MacVille’s Sustainability Policy
MacVille is an Australian company which is engaged in the business of supplying coffee. It started its business in 2009 and is headquartered at Melbourne. As a part of business practices, MacVille undertakes various sustainability practices for its smooth survival and growth in the market. Business sustainability is the capability of any organisation to manage its triple bottom line process which is used by it to manage its social, environmental and economic, objectives, risks as well as opportunities. The concept of business sustainability has gained huge significance in the recent times. This report will identify the quality of sustainability practices of Macville. Sustainability policy of an organisation reveals about the practices that it undertakes to make sustainability as a part of its core mission. Further, this report will also highlight the insights about the Macville’s triple bottom line approach.
MacVille has developed a vision of becoming leading coffee related beverage retailer in the entire coffee industry of Australia. Since its establishment, MacVille has designed its strategic plan in such way that its plans includes strategic for the promotion of its sustainable business practices. Besides the aims of the company about the expansion of business to different cities of Australia, Macville has also aimed at implementing numerous environmental friendly measures to boost up its sustainability practices which are in line with the national standards in this respect.
The sustainability policy of Macville are continuously monitored and examined by its top management. Although the policies of the company are overlooked by the management, yet there are certain loopholes in the existing sustainability policies. The examination of sustainability policy has identified various discrepancies in the sustainability practices of the company particularly in context of its resource utilisation practices. It has been found that Macville is deploying resources at its head offices and shops in such ways which are not in congruence with the sustainability practices set by the expert’s team in this area. The water and power usage has been categorised as the expenses which involves low cost spending. There is no specific code of conduct defined in respect of usage of water as well as energy resources. Hence, the usage practices in relation to water and power has not given significant attention by MacVille. However, water and electricity both are the valuable resources and are regarded as the basic elements of the society and hence they are to be supposed to be managed and utilised effectively and effectively by the organisations. The Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system of the company has also come under investigations for not meeting the sustainability practices. Further, there are various other areas of the sustainability practices which requires improvements such as use of glass, cardboard, paper as well as plastic bags. It has also been identified that the refrigerator system of the company which is quite old has hindered the effective conduct of sustainability practices on part of Macville as the said system consumes huge amount of energy.
Areas of Improvement in Sustainability Practices
Apart from issues concerning usage of electricity and water, the sustainability practices in relation to sourcing of raw materials and waste management also requires several improvement. It has been observed that the waste management functions of the company covered recycling programme for its stores. However, none of such concrete practices are carried at ground level. The raw materials of the company are procured keeping in mind mere aim of profit generation. Moreover, MacVille promotes itself in the market as a ‘zero-footprint’ eco-friendly entity but it has been realised after evaluating its sustainability practices that there is still the scope of improvement.
The workplace sustainability policy covers office programmes, supply chain management practices, analysis of green purchasing life cycle as well as adherence to ISO 14001 i.e. Environmental Management System. The examination of sustainability policy document of MacVille, it has been realised there is a lack of an integrated approach within the company’s activities in respect of sustainability. An integrated approach of sustainability aims at combining environment, society as well economy and at the development of the strategies which could address all those areas individually or simultaneously. Hence, it can be said that sustainability initiatives which are being undertaken by Macville requires further improvements and it must involve stakeholders in order to be successful.
The triple bottom line approach is the approach used by the companies as an effective tool to report about the degree of social responsibilities, economic values possessed by company and the extent to which it impacts the environment. MacVille has also adopted the said approaches to report about its sustainability practices. Using TBL approach, the company has also been able to ensure that there is equality in the treatment of all the employees of the company. Also, adoption of the TBL approach has allowed MacVille to make sure that its activities does not lead to emission of more than 10% of total carbon gases emission. Other sustainability practices of the company include development of waste management strategies. A report produced by WWF 37 revealed that the countries with highest rate of deforestation activities are also the top coffee producing companies. Also, it has been found coffee is the second most trading commodity after oil in Australia. The demand of coffee has increased heavily because of which the producers of coffee has adopted the mono-cropping practices which causes damage to the environment in many ways. The increased deployment of resources in the coffee business has raised concerns over business sustainability.
Triple Bottom Line Approach
Macville must tie up with various projects such as Fair Trade Foundation or Rainforest Alliance to undertake better purchasing decisions in relation to its raw materials such as coffee beans so as to achieve its sustainability objectives effectively and efficiently. As Macville operates various stores where it serves coffee it could offer extra discounts to those customers who use reusable mugs. Further, use of ceramic crockery while providing dining facilities in its stores could be an additional way of reducing its negative impact on the environment. All these practices could significantly contribute to the green planet. The managers of the company have to act as the front runner in devising such sustainability policies which could protect the interests of its stakeholders as well. As it is evident that the existing HVAC system of the company is manually operated and therefore there are high chances of occurrence of flaws in its operations. The replacement of the said system which is in place currently with the electric system which consumes less energy but promotes further the sustainability initiatives of the company could be an effective step towards upgrading the quality of its sustainability policy. The new or amended sustainability policies must encompass various stakeholders of Macville such as its employees, managers, society and its suppliers. Further, making tie-ups with the organic farmers could also be an effective initiative on part of company. There must be adequate infrastructures to facilitate compositing function to protect the environment.
Macville must start making use of biodegradable and compostable crockery items so as to avoid harming the environment. Code of conduct must be designed for the usage of dual flush toilets at Macville. Other policies that could be formed are to educate the employees of the company to turn off power consuming devices during the periods of inactivity if it is still going to continue with its manual operating procedures. Moreover, to procure the raw material only those suppliers that are associated with the Fair Trade Foundation or Rainforest Alliance must be selected. Also, to avoid the situations of over-consumption of energy a limit must be set for the permissible energy consumption per head. Subsequently, Macville can organise various awareness campaign within the company.
After reviewing the sustainability of Macville thoroughly, it would be recommended to the company to make certain improvements in its policies and procedures. In order to make those amendments following things will be required:
Sustainability Initiatives That MacVille Should Undertake
The potential personnel that could be included in the MacVille’s sustainability drive are as follows:
To deal with the sustainability issues, it is necessary to analyse the areas where such issues applies. For the purpose of this analysis it has to be determined whether the entire organisation or a particular department or a unit has to overlook the sustainability programmes. Personnel are also required to implement and continuously monitor the sustainable practices of the company which are discussed above so that it can ensured that requisite improvements have been made and how far the sustainable policies and practices of the company needs to be improved yet. It could be MacVille’s Chief Executive Officer who has the responsibility to design required strategies and policies in different areas and make them implemented by the managers of the company. The managers will have to report on their compliances with the sustainability policy of the company.
Further, the employees of the company have to make their contribution in the best possible manner in achieving the sustainability objectives of MacVille. So the top management of the company must encourage them by providing requisite training and knowledge which enables them to perform their roles in respect of the sustainable performance. In order to act in accordance with the approach of triple bottom line the company must have a proper communication channel put in place to allow them to communicate about the financial as well as non-financial performance of the company with its stakeholders such as employees, shareholders, creditors and investors, governmental agencies and the society to which it belong.
The implementation plan of the new or amended sustainable policy must clearly define the individual roles and the deadlines within which they are supposed to achieve the set targets in the areas of sustainable business development. The targets could be related to any social economic and environmental aspect of the business such as increasing the recycling of waste products or materials by at-least 10% by the end of the current quarter.
BHP Billiton is an Australian entity listed on Australian Securities Exchange. The company started its operation in year 1885 and is headquartered at Melbourne. BHP is the largest natural resources company across the world. It operates its business in the energy sector of Australia. It is also known as the industry leader in major resource processing business such as aluminium, coal: metallurgical or energy, copper, manganese, iron ore, silver and nickel. Also, BHP holds interests in speciality products such as liquefied natural gases, petroleum or diesel oils. Since, BHP Billiton is using and possessing the natural resources in abundance it has to operate its business in such manner that does not hamper the sustainable development of the economy. For this purpose, the company voluntarily undertakes sustainability initiatives in multiple ways and also it reports about its sustainable business practices to the public in the transparent manner on a regular basis.
The vision of BHP Billiton is to create to create enduring value for its business through the discovery, acquisition, development as well as effective conversion of various natural resources and also to provide its customers with innovative and market focused solutions. At BHP, we are highly committed to our long-run strategy of investing its finances in cost effective, world-class export oriented operations which allows us to diversify our business across different markets and geographical areas.
We convert our vision into reality by putting the planned actions and activities in the areas of reduction in the consumption of natural resources, optimising energy related products as well as techniques that brings innovative solutions to add value for our customers, host communities and to the planet Earth.
BHP Billiton aspires to cause zero harm to the people, its host communities and also the environment in which it operates its business and to achieve the best and leading business practices in the industry. The company aims at creation of sustainable value for its stakeholders such as its employees, suppliers, customers, contractors and business partners and its host communities. Formulation and adoption of sound principles of safety, ethical conduct of business, undertaking various social, environmental and economic activities as a part of business practices are some of the integral ways of conducting the business in the effective and efficient manner by BHP Billion.
At BHP Billiton, we have adopted the triple bottom line approach to conduct our business in the most sustainable manner so as to protect the interest of our employees, host communities and the environment in which we operate.
Goal 1: As BHP Billiton operates within the energy sector of Australia, it is primarily focused on the energy and has a goal to reduce its energy consumption onsite at the live events organised by the company and in its offices
- Indicator: Energy
- Action: Reducing the energy consumption onsite at the live events organised by the company
- Stakeholders: Equipment vendors and employees.
- Timeline: Over the period of upcoming 5 years.
Goal 2: Achieving higher rate of return on investments:
- Indicator: Dividend or Capital Gain
- Action: Offering higher returns to the shareholders on their investments.
- Stakeholders: Owners, shareholders
- Timeline: Over the period of next 3 years.
Goal 3: To achieve the employee fatality rate to zero per-cent.
- Indicator: Fatality Rate
- Action: Putting health and safety at workplaces at priority.
- Stakeholders: Employees and management of company
- Timeline: In the next year.
Objectives of BHP Billiton:
- To maintain and apply high level standards in the areas of ethical conduct of business;
- To maintain an approach which is prudent and related oriented towards creation of maximum value for the shareholders in long run;
- To carry out the business operations by achieving high level of sustainability;
- To achieve the goals towards sustainable energy consumption, BHP will have to ensure that all the purchased energy related equipment are rated by Energy Star Program.
At BHP, we are highly committed to:
- Provide workplaces which are healthy and safe to perform the tasks. The company continuously seek approaches to promote as well as improve the health of its workforce and also the community within which it operates its business.
- Identification, assessment and management of risk to protect its employees, contractors, environment and the host communities;
- Upholding the ethical business practices in each and every course of action undertaken in the business;
- Encouraging the system of diverse workforce and provision of work environment where every employee is treated in the fairer manner and their potential is fully realised.
- Understanding, promoting and upholding the human rights within the company’s scope of influencing and respecting the fundamental rights of indigenous people and protecting the cultural heritages.
- Setting and achieving the pre-determined targets in significant areas such as energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emission and its intensity so as to promote efficient utilisation of the natural resources and to reduce and prevent the pollution in the environment.
- Regularly reviewing the financial and non-financial performance of the company and reporting about the results of the performance and progress publically.
- Enhancing the biodiversity protection by making assessment of the ecological values of the company and by keeping in mind the aspects related to land-use while undertaking investment or operating activities;
- Working with those parties or organisations that are involved through the company’s products and by products life-cycles so as to understand the pattern of emission caused by their production processes and to develop those technologies that have the potential to promote the responsible usage and management of the resources;
- Developing partnerships that could support our sustainable business practices towards our society and host communities with the aim of enhancing the economic benefits from our core operations and to contribute positively to poverty alleviation;
- Engaging with the governmental agencies regulators and other people who are directly or indirectly affected by operations, on a regular and honest basis and to take their opinions and concerns while undertaking decision making processes;
- Taking actions related to our businesses and working with government, industry and other stakeholders in order to address the concerns related to climate change.
In implementing the above policy, we at BHP Billiton, we believe in the total stakeholder’s engagement such as our employees, vendors and suppliers, customers, business communities and society in sharing responsibilities to meet our requirements.
Our social license is granted and sustained by us by providing the best quality of our relationships and our operational as well as environmental performance along with our social impacts of our operations.
Further, BHP Billiton will positively contribute towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as formulated by United Nations. As a global corporation we contribute to those SDGs by way of adoption of Triple Bottom Line Approach. We execute our TBL approach in the following ways:
- Our business activities: the products that we produce and the way in which we produce the.
- Our voluntary investments made towards our corporate social responsibilities.
- Our contribution to the governmental revenues by way of tax and royalty payments that we make on regular basis:
- The employment opportunities which we offer to the Australian citizens in direct or indirect manner.
The adoption of TBL approach reflects that we can work efficiently and effectively towards sustainability with the major emphasis on the basic themes such as human capital, governance, environmental protection and the social inclusion.
Signature or Statement of Support
Signed by
(Name Most Senior Executive) ________________________
(Title)___________________
(Date) __________
Signatures of key staff involved in above policy.
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