Assessment Of Sustainability Report Of Timberwell Constructions Based On GRI Standard

You must then prepare a sustainability assessment report referring to the Consolidated Set of GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards 2016 that specifically addresses:

A. Economic sustainability

i) Disclosure 201-2 Financial implications and other risks and opportunities due to  climate change
ii) Disclosure 205-3 Confirmed incidents of corruption and actions taken
iii) Disclosure 206-1 Legal actions for anti-competitive behaviour, anti-trust,  and monopoly practices

B. Environmental sustainability

i) Disclosure 302-1 Energy consumption within the organisation
ii) Disclosure 304-2 Significant impacts of activities, products, and services on biodiversity
iii) Disclosure 307-1 Non-compliance with environmental laws and regulations

C. Social sustainability

i) Disclosure 401-1 New employee hires and employee turnover
ii) Disclosure 406-1 Incidents of discrimination and corrective actions taken
iii) Disclosure 413-1 Operations with local community engagement, impact assessments,  and development programs

GRI Standard: Economic Performance

The current paper elucidates the assessment of sustainability report by analyzing and evaluating the information on the Timberwell Construction by outlining the consolidated set of sustainability reporting standards of GRI (Global Reporting Initiative). They are the global standard for the sustainability reporting of which there has been restructuring of the contents has been done as the standards are responsive to new development. Economic, social and environmental impacts are the three series of topics for specific standards. The principle of GRI specifies how the company should prepare its sustainability report according to the standards (Globalreporting.org 2018). The analysis of the information presented in the case of Timberwell constructions is done by evaluating the series of standard relating to economic, environmental and social position. All such series have been explained and analyzed by discussing specific disclosures. Timberwell construction has experienced lower retention rate of employees and joining of new employees at the same time. For retaining the existing staffs, company has implemented a monthly roster.

The topic related to economic performance of organization is addressed in GRI 201. As per the guidelines of disclosure 201-2, it is required by organization to report the opportunities and risk due to the climatic change along with giving a description of the impact that is related with such opportunities. In addition to this, organization should also report the financial implications of any risk and existing opportunities, cost of actions and methods that is used to manage such opportunity and risk. The risk and opportunities brought by the climatic change should be managed by outlining the methods. In case of Timberwell constructions, the increased risk associated with the amendment of specific zone should be reported. The energy efficient organization such as Timberwell should report the additional characteristics such as increased risk of bushfires and warning effect of climatic change (del Mar et al. 2014).

As per this standard, it is required by entity to report information such as nature of confirmed incidents and total number of corruption. Total number of employees dismissed or discipline for corruption should also be reported.  Any public legal cases that are brought against the employees or organization should also be reported along with their outcomes. Furthermore, any violations leading to corruptions and termination of contract with business partners should also be reported. The case of public corruption scandal involving employees and business partners of Timberwell should be reported (Globalreporting.org 2018). In addition to this, the termination of partnership of Timberwell with two external consultants should be reported along with suspension of all five employees.

GRI Standard: Corruption and Anti-competitive Behaviour

This particular standard requires organization to make disclosure of number of legal actions pending and completed and violations of any monopoly and antitrust legislation. Any act of anti competitive behavior should be reported. Moreover, any actions taken by organization that restricts the entry to the sector and other collusive actions should be reported. In the given case of Timberwell construction, it was alleged that the company was involved in the conduct that prevented new entrants in the development market with the intention to lessen the competition in the market.  Such act of barriers should be reported by organization. It was also found from the given case that Timberwell was involved in anti competitive conduct that included engaging in exclusive dealings and misuse of market power. A series of complaints was launched by one of the former employees of Timberwell about its operations to a number of government authorities. All such incidents should be reported in the sustainability report of the company for depicting its true economic performance.

This particular disclosure intends to make a disclosure of the consumption of energy within the organization in their sustainability report. Information on energy consumption such as total amount of consumption from renewable and non renewable sources should be reported along with the methodologies, standard and assumptions. The reporting organization should also make disclosure of consumption of self generated energy and avoid on double counting of such energy consumption. In addition to this, reporting entity should also disclose the local conversion factors and generic conversion factors and data disclosure should be done by applying the conversion factors (Globalreporting.org 2018).  Timberwell should report about its total consumption of renewable and non renewable energy.

Disclosure 304-2: Significant impacts of product, activities and services on biodiversity

The impact of the operations of organization on the biodiversity should be done by referring to the use and construction of manufacturing sites, species reduction, habitat conversion, pollution and change in ecological process. Such disclosure assists users in gaining an understanding about the strategy used by organization to mitigate the considerable direct and indirect impact on environment. It was discovered from the case study that there was introduction of invasive species identified from the assessment of environmental impact. The park development site of company was identified with development of rare wallum sedge frog population. Furthermore, Timberwell has taken the steps to conserve such species and managing the proposed development by devising strategy.

GRI Standard: Energy Consumption

Disclosure 307-1: Non compliance with environmental regulations and laws

This particular disclosure standard requires organization to report about the impact of their non compliance with the regulations or environmental laws that resulted in non monetary sanctions and significant amount of fines. The consequence of non compliance in monetary terms should be reported in terms of total number of non monetary sanctions, monetary value relating to fines and dispute resolution mechanism cases. However, a brief statement would suffice if there has not been identification of any events leading to non compliance with the environmental laws and regulation. On other hand, failure of organization to comply with the environmental regulations and laws requires them to include judicial and administrative sanctions. Such sanctions might include voluntary environmental agreements that are developed as a binding as substitute of implementing new regulations and are considered binding (Amran et al. 2014). Any cases against the organization through national dispute mechanisms and national dispute mechanisms supervised by the authorities of government should also be reported.  

It was assessed from the environmental operations of Timberwell that proposed development of medium density residential would be inconsistent with the survival of frog in the site and would irreversibly convert the habitat. Company is required to incur a cost of $ 4 million for complying with new regulations due to the development site in the district of Stanwell. For minimization of potential cost, the substitute of new regulation implementation is done by Timberwell engaging in external town planning firm which would charge $ 50000 for the services. Such voluntary agreements relating to environment acting as substitute of new regulations should be disclosed by organization.

Disclosure 401-1 New employee hires and turnover

As per this disclosure, organization is required to report about employee turnover and new hires of company. Information such as rate of employee turnover and total number of rate of turnover by gender, region and age group is reported in reporting period. In addition to this, rate of joining and total number of new employees by gender, region and age group should be reported into the sustainability reporting for reflecting social performance of company. The ability of organization to attract diverse and qualified employees is indicated by the strategy which signifies the optimal use of available talent and labor (Ceulemans et al. 2015).  

From the information on the given case study on Timberwell construction, it has been identified that the increasing attrition rate has resulted in hiring employee during the current reporting period. In the current reporting period, twelve new apprentices have been hired because existing seventeen employees have left either for establishing their own business or for working for the rival organizations. For retaining the existing staffs, Timberwell has implemented a monthly rostered day off and has increased the pay rates of workers. The higher rate of turnover is indicative of the fact that there is dissatisfaction and uncertainty among employees. It also reflects fundamental change in the core operations of structure of organization.

GRI Standard: Impacts on Biodiversity

Disclosure 406-1 Incidents of discrimination and corrective actions taken

Any incidents about the discrimination and corrective actions taken by organization should be disclosed in the sustainability report. During the particular reporting period, total number of discrimination incidents should be reported. Actions taken and status incidents should be disclosed with reference to implementation of remediation plan, incidents which the organization reviews and implementation of such plans through the process of internal review management. Discriminations on ground of race, religion, color, sex and religion should be disclosed in the report (Fernandez et al. 2014). Moreover, any incidents that are no longer subject to action should also be reported.

From the given case study, it can be seen that workplace harassment claim was filed by one of the employees of Timberwell. It was alleged that the co workers of Timberwell has discriminated against him on the basis of age. Furthermore, allegation was also imposed on the ground that he was humiliated because of his age as other workers were in the age group of 30 to 50. In light of this, company has implemented remediation plan by providing anti discrimination training to its employees and updating its anti discriminatory policy. Furthermore, the humiliated employee was also paid $ 4000 by way of compensation. All such information should be disclosed in the sustainability report of company.

Disclosure 413-1 Operations with local community engagement, impact assessments and development programs

This standard disclosure requires organization to disclose the information relating to operations by engaging with local community, development of programs and assessing the impacts. This requires making a disclosure about the assessment of impact on environment based on participatory process and assessing the impact of gender. Assessment of environmental and social impact resulting from disclosure of public should be disclosed. Furthermore, the grievance process and consultation committees of local communities and vulnerable group’s process should be included. Mapping of stakeholders forming the basis of stakeholder engagement plan should also be reported (Diouf and Boiral 2017).

Based on the needs of community, it has been identified that Timberwell has undertaken an external review of management plan of the vegetation and has implemented a rehabilitation plan alongside audit program for contractors. Based on local needs of community for affordable social housing, organization has taken the initiatives in terms of conducting local residential meetings, assessment of environmental impact and local community development program (Crane and Matten 2016). All such information is required to be reported in the sustainability report of Timberwell accordance with the standard guidelines.

GRI Standard: Non-Compliance with Environmental Laws

Conclusion:

From the analysis of the given information on the Timberwell construction, it can be inferred that organization has not aligned some of the requirements of the reporting guidelines. However, some of the guidelines have been met in terms of disclosure of data relating to the environmental issues. It is required by Timberwell to prepare their sustainability report that would help the users in communicating and understanding the critical sustainability issues. A consensus seeking approach should be used by Timberwell that would incorporate the widest possible range of interest of stakeholders in their reporting framework.

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