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Assignment reflects about Sustainability at workplace is all about practices that one needs to implement in workplace

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Sustainability at workplace is all about practices that one needs to implement in the workplace for sustainability. In accordance with the triple bottom line approach, organizations mend their operational policies and procedures for three different sustainability domains viz., environmental sustainability, sustainability in employment and sustainability in corporate operations (Slaper & Hall, 2011). The following part of the discussion is focussed on application of the principles of sustainability and sustainability practices for a hotel located in Melbourne and the specific queries of the case study are reviewed and answered.

Overview of the case scenario:

Pompoms Hotel is a hotel with about 200 rooms and it is located in Melbourne city of Australia. At present the hotel is following with certain waste management policy and as part of the management initiatives, there is focus done on the sustainable awareness in the workplace and resources usage.

1) Legislation, regulation and one code of practice – related to environmental issues in the workplace:

Legislation

In accordance with the legislation it is the primary requirement of any organization to avoid creation of wastage, further if there is waste, it is to be assessed and subjected to recycling or reuse to the maximum possible extent, Further the left over waste is subjected to recovery of energy, Treatment and containment. Disposal is the last part of the hierarchy of the waste management and is to be preferred at last and avoidance of the waste is the first preferential strategy. Environmental protection Act of Victoria (EPA, 1971) is the legislation that monitors and dictates these aspects of the waste management practices (Ciambrone, 2018).

Regulation:

Regulation in this regard can be to monitor the waste disposal levels of different type of wastes eminating from the organization and to deal with each of these types individually to assess and enforce avoidance at the origin itself.

Code of practice:

As applicable to the current hotel scenario, it is required for the hotel management to critically check the waste being created and monitor the same for avoidance, reuse, recycle as well as treatment and containment options. Another code of practice is safe disposal of waste to protect the environment.

(ii) This information will help to create a sustainable policy for the organization, which can enable the creation of the code of practices and regulations to get enforced in the organization. Ultimately the stakeholders will come to know what is to be performed and what not to be performed in the organization in the context of waste management in the organization (Hawke, 2018). 

2) C)The current hotel waste management policy says that the organization is committed to minimize the waste and it is also involved in minimizing the production by employing reduction, re-use and recycling techniques as applicable at every stage of operations. 

Scope for improvement: Broadly speaking the policy is aimed at only the objectives however the direction to enforcement is not clearly indicated. So it is possible to improve the policy by dictating the exact procedures to monitor the waste and frequency of monitoring etc. Typical strategic changes like the “organization expects systematic monitoring of the waste on daily basis and strategic and statistical findings need to be assessed and monitored for improving the organizational efficiency” can be incorporated in policy statement. Also the policy can emphasize the organizational structure formulation for enforcing the waste management policy and its directives in the organization.

d) The normal procedure to approve the policy is to follow a systematic procedure of assessment of the changes, evaluation of the change requirements, proposing the changes and accepting the same for enforcement by organization wide notices. Approvals will be done by apex bodies in the organization and enforcement will follow the same.

E)  Objectives and targets can be set by following stakeholders,

Organizational management

Environmental protection agencies in the country

International and national environmental protection watchdogs

Waste management professionals

From peer hotel professionals, academia and intellectuals working in this domain.

3) Compliance with the workplace sustainability can be attained by monitoring the current and previous waste disposal rates in the organization. Also, the focus on the current technologies in use to enforce sustainability in the organization will provide a framework for evaluation of the efficiency of the sustainability practices being employed in the organization. Also comparing the efficiency of the waste management procedures with benchmarked standards of industry will enable to understand the compliance approaches being performed in the organization.

4) The measure and documentation of current resource usage at pompoms hotel

Paper: Usage of paper can be measured based on the actual paper being ordered. This information can be obtained from purchase requisition made in the organization. 

Example: 1 roll of packaging paper ( 60 kg) used – last week for packaging section

Energy usage- Energy usage can be read from the energy meter readings of the organization. Also cumulative energy usage can be measured from the energy bills being paid by Hotel.

Example: 200 Kwhr of electrical energy consumed last year.

Transportation – The transportation resources usage in hotel can be measured by finding the fuel usage in the organization. It is required to measure the same from the bills paid by the organization as fuel bills every year.

Example: 100liters of diesel fuel consumed – last month for logistics of material procurement.

Wastage – Wastage need to be measured from the actual wastage being dumped from the organization every day. This need to be monitored by statistical measures like the type of wastage being dumped, quantity, frequency, date and time etc. 

Example: 250 kg of vegetable wastage – sourced from preparation section

5). Change communication is very important process to be employed in the organization. It makes up an important part of the communication in the current organization. It is required to develop waste management policy in the organization and later it is required to communicate all the stakeholders, Typical communication process involves, informing the strategy to be enforced in the organization, This can be done by General staff meeting at each divisions which will be preceded by discussion with the line managers at each functional levels. It is required to give a clear vision of the initiatives, communicate them face to face, provide them the necessary support documents, further remaining open for any type of further corrections in the system and remaining transparent for clarifying any doubts if faced in the due course of time.

Proposed outcomes:

A clear cut strategic plan will be prepared and also all the related human resources will be informed of the necessity and the action plan to implement the policy. Final outcomes will be reduced disposal of waste and also it will result in increased reuse and recycle of waste from the organization.  

Activities:

Team Level: Preparation of the action plans for enforcing the waste management practices, monitoring the enforcement, monitoring the efficiency of the implementation and providing further recommendations to improve the process.

Senior Management: At senior management level it is required to devise the strategic plans for enforcement, auditing, revisions and monitoring the progression. Further availing the necessary skills and resources to materialize the plan also rests with the senior management. They should liaison with the top management/Board to bring out all these resources. Communicating the action plans and clarifying any confusion in the due course of time rests with the senior management.

6) The team will be supported by providing the necessary guidance from time to time, they will be provided with training or short terms orientation any if required, they will be provided with resources and any assistance if required to access the data sources or other actions in the organizations, they will be provided the same.

7) F) New waste management procedures need to be monitored for the following,

For implementation – Physical verification will make sure the implementation is being performed – Statiscal reporting based on observations will provide evidence as a tool and it will be employed to report the situation to the higher authorities and for verification teams from time to time.

Efficiency – Efficiency of the implemented procedures will be verified by comparing the actual progression with the past data. For example the current data of waste disposal will be compared with the past data of waste disposal and this will be employed to check the efficiency of the implemented procedures in the organization. 

Reports will be made on daily basis with evidential information to report to the organizational management and based on insights from these reports, organizational management can take successive steps to either promote the existing procedures or to rectify the same with modifications.

Observations, recording, measuring and reporting is the strategy to be employed.

g) Key pieces of information

The types and names of the wastes being developed in the organization

The quantity of the waste being dumped out and the frequency

Reduction or increase in each type of waste being disposed.

Extent of reused, recycled waste.

Relative proportions of the same when compared with the past trends.

8) The overall project efficiency can be monitored by measuring the parameters indicated in the previous question. Following are the three strategies that can be employed in this regard,

Actual assessment of the reduction, reuse and recycled waste (Pirani & Arafat,2014) and comparing the same with the past data for similar capacities of hotel service and durations.

Benchmarking the waste trends with competitive organizations and in accordance with the prevailing global standards. If there is anything not upto the requirement, then it is required to be updated in the strategy implemented in the organization.

Comparing the practices with respect to the EPA and other regulatory authorities recommendations and other related acts prevailing in the country. If the entire practices are in compliant with the expectations then it can be said that the project is comprehensively successful in meeting its objectives.


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