Guidelines for Completing Assessment 3
For this exercise, you need to imagine that you have been asked to produce a particular document on behalf of the (fictional) company named in the Case Study document.
The Case Study document provides the information you will require, to in-fill the fields of the various ‘material topics’ to be covered in the report. It is highly likely that most incidents mentioned in the Case Study will best fit just ONE of the 9 material topics provided for Assessment 3.
Everything you put into the report, should be designed to place the company in as good a light as possible. The document admits where an unfortunate incident occu
ed under a material topic heading. However, you should not dwell on the bad things, simply state them, and go on to explain the Management Approach to such topics. This includes any special steps taken by the company to co
ect the problem; plus standard company procedures and policies that are in place to deal with such issues.
Usual rules of report writing apply. Language should be impersonal throughout. No use of first-person language (I, me, we) or of second person language (you).
Suggested Template for Assessment 3: Sustainability Report using the GRI Reporting Guidelines
Your assignment should have a report-like structure:
Overview (if using): Briefly state that this is the GRI Sustainability Report for Company X (name case study company). Use a few sentences to describe the main business and market for the company.
(Alternatively, place this information at the end of the Introduction, below).
Table of Contents (provide at your own discretion, if desired), Note that doing this will automatically raise your Turnitin score.
Introduction:
[Any report introduction generally includes some Background information to provide context for what follows. There should be a section that mentions Methodology. This means the methods taken to gather information, and to analyse it.]
Background: Provide a short discussion (1-2 short paragraphs) that mentions the three varieties of sustainability impacting a business. Use these paragraphs to show that you have been doing reading on the topic of Business Sustainability. Provide some reasons why modern businesses should care about their sustainability record, and why they should decide to provide a Sustainability report.
[What you write here allows you to use some in-text referencing, to demonstrate background reading undertaken for this assessment.]
Methodology: Provide a short (1-2 paragraph) discussion of the GRI reporting standards. Support the discussion using in-text citations, to show your background reading on GRI reporting.
[Your methodology should mention the GRI Global reporting standards for Sustainability; what they are and why they are used. You might choose to list the 9 material topics for your report – or leave this to emerge across the report].
Body:
The main portion of your report should be divided across three sections, one section for each type of sustainability covered:
Economic Sustainability
Provide a short paragraph discussing the notion of Economic Sustainability: what it is, and the sorts of issues a company might confront under this heading. Use in-text citations to demonstrate your own research into this topic.
Next: describe a relevant case study fact against each of the three material topics you were given:
i. Disclosure 201-4 Financial assistance received from the government
ii. Disclosure 203-1 Infrastructure investments and services supplied
iii. Disclosure 204-1 Proportion of spending on local suppliers
Also provide some description of the Management Approach to the issue. This can include:
· Existing company documentation that relates to the topic;
· Particular initiatives or actions the company has undertaken, in response to the reported event(s)
This portion of your report could be conducted in tabular form. Something like:
Material Topic
Description
Management Approach
Disclosure 201-4
Financial assistance received from the government
Provide a simple, short, na
ative account of what happened.
Disclosure 203-1 Infrastructure investments and services supplied
Disclosure 204-1 Proportion of spending on local suppliers
Environmental Sustainability
Provide a short paragraph discussing the notion of Environmental Sustainability: what it is, and the sorts of issues a company might confront under this heading. Use in-text citations to demonstrate your own research into this topic.
Then: cover material topics[footnoteRef:1] and management approach (see Economic Sustainability section above). [1: NOTE: The three material topics to be covered under each heading are provided with the main Assessment 3 instruction sheet.
]
Social Sustainability
Provide a short paragraph discussing the notion of Social Sustainability: what it is, and the sorts of issues a company might confront under this heading. Use in-text citations to demonstrate your own research into this topic.
Then: cover material topics and management approach (see Economic Sustainability section above).
Conclusion:
Make a few closing statements about the sorts of issues faced by the company in the cu
ent reporting period. End by stating that Company X looks forward to providing a more positive GRI report for the next reporting period.
NOTE: A sustainability report simply states what happened. The report is not intended to feed into future decision-making. For this reason, Assessment 3 does NOT require a Recommendations section.
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Page 1 XXXXXXXXXXKaplan Business School Assessment Outline
Assessment 3 Information
Subject Code: MBA402
Subject Name: Governance, Ethics and Sustainability
Assessment Title: Sustainability Assessment
Assessment Type: Sustainability Report
Choose an item.: 2,000 Words (+/-10%)
Weighting: 40 %
Total Marks: 40
Submission: Via Turnitin
Due Date: Week 13
Your Task
You are required to watch the following YouTube clips from the GRI Secretariat:
1. The GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards: The Future of Reporting
https:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGqE4OO0_7g&t=3s
2. Introducing the GRI Standards
https:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDe8Kkh1BrU&t=2s
You must also read the Message from the CEO of fictional company Tramalway Industries. You must
then prepare a sustainability assessment report for Tramalway Industries.
Assessment Instructions
You must prepare a sustainability assessment report for Tramalway Industries refe
ing to the
Consolidated Set of GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards 2016 that specifically addresses:
A. Economic sustainability
i) Disclosure 201-4 Financial assistance received from the government
ii) Disclosure 203-1 Infrastructure Investments and services supported
iii) Disclosure 204-1 Proportion of spending on local suppliers
B. Environmental sustainability
i) Disclosure 301-1 Materials used by weight or volume
ii) Disclosure 301-2 Recycled input materials used
iii) Disclosure 306-3 Significant spills
C. Social sustainability
i) Disclosure 408-1 Operations and suppliers at significant risk for incidents of child labour
ii) Disclosure 412-2 Employee training on human rights policies or procedures
iii) Disclosure 417-3 Incidents of non-compliance concerning marketing communications
https:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGqE4OO0_7g&t=3s
https:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDe8Kkh1BrU&t=2s
Page 2 XXXXXXXXXXKaplan Business School Assessment Outline
You will be required to include a minimum of 5 references in your Sustainability Assessment Report which
must come from academic journals or textbooks.
A Message from the CEO
Dear Employees,
I wish to personally thank you for your professionalism and continued dedication to Tramalway Industries.
Last year was certainly the most challenging year our company has faced in its proud history and I would
like to take this opportunity to dispel some of the rumours circulating around some of the issues that
arose.
Obviously, the most serious matter for Tramalway Industries was the media investigation into the ongoing
use of child labour in Bangladeshi manufacturing facilities.The investigation revealed that one of our
suppliers, Golden Goods Ltd, engaged manufacturers in Bangladesh that employ child labour to produce
their products. This situation was not known to us and was a clear
each of our supply contract with
Golden Goods Ltd. We therefore terminated our contract with Golden Goods Ltd.
The good news is we were able to find a replacement supplier relatively quickly – a local supplier that
operates within our own metropolitan area. This new local supplier means that our percentage of products
and services purchased locally has risen to 75% of our total procurement budget. Plus the materials from
our new supplier are both renewable and recyclable which means our total weight for non-renewable
materials has decreased to 55 tonnes while our total weight for renewable materials has increased to 45
tonnes. And our total weight for recycled input materials has increased to 25 tonnes.
The second serious issue faced by Tramalway Industries this year was the Australian Competition and
Consumer Commission (ACCC) investigation into our recent marketing communications. The investigation
found that Tramalway Industries had engaged in false and misleading conduct and issued an Infringement
Notice with a penalty of $12,600. Tramalway Industries paid the fine and updated our marketing policies to
ensure future compliance with all Australian Consumer Law provisions.
The third serious issue was a significant fuel spill at our warehouse in Chemora, Queensland.
Approximately 8 kilolitres of fuel spilled from a rupture in one of the fuel tanks into the soil around its base.
The spill soaked directly into the ground and we have sprayed the affected area with liquid hydroca
on-
eating bacteria to remediate the soil. It has certainly been a challenging year for us but we all must
emember there have been some great wins too. The Federal Government awarded our organisation with
a $15 million research and development grant that we will use to continue our
eakthrough research into
iotechnology.
This was also the year we completed our $10 million health and welfare centre project in Dolan Bay, SA.
This centre will provide much needed support to families coping with a range of social issues completely
free of charge. It is an extremely worthy initiative and demonstrates our clear commitment to the social
well-being of those that are less fortunate in our community.
Finally, our employee training program on human rights was launched this year and has already
completed 100 hours of training on aspects of human rights that are relevant to our operations. This
means that 35% of our employees have been trained in human rights principles ranging from gender
equality to human dignity and respect.
With your continued hard work and support I am extremely confident that Tramalway Industries can build
further upon our success in the coming year.