This paper evaluates the sustainability of the business activities of Timberwell Constructions in terms of economic, environmental, and social aspects. It discusses the company's challenges and actions taken in each area, including economic sustainability, environmental sustainability, and social sustainability.
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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 intensity of the competition in the modern business is seen to increase in a notable manner in recent years and one of the reason that is triggering the growth rate of the intense competition is observed to be the entry of the new organizations in the business industry. In the modern century, almost each of the business industries are observed to be populated by a series of organizations and considering the impact of the globalization, the intensityisexpectedtoincreaseonly.Undersuchsituation,theimportanceofthe sustainability in the business operations of the organizations operating in the modern business world is seen to increase in a significant manner. Aho (2013) stated that the success of the modern organizations in managing the intense level of competition of the market is seen to be dependent on the capability of the organizations in managing their business operations in ethical manner. The incorporation of the ethical practices in the business operations of the organizations has the potential to improve the reputation of the organizations which plays a crucial role in influencing the buyer behaviours and the intention of the purchases of the customers. However, Fernandez-Feijoo, Romero and Ruiz (2014) highlighted an important factor with the claim that the sustainability of the business activities of modern organizations depends on the effective management of their business activities in three different aspects which are the economic, environment and the social sustainability. The paper is focused in the evaluation of the sustainability of the business activities ofTimberwell Constructions. The company operates in the construction industry and is seen to have considerable number of projects in their pipeline. The paper assesses the economic, environmental and the social sustainability of the mentioned company with a precise focus on the various sub standards. Economic Sustainability: Disclosure 201-2: Thecompanyfacedconsiderablenumberofcomplaintsagainsttheirbusiness activities from various corners of their business market and in order to recover the reputation,
2GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY the company undertook the decision of social media and online campaigning (Bekmamedova and Shanks 2014).Stanwell District authority was observed to take significant actions in managing the warming impacts of the climate change along with the increasing risk element of the bushfires and under such situation, the district authority was seen to be introduce an amended version of the Local Environmental Plan so that it be able to rezone the specific areas of the bushfire prone. The implementation of the amended version of the Local Environmental Plan has considerable number of consequences for the selected company. Some of the provisions of the LEP ensured that any sort of development in an area that is identified as the bushfire prone in accordance to the LEP, will be in need to satisfy the higher standards of the bushfire safety along with larger distances between the land boundaries and the buildings. Along with that, the revised LEP was observed to include the provisions for forcing the organizations in the usage of the fire retardant building materials. The company was seen to face the consequences of the amendment as one of the development sites of the company in the Stanwell district was recognized as the bushfire prone. Under such situation, the company was forced to invest a significant amount for the effective management of the effects of the new regulations. It took 4 million US dollars of the company to comply with the new regulations. The company was observed to recruit a town planning firm for the management of development applications of the company and to undertake the actions that would effectively minimize the cost of managing the new recommendations of the revised LEP. The town planning firm was also charging a significant amount of 50000 dollars for their services. Hence it is evident that the implementation of the revised LEP from the part of the company to manage the impact of the climate changes has the potential to provide significant amount of financial concerns to the selected organization. Disclosure 205-3: The company was accused of being involved in considerable number of cases of corruption and that is evident with the claim of one of the senior employees of the organization named as Dennis McCabe. The accusation of Dennis involved two of the external business
3GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY partners of the company along with five employees of the company. The State Corruption Commission investigated the charge of Dennis which claims that five employees of the company along with the two external consultants presented bribes to the council project officers for unethically influencing them to approve the development applications of the organization at the council approval process. The State Corruption Commission came up with the results of the investigation where they charged each of the five employees of the company along with one external consultant with corruption. The company was concerned regarding the detrimental impact of the corruption in their business operations and the amount of reputational damage that it can possess. As a result the company proactively suspended each of the five employees without any sort of payments and along with that, the company made sure that they terminate the contracts of the two external consultants with the company. Disclosure 206-1: Other than this, one of the major concern for the selected company in the management of the economic sustainability was seen to be their unethical practices in an attempt to reduce the threat of the competition. Dennis accused the company of misusing their market power and reported it to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) which later inaugurated legal proceedings against the company in the Federal Court (Accc.gov.au 2019). ACCC claimed that the senior executives of the company were able to antedate the fact that a group of the local builders were involved in the planning for the formation of the development company which will have the potential to pose considerable amount of threat to the business operations of their company and under such situation, the company issued a preventive measure for preventing the threat of the new entrant in the Stanwell district development market, in the form of a threat for the suppliers and the contractors that if they get involved in the formation of the new development company then their business activities with the organization will be reduced or even can be withdrawn. Under such situation, the company was observed to face the legal
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4GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY hearing at the Federal Court which will decide the consequences that the company will face due to their unethical business practices. Environmental sustainability: Disclosure 302-1: The second press release of the company was regarding the energy efficiency of the company. The company claimed themselves to be an energy efficient organization and provided the information of the energy consumption as the supporting evidences. The company, with the help of a prescribed tool byAustralian Department of Industry and Science (Industry.gov.au 2019), showedthat theyconsume1.0Gigajouleoffuelfromthe non- renewable sources of the energy. Along with that, the company portrayed that they consume 2.0 Gigajoules of electricity along with 0.5 Gigajoules of fuel from the renewable sources of energy. The company had the mission of improving their usage of energy and that is pretty evident with the initiation of program that will increase the fuel consumption of the company from the renewable sources to 50% of the total fuel consumption of the company in approximately three years. Disclosure 304-2: The first media release of the company that was dedicated for the improvement of the corporate image of the company provides significant amount of information regarding the actions that the company had undertaken for the improvement of the ecological balance of the regions in which it operated (Mottaeva 2016). The company executed an environmental impact assessment on one of the development site of the company named as Otford Park. The company showed that 60% of the mentioned site wasinhabited by the rare wallum sedge frog. On the other hand, the assessment was significant for the company as it enabled the company to have the idea of the fact that the proposed medium density residential developmentin that site will affect the consistency of the survival ofwallum sedge frog which will be contrary to the
5GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY company’s objective in managing the bio- diversity. The company was observed to be proactive in the formation of the association with the Stanwell Council and other environmental groups for the formulation of the strategy that will manage the proposed development work of the company in that site along with preserving the spaces for the wallum sedge frog. Disclosure 307-1: Dennis, the senior most employee of the company filed a complaint to the Department of Environment and Energy which triggered the Department of Environment and Energy in investigating the business operationsof the company(Environment.gov.au 2019). The Department of Environment and Energy found that the company cleared 0.45 hectares of vanishing ecological community coastal grasslands. The area that was cleared by the company was acknowledged for comprising of significant flora and fauna attributes in accordance to the State Planning Scheme. As a result, the company faced considerable amount of consequences which included a fine of 200,000 dollars. Other than his, the company was instructed to carry out an extension of their audit program for the contractors, external evaluation of the vegetation management plan along with a rehabilitation plan of 440000 dollars. Social sustainability: Disclosure 401-1: The company faced significant amount of challenges in retaining their employees and that was visible with resignation of 17 employees from the company. The company was forced to introduce 12 new apprentices in their reporting period in their business operations as a result of the increment in the employee turnover rates of the company. Apart from this, the labour and employment market of the region was observed face significant amount of competitionwhichincreasedthedifficultylevelofthecompanyinmanagingtheir workforces. The resignation of the senior employees of the company had the potential to affect to affect the performances of the company both in terms of quality and quantity. Other
6GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY than this, the experiences of the senior employees was much required for the company and that was evident with their try of retaining the existing employees with the introduction of an improved pay rates along with the initiation of the process of monthly rostered day offs. Disclosure 406-1: An important factor that triggered the increment of the employee turnover rate in the company was the inappropriate anti-discrimination policy of the company.Dennis claimed that he faced significant amount of discrimination from the part of the employees of the company because of his age. Dennis was the senior most employee in the company on the basis of the age and that was a prime factor responsible for the harassment that he had to face, being the target of the humiliating age related jokes from the part of the other employees of the company. TheFair Work Commissioninvestigated the case and instructed the company to pay 4,400 dollars compensation to the mentioned employee (Fwc.gov.au 2019). Apart from this, the company was ordered to revise their anti- discrimination policy for increasing the effectiveness of it along with providing the anti- discrimination training to the employees of the organization. Disclosure 413-1: The third media release of the company provided significant amount of information regarding the contribution of the company in the development of the society and in the betterment of the community. The company portrayed that it bears considerable amount of expenses for the creation of social development programs, for improving the engagement of the local communities along with the implementation of the impact assessments for all of the proposed residential developments of the company(Mottaeva 2016). The press release from the part of the company is significant in stating the initiatives that they had taken such as the implementation of the local community development programs with precise identification of the needs of the customers such as the inexpensive social housing. Other than this, the
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7GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY company managed the activities such as the environmental impact assessments and the local resident meetings for developing the society and the community that they serve.
8GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY References: Accc.gov.au2019.AustralianCompetitionandConsumerCommission.Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. [online] Available at: https://www.accc.gov.au/ Aho,I.,2013.Value-addedbusinessmodels:linkingprofessionalismanddeliveryof sustainability.Building Research & Information,41(1), pp.110-114. Bekmamedova, N. and Shanks, G., 2014, January. Social media analytics and business value: A theoretical framework and case study. In2014 47th Hawaii international conferenceon system sciences(pp. 3728-3737). IEEE. Environment.gov.au 2019. Department of the Environment and Energy.Department of the Environment and Energy. [online] Available at: https://www.environment.gov.au/ Fernandez-Feijoo, B., Romero, S. and Ruiz, S., 2014. Effect of stakeholders’ pressure on transparencyofsustainabilityreportswithintheGRIframework.Journalofbusiness ethics,122(1), pp.53-63. Fwc.gov.au 2019.Fair Work Commission | Australia's national workplace relations tribunal. [online] Available at: https://www.fwc.gov.au/ Industry.gov.au2019.DepartmentofIndustry,InnovationandScience.Departmentof Industry, Innovation and Science. [online] Available at: https://www.industry.gov.au/ Mottaeva,A., 2016. InnovativeAspectsof Ecologicaland EconomicManagementof Investment and Construction Activities for the Sustainable Development of the Region. InMATEC Web of Conferences(Vol. 73, p. 07020). EDP Sciences.
9GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY Bibliography: 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