Assessment Description
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You are required to watch the following YouTube clips from the GRI Secretariat:
1.The GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards: The Future of Reporting

2.Introducing the GRI Standards

You must also read the case study below based on fictional company Timberwell Constructions.
You must then prepare a sustainability assessment report for Timberwell Constructions referring to the Consolidated Set of GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards 2016 that specifically addresses:
A. Economic sustainability
i)Disclosure 201-2 Financial implications and other risks and opportunities due toclimate change
ii)Disclosure 205-3 Confirmed incidents of corruption and actions taken
iii)Disclosure 206-1 Legal actions for anti-competitive behaviour, anti-trust,
and monopoly practices
B. Environmental sustainability
i)Disclosure 302-1 Energy consumption within the organisation
ii)Disclosure 304-2 Significant impacts of activities, products, and services onbiodiversity
iii)Disclosure 307-1 Non-compliance with environmental laws and regulations
C. Social sustainability
i) Disclosure 401-1 New employee hires and employee turnover
ii) Disclosure 406-1 Incidents of discrimination and corrective actions taken
iii) Disclosure 413-1 Operations with local community engagement, impact assessments, and development programs
You will be required to include a minimum of 15 references in your Sustainability Assessment Report at least 5 of which must come from academic journals or textbooks.
Assessment 3 Case Study – Timberwell Constructions
Introduction
Timberwell Constructions is a residential development company that builds apartment complexes in the Stanwell Council district. It employs 58 male staff from the area with different construction related trades and professions. The local market for these workers is highly competitive and Timberwell has had to employ 12 new apprentices in the reporting period because 17 employees have left, mostly to work for rival organisations or establish their own businesses. The company has increased worker pay rates and implemented a monthly rostered day off to try to retain its existing staff.
Fair Work Commission
One employee, Dennis McCabe, resigned from the organisation and filed a workplace harassment claim in the Fair Work Commission. His claim alleged he was discriminated against by his co-workers on the basis of his age. Dennis further alleged that because he was the only worker older than 50 years of age (everybody else is aged between 30 and 50) he was the target of humiliating age related jokes from the others.
The Fair Work Commission upheld Dennis’s claim and ordered Timberwell Constructions to pay him $4,400 in compensation. The Commission also ordered Timberwell to update its anti-discrimination policy and provide anti-discrimination training to all employees. The company has complied with the Commission’s orders.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
Dennis also lodged a series of complaints to a number of government authorities about Timberwell’s operations. On the basis of one such complaint, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) instituted proceedings in the Federal Court against Timberwell Constructions for alleged anti-competitive conduct involving misuse of market power and exclusive dealings.
The ACCC alleged that Timberwell became aware that a group of local builders were planning to establish a competing development company. In response to this competitive threat, the ACCC alleged senior Timberwell executives told suppliers and contractors that if they were involved with the new development company they would have their business with Timberwell substantially reduced or withdrawn.
The ACCC alleged that Timberwell engaged in this conduct for the purpose of deterring or preventing a new entrant in the development market in the Stanwell district, or substantially lessening competition in that market. The case is listed to be heard by the Federal Court in four months.
State Corruption Commission
Dennis made a separate complaint to the state corruption commission resulting in a public corruption scandal involving five Timberwell employees and two business partners. The complaint alleged that in order to push the company’s development applications through the council approval process, the five employees and two external consultants offered bribes to council project officers. The state corruption commission has charged each of the five employees and one of the external consultants with corruption.
All five employees have been suspended without pay by Timberwell pending the outcome of the prosecutions. Timberwell has also terminated its partnership contracts with the two external consultants.
Department of the Environment and Energy
Dennis also made a separate complaint to the Department of the Environment and Energy. Following an investigation by the Department, Timberwell was fined $200,000 for clearing 0.45 hectares of critically endangered ecological community coastal grasslands.
The cleared area was recognised under the State Planning Scheme as containing important flora and fauna attributes. Timberwell was also ordered to undertake an external review of its vegetation management plan, extend its audit program for contractors, and implement a rehabilitation plan at a cost of no less than $440,000.
Public Relations Campaign
These complaints have drawn a great deal of negative publicity. To bolster its public image, Timberwell Constructions has issued a series of media release intended to demonstrate that the company is a good corporate citizen.
The first media release explained how an Environmental Impact Assessment performed on the company’s Otford Park development site discovered that 60% of the site was populated by the rare wallum sedge frog.
The Assessment estimated the medium density residential development proposed for the site would irreversibly convert the habitat and render it inconsistent with the frogs’ survival on the site.
Timberwell is working with Stanwell Council and environmental groups to devise a strategy for managing the proposed development of the site and the conservation of the wallum sedge frog.
The second media release explained that Timberwell Constructions is an energy efficient organisation. It included the following energy consumption table for the company in the reporting period based on calculation tools prescribed by the Australian Department of Industry and Science:
Fuel consumption from non-renewable sources
1.0 Gigajoule
Fuel consumption from renewable sources
0.5 Gigajoules
Electricity consumption
2.0 Gigajoules
Note: 1 Gigajoule = 109 joules
The media release also explained that Timberwell had implemented a program to raise its fuel consumption from renewable resources to at least 50% of its total fuel consumption within the next three years.
The third media release explained the Timberwell Constructions goes to considerable expense to engage local communities, perform impact assessments, and formulate social development programs for all proposed residential developments. These initiatives include Environmental Impact Assessments, local resident meetings, and local community development programs based on the local community’s need for affordable social housing.
The fourth and final media release explained how Timberwell Constructions is working closely with Stanwell Council to comply with the council’s proposed amendments to its Local Environmental Plan (LEP).
In response to the warming effects of climate change and the increased risk of bushfires the Stanwell Council proposes to amend its LEP to rezone specific areas in the Stanwell District as ‘bushfire prone’. The LEP amendment is expected to take effect within 6 weeks.
Any new development in an area identified under the proposed LEP amendment as bushfire prone will be required to meet higher standards of bushfire safety including larger distances between buildings and land boundaries and the use of fire retardant building materials.
Timberwell Constructions has a development site in the Stanwell district that is located in an area that will be rezoned as bushfire prone under the LEP amendment. The new regulations could cost Timberwell as much as $4 million to comply with. The company has engaged an external town planning firm to manage the development application and work with Stanwell Council so as to minimise these potential costs. The town planning firm is charging $50,000 for their services.

Solution
Sustainability Assessment
Introduction
Buildings form a critical part of the Australian economy such that it is inevitable that when the public assume broad environmental, economic, and social agendas, there is a consideration of how the initiatives can be supported by construction regulations. Wider government policies, driven by whole-of-government approaches, are likely to inevitably draw in the regulation issues (Azzi, Duc and Ha 2015). In this review, there is a review of disclosure obligations pertaining to Timberwell Construction with respect to the social, economic, and environmental implications of its operations.
Economic sustainability
Disclosure 201-2: Financial implications of climate change
Timberwell Construction, as an entity, works towards the minimization of the scale and effects of its operations to climate change. The management team at the firm acknowledges that adverse climatic changes are likely to cause detrimental financial implications to people individually and collectively as organizations. At the same time, it is clear that conformance to the environmental conservation regulations comes with monetary expenses to the firm (Pieraccini, Coppa, and De Lucia 2017). Timberwell has incurred a fine of up to $200,000 for an indiscriminate felling of trees and other vegetation for development purposes in a 0.45 ha of land. The exercise has critically endangered the ecosystem in the coastal grassland.
Such practices are environmentally unsustainable because they will result in an ecosystem imbalance in the long run, which in turn causes severe climate change. Native vegetation laws in Australia provide for the preservation of remnant habits in a bid to conserve biodiversity (Cunningham et al. 2014). The regulations protect indigenous tree species, bushes, and shrubs. Complying with the laws and supporting them willingly offers the company an opportunity to avoid the hefty fines and contribute to the conservation of the environment. On the other hand,………To access the rest of the solution for $10, please click on the purchase button.