Aroma Cafe Context Report: CSR Policy Implementation

Research Report

Questions: This assessment task requires you to conduct research and develop a Context report for a fictitious business Aroma Café. In the later parts, you are required to develop a CSR policy along with its implementation plan. You are required to conduct an evaluation for the policy developed based on the further instructions. Part A Research Report Part B CSR Policy Part C Implementation Plan (Template Provided) Part D Evaluation Report  Case Study: Aroma Cafe Australia was established in 2015 and is a café chain, Head Office based in Sydney and café outlets all over Australia. It specialises in the gourmet coffee, breakfast and lunch for the busy and health conscious Sydney demographic. The Café has 3 outlets in Sydney 2 outlets in Canberra3 outlets in Melbourne1 outlet in Gold Coast. The company has been operational for three years. A Strategic Plan has been developed for the company by an external consultant with input from the CEO and senior management. The Organization has made a huge profit in the last year. The new CEO, Samantha Smith, has recently joined the organization. She is inclined towards directing some of the profits towards the more responsible practise within the café chain. While the café uses organic coffee, the café has done very little to demonstrate the Corporate Social Responsibility. Samantha has noticed this as a great opportunity for the business to improve its reputation and brand image. At the same time, it will also help the long-term success of the business. You are the senior operations manager and you have been provided with the responsibility to develop and implement the corporate social responsibility approach for the Gourmet Bean. About the Aroma Café ; Business Model The company own all the café throughout Australia. There has been discussions around the options of franchise model but nothing has been finalised. Vision . To be the most preferred café chain in Australia. Mission To provide our customers the best freshly roasted coffees with excellent service at a price that is fair to the producers and our customers. Our commitment to best practices towards customer service, our employees, the environment and our community defines the mission of Gourmet bean. Our values are: Core values underpinning our activities are: Quality Innovation Integrity Respect Honesty Reliability Organization Structure: Target market The Aroma Cafe target market are people working in the CBD areas aged between 25-50 years with a fast-paced lifestyle. They are concerned about quality and health.   Organizational Goals Increase the market share by 8% Increase the Aroma Cafe brand image as a sustainable and responsible brand Reduce the Carbon footprint Increase employee satisfaction score by 5% Current Approach Aroma Cafe supports the organic coffee industry and high-quality beans. The company is purchasing 30% its beans from Pure Vida roasters – A fair trade brand. The remaining has been purchased locally. Currently the organization is using paper cups which are 20% cheaper than the biodegradable cups. Switching to biodegradable cups would mean that the coffee prices would have to be increased by 0.10c The company has an initiative to encourage customers to use the reusable cups where they are given a discount of 0.20c, but it is not very popular. So far it has been noticed that 10% of the customers bring their reusable coffee cups along. Canberra outlet has a tie up with the local nursery to collect the coffee ground waste for their vermi-compost. However there has been no official policy regarding this at any of the outlets. The Gold Coast outlet sponsors the local Vinnies night patrol once every quarter. But there is again no official policy to do so.The Company would like to become more sustainable and responsible in their practices but there has not been a prominent action plan for this.The CEO has also observed a lack of expertise, skills amongst the executive team in doing so. There has also been a lack of direction and planning to bring together the ideas and initiative Recently the Café completed a survey for the customers and the following were the responses: 72% of your customers are loyal customers who buy coffee from the same café at least thrice a week. 80% customers would like to buy organic, sustainable coffee. 70% would like to use recyclable coffee cups but currently dont 20% people are not willing to pay anything extra for their coffee 72% are concerned about the carbon footprint and environment impact. 69% people were willing to pay extra if the café was involved in more responsible practices. 85% people are concerned about climate change.   Situation Analysis: For the operations manager to start thinking about more responsible practices an analysis for the average Aroma Cafe Café in a busy CBD was conducted over the span of 1 month.   When the life cycle assessment for the Aroma Cafe was conducted the following was reported. A common basis for comparing all processes and material/energy streams was used. Aroma Cafe used CO2e, or equivalent CO2 global warming footprint (measured as kg CO2). This number represents the global warming potential of a material or process To perform an LCA around gourmet bean, several feed streams and waste streams were considered. The values below are based on an average Aroma Cafe café using 100kg/week of roasted coffee. The relative contribution of individual café material and energy streams is shown below. The major CO2e footprint components of a café are electricity, milk and wastewater. Together, these three inputs and waste streams makeup about 92% of the total CO2 footprint of a café. Aroma Cafe policies: The company currently has the following policies related to HR practices. Equal Employment Opportunities Policy Anti-harassment Policy Maternity, Paternity, Adoption and Parental Leave policy. Workplace Harassment and Bullying policy: There have been discussions on the other policies at the workplace, but they have not yet been finalised.