Improving CSR: A Sustainability Report for Unos Property Development

This report provides Unos Property Development with insights and recommendations to enhance its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities and improve its market reputation. It addresses the critical issues of water and energy efficiency within the Australian context, particularly for the 'Perth Skies Development' housing project. The report highlights the challenges of water scarcity due to low precipitation and increasing water consumption, as well as the impact of fossil fuel use on greenhouse gas emissions. Recommendations include implementing rainwater harvesting and greywater reuse systems to conserve water, and integrating automation and solar energy panels to improve energy efficiency. By adopting these sustainable practices, Unos Property Development can enhance its CSR profile and contribute to a more sustainable environment.

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Executive Summary
This report will help in providing better insights to a company known as Unos Property
Development so that it can increase its level of CSR activities in the market that will help in
increasing their reputation in the market. The report has also highlighted the problems related
to efficient use of water and energy in the Australian region. These problems have been
highlighted and proper recommendations have also been given so that it can mitigate the
problems as well.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Findings and Discussion............................................................................................................3
Water efficiency.....................................................................................................................3
Energy efficiency...................................................................................................................4
Conclusion and Recommendations............................................................................................4
Water efficiency.....................................................................................................................4
Energy efficiency...................................................................................................................5
Reference List............................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
It is very important for the housing companies to indulge in Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) activities due to which it can attract a majority of the customers
towards their project. Unos Property Development (UPD) is a company that has been
successful in all its ventures related to developing of property in the Perth region of Australia.
The company has been involved in developing residential and commercial places for more
than 35 years in a successful manner. However, the major problem faced by the company was
that it could not develop the properties in a sustainable manner for which its reputation was
suffering in the commodity market.
To increase its level of reputation in the market, the company has to increase its CSR
activity and has taken up a housing project known as ‘Perth Skies Development’ that will aim
at providing the houses that will be based on energy efficient and affordable sustainable
living among the customers. This will help the company in increasing its reputation in the
market so that the customers can have faith on the company. The company will lay emphasis
on the efficient usage of water and energy so that the housing project can be developed in a
sustainable manner.
Findings and Discussion
Water efficiency
In a place like Australia, it is seen that most of the regions are dry due to the extreme
weather condition that is faced by the regions. This is due to the fact that there is a low
amount of precipitation in the country due to the scattered rainfall that takes place over the
years. This has led to the increase in the transpiration of the vegetation and causes for runoffs
as well. This has led to the fall in the groundwater levels of the country as well due to the less
rainfall and the excessive use of potable water (Willis et al. 2013). Another major issue was

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that the per head population in the country has been increasing its intake of water, which has
led to the decrease in the rate of water conservation. Most of the industries that have cropped
up in the area use the water sources for commercial purposes, which has led to the wastages
of the resources as well. This has resulted in the issue to the first priority among the
Australian public (Britton, Stewart and O’Halloran 2013).
Energy efficiency
Due to the changes in climatic conditions, there has been an increase in the
greenhouse gas emissions in the country with respect to the continuous use of fossil fuels.
The increase in the demand of the fossil fuels for industrial and household purposes has
resulted in the increase of global warming issues in the country. One of the major problems
among the Australians is the heating and cooling mechanism that is present within 40 percent
of the households. This is due to the fact that the people can live a comfortable lifestyle and
continue its activities as well. Most of the people are using the hot water water services that
has resulted in the loss of energy accounting to 21 percent and is one of the major sources of
greenhouse gas emissions (Berry et al. 2014).
The use of appliances within the households also contributes to about one-third of the
loss of energy in the environment due to the appliances like televisions and refrigerators. This
appliances are common in the Australian households, which has affected the consumption of
energy in a negative manner (Frederiks, Stenner and Hobman 2015).
Conclusion and Recommendations
Water efficiency
Therefore it can be concluded that there are certain recommendations based on which
the company needs to operate so that the new project can be developed in a sustainable
manner. To increase the efficiency of the water consumption, the project needs to provide an

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opportunity so that the rainwater can be harvested in a proper manner. It will be a cost-
effective technique where the shortage of water supply can be fulfilled through this activity.
The conservation of water will also be beneficial for the cultural and environmental aspects
so that it can help in reducing the level of carbon emissions in the region (Levidow et al.
2014).
The concept of greywater reuse will also result in providing the natural resource for
irrigating the gardens of the customers, as the arrangement will be using the bore water that is
available to a certain extent and the rest will be saved for future purposes. It will provide a
maximum of 10 mm of water every day for a garden area of 40m2. This will help in reserving
the water sources for a longer period of time. It will help in saving 12KL of water on an
average every year for an individual (Byrne, Dallas and Newman 2014).
Energy efficiency
The project needs to increase the process of automation in the houses, which will be
controlled through the use of remote controls. This will help in improving the energy
consumption process so that more energy can be saved within the households. It will also
help in providing better feedbacks related to the use of electricity on a real-time basis as well.
The company needs to install solar energy panels on the roofs of the building so that it can
harvest the energy form the sun. The cost of installing the equipment is high whereas it has a
low cost of running the application. This will help in saving the energy to a great extent
(Bukhin et al. 2015).
The company also needs to install batteries and inverters in the building so that when
the demand of the consumers increases, it can be met with the help of these appliances. The
inverters will be able to convert the energy from DC to Ac so that it can fulfil the requirement

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of the consumers during the emergency period. The use of batteries and inverters in the
buildings will help in saving the non-renewable energy to a great extent (Bassam 2013).
Reference List
Bassam, N.E. ed., 2013. Energy plant species: their use and impact on environment and
development. Routledge.
Berry, S., Whaley, D., Davidson, K. and Saman, W., 2014. Do the numbers stack up?
Lessons from a zero carbon housing estate. Renewable Energy, 67, pp.80-89.
Britton, T.C., Stewart, R.A. and O'Halloran, K.R., 2013. Smart metering: enabler for rapid
and effective post meter leakage identification and water loss management. Journal of
Cleaner Production, 54, pp.166-176.
Bukhin, M., Cole, P., Faludi, R. and Tyler, D., Tendril Networks Inc, 2015. Methods and
systems for managing energy usage in buildings. U.S. Patent 9,026,261.
Byrne, J., Dallas, S. and Newman, P., 2014. Optimising Residential Water Efficiency–The
Josh’s House Project. In Oz Water’14 Conference proceedings. Australian Water
Association.
Frederiks, E.R., Stenner, K. and Hobman, E.V., 2015. Household energy use: Applying
behavioural economics to understand consumer decision-making and behaviour. Renewable
and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 41, pp.1385-1394.
Levidow, L., Zaccaria, D., Maia, R., Vivas, E., Todorovic, M. and Scardigno, A., 2014.
Improving water-efficient irrigation: Prospects and difficulties of innovative
practices. Agricultural Water Management, 146, pp.84-94.

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Willis, R.M., Stewart, R.A., Giurco, D.P., Talebpour, M.R. and Mousavinejad, A., 2013. End
use water consumption in households: impact of socio-demographic factors and efficient
devices. Journal of Cleaner Production, 60, pp.107-115.