questionable publicly (Menichini
and Rosati 2014). In order to elevate that and to justify against the lodged complaints, the
company had to organize public campaigns. According to Mulliner, Smallbone and Maliene
(2013), there is a question if these campaigns can really be helpful to modify perceived public
opinion; however, these are matter of huge financial involvement. Along with their
announcement of consuming renewable energy sources, they are bound to explain their Local
Environment Plan (LEP) collaborating with Stanwell council. Considering the effect of
global warming the company has proposed to implement this plan in areas, which are prone
to ‘bushfire’ (Munang et al. 2013).
C. Social Sustainability
i) Disclosure 401-1 New employee hires and employee turnover
As per the case study, this can be analysed that Employment 2016 is inclusive of
Standard Interpretation on calculating the rate of the new employee hires along with the
turnover of the employees (Ali, Frynas and Mahmood 2017). In context of the GRI standards,
this is inclusive of approach of the organization towards creation of job and this is inclusive
of retention and recruitment practices. In the case study, this can be seen that the employment
activities are required to be equal for all the employees wherein there should not be any kind
of discrimination among the employees working in the organization.

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As per the case study, this is analysed that a worker resigned and claimed harassment
at the workplace and there was allegation that there was workplace discrimination among the
employees which have affected the overall efficiency of the firm and productivity and morale
of the employees (Cho et al. 2015). The disclosure 401 helps in analysing that there should be
anti-discrimination laws which are required to be followed effectively as this will improve
the overall productivity of the employees and organization as well.
ii) Disclosure 406-1 Incidents of discrimination and corrective actions taken
As per the case study, this has been analyzed that proper anti-discrimination laws and
corr3ective actions are required to be taken into consideration which will help in creating
balance between the employee’s productivity in the organization. Non-discrimination
activities which is essential in treating all the individuals equally as this will help in
managing the different tasks in an effective manner (Jones and Williams 2015).
This is the main duty of the workplace higher officials which will help in expecting to
avoid the discriminatory practices in the organization on any grounds as this will increase the
overall morale of the employees in performing the different activities efficiently. The key
instruments of the International Labor Organization along with development which will be
helpful in managing the different tasks in an appropriate manner which will be beneficial for
the overall success of the firm efficiently (Ozeren 2014).
iii) Disclosure 413-1 Operations with local community engagement, impact
assessments, and development programs
As per the disclosure 413-1, this is inclusive of the different social dimension of
sustainability concerns along with impact of the organization on social systems which will be
beneficial for the overall success of the firm effectively. The organization needs to analyse
the different kinds of aspects related to development programs which will improve the CSR

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related activities and gain more effectiveness in the organizational related activities
(Barkemeyer et al. 2014).
Furthermore, this can be seen that due to the heterogenous nature of the local
community or the different cultural individuals in the organization, this is essential for the
employees and employer in the organization to understand the vulnerability of the different
employees working in the organization and this will create positive impact on the
organizational activities as well. Lastly, the disclosure in the standard is inclusive of different
information which is efficient in nature analysis of the different positive and negative impact
of the local communities on the employees.
Conclusion
Business ethics is important in terms of executing business operations as it helps to
enhance the public image of a certain organisation and support a business to maintain
sustainability in a competitive market. In the case of Timberwell Construction, several issues
have been raised within system after a former employee lodged complaint against them on
several grounds. Being accused of violating sustainability norms, the company initiated
public campaigns to regain their lost goodwill. Global reporting initiative standard, therefore,
demands to report business organisations’ impact on economic, social and environmental
sectors. To comply with the GRI standard, the company needs to perform the proposed plans
in public campaign. It is important for them to execute the business maintaining the ethical
standard. Business will accomplish its objectives and long terms goals if it can prove itself
ethical in front of the both the potential and existing consumers.

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