This part of the course imagines a future where you have made some headway, you have the wind in your sails, and your business has sustainability programmes in place. Now, you'll want to help keep the momentum going and ensure tweaks and modifications to the plans happen as necessary and in a timely manner.
Sustainability Audits
Environmental or sustainability audits are useful for businesses with large energy, water or waste bills. Audits can either be undertaken internally within the business or using an external environment auditor.
Some types of sustainability audits are:
- Biodiversity audits
- Water usage audits
- Waste audits.
An audit can help a business:
- identify how resources are used
- determine the amount of resources used
- identify the amount of waste generated.
It can cover where waste comes from and the degree to which resources are recycled and can also track the effectiveness of systems in place, such as signage and collection points.
This data allows for analysis to find ways to improve business practises and use of resources, record new ideas and develop action plans for future projects.
When smaller businesses conduct audits, they will look at only the portion of those areas where they are focusing on improvement. All sustainability teams should implement some auditing protocol.
Tips
To ensure your audit is effective and successful:
- Gather background information such as the type of resources used by the business, the type of waste generated and any environmental impacts such as clearing of land or business travel
- Pick a date or series of dates to conduct the audit
- Communicate to all employees to ensure everyone engages in data collection
- Use a checklist
Sustainability audit checklist
The audit should consider at least the following areas:
| Governance |
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| Social Impacts |
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| Environmental Impacts |
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| Environmental & Social Impacts |
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Reading
- Learn more about engaging with an external environmental auditor, read Environmental Audit at Business.vic.gov.au.
- Learn more about conducting an internal business sustainability audit, read How to set up a Corporate Sustainability Program at Ecobin.
With your plan in place, and your team working in harmony with the rest of the business, you can implement a plan that involves:
- SMART sustainability goals
- a team or team of people identified to champion it
- a system of checking and monitoring for implementation and progress
- an idea of the reporting structure if you need to identify a problem, or report a breach to the procedures
- a plan to share and publicise the work to inspire others.
Qantas is proud of their carbon neutral programme. Watch how they promote the environmental work they are supporting in this 1-minute advertising video.
Monitoring the success of your initiatives involves:
- direct measurements of savings, and any cost impacts of that
- workplace wellbeing surveys
- production reviews
- a view of the perception of the company.
Don't shy away from improvements. Consider whether:
- the timeline was too short to reach the goal
- the strategies are not meeting the goal’s needs
- stakeholders are not participating (so it is not being worked towards at all or enough to make an impact)
- the measurement method is not accurate or appropriate
- the goal designed is unachievable (this could be for various reasons).
If you need to consider new strategies, you'll want to ask the team these questions:
- What is currently working well?
- What needs improvement or not working at all?
- Do we need to engage the team more to build better collaboration and participation in working towards these targets?
- Which strategies appear to be more successful?
- Can we implement similar strategies to reach this goal or target better?
As a sustainability student, you are in the position to make changes to yourself and impact your workplace to help build a better world. We hope this course has given you a global mindset so you can better understand the global impact made by these daily workplace habits, processes, and procedures.
To help remind you that we all share the planet, check out the following 34-minute video, that provides another look and an urgent view of our environment's problems. We encourage you to watch it now that these concepts will not be new to you, as you'll gain even more knowledge about the issues and consolidate the learning you have just done over these modules.
Congratulations on completing this course. We hope you feel inspired to make genuine changes in your workplace and encourage others to follow your lead.
Reflection
Take another look at the activity you did at the beginning of the course. Answer the questions again and consider if your feelings and motivations have changed in regards to your:
- understanding
- knowledge
- level of commitment
- appreciation for the task at hand.
Earn your Pin
We hope you are proud of the time and effort you have put into this course, and by extension the planet and environment we share. Take the Earn your Pin Quiz, and achieve a passing grade (10 of 15 points) to unlock the next module that holds digital tools for change.
After passing the quiz you can:
- download and display your pin
- update your LinkedIn portfolio or banner
- get the conversation going on your feed with our prompts
- feel the pride and joy of helping!
