• BSBSUS501 - Develop workplace policy

and procedures for sustainability

• Develop workplace sustainability policy
• Communicate workplace sustainability policy
• Implement workplace sustainability policy
• Review workplace sustainability policy
implementation
 TOPIC 1 – DEVELOP WORKPLACE SUSTAINABILITY
POLICY

• Define scope of sustainability policy

• The structure for policy documents will vary from
organisation to organisation, but some common elements
include the following:
• Purpose statement - the context of the policy, why it is
required
• Scope - the application of the policy (particular location,
workgroup, etc.)
• Procedure - how the policy is implemented
• Roles and responsibilities - who is responsible for the
implementation of the policy
• Legislation - reference any legislation that the policy
specifically complies with
• A generic environmental policy
• A general environmental policy requires the company to:
• Comply with environmental law
• Commit to continuous improvement
• Develop an environmental management system
• Resource the environmental management system
adequately
• Minimise pollution
• Ensure efficient production
• Facilitate communication
• How does a company benefit from an environmental
policy?
• There are several reasons why a company benefits from
the adoption of a formal, written sustainability policy:
• It allows you to determine the performance of its strategy
against an agreed set of objectives
• It ensures sustainability measures are ongoing in the
business regardless of whether sustainability 'champions' are
involved or not
• It establishes a sense of direction
• It highlights the responsibilities and accountabilities for
implementing sustainable practice throughout the company
• It provides a marketing tool to show your company's
commitment to sustainable development
• Sustainability matters are more likely to be understood and
accepted throughout a company if they have the support of
senior management through policy processes
• Writing the scope
• The purpose of the Policy Scope Statement is to guide the
development of a policy, provide a summary of a proposed
policy, and ensure that those who might be affected by a
policy are identified, considered, and consulted.
• Scope – to who or what does the policy apply? For example:
This policy applies to staff, students, contractors and visitors
at EYF Training, sites and teaching, development and work
areas where the business has operational control and
movement to, from and between them.
Gather information from a range of sources to plan and
develop policy
• Perhaps the first place to start in a management
review to develop and implement sustainable
policies is to review the vision and mission
statements of the business.
• Purchasing policies have significant influences on
sustainability, determining what raw materials and
resources are utilised in a business. Other significant
policies will include:
• Waste management (also known as 'resource recovery')
• Integrated marketing communication policies (internal and
external) that capture and communicate a business's
sustainability objectives
• Human resource management policies that link appraisals,
remuneration and rewards to sustainability objectives
• Identify best practice models and initiatives
• The best sustainability models for the business sector are
industry specific systems that are promoted and supported
by industry associations such as the Sustainable Green
Print (SGP), the Australian printing industry's own
recognisable certification program designed to help
printing companies meet their environmental
responsibilities and go above and beyond compliance.
Identify and consult stakeholders as a key component of the
policy development process
• Stakeholder engagement and/or participatory
practice is increasingly becoming a part of
mainstream business practice and central to public
policy decision-making and delivery.
• It is being used as a means to improve communications,
obtain wider community support or buy-in for projects,
gather useful data and ideas, enhance public sector or
corporate reputation, and provide for more sustainable
decision-making.
• Stakeholder engagement should be central to any
“sustainable development” agenda. Without consultation
with stakeholders, there can be no, ownership or support for
a particular project
 • Levels of participation
• Before any expensive and lengthy engagement process is
begun, it is important to have a good understanding, and
indeed consider what level of participation is actually being
sought. Public participation can be broadly categorised into
the following:
LEVELS OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION GOALS
 
Inform To provide the public with balanced and objective information to assist
  them in understanding the problem, alternatives, opportunities and/or
solutions.

Consult To obtain public feedback for decision-makers on analysis, alternatives

  and/or decisions.
Involve To work directly with the public throughout the process to ensure that
  public concerns and aspirations are consistently understood and
considered in decision making processes.

Collaborate To partner with the public in each aspect of the decision including the
  development of alternatives and the identification of the preferred
solution.

Empower To place final decision-making in the hands of the public.

 
 Include appropriate strategies in policy at all stages of work for
minimising resource use, reducing toxic material and hazardous
chemical use and employing life cycle management approaches and
make recommendations for policy options based on likely
effectiveness, timeframes and cost

• Waste assessment
• If it's your business, it's your waste, and it's your money!
• One way of assessing your current environmental performance is to conduct a
waste assessment. A waste assessment will help you to better understand where
your efforts will gain the most value.
• What is the purpose of a waste assessment?
• The main aims of a waste assessment are to:
• Identify each waste stream on or leaving the site
• Quantify and characterise each waste stream to establish
benchmark data
• Establish how and why each waste stream is generated
• Calculate costs incurred with treatment, storage, handling
and disposal of wastes, including quantifying associated
labour, energy, water and lost raw material costs where
possible
• Determine liabilities associated with waste generation
• Identify options for more efficient and effective waste
management (for example identify reduction/diversion
opportunities)
• What's involved?
• The following are the key tasks involved in a waste
assessment:
• Select waste assessment team — this should include at least
one company employee
• Determine audit scope — this depends on size of assessment
required and parameters set
• Collect available data
• Identify and characterise waste streams
• Evaluate data
• Identify and prioritise options
• Prepare a report and plan of action
• What happens?
• There are three main stages involved in a waste
assessment. These are:
• Preliminary assessment – aims to identify major
environmental issues, major opportunities for improvement
and major economic issues
• Detailed study and improvement plan – aims to find the best
options for minimisation in the site
• Monitoring and review – aims to monitor and confirm the
indicators and targets previously established
• Improve purchasing
• By improving your purchasing, your resource use and waste
output will be reduced. Buying recycled materials can
reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill. Improve
purchasing to:
• Reduce waste production:
• Do not over order raw materials. This can be avoided by matching
package sizes to batch quantities
• Explore the amount of waste generated by alternative raw
materials
• Check for damaged or tainted goods upon receiving
• Reward waste minimisation:
• Purchase recycled materials where viable
• Choose “long life” products where possible. Reusable or recyclable
goods or those with minimal packaging may be a preferable option
• Consider service contracts. Which are the most “environmentally
friendly?”
• Improving storage
• Improvements can be made to:
• Storage
• Housekeeping
• Minimise waste
• Spill response
• Conserving energy
• Reducing energy consumption can save money and reduce
greenhouse gases caused by burning fossil fuels.
Improvements can be made in the workplace by:
• Turning off lights and equipment not being used
• Using energy efficient office equipment and power saving
functions
• Use energy saving lighting products where possible e.g.
fluorescent tubes,(this will in turn reduce air conditioning
loads)
• Skylights will reduce the need for artificial lighting during
daylight hours
• Conserving water
• “Don't spend money like water, spend water like money.
The way you use it or waste it, water is in your hands. To
save water you need to:
• Reduce
• Determine the minimum volume of water you need -
Compare your performance to others and make
improvements where possible
• Ensure taps and pipes are not dripping or leaking
• Reuse
• Determine the cheapest way to treat wastewater - It may be
more profitable to treat the water for reuse rather than
disposal
• Investigate the possibility of rainwater harvesting for use as
boiler feed or cooling tower makeup. This can be a cost
effective way of reducing water related costs such as
reducing the size of drainage systems in new structures
• Reducing waste
• Segregated waste can often be recycled and may be a
valuable product for another business remember the 3 R’s:
• Reduce
• Reuse
• Recycle
• Less waste = less pollution = less effort = less cost
Develop policy that reflects the organisation’s commitment to sustainability as an
integral part of business planning and as a business opportunity

• Once you have consulted stakeholders, developed a

plan, and gained acceptance you can begin to develop
the policy that will guide any further actions in the
business. If recycling is your main focus, you can write
up the policy and procedures for your team. The steps
below may help you:
• Step 1: identify target materials
• Step 2: designing the program
• Education
• Company Policy
• Purchasing
• Reduction
Agree to appropriate methods of implementation, outcomes and
performance indicators
• In managing for sustainability, many businesses begin
the journey in earnest when sustainability is
documented in policy.
• Next a sustainability matrix is a requirement of all capital
works programs. A sustainability coordinator is appointed
to work within the company to coordinate sustainability
initiatives and report to senior management.
• The sustainability coordinator may hold other
responsibilities. It makes sense to appoint the person/s
responsible for the safety and/or quality to also have
responsibility for sustainability.
• Standard phases and milestones
• Phase 2 is a desktop review and a site inspection to ensure
what is documented is being conducted on site.
• Phase 1 is a desktop review. An auditor (usually the
sustainability coordinator or a third party consultant) might
go to the site and go through the sites' documentation and
undertake a quick evaluation (no more than 20 mins) to
see if there are major non-conformances
• Phase 3 auditing is similar in scope to a partial ISO 14001
audit and initially comprises of:
• An overview of the documentation to ensure all KPIs are
addressed
• A detailed assessment of a random 25% of the KPIs with a
focus initially on control measures, their implementation,
training and documentation
• Barriers to changing policy
• The main barriers to the introduction of changes to policy
are the implications on capital expenditure. Many of the
changes required have cost implications including, but not
limited to:
• Changes to electronic and/or hard copy documentation
• Additional document control procedures to ensure
compliance
• Additional staff or reallocation of existing staff to new duties
• Training staff on the new policies
• Purchasing policies calling for different raw materials
• Implications on replacement or upgrades to plant and
equipment
• Third party auditors and/or consultants fees
TOPIC 2 - COMMUNICATE WORKPLACE SUSTAINABILITY
POLICY

• Promote workplace sustainability policy, including its

expected outcome, to key stakeholders and inform
those involved in implementing the policy about
expected outcomes, activities to be undertaken and
assigned responsibilities
• Now that you have developed workplace sustainability
policy it is time to consider:
• How are policies to be communicated and promoted to key
stakeholders including expected outcomes?
• What are the most appropriate methods of implementation?
• What are the activities that will be implemented?
• What are the expected outcomes of the policy?
 TOPIC 3 - IMPLEMENT WORKPLACE SUSTAINABILITY
POLICY

• Develop and communicate procedures to help

implement workplace sustainability policy
• Once a sustainability policy has been formulated, you
need to determine the best approach to implementation
• You also need to consider the issues and constraints that
affect your business, for example:
• How much change can your business accept?
• Do you have the necessary resources available?
• Will you need to engage outside contractors to assist you
with information and training sessions?
• Are there any time constraints within which you must work
e.g. don’t make substantial changes during busy periods?
• Are there any environmental constraints within which you
must work?
 Implement strategies for continuous improvement in
resource efficiency
• Now let’s assume that you have implemented your sustainability
program. What now?
• Can you take the approach of ‘set and forget’?
• To some extent, sustainability programs are in a constant state of
implementation. Practices need to be constantly monitored and reviewed to
ensure that the program is meeting your objectives.
Establish and assign responsibility for recording systems to track
continuous improvements in sustainability approaches
• You will not know the results of your sustainability
policy and procedures without being able to track the
actual results of those changes.
• You’ve already established a baseline for how effective
your business’s sustainability was before implementation
of sustainability policies and procedures.
• Now you want to know the results of those policies and
procedures. That can only be accomplished by comparing
your ongoing activities with the baseline.
TOPIC 4 - REVIEW WORKPLACE SUSTAINABILITY POLICY
IMPLEMENTATION

• Document outcomes and provide feedback to key

personnel and stakeholders
• The final stage when developing a sustainability is to
monitor its effectiveness.
• This may be achieved through the collation of appropriate
data, i.e. (results should be quantifiable) thus allowing for
revision accordingly. “It is critical that a company monitors
the changing developments that occur relating to their
industry and the regulations.
 Investigate successes or otherwise of policy
• Once you’ve documented your progress, it’s time to start
analysing that progress.
• Look for the following:
• A particular person who has been the impetus behind the
success
• People who are ignoring the new policies and procedures
• Equipment that is part of new processes, which either doesn’t
work properly or is broken
• Systems that are not running smoothly
• Systems and procedures that are creating extra work for
people
• Changes in personnel, placing people in key positions who are
not trained in your sustainability procedures
• Problems with vendors
• Outstanding vendors who have helped create a success
Monitor records to identify trends that may require remedial action
and use to promote continuous improvement of performance
• It is critical to continually monitor and revise the
processes involved and compare results to expected
outcomes.
• Reporting based on data collected should adhere to the
construct of TRACE reporting. TRACE reporting incorporates
the principles of:
• Transparency: organised documentation that facilitates
interpretation of data
• Relevance: reporting serves the needs of the organisation and
aids decision making
• Accuracy
• Consistency: consistent measures and procedures must be
implemented in order to make comparisons over time
• Entirety: boundaries must be clearly defined, and all relevant
sources must be included
 Modify policy and or procedures as required to ensure
improvements are made
• Demanding that workers abide by the new policy in cases like this is
no guarantee that they will obey the new policy.
• People can be very inventive when seeking ways to get around a policy they
don’t like.
• Instead, what you would need to do in a case like this is to find a way of making
your sustainability procedure at least as easy as the other one, if not easier.
 SUMMARY
• Current and future interaction between humans and natural systems
will impact significantly on society and the environment.
• This highlights the need to understand and measure the nature of
sustainability and develop new approaches to:
• Lifestyle
• Land use
• Development
• Industry