BSBSUS501 Assessment 1 Answers

BSBSUS501 – Develop workplace policy and procedure for sustainability

Task 1

Introduction

MacVille enterprises is Melbourne CBD café that was established in July 2009 by and managed by Seamus MacVille. Their mission is to provide a unique and compelling café experience that includes high quality, fair trade coffee, hot and cold gourmet food and beverages and consistent high level of fast, confident and friendly service. The business plan is developed to lead the organization to be one of the leader in sustainability coffee and café within five-year time.

However, Seamus MacVille, the business manager of MacVille enterprises has reviewed MacVille’s operations and has observed that resource use in the head office and the shops is not aligned with the sustainable work practices being promoted by the Sustainability team. Eventually, this report aims to analyse the company’s sustainability practices and implement strategies. It focuses on the triple bottom line of the sustainability spectrums that are environmental, economic and socio-political.

(Refer to chart in Appendix A for the MacVille’s sustainability practices)

MacVille’s existing policy and procedure documents do not reflect the current business sector requirements. The expenses are reported (Appendix B) and shows that water and electricity are low cost expenses. They may not need any attention but the business manager wants to implement some initiatives to sustain the environment by reducing the use of air-conditioning and use dual flush toilets. The expenses report also states the high cost areas that need to be reduced for sustainability. There are steps to take determine the shortfalls between required sustainable practices and documented approaches to the same.

The objectives of this document are:

• Analyze the current policies and procedures
• Compare the shortfalls
• Propose new policies and procedure
• Develop an implementation plan

Task 2 – Case study question

1. Review the case study information provided (attached), policy and procedure documents (in the Appendices of your Student Workbook) and legislative and regulatory documents that describe compliance requirements for the business sector.
2. Identify and describe required sustainability initiatives for MacVille.

A list of MacVille’s policies and procedures can be found in Appendix C.

There are policies and procedures that are relevant to sustainable practices. These policies and procedures are:

• Anti-discrimination, Anti-bullying, Anti-harassment
• Workplace Health Management
• Risk Management.

All these polices relate to the sustainable practices in term of environmental, economic and socio-political. Anti-discrimination and Workplace Health Management are some of the socio-political initiatives that have laws and legislation to be complied with by the organisation. Risk management indicates areas where the economic could be impacted by injury or ineffective performance. These risks must be resolved to prevent any loss or damage to the business. However, the manager also notices there is not enough environment control for conserving resources. Therefore, some recommendations have been provided to the team to implement these inanities. These are comprised of:

• Reprogramming of all air-conditioning services
• Switching off light at night
• Better sorting of recycle paper from general rubbish
• Encouraging staff use of dual flush capability toilets

Other documents that can be used to implement these process can be based on:

• The business plan
• The marketing plan
• Strategic and operational plan
• Risk management strategy
• Financial documen

3. Research and describe best practice models relevant to the business sector, especially as it relates to this case study.

In this report, the most concern issue is to conserving the energy. The best practice of energy saving is provided by Bolton (Practical Sustainability, 2015):

• Examine the equipment: For the purpose of energy saving, the firm must determine which equipment can be disconnected at certain times. Furthermore, MacVille can also install humidity control systems in refrigerators to reduce the temperatures by 2 to 4 degrees.
• Lights setting: Replacing existing current light with more energy efficient ballasts to reduced energy use by 40 percent.
• Turn up the thermostat: implement a dress code for warm weather that encourages employees to dress comfortably for warmer temperatures and set the thermostat in workspace 78 degrees Fahrenheit during work hours. Raise it to 82 degrees Fahrenheit when occupied. The energy savings are significant. Raising the thermostat, a single degree can save 2 percent of the air conditioning costs.
• Regular maintenance: perform regular maintenance to keep heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems running more efficiently. Maintenance activities can save up to 30% of fan energy and up to 10% of space conditioning energy use.
• These practices must be based on different programs such as fundamentals of sustainability and approaches to sustainability, business ready energy efficiency programs, or sustainable coffee programs.
• Relevant legislation and by laws that must be met are Sustainable Planning Act 2009, Waste Reduction and Recycling Act 2011, and Work health and Safety Act 2011.

4. Identify and describe shortfalls in the existing policy and procedure documents, by comparing research and information supplied.

A review based on the current usage of resources are conducted to gain an insight of potential of changes to organizational performances. MacVille previously reviewed the operations and the result were the resource usage was not aligned with the sustainability practices. The expenses report shows the water and electricity usage are within the acceptable range. However, it is considerably high according to Seamus MacVille. It could cost the business in the long term. Therefore, new implementation is needed to minimize the cost at minimum allowance. This includes the air-conditioners and lighting system reconfiguration.

Furthermore, the rate of water, sewerage and electricity is low when compared to the Photocopier and Printer and wastage. The high wastage is the result of ineffective recycle system. More recyclable paper is used, less waste could be expected. MacVille is considered to be disadvantage on the waste removal service in both recycle and general rubbish. Therefore, enhance the photocopier or limit the use of normal toner and paper may be the solutions. Meanwhile, better waste system could be implemented within the firm to reuse the paper sources and maintain the expense economically and environmentally.

Reviewing the MacVille press release, the new policy to form the new work team is a great idea. However, there is missing of affirmative action. Eventually, the executive of problem solving and identify is difficult to proceed. Moreover, the training sections carried out by the team is insufficient. It leads to the unsuccessful achievement of energy saving. For example, one of the new team policies is to encouraging the last staff member leaving each day to turn the air-conditioning off. However, it is barely done since how the staffs know whenever he or she will be the last one exit the building. It must be a procedure for the staff to follow to prevent all conditioners is left running 24 hours per day. On the other hand, for the affirmative action policy, there is no section for the energy saving. It means the energy saving is the organizational responsibility not the employee’s.

5. Make recommendations for the existing policy options based on likely effectiveness, timeframes and budget.

- Air-conditioning is switched off automatically by digital devices after closing

- The air conditioners must be switched off manually by the store manager if continue running after hours

- Turning off unnecessary light is responsible for staff and store manager

- Store manager must check the light system and turn them off after hours

- Photocopier and printers only for organizational use

6. Clearly identify and summaries the scope of changes and new documents required that will need to be made to the MacVille policy and procedure set to ensure compliance with requirements of future sustainability initiatives.

MacVille should monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the new policies and procedures through a monitoring plan.

Based on the policies and procedures that have been developed in the appendix, the effectiveness of its impact will be monitored. The performance of employees will be observed practically and supervise frequently. The plan is to reduce the usage of energy, water and waste. It can be achieved through minimizing the use of photocopying, air-conditioners, and dual toilet. These must follow the sustainable practices which are being promoted by the Sustainability team.

7. Identify and describe who could be consulted with to review and develop the revision and creation of policy documents. (This information should be included under the heading ‘Personnel Requirements.’ below).

Manager will be the important person that we would consult with because the manager have the authorization to access and analyze different respects of current policies. It requires the manager to check realistically to observe how the business performs. Complying with the local legislation, the manager could advise the team and discuss about the possibility of the new policy or revised one. On the other hand, the manager will announce the revised policy and plan different training section for staffs to comprehend with these policies.

8. Write an interim report, by providing two to three paragraphs of explanatory notes under each of the following headings:
9. MacVille sustainability initiatives
10. Best practice models
11. Shortfalls in existing policy
12. New policy requiring development
13. Personnel requirements for policy revisions

9. Develop a revised set of policy documents including:
10. completed changes to existing policy documents
11. outlines for recommended new policy documents.

MacVille Operations – usage of equipment and services

1. Procedure:
2. Air-conditioning is switched off automatically by digital devices after closing
3. The air conditioners must be switched off manually by the store manager if continue running after hours

iii. Turning off unnecessary light is responsible for staff and store manager

1. Store manager must check the light system and turn them off after hours
2. Photocopier and printers only for organisational use
3. All toilets are dual flush capability

Waste management – waste control management

1. Procedure
2. A recycle bin is available for recycle items such coffee cups or drink cans
3. A separate recycle paper is available only for paper recycle and reuse

iii. General rubbish is available for costumers and staffs

1. Bins are coded with colour and label
2. Bins must be checked and empty when it is full by staffs

Dress code policy must be revised to ensure the staff to wear comfortably during work. It could reduce the use of air-conditioners. Higher degrees mean more energy saving. Another development is to reuse of all paper for printing. Double sided printer could be enhanced. The scope of these changes is to clearly identify and summaries the new documents that will help to develop the policies and procedures. This will ensure MacVille’s policies and procedures to be implemented for the future development. The propose documents including implementation plan and monitoring chart are available in the Appendix D.

10. Review the current resources usage for the organisation (as per the case study information attached).
11. An explanation of how you developed policy that reflects Macville’s commitment to sustainability and as a business opportunity.

The policy will be easy for everyone to implement and increase the business opportunity such as the saving of expenses on energy consumption.

12. Develop an implementation plan for the new and revised policy documents that includes:
13. a description of the sustainability initiatives being implemented
14. detail of how the new sustainability initiatives have been embedded in the new or revised policy documents
15. an evaluation of the likely effectiveness of the initiatives
16. implementation timelines and milestones
17. strategies to minimize resource use, reducing toxic material and hazardous chemical use and employing life cycle management approaches
18. sustainability or environmental targets and/or key performance indicators, compared to current resource usage
19. organizational costs for implementing the required changes
20. an outline of the monitoring approaches to gather reporting information throughout the implementation stage
21. a description of individual and team responsibilities throughout the implementation stage and procedures to help implement workplace sustainability policy
22. an ongoing method to identify and consult with a diverse range of stakeholders as a key component of the policy development process
23. a description of how continuous improvement for the process will be implemented and managed.