Sustainable Operations II: Benchmarking Report for Cober Solutions

This report presents a comprehensive analysis of Cober Solutions, a printing industry company, focusing on benchmarking its sustainability performance against competitors, particularly in waste, water, and energy management. The report follows the assignment brief to offer recommendations for Cober Solutions, emphasizing the importance of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in achieving sustainability goals. It explores waste reduction strategies, including the use of recycled content paper (RCP) and the reduction of paper consumption, to minimize environmental impact. The analysis extends to water usage, advocating for practices to minimize water footprint and protect water resources. For energy, the report recommends strategic KPIs like Energy Cost Index (ECI), Site Energy Use Intensity, and Productivity Index. The conclusion underscores the significance of benchmarking and effective KPI implementation for Cober Solutions to attain sustainability, enhance brand value, and gain a competitive edge in the market. The report provides insights on how Cober Solutions can improve its sustainable operations and set benchmarks for others in the industry.

Sustainable Operations II

INTRODUCTION 3
TASK 1- Report on Findings.................................................................................................................3
TASK 2- Summary of Key Findings.....................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION.....................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Benchmarking is defined as practice to compare performance metrics as well as
process of business from their competitors (De, Choudhary & Tiwari, 2017). This mainly
measure quality, cost and time. It is very important for business to set benchmarking in order
to become sustainable leader at competitive marketplace. The given report is based on Cober
Solutions which is printing industry that provide different products like newspaper,
stationery, business cards and service includes book binding, book repairing and others. The
competitor of Cober Solutions is minuteman press which has set benchmark for
sustainability. The main aim of this report is to provide recommendation to Cober Solutions
to follow three main KPIs such as waste, water and energy.
TASK 1- Report on Findings
Cober Solutions has to focus on different Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for
setting benchmark in terms of sustainability in order to beat with competitors. Some of them
are recommended in context of competitors which are described below:
Waste
For waste reduction, different practices or benchmark has been set by authority which
should be adopted by printing industry in proper manner (Dubey & et. al., 2015). The policy
made by Sustainable Paper and Printing identifies about using of recycled content paper
(RCP) as well as other elements such as harvested wood, process of chlorine and many more.
This practice helps to set benchmark for other organisation to minimize waste and maximize
profits. Copying as well as printing policies identifies about procedures which helps in
reducing usage of paper. There are some recommendations to respective business regarding
waste minimization such as:
 RCP is referred as paper which contains 30% post user recycled matter but on other
hand, it contains 100% RCP (Paper Reduction and Sustainable Printing, 2015).
 The buying of RCP leads to save environments in different aspects.
 RCP contains less usage of toxic chemicals as well as low bleaching rather than virgin
papers.
 There is production of approx 300 million tons of paper which consumes 300 million
forested area that contain large amounts of energy, chemicals, water and pesticides. In
this aspects, there should be less consumption of papers to reduce environmental
impacts and keep surrounding cleans.
 The reduction of paper use leads to support non-renewable industry in best manner.
Water
This is another baseline of sustainability KPI’s which helps Cober Solution to become
sustainable leader and set benchmark for others (Grant, Trautrims & Wong, 2017). Printing
industry has to follow several practices to minimize use of water which helps in saving

environment from different harms. Water footprint is regarded as measure which denotes
about use of water by business and impact to environment in direct or indirect way. It is
regarded as important source for each and every enterprise. Water scarcity is becoming issue
to environment as well as human health that cause rise in malnutrition, diseases, reduction of
biodiversity. For KPI related to water, footprint should be conducted which helps in saving
quality, supply and regionality. The respective organisation has to identify volume of water in
supply chain for producing goods and services. Other step is to determine methodology for
impact assessment. There are different acts made in order to protect water from getting dirt. If
any business pollute water then they are liable to pay fine for it. These practices should be
followed by Cober Solutions for maintaining sustainable position at marketplace and achieve
competitive advantages.
Energy
It is sustainability KPIs where energy should be used in proper manner to maintain
sustainable position at marketplace (Jaehn, 2016). Printing industry has to set benchmark for
respective KPI in most effective manner. There are two kinds of KPIs for energy managers
where first includes high level that helps in sustainability as well as efficiency for
management of organisation. Similarly, on other hand, other form includes Energy
Management System (EMS) which helps in success of program over time period. It is
recommended to respective organisation to follow different strategic KPISs for energy which
are as follows:
Energy Cost Index (ECI) - This assist in measuring total cost of business like steam,
water, gas, electricity (Managing Energy Using Key Performance Indicators, 2014). It is
determined in terms of dollars that denotes variables and demand that impact levers.
Site Energy Use Intensity- This type of strategic focus on demand aspect of energy
used by air conditioned available at workplace. It is regarded as metric that is used to
measure energy programs in order to decline or reduce consumption of energy.
Productivity Index- This helps in determining rate at which energy is used per unit
of input. Such types of KPI lead to business success.
Apart from these, there are some site controls KPIs for energy which includes HVAC
health, energy outliners, set point non-compliance, site connectivity, lighting exceptions and
so on. With following of such strategic and KPIs, respective organisation can decline use of
energy for their business in appropriate manner.
TASK 2- Summary of Key Findings
The main purpose of this report is to apply KPI for waste, water and energy to
become sustainable business at market. It is very important that respective organisation has to
effectively use such strategic for setting benchmark for other business. This leads to rise in
brand value and goodwill among competitors in best manner. For water reduction, RCP
should be used to save environment. Similarly, for water reduction, business has to determine

methods, quality and supply. Lastly, energy is measured with assistance of different
techniques such as sustainability index, load factors and many more.

CONCLUSION
From the report, it has concluded that organisation has to set benchmark in order to
attain sustainability for KPIs. The organisation has set benchmark for three major key
performance indicators such as waste, water and energy in order to achieve as well as become
sustainable player at competitive marketplace. For each KPI, benchmark has set which should
be followed by business in most effective way to achieve goal and objectives. This also
assists in enhancement of brand value and goodwill of business at market. It is also
recommended to business to apply all KPI at enterprise effectively and efficiently.

REFERENCES
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Online
Managing Energy Using Key Performance Indicators. 2014. [Online]. Available through:
<https://assets.new.siemens.com/siemens/assets/api/uuid:ccb07906-df33-4db0-b782-
6fc7f2d346f5/version:1560794068/bt-cc-managing-energy-using-kpis-whitepaper-
en.pdf>.
Paper Reduction and Sustainable Printing. 2015. [Online]. Available through: <
http://www.sustainabilityroadmap.org/pims/18#.XlVDA2gzbIU >.