BSBSUS501 Develop workplace policy and procedures for sustainability

Assessment Task 1

Develop policy

Performance objective

In this assessment task, you will need to demonstrate the skills required to review and develop policies.

You will need to consult with the business manager to develop a sustainability policy that is consistent with organisational approaches to sustainability and complies with legislative and regulatory requirements.

Assessment description

You have been hired as the new environment officer at Tiny Opera Company. You will need to review the Tiny Opera Company case study including their sustainability policy. You need to determine the shortfalls between the sustainability approach and the practices required of Tiny Opera Company and develop the sustainability policy to reflect those requirements.

You will need to present draft policy documents to the Business Manager (your assessor) to agree on the final policy document.

Procedure

1. Review the case study information provided and determine all legislative and regulatory documents that describe compliance requirements for this company.
2. Research best practice models used by theatres and performance spaces.
3. Develop three options for the direction and focus of the policy and consider the likely effectiveness, timeframe and cost of implementing the option. Write summaries of each option to present in your consultation with the Business Manager (your assessor).
4. Meet with the Business Manager (your assessor) to consult on the policy options and decide on the preferred option.
5. Draft a sustainability policy for Tiny Opera Company based on your research, the company information provided and your consultation session. Ensure that you:
   1. specify the scope of the policy (who it applies to, relevant standards and legislation)
   2. outline Tiny Opera Company’s commitment to the policy
   3. address areas of sustainability that Tiny Opera Company specifically wants to focus on.
6. Meet with Business Manager (your assessor) to discuss:
   1. typical barriers to sustainability policy implementation and possible strategies to address barriers
   2. the process you are taking to develop the policy
   3. the draft policy and gain approval for your draft.
7. Update your draft policy according to agreements that you made in consultation with the Business Manager.
8. Collate your research into legislation and best practice models and the sustainability policy you have developed into an interim report that includes:
   1. an outline of the environmental and sustainability legislation that applies to Tiny Opera Company
   2. an explanation of how you developed a sustainability policy that reflects Tiny Opera Company’s commitment to sustainability
   3. strategies for promoting awareness of the sustainability policy
   4. strategies for maximising the impact of the policy (training, marketing, stakeholder engagement).
9. Submit the report, and the final version of the sustainability policy, to your assessor. Ensure you keep copies for your records.

Specifications

You must provide:

• three policy option summaries
• draft sustainability policy
• an interim report that includes:
  • an outline of the environmental and sustainability legislation that applies to Tiny Opera Company
  • an explanation of how you developed a sustainability policy that reflects Tiny Opera Company’s commitment to sustainability
  • strategies for promoting awareness of the sustainability policy
  • strategies for maximising the impact of the policy (training, marketing, stakeholder engagement)
• final version of the sustainability policy.

Your assessor will be looking for:

• reading skills to interpret documents to determine legislative requirements
• writing skills to prepare documents appropriate to the context and audience
• oral communication skills to:
  • present information and seek advice using questioning and listening skills
  • use appropriate conventions when communicating with stakeholders
• numeracy skills related to timeframe and costs of policy options
• work skills to:
  • modify policies and procedures
  • lead consultation with stakeholders
  • plan work activities of yourself and others
  • systematically gather information, set goals and evaluate options
• knowledge of applicable environmental or sustainability legislation
• knowledge of sources of information that can be used to plan and develop the organisation’s sustainability policy
• knowledge of policy development processes and practices.

Adjustment for distance-based learners

• Consultation with the Business Manager (your assessor) can be completed via videoconferencing technology (such as Skype) or via email as agreed with your assessor.
• Documentation can be submitted electronically or posted in the mail.
• A follow-up interview may be required (at the discretion of the assessor).

Case study – Tiny opera Company

The history of the Tiny Opera Company

Tiny Opera Company operates in a rural NSW town. Colleen Starr started the company after moving to the small town from Sydney in the late 1970s. Colleen wanted to bring the wonder and entertainment of theatre-based performances to rural NSW. Her vision was to create a regional theatre that emulated the Sydney Opera House; making theatre both accessible and valued in her town and the surrounding community. Stella’s idea and passion was shared by a wealthy landowner in the area who donated $2.3 million to support the purchase of a venue and the ongoing operation of the theatre. $1.3 million of this was invested in a trust which has been added to over the years that Tiny Opera Company has generated a profit.

Colleen Starr bought an old town hall that had been built in the early 1900s. The hall is listed on the State Heritage Register in NSW. Basic interior renovations were carried out to the stage, three dressing rooms, kitchen, break room, meeting room, food counter and ticketing booth including:

• painting internal walls
• installing wall-mounted radiators throughout the theatres, dressing rooms and break room
• installing a dishwasher and oven in the kitchen
• installing a wood heater in the meeting room.

Tiny Opera Company has staged regular performances in the theatre from the 1970s onwards.

Ten years ago, the Tiny Opera Company built a small office building to serve the growing number full time staff.

Tiny Opera Company today

The staff at Tiny Opera company currently include:

• Stage Manager (part-time)
• Director of Programming
• Resident Designer (funded by a grant for three years)
• Business Manager
• Marketing Communications Manager (part-time)
• Project Officers x 3 (part-time)
• Customer Service Representatives x 2 (part-time).

This year, the Tiny Opera Company has added a position for a new environment officer. You have been hired as the new environment officer at Tiny Opera Company after responding to the following job advertisement.

Sustainability project officer position

Tiny Opera Company is taking a new direction to become a leading practitioner of sustainable practices in the performing arts industry. As part of this direction, Tiny Opera Company has created an exciting new position for a sustainability project officer. You will be motivated, enthusiastic about sustainability and ready to bring an innovative approach to Tiny Opera Company practices.

You will work within our small team at Tiny Opera to review work practices, especially the use of costume, props, lighting and facilities, as well as communications, and equal employment opportunity practices. You will be required to develop best practice models to increase sustainability practices across the organisation. This may involve training and educating staff through professional development, company newsletters and other similar approaches.

We are looking for a highly skilled individual capable of reviewing technical documents and legislation in order to develop plain language policy, internal memos and external publicity materials.

The project officer is also required to develop materials to inform and educate audiences about Tiny Opera Company’s sustainable activities and encourage participation in activities and practices that lead to better environmental outcomes.

You are inducted by Nic Tan, the Business Manager of Tiny Opera Company, who gives you an overview of how the company wants to approach sustainability.

In the last six months, Tiny Opera Company has been focusing on becoming a more sustainable operation. Nic Tan has reviewed some of the organisation’s operations and has observed that resource use in the theatre is not aligned with sustainable work practices being promoted at Tiny Opera Company.

Nic realises that this is at least partly due to the policy and procedure documents not reflecting industry requirements or reflecting Tiny Opera Company’s aim to increase sustainability across its operations. Nic wants you to update the sustainability policy to specifically reflect the sustainability aims of the business. Nic wants to focus on the following areas:

• minimising resource use
• using resources more efficiently
• reducing toxic material and hazardous chemical use
• employing life cycle management approaches
• implementing a sustainability continuous improvement strategy.

Nic Tan also mentions that they need something in the policy that talks about measuring resource use and reviewing resource records periodically because that’s the main way that Tiny Opera Company will be monitoring their progress towards minimising resource use.

Tiny Opera Company has made an effort to improve sustainability by pursuing some new sustainability initiatives:

• programming of all reverse-cycle air conditioners in the office to automatically switch off at 4.45 pm every day:
  • currently air-conditioners are manually switched off
  • it is the responsibility of the last staff member leaving each day to turn them all off – this is rarely done, and most commonly all air-conditioners are left running 24 hours per day.
• better sorting of recyclable paper from general rubbish
• using low VOC (volatile organic compound) paint when painting sets for performances to protect the health and safety of workers.

Tiny Opera Sustainability Policy

Tiny Opera has a commitment to minimising environmental impact by:

• using resources wisely
• encouraging visitors to consider sustainability
• focusing on appropriate management principles.

We seek to improve social, economic, cultural and environmental benefits in our decision-making.

Nic Tan provides you with the budget for the previous few years as well as projections for next year. Nic points out that the marketing budget has already been increased to allow for marketing the new Tiny Opera Company sustainability initiatives. Nic Tan envisages that you will create sustainability policy options that fit within amount that is currently being generated as profit. Nic Tan points out that there is quite a fluctuation in the amount of profit generated, so you should use it as a rough guide. ‘Who knows’, says Nic Tan, ‘with an innovative sustainability plan, maybe you’ll even be able to generate some additional income by bringing bigger audiences to the Tiny Opera Company in support of our new, sustainable direction’.

Sustainability is a long-term goal at Tiny Opera Company, but Nic would like to see a couple of actions implemented within the next 12 months.

Tiny Opera Company
	2 years ago	Last year	This year	Next year (projected)
	$	$	$	$
Income
Sales of goods and services	111,500	117,750	112,000	115,000
Venue hire	25,600	24,300	24,700	24,000
Grants	35,000	70,000	85,000	80,000
Philanthropy	75,500	74,750	72,000	72,000
Fundraising	3,300	6,500	5,800	4,500
Corporate partners	70,000	87,000	85,000	80,000
Investing activities	65,400	68,000	72,300	73,300
Total income	386,300	448,300	456,800	448,800
Expenses
Wages and salaries	275,000	303,000	358,000	358,000
Utilities	7,672	8,472	8,672	8,800
Maintenance	1,825	869	765	1,000
Accounting expenses	1,500	1,500	1,750	1,750
Marketing	4,270	4,320	5,245	8,200
Performance costs	58,000	47,700	53,670	55,000
Miscellaneous	2,500	3,200	1,275	2,000
Total expenses	350,767	369,061	429,377	434,750
Profit/loss	35,533	79,239	27,423	14,050

Assessment Task 2

Implementation and presentation

Performance objective

Using the Sydney Opera House corporate documents as well as additional information provided, you will develop an implementation plan and monitoring strategy to achieve targets.

For this assessment you will also communicate sustainability requirements to Sydney Opera House employees (other learners acting as employees) by developing and delivering a presentation or training session.

Assessment description

For this assessment task, you will review corporate information available from the Sydney Opera House and use the targets provided to develop an implementation plan and monitoring strategy to meet those targets.

Then, using your implementation plan, the Sydney Opera House Environmental Sustainability Policy, and other Sydney Opera House documentation, develop a 10–15 minute presentation or training session to deliver to internal employees of the Sydney Opera House. You should outline the Sustainability Policy and what it means to Opera House staff. As part of this presentation, you must describe how the revised processes will be implemented and managed.

You will need to promote the policy and its expected outcomes and explain how the outcomes affect key stakeholders.

You will also need to assign and outline responsibilities for using recording systems to track sustainability improvements.

Procedure

Part A

You will develop an implementation plan and monitoring strategy to meet Sydney Opera House targets provided.

1. Review the Sydney Opera House vision, mission, goals and policies, especially the Environmental Sustainability Policy. These documents are available from the Corporate Information page at: <http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/About/ CorporateInformation_Summary.aspx>.
2. Complete a sustainability implementation plan (using the template provided in Appendix 2) to implement the Sydney Opera House sustainability policy and meet the sustainability targets set out in Appendix 1. In the implementation plan, include:
   1. two or more actions for each target (listed in Appendix 1)
   2. at least one action that involves staff training
   3. at least one action that involves communication to staff through a presentation.
3. Develop a monitoring strategy (using the template provided in Appendix 3) for meeting the targets that includes:
   1. key outcomes expected for each action and person
   2. metrics/key performance indicators for each action
   3. a method of gathering and recording data on sustainability performance.
4. Arrange a meeting with your assessor to explain the actions you’ve chosen and gain approval for actions from your assessor. You and your assessor will also need to discuss and agree upon a method of recording audience feedback to your presentation or training delivered in Part B of this task.
5. Submit the implementation plan and monitoring strategy to your assessor. Ensure you keep copies for your records. You will need to refer to this implementation plan in Part B of this task as well as in Assessment Task 3.

Part B

Using your implementation plan, you will develop a presentation or training session for Sydney Opera House employees. Your aim is to use the presentation or training to improve resource efficiency at the Sydney Opera House.

1. Using your implementation plan, choose to either design and deliver a presentation (according to the action that involves communication to staff through a presentation) or a training session (according to the action that involves staff training) to Sydney Opera House staff.
2. Review the organisational structure (see Appendix 4) to determine the appropriate audience for the presentation or training session.
3. Develop a 10–15 minute presentation or training session in accordance with your implementation plan. Design the presentation or training to improve resource efficiency in some area (e.g. how to use new waste systems in the cafe) and include a short procedure to help achieve targets in the implementation plan.
4. During either your presentation or training you will need to include:
   1. a brief description of the Sydney Opera House Environmental Sustainability Policy and its expected outcomes for stakeholder groups (you can access the Environmental Sustainability Policy from <http://www.sydneyoperahouse. com/environment/greening_the_house.aspx>)
   2. an outline of Sydney Opera House systems and procedures that relate to sustainability
   3. information for staff as to what their responsibilities are, what activities they are to carry out and what outcomes are expected
   4. additional time (5–10 minutes) for questions and comments from staff.
5. Distribute feedback questionnaires (if this is your method of measuring your audience’s understanding and engagement) and collect these at the completion of your presentation/training. Ensure you keep copies of questionnaires or other form of measuring audience feedback for use in Assessment Task 3.

Specifications

You must:

• submit an implementation plan
• submit a monitoring strategy
• submit a short procedure
• deliver a presentation/training session to employees (other learners acting as employees)
• address comments and questions from employees (other learners acting as employees)
• submit notes, PowerPoint presentation slides, handouts and any other materials used to support the presentation
• collect feedback from audience members (other learners acting as employees).

Your assessor will be looking for:

• reading skills to interpret and evaluate Sydney Opera House organisational documents
• writing skills to prepare documentation appropriate to context and audience
• oral communication skills to present information and seek advice using questioning and listening skills
• work skills to:
  • monitor organisational policies and procedures
  • use appropriate conventions and protocols when communicating with stakeholders
  • sequence and schedule activities, monitor implementation and manage communication
• knowledge of Sydney Opera House sustainability systems and procedures
• knowledge of typical barriers to implementing policies and procedures and possible strategies to address them.

Adjustment for distance-based learners

As per specifications outlined above, except that the presentation may be:

• through a live video medium (such as a social networking site) to a virtual group meeting the criteria outlined above. This would need to be organised in advance with the assessor.
• through a video-recorded presentation to a group of local (to the candidate) business investors:
  • the video recording must include the presentation session and question time
  • the recording should be submitted in agreement with assessor, by DVD or uploaded to a video-sharing site and the link sent to the assessor. It is the responsibility of the learner to ensure that confidentiality agreements are not breeched, and that the file is available online for a period of at least two weeks to allow the assessor adequate time to review the presentation.

Appendix 1 – Sustainability targets

Objective: Reduce energy use

Reduce electricity use by 2% per annum (using FY06/07 as initial benchmark).

Reduce gas use by 4% per annum (using FY06/07 as initial benchmark).

Objective: Embed environmental sustainability in everything we do

Reduce landfill waste and increase reuse and recycling.

Reduce the use of toxic or environmentally harmful products and materials.

Reduce water use by 2% per annum (using FY06/07 as initial benchmark).

Objective: Engage and inspire

Engage staff in supporting sustainability targets.

Present information and training to employees in plain English.

Inspire audiences to consider sustainability in their everyday choices.

Objective: Keep accurate records

Record resource use on a monthly basis.

Appendix 2 – Implementation plan

Appendix 3 – Monitoring strategy

Appendix 4 – Organisational structure

Assessment Task 3

Implementation review

Performance objective

For this assessment you are required to demonstrate the skills required to review the success or otherwise of the implementation of actions from your plan in Assessment Task 2. You will need to evaluate records to identify trends and determine the efficacy of policy and procedures. You will need to recommend changes to policy where performance improvement is required.

Assessment description

You are required to complete a review of the implementation of resource efficiency activities developed in Assessment Task 2. As part of the review process you are undertaking, you need to ensure that you:

• monitor and review records of implementation (provided to you by your assessor), and identify trends or apparent areas requiring ongoing action
• document the outcomes of the implementation strategy and evaluate the success or otherwise of the policy and sustainability management
• review audience feedback to your presentation/training from Assessment Task 2
• recommend modifications to the policy and management of sustainability.

Procedure

1. Review the reports that document resource use at the Sydney Opera House (provided by your assessor). Note that there are four spreadsheets available in the document provided. You can navigate between the records by selecting the tabs at the bottom of this Excel document.
2. Review the Sydney Opera House Environmental Sustainability Policy, Environmental Sustainability Plan, and other Sydney Opera House corporate information and policy documents at: <http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/About/ CorporateInformation_Summary.aspx>.
3. Review the audience feedback from Assessment Task 2.
4. Review the resource efficiency targets provided in Assessment Task 2 and the related actions you created for each target in your implementation plan. For the purposes of this assessment, assume that the actions you developed were implemented in FY 06/07 at the Sydney Opera House.
5. Using the data provided (in the spreadsheets given to you by your assessor) and the corporate information available to you, develop a written report that includes:
   1. graphs or charts that could describe or summarise progress towards established targets
   2. an evaluation of the graphs or charts to identify trends in data and analyse data targets identified in Assessment Task 2
   3. a description of the success and/or shortfalls of the implementation of sustainability and communication targets based on:
      1. trends in resource use
      2. audience feedback from Assessment Task 2
   4. a description of trends that may require remedial action; include a plan that describes how these areas can be continuously improved in the future
   5. a review of Sydney Opera House policies’ coverage of measuring and analysing resource consumption to determine how the recording of resource consumption is currently addressed in policy
   6. recommendations for improvements to policy, communication and management of sustainability based on data taken from analysis of records.
6. Submit your report to your assessor along with a list of the stakeholders who would need to receive your report.

Specifications

You must provide:

• a written report.

Your assessor will be looking for:

• reading skills to analyse and evaluate complex texts to determine trends
• writing skills to research plans and prepare documents appropriate to the context and audience
• numeracy skills to calculate numerical information
• work skills to:
  • use appropriate conventions when communicating with stakeholders
  • gather relevant information and evaluate outcomes
• knowledge of environmental or sustainability legislation applicable to the organisation
• knowledge of sources of information that can be used to plan and develop the organisation’s sustainability policy.

Adjustments for distance-based learners

• No variation of the task is required.
• A follow-up interview may be required (at the discretion of the assessor).
• Documentation can be submitted electronically or posted in the mail.

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