Qantas Airways: Sustainability Indicators Monitoring System Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Qantas Airways' sustainability indicators and monitoring system. It begins with an introduction emphasizing the growing importance of sustainability in the global business context, highlighting the role of indicators in fostering sustainable development. The report describes Qantas Airways, Australia's largest airline, and its commitment to sustainability. It then delves into the sustainability dimensions, including social, economic, and environmental aspects. The social dimension examines Qantas' community engagement, partnerships, and alignment with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The economic dimension evaluates Qantas' financial stability and its alignment with SDGs related to economic growth and innovation. The environmental dimension assesses Qantas' efforts to reduce carbon footprints, energy consumption, and waste management. The report also identifies specific sustainability areas for further investigation, such as employee remuneration issues. Finally, it offers recommendations for Qantas to improve its sustainability performance.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Description of the enterprise............................................................................................................2
Sustainability dimensions................................................................................................................3
Social...........................................................................................................................................3
Economic.....................................................................................................................................4
Environmental..............................................................................................................................5
Specific sustainability area..............................................................................................................6
Indicators for monitoring.................................................................................................................7
Denial...........................................................................................................................................7
Non-responsive............................................................................................................................7
Compliance..................................................................................................................................7
Efficiency.....................................................................................................................................7
Strategic proactivity.....................................................................................................................8
Sustaining....................................................................................................................................8
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Reference.........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
In the global business context the business organisations no longer consider sustainability
as a strategic measure rather it becomes part and parcel of the survival of the organisation (Kolk,
2016). Therefore, it turns into a responsibility of the companies to plan better sustainability as
one of the major player of safeguarding the environment. Therefore, the indicators and the
monitoring of sustainability measure is also identified important aspect for the business
organisations to foster an effective and better sustainable development. The United Nations
report on 2015 pointed out some important indicators for developing a good sustainability
framework for the business companies (Sustainabledevelopment.un.org, 2015). Based on the
report, it can be stated that the potential traditional indicators of sustainability are economic,
social and the environmental progress.
This research aims to focus on the sustainably indicators and monitoring process for
Qantas Airways. One of the reasons for choosing Qantas Airways is that this company is highly
popular for providing the best service to the customers. However, it is also essential to figure out
the sustainability framework of the organisation. Therefore, this report is going to discuss and
evaluate the potential strengths and weaknesses of Qantas in facilitating a goo sustainability
framework.
Description of the enterprise
Qantas Airways Limited is the most popular airlines company in Australia and is
considered to be the largest airline by fleet size, number of international flights and the number
of international destinations. The third oldest airlines in the world, Qantas was established in
1920 and started its international journey from 1935 (Qantas.com, 2019). Encapsulating almost
65% share of the Australian market currently Qantas is operating in 85 international destinations
(investor.qantas.com, 2018). Therefore, it is obvious that the quality of service has to be of
international standard and Qantas rightly follows the same line in order to ensure best experience
of the customers and maintains their brand image. However, sustainability is considered to be
one of the major aspect on which Qantas is working on effectively. Therefore, the corporate
governance statement of the organisation is quite significant where the board supports the fact

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that the role of the organisation is to safeguard both the interests of the shareholders and
stakeholders and foster a good environment.
Sustainability dimensions
Social
Social sustainability is identified as one of the important aspect for the sustainability
dimensions. For the business organisations, there are 17 sustainable development goals that
United Nations had prescribed with the purpose to create a balanced and effective society,
economy and environment (undp.org 2019). As per the report of UN, it can be stated that the
SDGs were adopted in 2015 with the purpose to call to action to end poverty, protect the planet
and ensure prosperity and peace for all by 2030 (who.int, 2019). This specific and objective
oriented goals are very helpful for the business organisations to set their sustainability targets.
According to Spence (2016) social sustainability promotes the wellbeing within an organisation
which will support the process of shaping a good future and healthy community. Quarshie, Salmi
and Leuschner (2016) asserted that the role of the social sustainability us to encompass the
impact of the corporations on people and society. Therefore, the internal and external people are
incorporated into the social sustainability framework. Stakeholders in a company are playing
major role to place their interests to the governing body of the organisation. As a matter of fact,
Wang et al. (2016) suggested that the governance body should consider the interests of the
people both in and out of the organisation and it is their responsibility to prevent any kind of
threat to the social integration and prosperity.
The fundamental perspective of United Nations on social sustainability is also followed
by Qantas Airways. The annual report of 2015 stated that there are enough community strategy
and partnership were organised by Qantas with three distinctive pillars. For instance, journey of
reconciliation, nurturing the Australian society and the engaging customers and workforce are
the focal point for Qantas to facilitate an effective social responsibility measure around Australia
(Qantas.com, 2015). For this, the organisation also invested over $3 million with 30 flagship
community partners. In this regard, the organisation also interested to safeguard an enrich
community efforts and development and fostering diversity within the community as well as
within the workforce. There are also a range of programs especially collaborated with UNICEF

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such as the Change for Good Program. Keeping in mind about the vulnerability of the indigenous
Australian communities, Qantas also initiated the Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) with core
focus on the long term indigenous careers, developing cultural competency and creating an
Australian customer experience (Qantas.com, 2015). Those practice were definitely provides
Qantas a futuristic model where the business activities of the corporation is not only based on the
airlines but it also corroborate different community development practice and integration of the
local communities with the workforce. As a result of that it provides a close relationship with the
local communities while establishing business profoundly and considering community
development gradually helps Qantas to step forward towards coping with the SDGs prescribed
by UNDP.
Economic
According to Block (2019) economic sustainability refers to the long term economic
growth of the organisation that is also leaves a positive impact on the social and environmental
aspects of sustainability. Therefore, it can be stated that the economic sustainability of an
organisation has direct link with the social and environmental sustainability aspects. The role and
responsibility of a business organisation is to focus on its economic indicators like the financial
costs and the benefits that the company earns within an organisational practice. Henceforth, it is
primarily essential for the companies to put emphasis on the capital costs and the operating costs.
Moreover, the philanthropic activities of the organisation is also played pivotal role in embolden
the economic sustainability of the organisation. From the research of Choi et al. (2018) it can be
stated that business organisations are not welfare enterprises but it is also true that it has direct
relation with the society and the environment. As a result of that the business organisations
cannot deny its social and environmental responsibilities and channelizing the economic aspect
for shaping the social and environmental sustainability. Apart from that Svensson and Wagner
(2015) also pointed out that the continuous flow of profit is also important for the corporate
organisation to establish successful business in the competitive market.
Based on the above understanding, it can be stated that Qantas has a strong financial
stability because of its international popularity and the quality of services that it provides to its
customers. The 2018 Annual report projected that in the financial year of 2018 the organisation
earned highest profit of $1.6 billion which is a record in the history of Qantas

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(investor.qantas.com, 2018). There are significant increase in the total revenue of Qantas where
in 2018 the organisation earned $ 17,060 million in compare to the previous year earnings of $
16,057 million. Therefore, it proves that the organisation is considerably making success and
progress in its business due to the immense market capitalisation. It is also a significant aspect
that can solidify the reason behind hike in total revenue in 2018. In 2017, Qantas carried total
53,659 passengers whereas in the financial year of 2018, it was seen that the total number of
passengers was increased up to 55,273 (investor.qantas.com, 2018). Moreover, it is also
associated with the gradual change and implementation in its operations with advanced
mechanism that led to the success of the organisation. From the SDGs of United Nations, the
goal 8 states about the economic growth and goal 9 highlights the industry, infrastructure and
innovation. As a result of that those goals are strictly incorporated into the business operations of
Qantas and the management is surely looking for more economic sustainability at the end of the
financial year of 2019.
Environmental
Environmental sustainability has become one of the major concern for the current
business organisations in order to deal with the present deterioration in the ecological balance.
The report of Evans et al. (2017) formulated a direct allegation against the business organisations
for making an inhospitable environment by focusing on their profit and benefits only. The
business companies do not care about the detrimental impact that it casts upon the environment.
This is also an adverse impact of globalisation. Rauter, Jonker and Baumgartner (2017)
articulated that globalisation created huge competition among the business organisations and
most often it was getting vulnerable as the companies were choosing negative practices for their
own survival. As a result of that it can be seen that the business corporations are the most
triggering factor for damaging environment. in the light of this, the environmental sustainability
compels the business organisations to take extra responsibility in order to manage the business
initiatives and behaving like a social element for safeguarding the environment. Therefore,
Bellucci, Bini and Giunta (2019) prescribed a number of steps that the business companies can
follow in order to deal with the environmental sustainability. For instance, monitoring and
reducing the carbon footprints and usage of natural resources are identified as the most important
aspects that the organisations should follow in course of establishing sustainable environment.

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Qantas also puts a great deal of focus on its environmental sustainability practice as the
organisation is come up with the objective of reducing the carbon footprints and energy
consumption to a great extent. Based on the sustainability report of the company, it can be seen
that the 2020 environmental targets of Qantas is objected to reduce energy, water and waste
management up to 20% and 30% respectively (Qantas.com, 2019). Moreover, there is a
significant development in the operations of Qantas that proves that the company is highly
concerned about its responsibility towards sustainable environment. The Australian Road Map to
Sustainable Aviation was initiated in the year of 2011 over the policy, technology and the
environmental perspective. In this regard, Qantas also created up to 12,000 clean energy jobs that
meets both the social and environmental sustainability measures (Qantas.com, 2019).
Furthermore, it is interesting to note that the voluntary carbon offset program of Qantas is
referred as the largest of any airline across the world. Therefore, it can be argued that the
organisation is trying hard to make its environmental sustainability a success (). Another major
introduction that the company is made is resembled with initiating inflight recycling. As a result
of that this initiative definitely suits the Sustainable Procurement Policy and the Australian
Packaging Covenant obligations.
Specific sustainability area
The social sustainability area requires further investigation not on the responsibility of the
organisation over the local community but the problem bestows within the internal workforce.
Since 2018, this renowned company has been alleged with remuneration issues whether it is
associated with the employee incentives or the annual salary scale of the workforce. This is also
considered to be a part of social responsibility for Qantas to ensure the safety and security of
employees’ interests because they are also part of the society. Firstly, it was revealed that Qantas
stripped off the performance bonus of the employees but putting a controversial scheme that if
workers or any of their colleagues did any kind of misconduct then the entire team would not get
the incentive bonuses (Hatch, 2018). On the other hand, the Sydney Morning Herald Report in
2019 again exposed anomalies in the remuneration system of Qantas (Hatch, 2019). While
reviewing the financial report of Qantas, PwC found out that a certain number of employees in
the organisation are getting under-waged. The company put it as an error but the company never
had any intention to under wage the employees. It is a serious violation of the Fair Work Act in

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Australia (Hatch, 2018). Therefore, the consequences will be intense as it is not possible for giant
companies like Qantas to miss out such issue. There is surely anyone of the management who
has enough knowledge about this remuneration issue.
Indicators for monitoring
It is important to create a monitoring practice for the lack of social sustainability measure
that Qantas is suffered with and provide a good recommendation so that the issue can be
mitigated thoroughly. Therefore, the monitoring process has opted for the Dunphy Model as the
core indicator of the issue and finds out suitable recommendation.
Denial
In the initial phase, it was seen that the Qantas management completely denied the fact
that there was any problem regarding the remuneration. As a result of that any kind of initiative
has never been taken for making things right. In fact, Qantas is deliberately planned to create
anomalies in the remuneration of employees for its own benefits.
Non-responsive
During the voice raise by some of employees and their media interviews created problem
for Qantas to continue its social responsibility misconduct. The company corroborated the fact
that there were some error in the remuneration process but failed to mention any measure that
would be taken positively.
Compliance
At that time, the labour union tried to expose the misconducts and exploitation that was
prevalent in Qantas for a long period of time. Then the PwC report on the financial report found
out great anomalies in the form of under wage practices. The issue was placed in front of
Australian Fair Work Commission. Due to such legal pressure Qantas was compelled to accept
the charges that assured that they would take adequate measures to make the remuneration and
incentive structure transparent and open for the sake of the employees.
Efficiency
Due to the reputation of Qantas and the revelation of social responsibility misconduct, the
management is realising to review its existing social responsibility framework with a more

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concise and effective implementation of the plan. Re-identifying the organisational objectives
related to the social responsibility and to be specific the remuneration and incentive system
should be changed to a great scale.
Strategic proactivity
Proper HR policy and incorporating the employee representation in the board will help to
make a strong and effective social sustainability strategy for Qantas that can bolster the internal
social sustainable practice of the organidsation.
Sustaining
The move towards a transparent remuneration structure will definitely help Qantas to
procure better social sustainability practice internally. For the success of the organisation it is
important to make sure the objectives will be reviewed and changed with some additional efforts
like appointing an employee representative in the governance body.
Recommendation
 Monitoring the internal social sustainability practice so that further issues can be resolved
proactively.
 Reviewing the social responsibility objectives and enlisting the employees’ interests will
also be helpful for making a good social sustainability framework.
Conclusion
Sustainability is one of the major aspect that can help the current business enterprises to
run business effectively. In this regard, it can be stated that Qantas is facing serious social
responsibility threats that should be resolved as soon as possible for the benefit of the
organisation. The organisation has a continuous flow of financial stability and proper
environmental stability framework. However, in case of social responsibility, Qantas only puts
focus on local community engagement. However, it is also essential for any successful business
organisation to consider its employees as an important part in social sustainability. Therefore, it
can be concluded that the above mentioned recommendations will be effective enough to help
the organisation creating a strong sustainability process.

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