Sustainability Practices for Information Technology

This policy focuses on addressing the sustainability issues and challenges faced at the Kingfisher Garden Center head office, including waste, energy, water, transportation, and purchasing. The program takes into consideration the vision of Kingfisher and applies to the values of the organization. The policy meets legislative requirements and outlines roles and responsibilities for waste, energy, and water management. Competence training is also emphasized.

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Sustainability Program for Kingfisher Garden Center Inc.
Student
Course
Tutor
Institutional Affiliations
State
Date

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Policy scope
This policy applies to both current and prospective Kingfisher Garden Center staff
members at head office located in Fairfield, Victoria 3078 at Darebin City. The key stakeholders
that shall be responsible for this policy and procedures include the head office manager,
department managers, supervisors, team leaders and the organization’s employees.
The policy is focused on addressing the sustainability issues and challenges faced at the
Kingfisher Garden Center head office, the issues are related to what the organization customers
care about like healthy and toxic-free environment. These include the problems like air quality as
well as chemicals in food products, cosmetics and in home environment. The policy also address
the environmental issues including climate change, water and waste along with social issues
concerning health, safety and well-being of the organization customers (Farrelly, and Brown,
2011, pp.721-732).
It also meets responsibilities for compliance with the controls and procedures. Various
organization stakeholders must take the following key responsibilities. The head office manager
shall be responsible to ensure that all organization stakeholders comply with the sustainability
policies and procedures, they shall also monitor changes in this sustainability policy and help the
staff to keep up-to-date changes. Department managers are responsible for training as well as
supervising the organization’s employees to ensure the correct use of the organization’s
resources as documented in the policies and procedures of the organization.
Legislation mandating compliance is also observed in this document. The policy meets
legislative requirements of state as well as local government in Victoria cited in the Environment
protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. In doing so, this sustainability policy is in

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compliance with the legal requirements to protect environment and save resources for the benefit
of its customers.
The program takes into consideration the vision of Kingfisher. Together with the
organization’s vision, the program guides compliance and help in achievement of business
objectives of the agency to ensure that the organization customers have a beautiful garden space
and safety requirements as defined in Kingfisher Garden Center vision statement.
This program applies to the values of the organization which include working with the
nature and act in a sustainable and socially responsible manner. One of the core values of
Kingfisher agency is to stand behind health and safety to meet the needs of its current and
prospective customers.
Overview of the current situation at Kingfisher Garden Center head office and goals for
improvement
1. Waste
One of the main target of the Kingfisher Garden Center organization is to reduce waste
disposal. This is to be achieved through minimization of waste and waste recycling initiatives.
The improvements have been recorded but not much due to low rate of improvement in
proposition of wastes recycled within some operating organizations. However, according to
2017/2018 sustainability report, Kingfisher garden Center needs zero waste to land-fill as well as
90% wastes recycled by the year 2025. This shows the need for a robust sustainability policy in
order for the organization to achieve the target.
This issue can, however be mitigated by implementing a coordinated and comprehensive
reuse and recycling programs within various facilities and service districts. The use of products

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which require special waste handling should be eliminated whenever practicable. All hazardous,
biological or special waste can be handled according to the defined policies and procedures. The
hierarchy of reduce, recycle, reuse and compost should be followed before incineration and land
filling activities. It is the policy of the organization to establish a program in order to manage
solid wastes as shown (Yellishetty, Mudd, Ranjith, and Tharumarajah, 2011, pp.650-663): the
program should be aimed to reduce the solid waste amount in order to minimize the wastes from
environment. Another focus of the program should be to reuse the solid waste materials for its
original purposes, this is essential as it is in line with the goals of Kingfisher organization to have
a zero waste to landfill by the year 2020. Another critical thing that the program should give
priority is to dispose the solid wastes that cannot get recycled and reused through landfilling or
any other method that is allowed by DEQ, this method does not only eradicate harmful wastes
from environment but it also help in filling large caves left during mining activities (Yeheyis,
Hewage, Alam, Eskicioglu, and Sadiq, 2013, pp.81-91). Lastly, the program should focus on
recovery of energy from the solid wastes that cannot be recycled or reused given that the energy
recovery process is environment friendly, this strategy is essential in the sense that the it does not
only meet the objectives of Kingfisher but also benefits the society as a whole through the energy
generated from the waste materials (Yan, and Chen, 2015, pp.155; Yellishetty, Mudd, Ranjith,
and Tharumarajah, 2011, pp.650-663).
2. Energy
The data from six month examination of electricity bills demonstrate some financial
incentives to save energy. Kingfisher Garden center is developing a climate change strategy
including the target for greenhouse gas reduction. Various operating companies have also set
their own climate change target (Kern, and Howlett, 2009, pp.391). The Kingfisher corporate is

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currently working with carbon trust to find out the foot prints of carbon and identify ways by
which its impacts can be reduced. However, the energy bills are still high for customers. As
stated in the 2017/2018 report, the customers need a comfortable home where there is enough
energy with low energy bills, the organization thus needs a proper sustainability program to meet
the needs of its customers.
3. Water
Kingfisher Garden Center plan to decrease the water utilization of the items the
association offer by extending its reaches and expanding offers of water sparing items.
Kingfisher Garden Center will likewise be giving data and guidance to clients on water
proficiency. Amid 2017, Kingfisher Garden Center revealed its new brought together scopes of
kitchen taps which meet the water productivity best practice principles. Amid 2018, Kingfisher
Garden Center has been concentrating on bathroom taps, toilets and showers. Kingfisher Garden
Center are additionally investigating new answers for help clients oversee water use over the
home, including items that can enhance the gathering and capacity of water. Enhancing water
proficiency can be for a few extents, for example, showers, where clients frequently lean toward
high water stream items for solace (Sandoval-Solis, McKinney, and Loucks, 2010, pp.381-390;
Markard, Raven, and Truffer, 2012, pp.955-967; Daniels, Lenzen, and Kenway, 2011, pp.353-
370). Kingfisher Garden Center is investigating diverse solution to this problem.
4. Transportation
The organization accomplished a change in store vitality effectiveness over the previous
year; gaining ground towards the five-year focus of a 10% change. Kingfisher's working
organizations have created vitality and transport activity intends to help drive change in

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productivity, except for two of Kingfisher's most current working organizations which are
required to do as such. Anticipated vitality requests and climate variances mean the 10% target
stays testing. As a feature of the office program to make a cutting edge shopping condition, the
business is taking a gander at inventive solutions to save.
5. Waste management
Kingfisher Garden Center agency take 5.5 cubic meters of waste per week into landfill
per every fortnight. The organization needs to explore more ways of increasing recycling
including raising awareness to the organization’s employees on the importance of segregating
wastes materials as well as improving the data on wastes and recycling. Kingfisher agency is
working towards centralizing waste management contract for the country. This will enable the
organization to work closely with its waste management suppliers which will consequently
increase recycling thus reducing the waste materials taken to landfill (Bulkeley, and Gregson,
2009, pp.929-945).
Goals and targets for improvement
The goals and targets for improving the sustainability program include (Meadowcroft, 2009,
p.323; Kern, and Smith, 2008, pp.4093-4103):
 Help clients to live smatter by eradicating waste from environment through promotion of
use, reuse and recycling.
 To help the customers to save more money by saving energy.
 To help the customers save money and stay healthier by saving water
Action plan for sustainability management at Kingfisher

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Action step Improvement Person
Responsibility
Action KPI Progress
update
Waste
management
Improvement
of waste
sorting
House staffs
House
managers
Ensure that all
wastes are
according to
their materials
including
glass, plastics,
and metals
among others
The amount
of wastes to
landfill.
In
progress
Energy
management Reduce air
conditioner
and heating
House staffs
Grounds man
House
managers will
create
awareness on
switching off
power in order
to make staffs
and other
relevant
personnel
aware of the
environmental
and financial
Energy
usage
Yet to be
actioned

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cost of heating
and air
conditioner.
Water
management
Reduce the
usage of water
House
managers
House staffs
Grounds man
Use a recycle
water toilet
system.
Make use of
the recycled
water where
possible.
The amount
or the
availability
of water
Yet to be
actioned
Transportation
management
Conserve
fuels
House
manager
House staffs
Reducing
material use
by 30% across
the range and
save
packaging
materials
every year to
transport more
taps in each
load and
hence
reducing fuel
The rate of
fuel
consumption
Yet to be
actioned

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use.
Purchasing Reduce
purchase cost
House
managers
House staffs
Grounds man
Avoid
purchase of
resources
from
controversial
sources
Amount of
savings
Yet to be
actioned
Communication review
1. Roles and responsibilities for waste management
The roles and responsibilities for this policy is coherent with the best practices for the
organization to support compliance in the environmental performance as well as sustainability at
all levels in accordance with the requirements of Kingfishers customers. The head of the
organization may delegate authority but they remain legally responsible in accordance with
health and safety matters.
Head office manager will be responsible for the following:
i. The head office manager shall coordinate the framework of guidance to the association
on management of waste.
ii. Head office manager shall ensure the integration of waste management and Health and
Safety courses of action, where fitting.
iii. Head office manager shall ensuring that local waste management methods are set up as
per this policy and related organization controls and procedures.

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iv. The head office manager shall oversee waste management in the association and for
guaranteeing consistence with Duty of Care.
v. The head office manager shall coordinate all negotiated waste management of contracts
for use by the organization clients.
vi. Through the Support Services Division giving waste gathering by Kingfisher cleaners of
"office waste" and "recyclables, for example, waste papers, cans, and cardboard and
printer consumables and so on.
Department managers and other staff members will be responsible for the following:
i. The department managers shall ensure that every waste transfer notes as well as waste
descriptions are accurately collected for disposal.
ii. All department managers shall establish and keep up a statutory record keeping
framework which conforms to the Codes of Practice with the end goal that wastes can be
tracked.
iii. The department managers shall ensure that controls and procedures are examined at
minimum every year and that any progressions that might be required because of these
surveys are acted upon immediately.
2. Roles and responsibilities for waste management
The sustainability officer and the head office manager are assigned with obligation
regarding the accomplishment of the agency’s intent to be sustainable. The Energy Manager
shall be in charge of the improvement, starting usage also, along these lines the checking of the
utilization of the vitality administration approach. The Energy Manager is bolstered by the
department managers which has the following roles and responsibilities. The energy manager in
coordination with the department managers shall:

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i. Analyze longer-term vitality choices with regards to the estate methodology.
ii. Create and direct the usage of a 'spend to spare' plan.
iii. Initiate studies which is meant for a better comprehension of vitality utilization.
3. Roles and responsibilities for water management
The Kingfisher organization shall be committed to help its clients to save money by
saving water. Every individual should take every opportunity to save the save water and ensure
that water is used efficiently. The following shows roles and responsibilities for some
organization personnel.
The head office manager
The head office manager shall be responsible for the following:
i. Oversee management of water in the organization and ensure the compliance with
client’s needs.
ii. The head office manager shall appoint the a few personnel within the organization and
assign them duty to ensure the organization employees are in compliance with the
controls and procedures (Wolsink, 2010, pp.302-311).
iii. The manager shall supervise all the water management staff to ensure compliance with
the policies and controls on good use of water.
Competence training and awareness
The department of training shall conduct or require the organization employees and
contractors to go through an awareness program or a training for all employees and contractors
of Kingfisher organization. Everybody will be needed to complete training on the sustainability

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programs before getting employed or starting any work activities in the organization. The
training program shall be composed of the following steps:
i. The importance of compliance with the sustainability policies of the organization. The
critical environmental aspects and risks as well as related potential or actual impacts
associated with violation of the policies and procedures.
ii. The roles and responsibilities essential in achieving compliance of the controls and
procedures.
iii. Potential repercussions of any deviation from the defined procedures.
a. Communication with stakeholders
Postings is one of the methods that can be utilized to ensure that the organization’s policy is
communicated to all stakeholders in the organization. According to federal laws, the policies will
be mounted in common areas where all stakeholders will see them. The potential barrier to this
method, however, is that there is no guarantee that all stakeholders will read the policies and
procedures when they are mounted on the bulletin boards. This limitation can be reduced by
publishing the policies in hand books which are then given to every stakeholder in the
organization.
b. Review and evaluation
Month Bill ($) Monthly usage (kWh) Greenhouse emission (tones)
Oct 350 1190 1.9
Nov 330 1100 1.8
Dec 370 1102 2.1
Jan 399 1302 2.3

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Feb 440 1140 2.5
Mar 400 1250 2.2
Table 1: energy bills after one year
Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
Bill ($) Monthly usage (kWh)
Greenhouse emission (tones)
Figure 1: energy bills after one year
Month Bill ($) Water (kL)
Nov-Jan 140 29
Feb-Apr 135 28
May-Jul 135 28
Aug-Oct 120 25
Table 2: Water usage after one year

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Nov-Jan Feb-Apr May-Jul Aug-Oct
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
Bill ($) Water (kL)
Figure 2: Water usage after one year
On basis of the tables and the figures above, it can be seen that there is reduction in the
amount of bills paid and kilo watts of energy consume compared to the bills and energy before
the program was implemented. The same happen in the water usage. The transportation emission
has also met and exceeded the target with 60%. Landfill waste has also reduced from 5.5 cubic
square to 2 cubic square. This is an indication that there is compliance thus the objectives of
Kingfisher agency are met.
Compliance and Monitoring
The compliance and effectiveness of the sustainability control and procedures can be
evaluated from the graph and table presented above. Key Performance Indicator KPI will be used
at this point. The KPI refer to a measurable value that demonstrate how effectively an
organization is achieving its key business objectives. The KPI will be used to evaluate the
effectiveness of the implementation of waste management sustainability. A high performance

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may reflect the overall performance of the enterprise with the implemented program while a low
level KPI may signify the low performance of the organization with the implemented program.
The KPI in the waste management case is the amount of land fill waste. The decrease in
land fill waste will show compliance of the sustainability control and procedures. Constant or
increase in the amount of landfill waste, on the other hand shows that the implemented
sustainability program has no effect on the business objective of the organization, thus the
organization make decision on basis of the results.
The progress of the implemented sustainability program can, be measured through the
performance measures. The performance refer to how the result expected from the implemented
program moves over time towards the desired target. The progress of this program can be
measured by calculating the average of the results from the key performance indicator after every
week or month, by this we will be able to know if the program performs as anticipated or not on
basis of which a decision will be made by the organization personnel.

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Reference list
Bulkeley, H. and Gregson, N., 2009. Crossing the threshold: municipal waste policy and
household waste generation. Environment and planning A, 41(4), pp.929-945.
Daniels, P.L., Lenzen, M. and Kenway, S.J., 2011. The ins and outs of water use–a review of
multi-region input–output analysis and water footprints for regional sustainability analysis and
policy. Economic Systems Research, 23(4), pp.353-370.
Farrelly, M. and Brown, R., 2011. Rethinking urban water management: Experimentation as a
way forward?. Global Environmental Change, 21(2), pp.721-732.
Kern, F. and Howlett, M., 2009. Implementing transition management as policy reforms: a case
study of the Dutch energy sector. Policy Sciences, 42(4), p.391.
Kern, F. and Smith, A., 2008. Restructuring energy systems for sustainability? Energy transition
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Markard, J., Raven, R. and Truffer, B., 2012. Sustainability transitions: An emerging field of
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Meadowcroft, J., 2009. What about the politics? Sustainable development, transition
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Management, 137(5), pp.381-390.

Sustainability Practices for Information Technology 17
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