- Consider the scope and effectiveness of the current systems and procedures (Discuss with your work group or team where possible), and describe your collective analysis of the scope and effectiveness of the current systems and procedures, providing a specific example and details.
Do you have clear and current procedures? Do they address all the Regulatory requirements? Are your systems and procedures followed or ignored? Do your procedures, practises etc. include all of your resource usage and environmental issues? Do they work? Provide an example.Think about water in pits, fibre offcuts, chemicals, jointing waste, and so forth.
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I would say that we have very clear guidelines and procedures on maintaining sustainability. There are some penalties for failing to comply with the rules; hence, all employees follow the procedures.
The resource regulation committee gives reports every month and it has been noted that power and water consumption has significantly reduced by 15% compared to last year.
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Sources of information
- Identify and list a range of sources where you may find information, advice, tools, and other resources to assist in improving resource efficiency and environmental/sustainability issues in your workplace or enterprise. Be specific.
Guidance: Refer to the content of the course and the Unit of Competency for help with“sources” of information.
- Detail one specific idea, from onespecific source of information, that could be applied to your workplace or enterprise to provide improvement opportunities in the areas of resource usage and environmental sustainability that you have identified in your answer to question 1.3a.
Do NOT use fuel, electricity, water, paper, or similar as your idea. You must use an example resource specific to your industry.
Guidance: What could be done to improve the use, handling, disposal, waste reduction, etc. in the issues you listed in section 1.3? Where did those ideas come from? Your workplace procedures, MDSD sheets, stakeholders and internet are all good places to start.
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A specific idea Example: Fuel usage reduction
Resource: Government Web site www.gov.au.efficiency “Fuel use reduction strategies”.
One suggestion from this web site is to share commuting by car-pooling, thereby reducing the amount of fuel used to commute.
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In the table below; List 3 members of your work group or team, their workplace tasks, and responsibilities, and measure and document their daily workplace resource usage over one day (measure, count, or estimate how much of each resource is used each day). If you do not have 3 members in your team choose 3 tasks from your work day that result in resource usage.
Resources must be industry specific – NOT fuel, electricity, water, etc.)
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Name
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Task/Responsibility
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Consumable Resource
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Quantity used over time
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Example:
Joe Blogs
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Example:
Delivery Driver
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Example:
Fuel
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Example:
20 litres/day
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Joe Bacchal
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Technician
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Installation wires
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100m/day
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Gupta Pradeep
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Network systems analyst
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Network equipment
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15/day
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William Morgos
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Programmer
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Electronic gadgets
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5/day
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Investigate, discuss, and document your workplace’s purchasing strategies for one of the resources utilised by the members of your work group in table above (Q 1.5)and suggest possible improvements to existing purchasing strategies.
Resources must be industry specific – NOT fuel, electricity, water, etc.)
Guidance: Consider issues such as bulk buying, just-in-time resourcing, on-going purchasing contracts, sporadic/as-required purchasing, etc. Talk to those in your workplace who do the purchasing.
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Example: Fuel purchasing strategy
Our company purchases fuel on company credit cards.
A possible improvement to this would be opening an account with a service station chain such as Shell, and using a “Shell card” to gain company discounts on fuel purchases.
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Installation wires purchasing strategy
The company currently purchases installation wires in bulk using the company expense cash.
This can be improved by opening an account with reliable manufacturers of these wires in order to take advantage of discounts.
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An important tool for assisting in identifying areas for improvement in resource usage and environmental/sustainability issues is information and data on the usage, waste, etc of resources used in work processes.
Describe the processes used in your workplace to monitor and documentresource usage for one work processes, and provide sample information/data from the documented resource usage which indicate opportunities for improvement.
Resources must be industry specific – NOT fuel, electricity, water, etc.)
Guidance: How do you know how much of a resource is used? Who records this and how is this recorded? Where can you find this information? What does the information show you?
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Example: Fuel usage
The quantity of fuel used and the expenditure is monitored by the transport officer by examining the credit card statements and entering the information into a spread sheet.
Sample Data: The average fuel usage monitored is currently 55 litres per day (this is a fictitious figure as commercial-in-confidence issues prevent me from revealing actual figures).
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Installation tapes usage
The quantity of installation tapes used and the amount of money spent is monitored by the procurement manager and the data is entered into an ERP.
Sample data: The average usage of installation tape as reported is currently 20Kg per day
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2. Set targets for improvements In the following sections, example answers are provide to guide you in the type of answers and the level of detail required. The example answers are based on a generic issue (fuel use), your answers should be based on one of the industry specific issues you listed in question 1.3.
2.1Discuss your findings from the answers you provided in section 1 with your manager, key personnel, specialists, team members, and any other stakeholders, with a view to making improvements in one specific area.
Document their comments and suggestions, identify the sustainability improvements and outline your ideas for making improvements.
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Example answer:
Issue: Fuel usage - Can we reduce fuel costs of work vehicles?
Currently, all employees may use their work vehicle for commuting. This was discussed at a “toolbox” meeting, and it was suggested by me that we try reducing the commuting fleet from 100% to 50% by car-pooling.
My immediate boss indicated that he agreed, but that a 50% reduction may not be attainable. Nevertheless, he agreed that the strategy should be tried.
The sustainability improvements would include less fuel used, less cost, less pollution, less tyre wear and associated pollution, higher servicing intervals equating to less cost and less pollution.
The idea is to have employees who live near each other share a work vehicle for commuting rather than allow everyone to take their own work vehicle home each day. Commuting pairs or groups will have to be negotiated based on their residential localities.
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There are a number of improvements that can be done to improve sustainability. The consumption of copper cables can be reduced or rather, it can be utilised more efficiently. In the current situation, all employees use new copper wires whenever required and any damaged wire disposed of. After lengthy conversation with my immediate boss, we agreed that the damaged wires can be recycled and, even if it may not be used for the initial purpose, it can be used elsewhere.
The sustainability improvements include less copper wastage, reduced costs, and less pollution.
The idea is to have the copper cables recycled and reused.
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2.2 Research on-line or other reference sources for guidance, information, and ideas on sustainability improvements you have chosen to implement. Detail your reference sources and outline your findings.
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Example answer:
A google search revealed a Government Web site www.gov.au.efficiency“Fuel use reduction strategies.” Which advocates car-pooling as a cost, fuel, and pollution saving measure.
I researched car-pooling on the internet and found (at that it is an effective strategy for reducing fuel usage, vehicle pollution, and reducing maintenance costs, so long as the total distance travelled is reduced.
This implies that successful car-pooling requires users of a vehicle to reside close to each other compared to their commuting distance.
Since our commuting vehicles and fuel are supplied by our employer, significant savings and environmental benefits will accrue if we could implement a successful car-pooling strategy.
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I researched about recycling of copper communication cables and the primary source I got is Chemours website
I found out that it is actually mandatory in some countries to recycle abandoned cables. Disposal of these cables led to accumulation of plastic materials used for insulation. The cable wires cab be crushed by a machine and recycled while the insulation materials such as PVC can be extracted and recycled separately. This wil reduce both plastic and e-wastes.
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2.3 Consider the input from your stakeholders, your research, and your own knowledge and experience. Briefly discus and compare your options for sustainability improvement you have chosen to implement.
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Example Answer:
Options. An attempt at 50% fuel reduction is the starting point. Optionally; with negotiations and experience it may be possible to increase this to 60% or 70%, or we may find 40% or 30% works.
Another option for decreasing fuel costs of work vehicles, raised by the accounting department, was not allowing work vehicles to be used for commuting, a very unpopular suggestion with the work force who have commuting support included in their workplace agreements (Mi Workplace Agreement 2013).
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The primary issue is to reduce copper wastes by 50%. This can be achieved through recycling so that people can use small quantity of the actual copper for use to prevent environmental degradation. Another option is to use biodegradable materials to manufacture the copper cables. This will ensure that only the copper wires pose a threat to the environment.
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2.4Detail what scale of improvement you hope to achieve by setting specific efficiency targets that you intend to achieve. (Eg: A 10% reduction in LPG consumption.) Justify your efficiency targets; why are they achievable?
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Example Answer:
Reduce vehicle fuel use (by 50%) and maintenance by car-pooling to and from work instead of everyone taking their work vehicle home.
We have 10 vehicles in total, traveling a combined 450km/wk to and from work. Car-pooling with 5 vehicles, should reduce travel to and from work to around 250km/wk.
If we can implement car-pooling of pairs of people living near each other, we will only need half of the vehicle fleet to commute, which will result in 50% savings. Informal discussions with staff indicate their willingness to do this, and that this is a real possibility.
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The target efficiency is to achieve 50% copper wastage through recycling instead of taking them to landmines. We usually require about 500 meters of cables per day which translates to more plastic wastes and copper waste. If we can implement the recycling strategy, we will not be disposing anything to the environment since both copper and plastic will be reused after recycling.
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3.1Implement your environmentally sustainable improvement strategies, and detail the tools and techniques you utilised to assist in achieving your efficiency targets.
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Example Answer:
Tools:
A spreadsheet was used to record all commuting employees’ names and addresses.
Techniques:
A meeting was held with commuters to discuss the change, the reasons for it, the unpopular option of not allowing work vehicles for commuting, and to negotiate commuting partners/groups.
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A spreadsheet and ERP was used to record the copper cables usage and the names of the employees who used them. Data was first captured in excel and transferred to the ERP by the procurement officers.
Techniques:
A brief meeting was held to inform all the employees about the changes after which an agreement was reached and that employees will be recording their daily usage and ensure all damaged cables are collected and returned to the stores.
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3.2 How does your implementation providecontinuous improvement, and how do you facilitate communication of these improvements within the work group, and between the work group and management.
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Example Answer:
Continuous improvement is afforded by the day to day flexibility of the arrangement. Pairs and groups can change easily.
Where vehicles are able to commute with 3 or 4 employees, greater improvements are realised.
Where individual’s work commitments take precedence, their commuting partner may join other partners, or flexibility exists to use more vehicles and avoid disruption to work.
Weekly workforce/management meetings include discussion of commuting issues, and clarify weekly performance as noted by the vehicle manager.
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Continuous improvement is achieved by ensuring every employee collects data of his/her use and also collects the damaged cables to the stores. Employees are advised to effectively use the cables to avoid any damages.
Strict rules have been put in place to ensure any technical staff who handles cables records his consumption. The idea is to minimize usage and also recycle the little that has been used.
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3.3 How does your improvement strategy help you meet your workplace/industry specific OHS and Quality Assurance requirements?
Guidance: You may be aware of these requirements and procedures from previous training or from induction training. If not, your supervisor and work colleagues should be able to provide guidance.
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Example Answer:
OHS:
Sharing vehicles for commuting can improved vehicle tidiness and cleanliness, and adds additional over-site to the vehicle contents, helping to ensure the vehicles meet OHS requirements of first aid kits, fire extinguishers, sharps, toxic waste etc.
QA:
Our workplace Quality Assuranceprocedures advocate resource efficiency, and this car-pooling strategy assists with improving resource efficiency IAW our Quality Assurance procedures.
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Recycling of cables ensures that materials will be readily available due to low costs. The company will be able to afford more PPEs and ensure that all employees have access the personal protective equipment and hence, meet the OHS guidelines.
On the issue of quality, the company advocates for strict guidelines regarding quality. All cables with defaults will be sent to stores for recycling and hence improve quality.
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3.4 Monitor your environmentally sustainable improvement strategies and the work group members directly involved. Detail any supervision they required to implement your strategies, and any improvements they suggest. Can you improve your strategies from these interactions?
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Example Answer:
Once the car-pooling began, I noticed that most people were happy to car-pool, but two people continued to use their own work vehicles.
I discussed this with them and found that they picked up their kids from school, so car-pooling with others was difficult for them and caused delays for others. This is acceptable, IAW our workplace agreement, and does not undermine the sustainability improvement.
Some minor assistance with car-pooling group membership was given to help smooth the way for the other commuters.
I am continuing to monitor the strategy and looking for improvements in its implementation.
More detailed consultation could have improved the initial implementation, but things are going well now.
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When the recycling policy was put in place, many employees were happy but some expressed their concerns regarding the collection of damaged cables. Some employees would just leave those cables on the ground and pretend they have not seen them.
The exercise therefore proved to be one that requires sacrifice. Field technicians were given vehicles so that they can carry any damaged cables. This requires close monitoring until all employees embrace the idea.
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3.5 Consult with your management and stakeholders on the progress of the implementation of your environmentally sustainable improvement strategies. Consider both environmental issues and resource efficiency, and negative impacts to work processes. Detail their feedback and note any improvements that can be made to your implementation.
Guidance: Do your management and stakeholders think your strategy is working? Do they think it is interfering with work processes or enhancing them? Is productivity being effected? Do they think it could work better? What, if anything, would they like changed?
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Example Answer:
I raised this topic at our weekly workforce/management meeting. Both the workshop manager and vehicle manager are pleased with the results and have raised no productivity issues. The WHS/Environmental manager is pleased with the improved WHS over-site and the reduced environmental impact. The accountant would like to see even fewer vehicles used for commuting.
It may be possible to decrease the number of vehicles used if 3 or 4 people live in proximity to each other, or along the route to work, and could share a car. On-going negotiation with the work force will be required to establish if this is practical.
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When I brought the issue to the management, they were pleased especially on the aspect of cost saving. The director was happy that the company might get recognized for green initiatives. The procurement officers expressed his gratitude that the costs have gone down.
We are on talk with the technical team to see how we can use the recycled cables to our daily operations.
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3.6 How does your workplace justify the financial cost ofprotectingenvironmental assets (air, land, waterways, flora and fauna)?
Guidance: Think about why your workplace does not simply dump its rubbish in the nearest river, why you stabilise soil and reinstate plants after earthworks, or what might it cost your workplace if you pollute local waterways. How does your workplace put a cost on these types of activities? Is there any financial benefit to being known as a “Green” company
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Going green has been the objective of any company. Nowadays, green company attract more consumers especially those who are environmentally sensitive.
According to Green Business Bureau (2016) a company can benefit from government subsidies, tax breaks and savings as well as increased popularity and demand for their products. Eco-friendly business practices tend to enhance cost effectiveness and improve profitability. The earth minerals such as copper are in the brink of depletion. This calls for responsible use of such resources. The environment is what produces food and hence it should be taken care of at all costs. Preventing plastic wastes from reaching the earth is one way of conserving the environment and which is achieved by careful and systematic waste disposal practices.
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4. Monitor performance
4.1What evaluation and monitoring tools do you used to monitor the implementation and progress of your environmentally sustainable improvement strategies?
Guidance: These may be informal tools, general software tools such as word processing software, or specialised formal tools designed for this task. What is used in your workplace for this?
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A checklist was developed in excel where all employees can fill their consumption.
ERP is used to monitor the expenses and quantity of materials used.
Meetings are held quarterly to assess the progress of the sustainability initiatives. Internal audit of expenditures is done every month.
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4.2Draft an email to key personnel and stakeholders advising them of the outcomes of your environmentally sustainable improvement strategies. Include a summary of outcomes of your environmentally sustainable improvement strategies. Were your efficiency targets reached? Paste a copy of your email below.
Guidance: This task is to assess your written communications skills. Be specific in your addressing to demonstrate that you know who your key personnel and stakeholders are.
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To,
Managing Director,
Dear sir,
I would to express my sincere gratitude for your support of my proposal even when you had doubts about it. I would like to point out that that environmental sustainability is, indeed, an important aspect of our business. Having an understanding of the environmental implications of our business will encourage us to work even harder towards implementing green initiatives in our esteemed company. Many managers do not support initiatives to conserve the environment and so, your efforts are highly appreciated.
I would to assure you that your efforts are not in vain since our environmentally sustainable improvement strategies have already started to bear fruits. One of the notable outcome is reduction in costs by 30% in the first quarter. The procurement manager has reported that cable and installation tapes usage has significantly reduced since the initiative started. Copper cables can now be bought at cheaper prices due to out agreement with the cable manufacturers in return of the damaged cables for recycling. While we are 20% shy from our target, I believe that we will achieve these targets in the coming months.
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4.3 Reflect on your implementation. Did you reach your efficiency targets? If not, why not? Could further refinements and improvements be made? Were there any problems in implementing your environmentally sustainable improvement strategies?
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The efficiency targets were not reached. This is attributed to the fact that the initiative is new and hence employees require more time to embrace the practice. I believe that with time, the efficiency targets will improve and even exceed.
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4.4 Set new efficiency targets, and investigate and apply new tools and strategies.
Guidance: What changes and improvements could you make regarding efficiency targets, implementation tools, and strategies, to further improve your implemented environmentally sustainable improvement strategies, or future strategies you may implement?
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The new targets is to achieve not only reduction of copper cables waste but also reduce all the resource usage such as installation tapes, installation wires, water and personal protective equipment by 50%.
To achieve this, it will require efforts from all the departments other than just the technical department. The procurement department will be responsible for minimising usage of materials. There will be a target set for each employee on what to use per week. Anyone who will exceed will be called to justify why.
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4.5 What methods did you or could you employ to encourage the use of successful strategies and/or reward participants?
Guidance: People always respond better to changes if they are motivated or rewarded in some way. Think about things that could motivate you and your co-workers to adopt a change.
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Motivation is key in ensuring successful implementation of the sustainable strategies. One of the motivation strategies is to recognise the efforts of the employees and their achievements. This will be done by rewarding those who will perform well in terms of implementing the initiatives.
Another way of appreciating the employees is through job promotion. This will motivate them to work extra hard, knowing that they will be promoted to higher ranks and wage also increased.
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We recommend that you review your answers against the Assignment Assessment Checklist at the end of this document once more to confirm that you have met the assessment requirements before you submit your assignment.
Once you have completed this assignment, login to TalentLMS, go to the assignment section of your BSBSUS301A course, and upload this completed assignment in an editable word processor format (eg, MS Word’s .docx format) for assessment.
References
Australian Government, Department of Education, employment and work place relation.
Australian Government. (n.d.). Fair Work Act 2009.
Australian Human Rights Commission. (n.d.). Telecommunications equipment and the Disability Discrimination Act.
EPA Victoria (N.d.). Environment and Resource Efficiency Plans Tool Kit.
EPA Victoria (n.d.). Hints and tips for improving resource efficiency.
Green Business Bureau (2016). Financial Benefits of an Eco-friendly Business.
OECD. (n.d.). MATERIAL RESOURCES, PRODUCTIVITY AND THE ENVIRONMENT:
TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACT 1997.
