An explanation and evaluation of how comprehensive and transparent their sustainability reporting is, using relevant frameworks to support this evaluation.

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20 Apr 2022 Homework Help

An explanation and evaluation of how comprehensive and transparent their sustainability reporting is, using relevant frameworks to support this evaluation.

Assignment Two tasks – additional step by step guidance

This guidance is not a replacement for the Assignment Details Brief to be found on Moodle. Make sure that you have read that brief fully, in particular the format requirements and the assessment criteria that will be used. Make sure to read the Assessment Criteria Grid as well so that you know how to distinguish between an A/B/C/D/F response under each assessment criterion. This guidance is mainly about the tasks not the assessment criteria but the two are obviously connected.

Before you start on Assignment Two, make sure you have fully absorbed the implications of the feedback you received on Assignment One. You will write a better second assignment if you do.

We know that 4 pages of guidance looks a lot. Don’t try and take it all in at once. Read it in bite-sized chunks as you methodically research for and write your second assignment.

Task 1

“An introduction that summarises key company and environmental impacts information from your first assignment (no more than 200 words)”

The purpose of this brief introduction is to provide a foundation of information that enables the reader to make sense of Tasks 2+3. You will have to be selective about how you summarise your first assignment, but in doing so be sure to include the key environmental impacts for which your company is responsible. Make brief reference to relevant frameworks especially the Nine Planetary Boundaries Framework. On no account write more than 200 words here – if you do, you are wasting your word count.

Task 2

“A critical evaluation of the environmental sustainability strategy and performance of your chosen company. Your evaluation should include at least the following:

A summary of your understanding of the sustainability strategy of your company.
An evaluation of the company’s approach to their sustainability strategy using a variety of theoretical frameworks
An explanation of your company’s approach to Environmental Management Systems, and what this says about their commitment to their strategy
An evaluation of the company’s environmental performance i.e. the implementation of their strategy over the last 3-5 years, in two or more of the following areas: marketing; operations and supply chain management
The incorporation of relevant concepts, frameworks and theories (including but not restricted to the principles of resource savings (the 5Rs) into the performance evaluation
An explanation and evaluation of how comprehensive and transparent their sustainability reporting is, using relevant frameworks to support this evaluation.”

First, really concentrate on the first sentence. In this assignment we are talking about environmental sustainability strategy so if you find yourself talking about strategy in general or other non-environmental forms of sustainability then you are probably on the wrong track.

Second, notice we are asking you about strategy and performance. You need to evaluate both, not just one of these.

Third, note we are asking you to carry out a critical evaluation. This means throughout this report you need to maintain a critical, questioning frame of mind that subjects both company and other data to critical scrutiny. This means asking yourself questions such as: on what basis is this statement made, is the evidence valid, is there independent verification of this claim, have all stakeholder perspectives been considered, what is not being said (omitted) in this report etc. etc.? You will find it much easier to maintain this critical perspective if you are reading widely, especially the very up to date reports via ENDS and edie.net.

Looking now at the more detailed requirements of Task 2:

“A summary of your understanding of the sustainability strategy of your company?”
Before addressing any of the questions below, you need to present your overall summary of what you think the company’s sustainability strategy is. Remember that the company might not have a section in their report headed “Strategy”. They might instead talk about long term objectives, key goals, plans etc. You will need to work from your understanding of what strategy is (from the week 6 materials) to judge what to include here.
“An evaluation of the company’s approach to their sustainability strategy using a variety of theoretical and policy (e.g. COP26) frameworks”

The PWC Reporting with Purpose publication as well as authors such as Blowfield and frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals give us ways of assessing, classifying and understanding the environmental sustainability strategy of organisations. Use the evidence you find in your company’s report and beyond to make a case for classifying your company’s strategy in a particular way using some of these models. What are the insights that such models help to generate? Critique the models too if you find them inadequate, or draw on other models you have come across in your reading.

“An explanation of your company’s approach to Environmental Management Systems, and what this says about their commitment to their strategy”

Ask yourself questions such as:

Have I identified which environmental management system, one driven by ISO, EMAS or another, my organisation uses? This information should come from your company’s report or from wider reading about your company.
If they do not appear to use an EMS, what conclusions can be drawn?
Have I evaluated how well the organisation uses an EMS to help implement and monitor its strategy? To demonstrate criticality, have I considered what competitors do, or whether there are external sources of data commenting on my company’s choice or use of an EMS?
Have I read the recommended journal articles from the week on Environmental Management Systems. There are many relevant findings and concepts to draw from there to evaluate your company’s EMS practices.

“An evaluation of the company’s environmental performance i.e. the implementation of their strategy over the last 3-5 years, in two or more of the following areas: marketing; operations and supply chain management”

Ask yourself questions such as:

Have I presented the different initiatives that my organisation has undertaken, aimed at sustainability, in two or more of these areas – supply chain, operations and marketing?
Is each section easy to follow i.e. have I presented the examples under clear headings of supply chain, operations or marketing?
Have I evaluated these initiatives in terms of how well my company applies the principles of resource savings (the 5 Rs), always remembering that the 5Rs are in a hierarchy.
Have I shown and evaluated actual performance data and trends over 3-5 years, with the help of tables or charts? (This might involve you presenting successful performance in some areas but gaps in others.)
Have I benchmarked against other organisations’ performance or agreed VEI standards to demonstrate criticality?
Have I used information from my wider reading to challenge what my company claims?
What does performance in these areas indicate about how achievable/effective my company’s overall sustainability strategy is?

“The incorporation of relevant concepts, frameworks and theories (including but not restricted to the principles of resource savings (the 5Rs) into the performance evaluation”

This is not a separate section in the report as the 5Rs point above highlights. Your application of other concepts etc. also needs to be embedded into the performance evaluation of your company.

How can you achieve this application of concepts etc.? Some brief suggestions:

On this module we look at Life Cycle Assessments and how they underpin concepts/models such as Green Supply Chain Management, Reverse Logistics and the Circular Economy. How do these concepts and models help us to identify the comprehensiveness and rigour (or lack of it) in your company’s approach to sustainability?
The Seuring model could help you to evaluate operational and supply chain activities as it helps you to review your company’s performance from a life cycle and industrial ecology perspective. For instance, you could plot your examples of the 5 Rs on a Seuring life cycle diagram or on a Life Cycle Assessment diagram.
In the marketing week we considered the main differences between traditional and green marketing. Have you referred to eco-marketing concepts and critiques of the kind of consumption that traditional marketing encourages?
In our opening weeks we spent some time studying the overall sustainability challenges facing the planet and the ways that consumerism and dominant economic models make it difficult to challenge unsustainable behaviours. To what extent does your company actively challenge such behaviours in its core business assumptions and behaviours? For example, how could you use the concept of negative externalities to critique your company’s pricing policies, to what extent does your company in fact benefit from the Tragedy of the Commons, or how locked into patterns of unsustainable consumption and growth is your company?

“An explanation and evaluation of how comprehensive and transparent their sustainability reporting is, using relevant frameworks to support this evaluation”

To write this assignment you will have spent a lot of time studying your company’s sustainability report (or whatever they have called it). In this section you need to review how they do their reporting.

Ask yourself questions such as:

Have I drawn on the PWC Reporting with Purpose and Impact criteria for Balanced Reporting and External Assurance to carry out this evaluation ?
Have I identified and commented on the indicators they have chosen to report against (e.g. GRI, SDGs)?
Have I used other company reports as a means of comparison to enable a critical evaluation of how comprehensive and transparent my focus company is?

Task 3

“A conclusions section that sums up your evaluation and makes relevant recommendations for future improvements to their strategy and performance”

Remember that as you only have 2000 words for the whole report, this section will necessarily be quite brief. So make sure to avoid lengthy repetition of material already covered.

As you look back over your own report and write this section you can ask yourself these questions:

Have I been clear about what key sustainability challenges are facing my organisation?
How can I present a balanced conclusion about how effective my company’s strategy and performance are in relation to its sustainability challenges?
Do I make it clear on what basis I have come to this conclusion?
Have I provided a clear line of argument through the report using reputable evidence that is correctly cited using Harvard referencing?
Have I made specific recommendations for how the company could further improve its sustainability strategy and performance?
Do these recommendations follow logically from the findings of my evaluation identified earlier?