Timberwell Construction: Sustainability Assessment Report

This report provides a detailed sustainability assessment of Timberwell Construction, focusing on its governance, ethics, and environmental practices. The report examines various aspects of the company's operations, including employee turnover, ethical violations, and environmental impact, using the GRI framework. It highlights instances of corruption, anti-competitive behavior, and energy consumption, as well as social sustainability factors like employee hiring and discrimination incidents. The analysis reveals significant shortcomings in Timberwell's adherence to ethical and sustainable business practices, impacting its brand image and market position. The report emphasizes the importance of transparency, ethical conduct, and environmental responsibility for long-term business success, and concludes with a discussion of how the company can improve its sustainability performance.

Running head: GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY
Governance, ethics, and sustainability
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY
Table of Content
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Sustainability assessment.......................................................................................................2
GRI.............................................................................................................................................5
A. Disclosure of Economic Sustainability...........................................................................5
Disclosure 201-2: Financial implications and other risks and opportunities due to climate
change................................................................................................................................5
Disclosure 205-3: Confirmed incidents of corruption and actions taken...........................6
Disclosure 206-1 Legal actions for anti-competitive behaviour, anti-trust, and monopoly
practices..............................................................................................................................7
B. Disclosure of Environmental Standards: Disclosure 300..................................................7
Disclosure 302-1: Energy consumption within the organization.......................................8
C. Disclosure of Social Sustainability: Disclosure 400.............................................................8
Disclosure 401-1: New employee hires and employee turnover.......................................8
Disclosure 406-1: Incidents of discrimination and corrective actions taken.....................8
Disclosure 413-1: Operations with local community engagement, impact assessments
and development programs................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

2GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY
Introduction
This research report is a detailed analysis of sustainability of business operation of
Timberwell Constructions which is a residential company develops apartment complexes in
Stanwell Council. In order to perform sustainability assessment, corporate ethics and
governance practise have been considered in the assessment. Purpose of the report is to
analyse the existing operational scenario and prepare a comprehensible sustainability
assessment report to identify how transparent and ethical the organization is in its operation.
When preparing the sustainability assessment report, a suitable suitability framework has
been followed and applied. It has been identified that sustainability assessment is more of a
complex appraisal procedure which is particularly applied for supporting decision-making
and policy in a broad environmental, economic and social environment context. In addition,
sustainability considers all elements of the business.
Sustainability assessment
It has been identified that sustainability assessment is an evaluation as well as
optimization instrument that is focussed on strengthening the integration of sustainable
development in political planning as well as decision-making processes all areas of the
business sector (Sala, Ciuffo and Nijkamp 2015). According to Behera et al. (2014),
suitability assessment helps to assess the social, economic as well as environmental influence
of political projects by undertaking on the part of the confederation and it could reveal
conflicting goals and promotes optimization at the most earliest possible stage. However, if
the scenario of Timberwell Construction is considered, it can be mentioned that there are
several areas in the operation in which the organization is not able to deal with the possible,
social, political and environmental elements. For example, in the case study it was studied
that the business of the organization is suffering from a continuous employee turnover and

3GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY
especially many of the employees have left the firm to work for rival organizations in the
construction industry. One of the significant reason found in the case study is that the culture
of the organization is not sustainability and ethical. This means that the internal
organizational environment has issues with respect to culture, ethics and governance.
In the case study, it was found that Dennis resigned from the organization and filed a
workplace complaint claim in the Fair Work Commission. Dennis claim’s that has harassed
by the co-workers in the organization based on age. This incident certainly develops the base
for corruption because Pietrosemoli and Monroy (2013) mentioned that sustainability
assessment of a business firm is lead-managed and it is more of qualitative evaluation
technique that helps to present the influence of a project in a transparent way considering
three fundamental dimensions -such as it illuminates them on the basis of the perspectives of
key sustainable development factors, specifies the conflicts and trade-offs and facilities the
search for the effective solutions. The present scenario of Timberwell Construction indicates
that its business operation is surrounded by business conflicts.On the other side, according to
the principles mentioned in section 351 on employee Discrimination, an employer or the
organization must not take advantage actions against an individual who is an employee or
perspective employee of the employer due to individual’s race, colour, sexual orientation,
age, physical or mental disability as well as marital status.
So, it can be added that when it comes to managing an operation in a competitive
environment where the business is always on the verge of losing its employee base, fair
organizational policies must be considered. In this context, Onat, Kucukvar and Tatari (2014)
commented that business ethics is more a study of appropriate business policies and practice
about the potentially controversial subjects with the inclusion of governance, bribery,
discrimination and corporate social responsibility. However, current business scenario of
Timberwell, the organization is involved in unethical business activity. For example, it has

4GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY
been involved with the new development company to prevent the new entrants in the sector.
This practice is not transparent if it is compared with the corporate policies and the rules of
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to maintain and develop the
compliance with the law. So, the principles set out that all enterprises have to comply with
the corporate laws. In the case study, it has been studied that some of the organization’s
members are involved in bribery and corruption because it has been identified that for the
development of company’s development application through the council approval techniques,
five employees as well as two external constants have offered bribes to council the projects
and consequently, corruption commission have charged each of five employees and some of
the external consultants with corruptions. This scenario does not match with the basic
principles of corporate ethics, Fang, Heijungs and De Snoo (2015) mentioned that corporate
agency is based on the premise that employees, managers and directions should behave in the
best interest of owners, shareholders and all parties involved in the process.
As put forward by Sharifi and Murayama (2013), there could be some scenario where
the organizational agents themselves in ways hurt the organization and its shareholders. And,
the examples of some incidents could include bribery and self-service actions and it is just
like the incident happened in the organization. On the contrary, Starkl et al. (2013)
mentioned that shareholder neither have specific knowledge or nor do they have adequate
skills possessed by management. Thus, it can be added the whole scenario could create a
dynamic where even well-intentioned supervisors could feel compelled to short-termism. As
discussed earlier in the beginning that sustainable development is often controlled and
influenced by social, political and environmental impact. Existing organizational scenario of
the organization indicates the fact that the business of Timberwell is also found to be
neglecting the duties towards the environmental duties such as maintaining the balance in the
ecological system and prevent the pollution, restrict the use of energy. So, it can be added

5GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY
that Timbewell has been found $200,000 for clearing 0.45 hectares of critically endangered
ecological community.
It has been identified that in the context of GRI standards, the economic dimension of
sustainability concerns a business’s impact on the economic condition of its stakeholders on
economic system at local, national and global range (Asif 2016). However, in case of
Timberwell, the organization is most likely to face a tough competition in its construction
sector due to the increasing number of rivals and lack of transparency in its business
practices.
It is worth telling that the impact could be broader and negative for the organization. From
the perspectives of corporate sustainability, it can be mentioned that organization is widely
involved unethical business practice, which is affecting the brand image of the organization
and the organization is most likely to lose its market position in the coming days. Moreover,
it has been identified that Timberwel did not implement any sort of environmental
sustainable activities.
GRI
A. Disclosure of Economic Sustainability
Disclosure 201-2: Financial implications and other risks and opportunities due to
climate change
GRI Disclosure 201-2 needs the statement about the risks and opportunities posed by the
changes which could significantly generate substantive changes in the operation, revenue and
expenditure. This might further includes
I) Description of the risk or the opportunity and its classification with respect to
physical, regulatory and others (Globalreporting.org 2019).

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Because of the changes in the climate, there has been challenges of bush fires in the area
where Timberwell has thought to have a proposed site. Furthermore, it can also be added that
Timberwell could face an enormous loss because of the regions where the organization is
supposed to develop their new project.
ii). The overall cost of actions to deal with or manage or reduce or mitigate the risk or
opportunity and this could cost Timberwell Construction around 5 million dollars particularly
to deal with the environmental sustainability.
Disclosure 205-3: Confirmed incidents of corruption and actions taken
According to Disclosure 205-3 the organization Timberwell Construction tends to provide the
information about the incidents of corruption as well as the subsequent actions taken by
organizations. The following sections must be considered
i) The overall number of confirmed events of corruption. Moreover, no confirmed
instances of corruption or male practices in the business have been found but it is
worth statin that there are some particular allegations of a public corruptions
scandal which is still under the prosecution.
ii) This could also include the overall number of confirmed incidents in which
employees were dismissed or disciplined for corruption but there was no incident
of dismissal of employees owning to malpractices but the employees suspected of
corruptions have been discharged of duty without pay till prosecution gets over
(Globalreporting.org 2019).
iii) It can be added that the public legal about the corruption brought against the
organization or its employees during the reporting period and the consequence of
some cases. As per the case study, there has been one allegation of corruption
associated to five employees as well as two different external consultant who were

7GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY
allegedly involved in the bribery. It has also been noted that some of the
employees have been suspended without the pay till the closure of prosecution and
the contracts with the external consultants have been terminated.
Disclosure 206-1 Legal actions for anti-competitive behaviour, anti-trust, and monopoly
practices
According to Disclosure 206-1, Timberwell Construction, tends to provide the information
about the range of legal actions for the anti-competitive behaviour, anti-trust and the policy of
monopoly. The Disclosure 206-1 of Timberwell Constructions could provide the essential
information in this two scions.
i) It can be added that number of legal actions pending or complicated at the time of
reporting period about the anti-competitive behaviour as well as the violations of
anti-trust legislations particularly in which the business has been identified as the
participants.
It has been noted that there is a single case of anti-competitive behaviour which
was alleged against Timberwell Construction which could accuse the
organization. It has also been identified that organizations have been involved in
creating some conflicts with its suppliers as well as contractors and have
threatened to minimize or terminate the contract with the organization if they are
found to be involved with a new developed company coming up in the area
(Globalreporting.org 2019). The Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission (ACCC) have listed have particularly listed a significant case with
the Federal Court which is supposed to be heard in four months.

8GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY
B. Disclosure of Environmental Standards: Disclosure 300
Section of the report involves the statement that are usually made according to the disclosure
302-1, 304-2 and 307-1, this particular section could discuss about the environmental
sustainability of the organization, So the way the organization makes plans to reduce the
issues in their operations.
Disclosure 302-1: Energy consumption within the organization
This section could present with the information about the consumption of energy by
Timnberwell Construction. All sources of energy being consumed by Timberwell
Construction could be classified in the report.
i). The overall fuel consumptions within the firm from non-renewable sources in joules.
The overall fuel consumption from renewable resources by Timberwell Consstruction is
highly calculated at 0.5 Gigajoules per year (Globalreporting.org 2019)
C. Disclosure of Social Sustainability: Disclosure 400
Disclosure 401-1: New employee hires and employee turnover
According to Timberwell Constructions, the organization employees 58 employees and they
all are males. In this section, it can be added that rate of employee turnover in the
organization could be near 29% as 17 employees have left the organization for joining the
alternative options. It can be added that rate of turnover is quite high with 29% of the
employees leaving the firm. The firm has developed some policies.
Disclosure 406-1: Incidents of discrimination and corrective actions taken
Some incident of discrimination in the organizations have been found and the case
filed by Dennis who resigned because of the discrimination against the individual by the co-
workers on the base of age. It has been identified that status of the action has been observed

9GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY
and the actions have been taken. It has also been identified that the firm has complied Fair
Work Commission’s decisions and given the compensation, ‘
Disclosure 413-1: Operations with local community engagement, impact
assessments and development programs.
This section particularly discusses about the activities of Timberwell Construction over
reporting period. Many initiatives have been considered by organizations which involve
Environmental influence assessment on the basis of the regional communities, developing the
projects that promotes the concept of social housing for catering the needs of people in the
regions. It has also been noted that the firm has joined hands with Stanwell council to comply
with the proposed amendments which are to be made in accordance to local Environmental
Plan.

10GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY
References
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aggregate from C&D waste & its use in concrete–A breakthrough towards
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11GOVERNANCE, ETHICS, AND SUSTAINABILITY
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