Prepare sustainability plans

Sustainability

Sustainability means that things can keep going, sustain themselves, continue, and go on for a long time. From a human perspective, sustainability for our planet means that it can continue to do what it was designed to do, such as provide fresh air, clean water, produce foods, and allow to have a high quality of life forever. Sustainability is about future generations; how do we live today to thrive. Earth has been facing lots of sustainability issues for over a decade. The environmental issues that exist today are different from those that exist today. Some of the issues that require a great deal of attention are as follow:

• excessive use of natural resources
• deforrestation
• climate change
• pollution air, water, land

Watch

Watch this quick animation explaining the concept of sustainability.

Importance of Sustainability

Sustainability enhances our quality of life while safeguarding our environment and natural resources for future generations. Sustainability is linked to a company's holistic strategy in the business sector, which considers everything from manufacturing to logistics to customer service. Going green and sustainable is good for business; it also enhances the long-term advantages of an environmental emphasis.

Workplace Sustainability 

Workplace sustainability is most often defined as reducing the number of waste materials and ensuring that the day-to-day operation does not have a short-term and long-term effect on the environment. Workplace sustainability does not only concern environmental preservation but also address social and economic parameters.

• Environmental Pillar: The environment gets the most attention among other pillars. It focuses on the overall well-being of the environment, including quality of water and air and reducing greenhouse emissions.
• Social Pillar: The social pillar focuses on the welfare, health, and security of the customers, employees, and the community.
• Economic Pillar: The economic pillar ensures the prosperity of the business while maintaining the above.

Workplace sustainability plan

The workplace sustainability plan provides detailed information about tackling workplace sustainability issues to achieve environmental, societal, and Economic Sustainability. If the business understands how to prepare, implement, and monitor the sustainability plans, they are likely to achieve them. Before any business creates a plan for its workplace, it must consider the following items:

• structure of the business
• mission of the business
• goals of the business
• staff and their health, security and rights
• resources

Workplace sustainability issues

Workplace sustainability issues are common, and businesses are taking them into account to deal with them. These substantial issues do not disappear overnight, and it needs detailed planning and some budget to implement them. Before dealing with sustainability issues at the workplace, it needs to identify the issues and determine the feasibility of dealing with them. Some of the common workplace sustainability issues are as follows:

Energy 

Light bulb, computers, refrigerator, air conditioning, and other appliances operating in the workplace leaves a carbon footprint. 66% of the greenhouse gas emissions are the result of energy usage.

These solutions implemented at the workplace will reduce the operating cost and do not have high implementation costs. It will reduce the amount of energy consumed and improve the business's image.

Waste 

Waste is a global problem. Waste is produced in large amounts every day and must be processed and managed properly. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australia produced 76million tonnes of waste (2018-19). Following are the figures for the workplace-related waste: 1. Electricity, gas, and water services: 10.9 million tonnes (14.4%) 2. Plastic: 2.5 million tonnes (4%)E-waste: 539,000 tonnes.

These solutions are already being used in many workplaces and have shown many results. One proper waste station per office premise and training the staff is not expensive and doesn't take time to show results.

Water

Drinking water sources are limited but essential to human beings. Global warming is growing every year, resulting in decreased drinking water. We don't just use water for drinking but also wash cleaning, so water sustainability is very important.

2.5% of the world's water is fresh water. Only 1% of it can be used.

Workplace environment

A well-managed and healthy environment is essential for every business. Some of the issues that exist in the workplace environment are:

• poor air quality and ventilation
• asbestos
• mould
• small space
• lack of resources

The workplace environment is one costly sustainability issue. Although the long-term benefits of a well-developed workplace environment are promising, there are many areas a workplace should address before even planning, such as cost and day-to-day operation.

Paper and Printing 

According to satellite surveys, deforestation is at 177,00 square kilometres per year, killing many crucial plants and animals' habitats. 

Although most businesses have utilised electronic methods to store and share information, papers are still being used in large amounts, and in fact, the demand has gone high. Papers are highly used for printing reports, memos, and many more at the workplace. 

Procurement 

A workplace requires a huge number of services and goods for everyday operations. Every business has the choice to choose:

• what to buy
• where to buy
• which can harm the world around us

Business tends to save money over cheap stuff, but they need to ask themselves what's the true cost of those goods and services if it impacts people around them.

Choosing eco-friendly goods and services can change a lot around the workplace and the business. This way, the business can help in the sustainability issue without even being involved. It will even boost the image of the business and the workplace environment.

Feasibility

Feasibility is a method to evaluate the success of a plan or a project. A feasibility study examines all of a project's aspects, including legal, economic, scheduling and technical issues, to determine its success.

Legal Feasibility

This feasibility study examines whether any aspects of the plan or a project conflict with a nation's current law and regulations. For example, if a business wants to build a new office building, it must pass all the legal requirements, like building design and location. Every country has its sustainability legislation, policy and regulation. A sustainability plan must follow those legislation, policy and regulation.

Economic Feasibility

Economic feasibility study analyses the cost/benefits of a project or a plan, helping businesses to determine if the business can implement the project or a plan. It helps enhance the project's credibility and helps managers make better decisions.

Many changes need to be made to achieve sustainability as it requires human resources and materials. A sustainability plan needs to focus on the capital as it focuses on every pillar of sustainability. 

Technical Feasibility 

Technical resources required and available in an organisation for the preparation and implementation of a project or a plan is determined by the technical feasibility study. It includes evaluating the available resources such as hardware, software and other technical requirements for the project. 

For example, this study will help an organisation determine if they can install solar panels. 

Scheduling Feasibility 

A scheduling feasibility study determines the time required for a project to be completed. A project or implementation of a plan takes a lot of time. It has to be one of the more important studies than others. Even if they have all passed all the legal requirements, have the capital, and are ready to challenge any technical issue, but they do not analyse the time, all other studies will be wasted. 

Importance of feasibility study 

• improves team focus
• identify new opportunities
• provides valuable information for (go/no go) decision
• provides valid reason to continue a project
• aids in decision making
• enhances success rate
• narrows the business alternatives

Watch

The next video from Spectraforce TV explains 8 sustainable work practices that can be implemented in the workplace.

Regulation

Regulation is an official rule describing how things or a rule is to be followed. In Australia, regulation is made at the federal level and by the states and territories, in legislation and subordinate legislation and at a local government level as regulations and by-laws.

Legislation

Legislation is a law created by the parliament. First, a bill is drafted as a bill in the parliament. Then the bill is debated and voted by the members of the parliament. If the bill is passed from the voting, it receives royal assent, becomes an Act, and has a commencement date.

The  Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the EPBC Act)  is the main piece of the Australian government's environmental legislation. It establishes a legislative framework for protecting and managing nationally and internationally significant flora, wildlife, heritage places, and ecological communities. 

Objectives of EPBC Act:

• provide for the protection of the environment, especially matters of national environmental significance
• conserve Australian biodiversity
• provide a streamlined national environmental assessment and approvals process
• enhance the protection and management of important natural and cultural places
• control the international movement of plants and animals (wildlife), wildlife specimens, and products made or derived from wildlife
• promote ecologically sustainable development through the conservation and ecologically sustainable use of natural resources
• recognise the role of Indigenous people in the conservation and ecologically sustainable use of Australia's biodiversity
• promote the use of Indigenous peoples' knowledge of biodiversity with the involvement of, and in cooperation with, the knowledge owners.

Legislation, regulation and policy of Australian Government 

According to the Australian Environmental Sustainability Policy reviewed in July 2014, the environmental sustainability policy is a complete policy to boost performance and mitigate high-risk environmental factors during the risk assessment. But the policy statement by Department's Environmental policy approved by the Secretary in 2022 commits that the stakeholders comply with its legal obligation, strive to minimise pollution, and applies systematic environmental management. 

 The 'Cross Portfolio Audit of Green Office Procurement' Audit reported by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) defines that energy, water, paper, stationery, office equipment, waste treatment, and property activities require ongoing environmental management. It gave birth to EMS ISO 14001.

The following section outlines different government legislation and policies relevant to different sustainability aspects: 

1. Energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and ozone-depleting substances. These are:

• Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth)
• Building Energy Efficiency Disclosure (BEED) Act 2010 (Cth)
• Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Amendment Act 2010 (Cth)
• Energy Efficiency in Government Operations (EEGO) Policy (2006)
• Australian Government ICT Sustainability Plan (ICTSP) 2010-2015
• Australian Government Data Centre Strategy 2010-2025 and Data Centre Optimisation Policy 
• State Government Environment Protection Legislation and Regulations, such as the Protection of Environment Operations Act 1997 (NSW)

2. Suppliers, products and materials selection. These are:

• Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth)
• Product Stewardship Act 2011 (Cth)
• National Waste Policy: Less Waste, More Resources – Strategy 2 (sustainable procurement)
• Energy Efficiency in Government Operations Policy (2006)
• Australian Government ICT Sustainability Plan (ICTSP) 2010-2015
• Australian Packaging Covenant - Action Plan 2010-2015
• National Environment Protection Measures (NEPM)
• Commonwealth Procurement Policy Framework and Guidelines 
• State Government Environment Protection Legislation and Regulations, such as the Protection of Environment Operations Act 1997 (NSW) 

3. Waste management and resource recovery. These are:

• Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth)
• Product Stewardship Act 2011 (Cth)
• Hazardous Waste (Regulations of Exports and Imports) Act 1989 (Cth) as a national response to the Basel Convention on Transboundry Movement of Hazardous Waste
• National Waste Policy: less waste, more resources
• Australian Packaging Covenant – Action Plan 2010-2015
• Australian Government ICT Sustainability Plan (ICTSP) 2010-2015
• State Government Environment Protection Legislation and Regulations, such as the Protection of Environment Operations Act 1997 (NSW)
• Local Government Environmental Planning Policies (LEPPs) 

4. Water management and resource recovery. These are:

• Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth)
• State Government Water Legislation and Regulations, such as the Water Management Act (NSW) 
• State Government Environment Protection Legislation and Regulations, such as the Protection of Environment Operations Act 1997 (NSW)
• Local Government Environmental Planning Policies (LEPPs)
• Catchment Management Plans
• Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards Act 2005

A policy development staff should always adhere to this government legislation and policies while drafting a sustainability plan for the workplace. There are many policies one must follow in the workplace, and they must be included in the sustainability plans.

Watch

The next video is BIC explaining its stance on sustainability and how it is implementing sustainability into its business. 

Sustainability and stakeholders’ engagement And communication 

Stakeholder

Stakeholders are the party of investors, employees, customers, and suppliers who have different level of interest in the organisation or cooperation. 

Internal	External
Employees	Customers
Board of directors	Suppliers
Owners	Government
Managers	Shareholders
	Community

Internal stakeholders

Internal stakeholders are anyone within the organisation, such as employees, owners, shareholders, and managers. They have direct involvement with the company. 

• Employees invest their skills to ensure they continue to be paid and retain their jobs. 
• Managers are focused on the operation of the business and workplace. 
• The board of directors is concerned with increasing the company's earnings and providing a return to investors.

External stakeholders

External stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers, the government, and the community, have indirect involvement with the company. 

• Customers want the best service and products. They even want companies to make a positive contribution to the community. 
• Suppliers can have more business if the company has higher demand in the market.
• The government always keeps an eye on every company to check if they are following rules and regulations.
• Communities look forward to the company for local employment, supplies of local products, and other services. 

The risk level of issues in the workplace will help decide the stakeholders and the methods to use. For example: to deal with waste in the workplace, employees are the main stakeholders, and customers and suppliers are secondary stakeholders. A policy development team can group stakeholders for a particular issue and ask for opinions and suggestions.

There are different ways to collect information or opinions of the stakeholders:

Watch

Watch this video by Communication Coach Alexander Lyon about what a stakeholder is. 

Surveys

Surveys are methods for collecting data from a specific group for a specific purpose. It is a popular form of gathering information as it provides critical data and insights.

There are four modes of surveys:

Online Surveys 

• Online surveys are popular and widely used methods to collect information. They are cheaper and can reach a huge number of the targeted population. There are many online survey platforms available that can be used to collect information, such as Octopus Group, YouGov, and  Survey Junkie.

Telephone Surveys 

• Telephone and online survey serves the same goals and can deliver exact results. Telephone surveys are more expensive than online as they require more resources. People do not find this survey interesting and try to avoid the interaction. 

Face to Face Surveys 

• Face-to-face surveys tend to gather the honest opinion of the respondents. They require an interviewer with a set of skills so that the respondents feel comfortable during the process. It is one of the most expensive survey forms as they are extremely workforce intensive. 
• With the survey, a business can learn about the stakeholders' insights from customers to managers regarding sustainability in the workplace.  

Watch

The next video provides some tips on how to make an effective and good survey. 

Interviews 

Interviews gather in-depth information from the stakeholders. An interview can be successful if it has proper planning and structure. There are three types of interviews based on structure:

Unstructured	Semi-structured	Structured
respondent controlled similar to an open-ended conversation evaluator uses a statement or opener to get the conversation started best for a new or controversial topic	shared control evaluator uses flexible questions or topics wording and order of flexible questions evaluator tailors questions during the interview best when exploring respondent's experiences	evaluator controlled question wording and order predetermined perhaps includes fixed reponses best when collecting demographic or same data for comparison

Watch

This next video explains some tips and tricks to host an effective interview. 

Focus Groups 

If the stakeholders require information quickly, a focus group is an answer. Focus groups typically last for 90 minutes with 8 to 15 participants.

It will provide the policy development team with a lot of information stored in a report or a document. The report should then be published to the stakeholders for further feedback.

Engagement to Stakeholders

The stakeholder engagement ranges from simply informing about a certain event and a plan to requesting constant participation in an event, plan and decision-making process. 

Inform 

• At this level, the stakeholders are provided with the project's information, enough from them to understand the nature of the problem, a process to tackle them and solutions. However, stakeholders will not have any input or participation in decision-making.

Consult 

• At this level, feedback from the stakeholders is gathered. Here the stakeholders have a range of involvement from minimum (online surveys) to extensive. It can be one-time participation or an iterative process.

Involve 

• Stakeholders have direct involvement in any activity in a project/event or a plan and ensure that their concerns and demands are fulfilled during the process. It will create a well-considered input for the decision-making process. 

Collaborate 

• A partnership is made with the stakeholders at each decision-making stage at this level. It includes the development of alternative solutions and choosing preferred solutions for a certain problem. 

Empower

• The power of making any decision goes to the stakeholders. Some examples of decision making through this process are ballots and referenda. 

These types of stakeholder involvement are rare and have a small number of people.

Inform	Consult	Involve/collaborate/empower
News media, social media, public meetings, newsletter	Focus groups, surveys, questionnaires, workshops, suggestion boxes	Advisory boards, committees, citizen panels or juries, polling, voting, referenda

Watch

Mike Clayton presents in the next video 5 tips to help with Stakeholder Engagement. 

Community Impact and Engagement 

A community is a large area such as a municipality, town, or city. It can also be defined as a group of people sharing a common belief. Community engagement is sharing information and taking part in a certain project or a plan that can directly or indirectly affect their way of life. 

As community falls under the three pillars of sustainability, any sustainability plan should include the community and its participation. Any business can seek the community and consider their views on their projects or plans because they can have major effects on the members' livelihood and the environment they live in. This information can be used to mitigate the adverse effect, such as closing the facilities and contaminated water resources and making an appropriate decision.

A sustainable community;

• Have proper knowledge about the relationship between economic, environmental and social issues of sustainability are interconnected.  
• Differentiate between the natural and built environment 
• Determine and act on the pollution and wasteful practices. 
• Understands and begins to shift away from polluting and wasteful practices. 
• Participate in the conservation of the resources and prevention of pollution.
• Focus on the overall community health and quality of life.
• Importance of natural, cultural and historical assets of the community
• Promote resource conservation and pollution prevention.

Importance of community engagement 

Builds and sustains cohesive communities 

• Community participation is crucial because it is a component of a dialogue in which organisations and communities may make decisions to build social capital. 
• The importance of community engagement has been demonstrated in various ways, such as the creation/prevention of new changes in the policies providing services that enrich the livelihood and shape the community's future. 

Lead to improved outcomes

• Community engagement can lead to improves outcomes for the good of the community. When the government, public and business come together to make a decision, it provides value to the decision. In this way, public decision-makers are properly informed and can help meet the community's needs. 

Ensures access and community empowerment

• Through community engagement, a community member can have information about certain activities and provide input to shape them to be beneficial for the community. 
• This way, community members have access to the information activities and even feel they contribute meaningfully to those activities and can empower them.

Help local governments to promote sustainable decisions

• Through community engagement, local governments can improve their legitimacy, efficiency, and transparency. The policymakers can make more informed decisions by engaging and carefully mapping out the needs and voices of the local communities.

Drives social transformation

• When the voices of the locals are heard, communities will be more interested in taking part in the community projects and even creating projects that can be prosperous for the community. It leads to innovation in the community and help in the transformation of the community.  

Indicators

A calculation that provides a level of the environmental, economic, or social system over time is defined as an indicator. The goals of the indicators are:

• to track and assesses the success and execution of sustainability plans
• to better communicate with stakeholders
• compare

Many sustainability indicators have been proposed and used in different businesses worldwide. Some of the indicators include: 

• 3 pillars model
• Drive/pressure/state/impact/response (DPSIR)
• Driver/pressure/state/exposure/effects/action (DPSEEA)

According to the three pillars of sustainability, the sustainability indicator is a quantifiable characteristic of environmental, economic, and social that can measure the change in the characteristics important for the continuity of well-being of staff and environment in the workplace.

Watch

The next video is a quick explanation about the three pillars of sustainability. 

The three pillars model is a common approach of selecting and considering a set of indicators individual to each of the three overlapping domains. 

Social	Economic	Environment
Quality of life education community development equal opportunity employment law & ethics fair taxation business ethics trade worker's rights government spending	Smart growth long range planning cost savings R & D spending cost of living energy efficiency subsidies/tax breaks carbon credits	Resource management environmental protection habitat restoration andpreservation public involvement reporting and publishing

The environmental indicators are based upon the carbon footprints set by different factors affecting the environment, such as waste, water pollution, etc. Social indicators are based on the lifestyle and health of the employees and the community the business operates in. The economic indicators focus on proper governance, risk management and compliances. 

Socio-environment indicators are centred on environmental impacts that affect the social impacts. The socio-economic indicators handle the relationship between the business economic activities and social effects. Environmental-economic indicators focus on the rise of economic activities while decreasing the environmental impacts.

The following indicators of Sustainability must be recorded and documented in organisational reports. 

Environmental	The total amount of materials used The total amount of water used The total amount of renewable resources used  The total amount of non-renewable resources used The total amount of energy used The total amount of renewable energy used The total amount of greenhouse gases generated (CO2) The total amount of waste generated The total amount of solid waste The total amount of liquid waste The total amount of waste recycled
Economic	Annual profits Annual Revenues  Annual sales Annual operating cost Annual productivity Capital expenditure (Environmental) Fines Donations
Social	Number of employees Number of new jobs created number of disabled people employed Child labour presence Average hours per team member Total number of work-related fatalities Recorded sick leave hours per team member The ratio of the basic salary of men and women Average hours of training per employee
Social - Environmental	The total amount of energy used/employee The total amount of waste/employee The total amount of solid/liquid waste/ employee Average hours of training per employee/ employee  Average hours of training per employee/ total amount of energy used
Social- Economic	Annual sales per employee Average hours of training per employee / Annual profits Donations per sales Donations per profit Donations per revenue
Environmental- Economic	The total amount of renewable resources used / profit The total amount of non-renewable resources used / profit The total amount of energy used / profit The total amount of renewable energy used / profit  The total amount of renewable resources used / revenue The total amount of non-renewable resources used / revenue The total amount of energy used / revenue The total amount of renewable energy used / revenue The total amount of renewable resources used /sales The total amount of non-renewable resources used / sales The total amount of energy used / sales The total amount of renewable energy used / sales The total amount of CO2 emission /profit The total amount of CO2 emission /sales The total amount of CO2 emission /revenue

The above table is an example of indicators based on three pillars of sustainability. The indicators will be different for the different business workplaces. A sustainability development team can consider many other indicators that can fall under these three pillars, and these indicators depend on the structure, mission/goals, and resources of the business. 

Watch

The next video explains the triple bottom line, the three pillars of sustainability. 

The workplace sustainability plan provides detailed information about tackling workplace sustainability issues to achieve environmental, social, and Economic Sustainability. If the business understands how to prepare, implement, and monitor sustainability plans, it will likely achieve them. 

Before any business creates a sustainability plan for its workplace, it must consider the following items: 

• structure of the business
• mission of the business
• staff and their health, security and rights
• goals of the business
• resources

A well-planned and comprehensive sustainability plan includes two key components before implementation: 

• Sustainability Drivers 
• Action plans.

Sustainability drivers focus on using natural resources, contributing to climate change, producing useless waste, and many other environmental, social, and economic factors.    

Every business uses different resources and energy and produce different kind of waste. Minimising waste and reducing carbon footprint is a common strategy of every business. Some of the main areas a business should focus on to understand the sustainability drivers are as follows:

• energy
• water
• waste
• paper and printing
• workplace environment
• procurement

These drivers should be analysed in every department and all business functions: 

• Manufacturing
  • Production, sourcing, distribution
• Facilities
  • Buildings, cleaning and maintenance, heating, air conditioning 
• Engineering
  • Product design, materials, end-of-management
• Finance and Accounting
  • Paper billing and printing
• Customer Services
• Human Resources
• Information Technology
• Sales and marketing

Watch

The next video is a quick explanation on how to make a Business Sustainability Plan. 

Creating a Sustainability Plan 

There is a five steps plan for successfully creating a sustainability plan:

Prepare business case

The first and most important step to creating a successful sustainability plan is preparing a business case. It should have a current impact on the business on the three pillars of sustainability and focus on connecting sustainability initiatives and business benefits. It is crucial to engage senior leaders such as the board of directives, the CEO, and managers in this step. 

A well-prepared business case has several key components:

• Reason or problem: identify the actual reason for the project or a plan or underlying problem
• Project scope statement: a single statement that provides the scope of the project or the plan
• Business options: an alternative solution to the problem
• Estimated costs: the budget requirements for implementing the project or plan
• Expected resources: list of the resources required during and after the implementation of the project or plan

Assess and prioritise 

The second step is mapping the plan and prioritising the risks involved and opportunities that can be exploited across the market. Every business has different sustainability challenges and opportunities based on the markets they source, manufacture, and sell their products. 

This step is crucial for attracting potential investors and ensuring financial opportunities for the long term. Identification of these risks and opportunities helps a business enhance public relations.

Commit and collaborate 

The third step involves creating proactive targets and goals and collaborating with others to drive long-term corporate innovation. A growing number of businesses are establishing science-based goals. 

Building the proper alliances with key stakeholders, from NGOs, governments, and academics to suppliers, retailers, logistics businesses, creative start-ups, and waste management firms, is the greatest choice for brands to tackle difficult sustainability issues and achieve bold commitments. 

Measure and report 

The next stage is to choose the appropriate metrics for tracking the sustainability strategy's progress. Establishing objectives is pointless if the business never knows whether it'll reach its target.

Even though the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) framework includes 169 targets and over 200 measures for tracking progress towards these goals, our Sustainability Industry Survey found that only around a third of professionals were aware of their company's SDG participation in 2019.

Educate and communicate 

In every sustainability strategy, communication is crucial. Businesses that communicate their findings and learnings (with shareholders) and outside (with governments, investors, consumers, workers, business partners, and local communities) are more transparent.

Many companies have departments devoted to updating their websites with information on their sustainability priorities, goals, activities, and outcomes. Companies worldwide are releasing compelling statements and memorable slogans to demonstrate their initiatives and pledges to a more sustainable future.

Risk and Barriers 

Barriers to sustainability 

Problems that prevent a project or a plan from successful implementation are barriers. Sustainability strategies have been a priority for most businesses, but only a handful of businesses have successfully gained sustainability. Most businesses can not overcome the basic barriers to implementing sustainable practices in their workplace. And this puts them at risk of losing customers, investors, and even meeting corporate goals.

Some barriers that affect the sustainability plan are as follows:

Absence of internal management structure

Most businesses do not have the required management structure to carry out sustainability plans. They do not have the technical management capacity. All these increase the expenditure of the business, which businesses may not be able to consider. This type of situation greatly influences the motivation to go sustainable. 

Businesses are under great pressure to go green, but they have little knowledge about sustainability. Research has found a lack of education about the sustainability concept among the stakeholders. There is a lack of political will. Although there is a huge political movement on sustainability in business, corruption has taken the wheel.    

The Sustainability plan does not get enough support from the senior management team once the plan takes place. They leave it to the lower management to handle the activities. IT shows the level of commitment from the senior management team. When the senior management does not take much interest in the plan, lower staff lack motivation. Thus, there is a communication gap between the senior management team and the staff. 

Cost

Implementation of sustainability plans is expensive as it requires lots of resources, time and commitment. Most businesses can not afford such expenditure because there is a huge gap between capital and operational budgets. Sustainability requires additional resources that can increase the expenditure of the businesses. Skilled- human resources are needed to implement the sustainability plan, and there is a shortage of skilled human resources in the market. Materials that promote sustainability are costly for small businesses. 

There is a high investment cost for implementing the sustainability plan, and higher goes the risk of investment as there are various risks associated with the sustainability plan. 

Lack of Building Codes and Regulation

The policies related to sustainability change from time to time, as the government or policy builder, the businesses or the environmentalists get pressured. The commitment by the leadership is only seen during the election and vanishes during their time in the government. Leaders use sustainability just for the votes, and there has been little progress in sustainability. 

Insufficient integration and link-up in the industry is another problem causing businesses to lose their path towards sustainability. IT can be handled with proper research and development from businesses and the government.

Watch 

The next video is an explanation from CEO of Sustainable Business Consulting Kevin Wihelm explaining common barriers that can occur when implementing sustainable practices. 

Risk in Sustainability Plans 

Risk is the possibility of something wrong during a process or an activity. All plans must face risks. It is important to understand the potential risk and find the solutions to minimise them in time. 

• Maintaining Balance between socio-environmental and financial 
• Organisation structure
• Organisational culture 
• External pressure 

A risk management plan can help understand the potential risks and deal with them.

Importance of Risk Management

Makes job safer

Risks must be accessed in every sustainability related activity.  

For example: 

• Risk management helps analyse the data to identify loss and injury trends and develop a strategy to prevent them. With risk management, an organisation can formulate safety procedures. A safer place is better for every member, motivating them to work better. 

Enables project success 

Risk management can be carried out for the individual project to determine its feasibility towards success. Employees can get the risk involved in a particular sustainability project  early and figure out the plan to handle them in advance. This way, the success rate of any project goes higher and higher.    

Reduces unexpected events 

There will always be some surprises during any project preparation and implementation. With risk management, those surprises can be limited and prepare for the potential surprises. Employees can also be familiar with risks with time and how to handle them if they have a proper risk management system. 

Creates financial benefits 

Risk management prepares for the potential risk and directly creates value. With the trend analysis, risk managers can identify potential risks and deal with them in advance. When the potential risk is identified and handled in advance, it will probably have less impact and save the business's huge amount of money.

Improves communication 

Communication in the organisation plays an important role in risk management. Communication, vertical and horizontal, are essential for the well-being of the business and employees. Risk managers can help employees communicate with each other and help them work together, which is done by horizontal communication. Vertical communications are practised by setting expectations and relating data to organisational goals. 

Guides decision making 

Decision making is a difficult task as it has a huge impact on future activities and success. The risk management department has a huge amount of data to analyse and produce strategic alternatives to any problems. They can also deliver the strengths and weaknesses of every possible solution. The risk management department is a reliable source for guidance for senior departments and employees to decide.

Risk Management Process 

Risk Identification 

The first step is to identify all the potential risks that can harm a certain project or a plan. They can be listed in a system. A risk can be characterised by its nature, causes and its consequences. It can also be characterised by the person responsible for its action. Every characterisation is necessary for risk analysis.

Risk managers should be able to identify the potential risk of every project. They are responsible for identifying and exchanging those potential risks with their owners.

Risk Assessment 

Qualitative and quantitative are two types of risk assessments. A qualitative assessment analyses the risk level through probability and its impact. A quantitative assessment analyses the risk against the financial impact, loss or benefits.

Method	Quantitative	Qualitative
Logic	Deductive	Inductive
Values/bias	Objective	Partner with the research subjects
Methodology	Structured measurement instruments	Semi-structured surveys, interviews or observations

Risk Treatment 

A treatment plan must identify risks and ways to manage them. The primary objective of risk treatment is to mitigate the impact of the risk and reduce the probability of the risk occurring in future. Depending on the nature of the risk, there can be four response strategies:

• avoid
• transfer
• mitigate
• accept

Risk Monitoring and Reporting 

Risk monitoring 

The last step in risk management is monitoring the risks and reporting with proper documentation. It will help mitigate the occurrence of a particular risk and its impact. It is a continuous process that results in awareness of the risk and its impact. It can help risk managers to:

• identify the risk trend
• response with an appropriate solution in time
• find out opportunities from the risk

Action Plan 

There are many different ways you can incorporate sustainable practices into your business operations. Review the tables below to give you some examples on how you can do this. 

Energy	use of LED lights and promote the use of natural lighting reduce the use of air conditioning by using natural ventilation as much as possible use of energy-efficient equipment culture of conserving resources such as turning the lights off when not in use, standby settings instead of screensavers, automatic lighting controls and use of one power strip to switch off at once discourage vending machines at the workplace
Water	rainwater collection dual-flush toilet system sensors and flow regulators on tap and showers purchase of water-efficient equipment
Waste	implementation of the waste hierarchy: reuse, recycle, reduce and refuse training staff to distinguish different kinds of waste renting materials for workplace events, projects or campaigns instead of buying them use of waste station in the kitchen instead of a rubbish bin on every desk so that staff can categorise the waste
Workplace environment	appropriate design of the workplace like ventilation, lighting and colour establishment of good workplace culture eco-friendly workplace work-life balance diversity in the workplace proper placement of technology
Procurement	use of LED lights and promote the use of natural lighting reduce the use of air conditioning by using natural ventilation as much as possible
Paper and printing	ensure all paper and card products are deforestation-free by purchasing only 100% recycled or FSC-certified goods encourage digital platforms to read, edit and store documents digital communication for events and invitation double-sided with black and white colour printing ISO 14001 certified printers only use vegetable-based inks if possible

Watch

Next, watch this short video from Panasonic explaining their Green Impact Plan/ their Sustainability Action Plan.