Organizational Sustainability: Economic, Environmental, and Social Aspects

This report discusses the economic, environmental, and social sustainability aspects of Timberwell Constructions company. It covers financial complications, environmental conservation measures, and human resource management. The report also highlights the impacts of the company's activities on the local community and the measures taken to prevent future occurrences of discrimination and corruption.

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The organization ethics and sustainability
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ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY
Introduction
Each organization aims to achieve the set goals. Many shortcomings may be experienced
along the way that may inhibit the operations. It is the aspiration of every company to come up
with a lasting plan that will help them survive all this. The organization should also meet its
needs without necessarily compromising the needs of its direct or indirect stakeholder. Using the
case study of the Timberwell’s and abiding with the GRI standards of sustainability I was able to
construct a sustainability report of the Timberwells Constructions company in the economic
environmental and social aspects.
Economical sustainability
Financial complications and other risks associated with environmental change. These are
the factors beyond the control of the organization. A good example is weather changes in the
environment in which an organization exists. In our case study, the company by the name
Timberwell constructions deals with the building of apartment complexes. There may be some
prolonged rainy seasons, especially during the wet months. It may affect the construction
processes by the fact that in those periods the process is paused for some time (Flannigan et al.,
2016. Pp 59)
The financial impacts of this occurrence are that the contracted projects are not finished
on time. This will significantly taint the competence of the organization to a point even the
aspiring customer may choose to opt for another organization to do the construction (Prokopy,

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2015. pp 181). The regulatory measure to this risk is coming up with means in which the
building can move on even when the rains fall. A good example is erecting some paper sheets to
prevent water from getting into contact with the surfaces in which building is taking place.
Construction schedules can also be fixed in line with the rain patterns to control this risk to a
reasonable extent. Some funds during the budgeting should be allocated to cater for this risk
when computing the expenses (Missimer, Robèrt, and Broman, 2017. Pp 42)
In the Timberwell organization, there was one confirmed incidence of corruption.
The case study states that Dennis had made a complaint that there had been five employees and
two partners who had bribed the council project officers to push the company’s development
applications in the process of approval by the council. The punishment measures taken were that
each of the employees was suspended without pay. They were to await the outcome of the
persecutions. The company also took the action of terminating the partnership contracts signed to
the two external consultants. The steps the organization decided to this effect was satisfiable as it
was enough to discourage future occurrences of this act. They also maintained the general
reputation of the company. The external contractors who could be conspiring to partake in the
corrupt practices were aware of the consequences that befell those who were convicted for the
act of bribing.
The report also states that several cases concerning unfair competition play by the
Timberwell company had been taken to the jury. In an example, the Australian competition and
consumer commission had brought a claim to the court of law concerning some instances of anti-

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competitive conduct by the company. They had said that Timberwell company had told the
contractor that if they got involved in a competitive company, their operations with the company
would be significantly reduced all even withdrawn. (Eizenberg and Jabareen., 2017. P 68). it was
a move to discourage expansion of the establishing construction firm that would have posed a
competitive threat to the company. They wanted to be the only in control of the market but in an
unfair manner. The case is reported to be in the court wait for the final verdict.
The legal action against competition, in this case, will be the imposition of fines to the
company that will be found guilty of committing the act. (Hussen, 2018. Pp 0) The injured party
may bring a civil case to the court of law, and the implications would be that compensation will
be imposed on the company to make up for the damage caused. All these means will be effective
in preventing these cases as no company would want to face the financial costs that will come as
a consequence of these charges.
Environmental sustainability
In its operations, every organization is bound to carry out environmental conservation
measures. According to the energy statistics, much of the energy used by the companies are
mainly in the machinery that is required in the constructions processes. There are the new
machines that are brought to the company and are bound to conform with the technological
advancements. The GRI standards include the requirements where less fuel consuming
alternatives should be put in place to reduce the production costs. The method is also considered
to be environmentally friendly as less carbon is released to the atmosphere. This can cause harm
to the neighboring residents, and the National Environmentally firms recommend that measures

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should be taken to this effect (Blandin, Verliefde, Tang and Le-Clech, 2015. Pp 26) It is also
advisable to use the renewable sources of energy such as natural gas, coal or petroleum.
There is a guidance directive that states that before decides to build a house the materials
used should be in line with the energy utilization considerations. The premise can be situated in
an area where the necessary resources are close to reduce the cases of travels and transport of the
funds. The building and design of the buildings should be made in such a way that it conserves
the amount of energy used during construction, for example, the use of cranes for the tall’
straight buildings. This goes a long way in saving the overall costs undergone in the construction
process (Longoni and Cagliano, 2015. Pp 216). The Timberwells company has been known to
use the energy conservation means. Statistics show that they used 1.0 gigajoules renewable
energy, 0.5 gigajoules nonrenewable energy and 2.0 gigajoules electricity consumption.
The other point of concern is the impacts of the activities, product, and services on the
biodiversity. According to the report the Timberwells company does its operations in the
Stanwells Council District. The people residing in that locality are the ones who are directly
affected by their actions. The case study states that a complaint had been taken to the court of
law the Timberwell company had cleared close to 0.45 hectares of grassland and this directly
endangered the ecological that they had formerly harbored. Many reports state that some
companies dangerously dispose of waste on the surface or near the water channels. This is a bad
move as it may poison the organisms that live in water. The water from the infested water
channels may be consumed by the humans cohabiting in the neighboring areas. This brings about
water-borne diseases in the area (Rigamonti, Sterpi and Grosso, 2016.pp 1)
Contamination of the water bodies may cause salinity making the water unpleasant for
consumption. It can kill the organisms and their offspring leading to the extinction of some

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species. The smell resulting from the dead decomposed waste may make the neighboring areas
inhabitable. (Offerman et al., 2014. Pp 499) There is a need for the company to put pollution
control measures in its operations.
Some standard rules and regulations are put in place to ensure environmental
conservation. (Dipboye, Fritzsche and Dhanani, 2016. Pp 27) Failure to conform by them results
to severe penalties which face the organization found to be violating those directives. The
Timberwells company was ordered to undergo all the costs to revive the land which they had
cleared to their former state. The rehabilitation cost was not less than $ 440000. Reports say that
each year the fines are brought up for the firms, and constant cases of pollution may result in the
permanent closure of the business.
Some non-monetary sanctions may be used to promote compliance with the rules. A good
example is the use of pre-warning of the organization of the implications of the failure to abide
by the directives. The regulatory committee may conduct training for the workers to observe the
conservation measures.
A significant number of cases have been brought forward by the victims of the
environment pollution. Some are directly affected while the others are indirectly affected. Every
person deserves a conducive environment and violation of this prestige amount to the human
rights violation. The people who contact diseases as a result of contaminated water channels can
sue the company for compensation.
Social sustainability
Social sustainability involves the human resource and how they interrelate in the
environment of operation. Timberwell constructions are limited. The company employs 58 male

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workers mainly coming from the locality. They are got from all ages, for example, the worker by
the name Dennis was about fifty years, and that is slightly older than other teammates. The
others are aged between 30 and 50 years. In this case, after losing 17 workers, they now have to
employ 17 more workers so that the operations can go on as planned. This increased number of
turnover indicates either the employees are unsatisfied with the conditions in the workplace or
they are not able to cope with the continually changing environment in the work premises. Some
workers even moved on with doing their businesses meaning the situation of operating under the
organization was not satisfying. (Ahuja, 2017. Pp 69). To reduce this number of employee
turnover the organization has increased the pay rates and introduced a schedule where there is a
day off so at least the staff members can get some time to rest.
Discrimination is a common feature in very many organizations. It arises from
differences in characteristics such as originality, age, color, race, tribe or political reasons.
(Phoochinda, 2014. Pp 151) Reports say even some occurrences such as sickness can result in an
employee being unfairly isolated by the rest. During the reported period, there was one case of
discrimination. It was age oriented. Dennis McCabe was a subject of age-related jokes from
other e,mployees who were younger than him. This was humiliating to the point that it destroyed
his comfort in the workplace and he opted to resign. He filed a workplace harassment claim to
the Fair Work Commission which ordered the Timberwell Constructions company to pay him
$4400 as compensation.
The company had to abide by the council’s decision. For specific actions were put in
place to prevent future cases of discrimination because once it happens, the whole organization is
affected. The employees are advised to appreciate one another just the way they are, and

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penalties were set to make sure no future cases of discrimination were reported in the future
(Fath, 2015.pp 13) This has gradually reduced the rate of discrimination so far.
Operations now embrace the local community involvement, impact assessments, and
development programs. The community living near to the ground in which the organization
conducts its operations is of significant impact to its existence. This is in the economic,
environmental aspects. It should be the concern of the organization to make sure its operations
do not have negative implications on the local community. The organization should conduct
stakeholder analysis which will display the level of involvement and how they are impacted by
the operations in the organization (Ravier et al., 2015. Pp 131). Their matters should be dealt
with differently according to how they are affected.
In this line, the Timberwell Constructions has received some claims of its poor relations
with the local community. To this effect, they have demonstrated to be good citizens by releasing
a statement that they do their best to conserve the existence of rare wallum sedge frog. It inhabits
within the areas where the company conducts its operations (Schnackenberg and Tomlinson,
2016. Pp1784). They are working with the Stanwell council as well as other conservation firms
to design a place where those organisms can live free from interventions. The had reported being
engaging the local community to perform impact assessment and also formulating the social
development programs for the proposed residential projects.
Conclusion
Various sustainability operations have been put in place in the organization. They are
meant to ensure that even if it performs well in the present, even in the future, it can remain

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stable. These measures also help the organization to put the matters affecting the stakeholders of
the organization into consideration (Edward et al., 2015.pp 173). This will help an organization
to maintain a good reputation just as the Timberwell Constructions company did.
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