Sustainable Enterprise: Monitoring Systems and Indicators for Bank Australia

This article discusses the monitoring systems and indicators for Bank Australia's sustainable enterprise efforts. It covers the characteristics of good monitoring systems, features that contribute to effective indicators, sustainability dimensions, and a list and assessment of indicators for monitoring.

Running head: SUSTAINABLE ENTERPRISE 1
Sustainable Enterprise
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

SUSTAINABLE ENTERPRISE 2
SUSTAINABLE ENTERPRISE
Introduction
Businesses are known to cause damages consciously and unconsciously, and therefore
there is always the need to continually monitor the operations of the company and ensure that the
possible costs are appropriately managed. There has been increased concern regarding
environment protection more particularly from the actions of the business. As such, there has
been a consistent growth of sustainability reporting and different organizations are developing
systems that can be useful in monitoring the impact of their activities on the environment,
economy, and the community (Carayannis et al., 2014). The three major problems that need to be
addressed include natural resource Depletion, accumulation of wastes, and the contemporary
businesses. Active monitoring is attainable when there are specific sustainable indicators.
Sustainability indicators, according to Sundin, Nässlander, and Lelah (2015), are basic units of
measure that is considered essential for decision making in an environment that is complex.
Through indicators, it is possible to give a more reliable and comprehensive representation of a
trend and situation. However, sustainability has proved more challenging and therefore
monitoring process is needed to understand the value of sustainability systems (Görgens &
Kusek, 2010). Through monitoring systems, appropriate tools can be developed to help gauge
how sustainability practices are related. Additionally, it demonstrates patterns and trends of
sustainable systems when the system is understood correctly. Ones the system is realized,
indicators are then used to provide valuable guidance in decision-making.
Characteristics of Good Monitoring Systems
As already mentioned, monitoring systems are meant to reveal some of the trends and
patterns of the sustainable system (Görgens & Kusek, 2010). In that case, the system is expected
to have specific characteristics to construct a good understanding of the sustainable systems
effectively. Some of the attributes of the monitoring system include:
Accuracy: monitoring systems are expected to be as accurate as possible to be able to reveal the
patterns and trends of a sustainable system. An accurate system is the one that has the lowest
margins of error in measurements.
Comparable: The system is expected to remain consistent over a given period to provide room
for comparisons, which eventually help arrive at the desired outcome.

SUSTAINABLE ENTERPRISE 3
Clear: Monitoring system will have no meaning when it cannot be readily understood by users
(Hák, Janoušková, & Moldan, 2016). Consequently, there is a serious the need to ensure that the
system is as transparent as possible to all users and relevant stakeholders.
Transparent: good monitoring system is the one that can give full disclosure of procedures and
processes of sustainability system (Hák, Janoušková, & Moldan, 2016). Transparency ensures
that the activities conducted are traceable and are variable.
Inclusive: It would be difficult to have a good monitoring system if not all the stakeholders are
involved in the process. Every stakeholder that is essential to the monitoring process needs to be
included in the planning and implementation process.
Features that Contribute to Effective Indicators
An indicator can be defined as a measurement unit that measures the value of any given
change of a useful unit that is comparable to the past and future units. Features of a good
indicator can be said to be:
Relevant: effective indicators are expected to show demonstrate something regarding the system
that is needed (Choi, & Turk, 2011).
Objective: Indicators are expected to give the same result when measured by two people using
the same tool. It that case, indicator needs to be based on fact and not feelings or impressions.
Reliable: Effective indicators are those that are reliable, and the information provided by such
indicators can be trusted.
Specific: Measured changes have to be those that are attributable to the project and must be put
in precise terms (Veleva, & Ellenbecker, 2001).
Accessible data: effective indicators are expected to have available information, or the data can
be easily gathered.
Characteristics of Good Monitoring Systems Features that Contribute to Effective Indicators
Inclusive Accessible data
Transparent Specific
Clear Reliable
Comparable Objective
Accuracy Relevant
Description of Bank Australia

SUSTAINABLE ENTERPRISE 4
Bank Australia is a company that operates in the banking sector and has been in operation
since 1957. The company currently prides of 140,000 people as well as community sector
organizations that have decided on the bank with them ("Bank Australia - Customer grants,"
n.d.). The bank has numerous ATMs that can be accessed freely by the customers and offer daily
banking services like the mobile app as well as digital wallets such as Apple Pay. The company
customers are always looking up to the bank for the competitive process and personal service.
On the other hand, consumers have always put the bank to task to be genuinely responsible and
progressive with quality service that meets their needs.
Bank Australia is one of the few banks in Australia that is known for is responsible
services. A bank is a profit-making form of business, and its existence depends mainly on profit
(Weichhart et al., 2016). However, it has remained consistent in providing responsible banking
alternative. Some of the steps that the company has taken to promote sustainable and accountable
banking are by not lending to the fossil fuel industry. The bank aims at helping its customers,
people, and the communities to achieve economic, social, and environmental sustainability both
in short and long-term.
Bank Australia is known to invest more than 9% of its net profit after tax in programs and
partnership. Besides, the company gives employees two paid days every year to take part in
voluntary activities within the community ("Bank Australia - Customer grants," n.d.). The bank
is the first to become Benefit Corporation, which is also known as B Corp certification. It is
known to be a sustainable business just like Fair Trade certification is to coffee.
Sustainability Dimensions
Sustainability dimensions are majorly is majorly based on socio-cultural, economic, and
environmental dimensions (Schmidt-Traub, De la Mothe Karoubi, & Espey, 2015). From Bank
Australia perspective, the company has been able to take part in multiple activities that can be
categorized into these three dimensions.
Socio-cultural
Social, cultural sustainability is about issues concerning the opportunities for people to
realize their full potential. Most of the business work towards helping their customers and the
community at large to meet their potential and protect their valuable cultures (Kleindorfer,
Singhal, & Van Wassenhove, 2005). Bank Australia for instance, is working so hard to solve the
problem educational disadvantage that has been a growing concern in Australia. Most of the

SUSTAINABLE ENTERPRISE 5
students from indigenous and low socio-economic background are the ones who are most
disadvantaged ("Bank Australia - Customer grants," n.d.). Bank Australia has come up with
multiple scholarship programs such as Intech Bank Scholarship, among many others and it has
collaborated with groups such as State Schools Relief to give the disadvantaged students the
opportunity to access basic schools items such as uniforms, pens, rulers, calculators and many
others. This opportunity enables those who could not access school with the opportunity to learn
and be an informed member of the society.
The other socio-cultural sustainability dimension is the financial inclusion, and the Bank
Australia is known as one of the 12 organizations that have come up with Financial Inclusion
Action Plan (FIAP) ("Bank Australia - Customer grants," n.d.). This program is intended to reach
out to over 3 million Australians who are unable to access mainstream financial services.
Through this program, the bank offers financial literacy and supports various projects through
the Impact Fund.
Economic Sustainability
From an economic perspective, Bank Australia is one of the banks that have significantly
contributed towards Australian economy. So many people depend on the bank as an employer,
and several suppliers of different items rely on it ("Bank Australia - Customer grants," n.d.). The
development activities witnessed across Australia have been made possible through loans
borrowed from the bank at relatively cheaper costs. However, the company has remained
consistent in ensuring that even with the pursuit of economic growth, sustainability remains
essential (Weber, 2014). For instance, the bank does not finance fossil industries as one way of
ensuring that it promotes consistent practice among the players.
Through Bank Australia Impact Fund, only projects that have a positive effect on the
world are the ones being supported. The bank is quite aware that a genuinely responsible bank is
capable of making a better society. The company sets aside 4% of its yearly after-tax profit to the
Impact Fund and asks consumers to makes suggestions on areas they would want to address
("Bank Australia - Customer grants," n.d.). Consequently, Bank Australia has developed a good
plan for economic sustainability.
Environmental Sustainable Dimensions
Bank Australia has elaborate environmental sustainable plans that have been highly
effective over the years. For instance, the company has close to 927-hectare private nature

SUSTAINABLE ENTERPRISE 6
reserve meant to house woodlands as well as wetlands habitat ("Bank Australia - Customer
grants," n.d.). The Company has set aside resources to protect 13 of the native animal species
that are under threat. Ban Australia was able to plant 70,000 native seedlings working closely
with more than 680 community volunteers. Besides, it has launched “Reimaging the Future’
which is focused on conserving threatened species by providing them with habitat, food, and
biodiversity.
Bank Australia has many other environmental initiatives such as supporting projects that
are intended to promote a healthy environment. Through Impact Fund Customer Grants (IFCG),
the company invests 4% of profit after tax in projects such as renewable energy, environmental
conservation, and such like programs.
List and Assessment of Indicators for Monitoring
Environmental Indicators
The sustainable area that has been selected is the environmental indicator. The
sustainable indicator that exists in the monitoring system of Bank Australia is environmental.
Through environmental indicator, it is possible to understand the impact of the company on
natural entities such as people, land, air, water ecosystem.
The financial crisis across the world is expected to result in a loss of interest in
environmental conservation programs (McDonald & Rundle-Thiele, 2008). The crisis makes
environmental stewardship less affordable to financial institutions such as banks. For instance,
most of the firms dealing in fossil fuel are majorly large and are capable of taking large loans,
which is profitable to lending institutions such as Bank Australia (Ozment, 2009). It is most
difficult to turn down such customers when there is a financial crisis.
Bank Australia, despite the threats of the financial crisis, has come up with lending
policies that do not allow lending to fossil fuel industries. The company understands the need for
a healthy environment and would always want to enable its customers to practice the same. This
is a tough decision for a profit-making business as it limits its financial capabilities (Ozment,
2009). This environment indicator points out the measures that Bank Australia has put in place to
promote healthy environment over profitability. The table below shows indicators, definition,
measurement, limitations of the identified indicators.
Bank Australia is at the Compliance Stage

SUSTAINABLE ENTERPRISE 7
Based on the environmental sustainability dimension, Bank Australia is categorized
under compliance phase in the Dunphy’s Phases model (Stace & Dunphy, 2001). The bank
through its many environmental related programs demonstrates that it intends to comply with the
environmental laws. It promotes activities that are friendly to the environment and less harmful
to the community. At this stage, the bank can avoid losing money in non-compliance activities
by creating an effective risk management system. The positive outcome that Bank Australia
enjoys includes a positive reputation that results from its commitment to the environmental laws
(Stace & Dunphy, 2001). It equally has enhanced relationships with regulators and significantly
minimized risks.
Transforming to Efficiency Phase
Bank Australia needs to move from the current phase, which is compliance with a higher
sustainability phase, which is efficiency. Besides just working on avoiding trouble with
regulatory agencies, the bank needs to focus on having a progressive elimination of wastes and
improve its materials efficiencies (Stace & Dunphy, 2001). Bank Australia can become more
sustainable when it adopts strategies that will enhance its efficiency by reducing wastes and
reorganization of the business. This calls for redesigning their products and services with the
intention of making them cheaper and easier to recycle.
This calls for a monitoring system, which focuses on reducing the use of a resource such
as energy, water, and materials. The system is to find out the effort put on promoting life-cycle
stewardship where the activities of the business are supposed to be cleaner. For instance, the
company comes up with the regulations and policies on ensuring that the actions of the bank
meet the international Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards. The monitoring system can
best work when the indicators of efficiency are identified and the ways in which the system will
measure each indicator. Efficiency phase focuses on the material used in production, the energy
consumption, and the effect of a firm's activities such as transport to the environment. These are
the most important indicators that the monitoring system designed by the company will be
focusing on to ensure that Bank Australia maintains its sustainability effort in the efficiency
phase.
Indicator Name Definition Measurement Challenges/Limitation
Materials This is the substances of
concern the company
The measurements
are done based on the
Determining materials of
interest from others being

SUSTAINABLE ENTERPRISE 8
uses materials found in the
company
used in the firm
Transport This is the movement of
different items and
employees from
different places
Identifying how
company transport
projects towards the
environment
It will be challenging to
come up with specific
ways of determining
transport projections to
the environment
Energy Energy is used in
running activities that
require power such as
lighting, etc.
This is measured by
checking on the
energy consumption.
Tracking the total sum of
energy used in the
company may be a
challenge.
Materials
The company is a financial institution dealing with various materials in carrying out its
activities. Bank Australia focuses on substances of concern and only uses recyclable items and
limit misuse of papers. Since the company encourages the use of recyclable flyers and promote
electronic advertisement over plastic or plastic papers demonstrates concern over the
sustainability issues (Jurigová & Lencsésová, 2015). By developing this indicator, Bank
Australia helps in measuring sustainability impacts of how more environmentally friendly
materials can be used in the company.
Energy
In a bank, like any other company, energy is essential to running daily activities. Bank
Australia equally uses energy to run its machines such as computers, surveillance cameras,
counting machines, making coffee, washrooms, and many other ways (Bilac, Zhang, &
Terricciano, 2016). Consequently, this indicator provides a more effective way of measuring
energy consumption and appropriate measures will be put in place to reduce energy
consumption.
Transport
It is nearly impossible to avoid transport, as it is the means through which services,
goods, and employees are moved from one point to another. Bank Australia may not have
massive transport concern since not much of its services require massive transport system.

SUSTAINABLE ENTERPRISE 9
However, activities such as marketing and many other programs that need the movement of
employees from one destination to another cannot be avoided (Mumtas, 2016). Considering this
indicator, the company will be able to figure out where its transport system can be of a threat to
the environment.

SUSTAINABLE ENTERPRISE 10
References
Bank Australia - Customer grants. Retrieved from
https://bankaust.com.au/responsible-banking/bank-australia-impact-fund/customer-
grants/
Bilac, M., Zhang, B., & Terricciano, P. (2016). U.S. Patent No. 9,501,803. Washington, DC:
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Carayannis, E. G., Grigoroudis, E., Sindakis, S., & Walter, C. (2014). Business model innovation
as an antecedent of sustainable enterprise excellence and resilience. Journal of the
Knowledge Economy, 5(3), 440-463.
Choi, H. C., & Turk, E. S. (2011). Sustainability indicators for managing community tourism. In
Quality-of-life community indicators for parks, recreation and tourism management (pp.
115-140). Springer, Dordrecht.
Görgens, M., & Kusek, J. Z. (2010). Making monitoring and evaluation systems work: A
capacity development tool kit. The World Bank.
Hák, T., Janoušková, S., & Moldan, B. (2016). Sustainable Development Goals: A need for
relevant indicators. Ecological Indicators, 60, 565-573.
Jurigová, Z., & Lencsésová, Z. (2015). Monitoring system of sustainable development in cultural
and mountain tourism destinations. Journal of Competitiveness.
Kleindorfer, P. R., Singhal, K., & Van Wassenhove, L. N. (2005). Sustainable operations
management. Production and operations management, 14(4), 482-492.
McDonald, L. M., & Rundle-Thiele, S. (2008). Corporate social responsibility and bank
customer satisfaction: a research agenda. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 26(3),
170-182.
Mumtas, M. (2016). Sustainability Indicators for Assessing and Monitoring the Sustainable Land
Management in the Commercial Rice Zone of the Lower Pak Phanang River Basin,
Thailand. Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia, 11, 77-83.
Ozment, S. (2009). Global Environmental Crisis Changes How Banks Do Business | World
Resources Institute. Retrieved from https://www.wri.org/blog/2009/02/global-
environmental-crisis-changes-how-banks-do-business

SUSTAINABLE ENTERPRISE 11
Schmidt-Traub, G., De la Mothe Karoubi, E., & Espey, J. (2015). Indicators and a Monitoring
Framework for the Sustainable Development Goals: Launching a Data Revolution for the
SDGs. Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
Stace, D., & Dunphy, D. C. (2001). Beyond the boundaries: Leading and re-creating the
successful enterprise. McGraw-Hill.
Sundin, E., Nässlander, E., & Lelah, A. (2015). Sustainability Indicators for small and medium-
sized enterprises (SMEs) in the transition to provide product-service systems (PSS).
Procedia CIRP, 30, 149-154.
Veleva, V., & Ellenbecker, M. (2001). Indicators of sustainable production: framework and
methodology. Journal of cleaner production, 9(6), 519-549.
Weber, O. (2014). The financial sector's impact on sustainable development. Journal of
Sustainable Finance & Investment, 4(1), 1-8. doi: 10.1080/20430795.2014.887345
Weichhart, G., Molina, A., Chen, D., Whitman, L. E., & Vernadat, F. (2016). Challenges and
current developments for sensing, smart and sustainable enterprise systems. Computers in
Industry, 79, 34-46.