Governance, Ethics, and Sustainability

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.

Running head: GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY
Governance, Ethics, and Sustainability
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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
intensity is expected to increase only. Under such situation, the importance of the
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 of Timberwell 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:
The company faced considerable number of complaints against their business
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

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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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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 by Australian Department of Industry and Science
(Industry.gov.au 2019), showed that they consume 1.0 Gigajoule of fuel from the 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 was inhabited 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 development in that site
will affect the consistency of the survival of wallum sedge frog which will be contrary to the

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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 operations of 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
competition which increased the difficulty level of the company in managing their
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. The Fair
Work Commission investigated 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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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.au 2019. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission. [online] Available at: https://www.accc.gov.au/
Aho, I., 2013. Value-added business models: linking professionalism and delivery of
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. In 2014 47th Hawaii international conference on
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
transparency of sustainability reports within the GRI framework. Journal of business
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.au 2019. Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. Department of
Industry, Innovation and Science. [online] Available at: https://www.industry.gov.au/
Mottaeva, A., 2016. Innovative Aspects of Ecological and Economic Management of
Investment and Construction Activities for the Sustainable Development of the Region.
In MATEC Web of Conferences (Vol. 73, p. 07020). EDP Sciences.

9GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY
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