This document discusses the importance of ethical business practices and sustainability in modern organizations, focusing on a case study of Timberwell Constructions. It explores economic, environmental, and social sustainability aspects of the company's operations.
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Running head: GOVERNANCE, ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY Governance, Ethics and Sustainability Name of the Student Name of the University Author Note
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1GOVERNANCE, ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY The significance of the ethical business practices of the modern business world is observed to increase in a notable manner and that is pretty evident with the increasing urgency of the managers of the organizations in the formation of appropriate code of the business conduct. Ferrell and Fraedrich (2015) commented that it is important for the organizations to make sure that they conduct their business activities in ethical manner for increasing the sustainability of their business operations. The success of the companies in conducting a profitable business for a longer period of time is seen to be dependent on the degree of sustainability that their business activities are associated with. Piercy and Rich (2015) stated that the sustainability of the business operations of a particular company depends on three different aspects such as the economic, environmental and social and the managementofthetopicsthatarerelatedtothesetopicsbecomescrucialforthe organizations in increasing the degree of sustainability of their business activities. The paper is focused in the description of the sustainability reports of a particular company named as Timberwell Constructions. The paper analyses a case study of the mentioned company to elaborate regarding the economic sustainability, environmental sustainability along with the social sustainability. Economic Sustainability: Disclosure 201-2: One of the major concern for the company with the changes in the climate is observed to be their approach of managing the environmental or ecological stability. It is evident that the company is able to establish a particular method for managing the diversity in the environmentandthatisevidentwiththeirjointactivitiesfortheproposedlocal environmental plan withStanwell Council. With the changes in the climate, the company will be expected to do the amendments in the local environmental plan for rezoning the bushfire prone
2GOVERNANCE, ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY areas (Youtube.com 2019). Under such situation, the company will be required to make sure that any new development in the identified area as bushfire prone will be subjected to an evaluation of the area in meeting the higher standards of bushfire safety in addition to the larger distances between the buildings and the land boundaries. Hence the company will be expected to face an increment in the cost of the LEP amendment along with the town planning. Disclosure 205-3: The company was observed to be affected by increasing cases of the corruption and that was a major concern for the management of the company. The company was accused to be involved in unethical business operations along with their business partners. The importance of the council approval process is observed to be notably high for the managers of the company as a residential development company. The organization was accused of influencing the council approval process for pushing their development applications in an unethical manner. Five of the employees of the mentioned company and two external consultants of the mentioned company were alleged of offering bribes to the project officers of the council. Under such situation, the spread of the news of the unethical business operations from the part of the company had the potential of affecting the business operations of the employees as the news provided a significant amount of the reputational damage to the mentioned company. The company was able to take strict actions against the employees and the two external consultants. The company suspended all of its employees without any sort of payments and along with that, the company was seen to terminate all sorts of the business contracts with the two external consultants. This speaks the volume of the actions that the company is capable of undertaking in managing the sustainable and ethical business operations inside the organization (Youtube.com 2019). Disclosure 206-1: The company was observed to try for the creation of a monopoly in the market and that was pretty evident with the case of the local builders, planning for the establishment of the
3GOVERNANCE, ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY development company. The mentioned organization was able to anticipate the fact that a group of local builders were trying to set up a development company that have the potential to provide tough competition. Under such situation, the managers of the company were observed to be alleged of threatening their suppliers and the contractors. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission claimed that the managers of the company were observed to be involved in communicating a threat to the suppliers and the contractors that if they are planning for any sort of association with the new development of the new construction company then their business activities will be notably reduced in the company or even can get withdrawn (Accc.gov.au 2019). Australian Competition and Consumer Commission took notable amount of initiatives in dragging the mentioned company for the hearing of the intentional monopoly creation in the market of the Stanwell district (Youtube.com 2019). Environmental sustainability: Disclosure 302-1: The selected organization was observed to brag a lot regarding the status of an energy efficient company in various social media releases. For the elaboration of the energy efficiency, the company was seen to portray a table with the mentioned of the various forms of the energy sources that the company uses and the consumption of the energy. The company confirmed that it consumes 1.0 Gigajoule fuel from the non- renewable sources along with 2.0 Gigajoule consumption of the electricity. Other than this, the company showed that their consumption of the fuel from the non- renewable sources is nearly 0.5 Gigajoules. Apart from this, the company was able to confirm the fact that it initiated a program that is dedicated in raising the fuel consumption from the non -renewable sources. The objective of the program was to make sure that the source of the 50% of the total fuel consumption belongs to the renewable sources of energy in the next three years. Hence it is pretty evident
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4GOVERNANCE, ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY that the company is able to restructure their fuel consumption for becoming a more efficient organization in terms of the fuel consumption. Disclosure 304-2: On the other hand, the company was liable for the effective management of the bio diversity of the regions in which it is operating. The company ensured that the ecological balance of the region is not affected by any of the business and operational activities of the company. The press release of the company was pretty significant in stating the fact that the company undertakes necessary actions such as the environmental impact assessment for the managementoftheenvironmentalbalance.Theresultsoftheenvironmentalimpact assessment conducted on the Otford Park development site clearly describes that considerable number of rare wallum sedge frog occupies 60% of the site. However, the environmental impact assessment also claimed that the medium density residential development that is a proposed plan of the company for that site, has the potential to reduce the consistency of the site for the survival of the rare wallum sedge frog (Youtube.com 2019). The company was able to understand the fact that their proposed plan for that site had the possibility of affecting the biodiversity of the site and that forced the company to form an association with the Stanwell Council along with other environmental groups for the formulation of the appropriate strategy that has the potential to manage the proposed development while maintaining the conservation of the wallum sedge frog. Disclosure 307-1: The company was seen to be affected by several complaints to the department of environment and energy. The company was accused of clearing 0.45 hectares of critically rare environmental community coastal grasslands. The 0.45 hectares of area that was cleared was acknowledged of containing significant flora and fauna attributes in the state planning scheme
5GOVERNANCE, ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY (Globalreporting.org. 2019). The company was observed to face a 200000 Dollars fine and along with that, the company was instructed to undertake a critical external review of the vegetation management plan. Apart from this, the company was seen to face an order for extending the audit program of the company for the contractors and along with that, the company was seen to be ordered for implementing a rehabilitation plan of at least 440000 dollars. Hence it is evident that the company was forced to take several decisions that have the capability to change the reputation of the company in managing their approach of environmental and energy management. Other than this, the company was forced to undertake the actions that are in alignment with the environmental legislations. Any sort of discrepancy from the part of the company in complying with the environmental legislation was subjected to monetary fines and significant amount of reputational damage. Social sustainability: Disclosure 401-1: The company was seen to experience a significantly increasing rate of turnover and that was pretty evident with the appointment of 12 new apprentices in the company. The local labour and employment market is seen to be significantly competitive and that was a major reason of the scarcity of quality and experienced employees that the company was facing. 17 highly efficient employees of the company left the company for primarily two reasons that are to work for the rival companies where they are getting notably improved compensation and other benefits or to begin a new business. Under such situation, the company was forced to employ the apprentices in the reporting periods. The company was seen to face the threat of declining quality in the performances of the employees and the absence of the 17 experienced employees of the company had the possibility of threatening the overall performances of the company. Under such situation, the company was seen to face the necessity of improving their rewarding plan to make sure that it motivates the employees to remain associated with the organization. As a result, the company
6GOVERNANCE, ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY was observed to take several actions that have the capability to motivate the employees to continue in the company and that was pretty evident with the decisions that the company undertook such as the increment in the worker pay rates along with the implementation of the monthly rostered day off process for the employees. Disclosure 406-1: The company was observed to face considerable number of challenges in the retention of the employees inside the organization. With a precise focus on the competitive labour market, it is evident that the company is facing considerable number of issues in retaining their employees. The resignation of 17 employees is seen to be one of the major proof of the fact. At the same the company is seen to be affected with the lack of cohesion and effectiveness in the anti- discrimination policies of the company. The increasing rate of turnover of the employees had the potential of providing notable amount of impact to the organization as the investment of the company for managing the training and developmental activities of the employees leaving the organizations, was going in vain. The increasing cases of the discrimination inside the workplace was considered to be one of the prime reason that was influencing the employee turnover rates in the company. One of the senior employees of the company was seen to be harassed by the other employees of the company for his age through various age related humiliating jokes. The company was ordered to improve their approaches of maintaining the fair work inside the workplaces, restructure their anti- discrimination policies and along with that, was instructed to pay4,400 dollars to the victimin addition to the implementation of the anti –discrimination training for the employees of the company. Disclosure 413-1:
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7GOVERNANCE, ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY The company was determined in the development of the society and the community and that was pretty evident with the third media releases of the company where it claimed that it faces considerable amount of expenses for engaging the local communities, for performing the impact assessments along with formulating the social development programmes in all of the proposed residential development sites. These activities enabled the company to conduct the environmental impact assessments, local community meetings along with the local community development programmes that are designed to meet the needs of the community such as the affordable social housing (Globalreporting.org. 2019).
8GOVERNANCE, ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY References: Accc.gov.au2019.AustralianCompetitionandConsumerCommission.Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. [online] Available at: https://www.accc.gov.au/ Ferrell, O.C. and Fraedrich, J., 2015.Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. Nelson Education. Globalreporting.org.2019.2016.[online]Availableat: https://www.globalreporting.org/information/news-and-press-center/newsarchive/Pages/ 2016.aspx Globalreporting.org.2019.GRIStandards.[online]Availableat: https://www.globalreporting.org/information/sustainability-reporting/pages/gri- standards.aspx Piercy, N. and Rich, N., 2015. The relationship between lean operations and sustainable operations.International Journal of Operations & Production Management,35(2), pp.282- 315. Youtube.com2019.IntroducingtheGRIStandards.[online]Availableat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDe8Kkh1BrU&t=2s Youtube.com 2019.The GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards: The Future of Reporting. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGqE4OO0_7g&t=3s