Assessment Task 2: Resource usage identification

Assessment Task 2 Instructions

Carefully read the following: 

You are the Administration Manager of a health resort and convention centre in the Blue Mountains, near Sydney. The resort, Blue Healer, is made up of five areas: catering, spa, meeting rooms accommodation, and administration. Each area has its own full-time manager.

The kitchen is large enough to feed over 100 people three meals each day. There are two full-time kitchen staff, and the rest of the staff are hired on a casual basis to cater for functions and retreats.

There is accommodation for 80 people in twin and double rooms. Surrounding hotels provide further accommodation when needed.

The spa has two saunas, a steam room, three warm water spas, four massage rooms and two consultation rooms where naturopathic consultations and facial treatments are performed. The spa runs continuously, mostly due to locals visiting, whether a course is running or not.

There is also an office where the accounts are done, and records kept. It is an open plan office with 5 staff workstations. Most staff prefer to work with their own laptops, connected to the larger computer screens.

Much of Blue Healer’s administrative work is carried out in the office, but several staff work from home several days each week. 

There are four meeting rooms of various sizes, and these can be opened up to make one large room for functions such as weddings and courses. There is also a reception and administration area where computers and printers can be accessed.

As Administration Manager, you are responsible for the office area as well as the meeting rooms.

Blue Healer has recently adopted a Sustainability Policy and Procedures and each area manager has been requested to determine how these will impact their work team’s activities.

The CEO has indicated that Blue Healer does not want to incur any additional costs in implementing the Sustainability Policy and Procedures. If any additional resources are necessary, management expects that an itemised budget will be submitted to them before resources are approved and allocated.

Currently the organisation has the following issues and practices: 

• There is older style florescent lighting throughout the building. These lights are often left on after the workday has finished, and the cleaners turn them off when they have finished with their work. 

• There are no formal energy usage procedures for staff or signage to remind staff about these. 

• The company does not have a policy for purchasing equipment and buys equipment when required; often purchasing whatever is on special at the time.

• There are two company vehicles. Both vehicles are now five years old and need to be upgraded. 

• Staff buy stationary requirements on an ad hoc basis, often resulting in large stocks of items such as notepads and A grade printer paper.

• Kitchen waste is often thrown in the general refuse bin

• There is a waste bin and recycling bins, which are often used incorrectly. 

• The office is cleaned once a week by contract cleaners who use regular cleaning products. 

Complete the following activities: 

1. Develop a Sustainability Improvement Report.

Review the following websites and take notes on sustainability targets that would be appropriate for the case study organisation.

https://www.business.gov.au/risk-management/environmental-impact/environmental-management/environmental-legislation-licences-and-permits

http://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/services-and-advice/business/energy-and-materials-efficiency-for-business/resources-and-tools/life-cycle-management

Conduct further research using the Internet or any other source of information to identify the company’s sustainability obligations and how these can be met.

Using your research and analysis, develop a report on your area of Blue Healer to present at a senior management meeting. Your report should include the following:

• An introduction: state the purpose of the report and summarise the current organisational sustainability practices. 

• Identify the environmental regulations that apply to the organisation

• Describe, and analyse, procedures that would assess Blue Healer’s compliance with the environmental/ sustainability regulations

• Explain at least five environmental and resource efficiency systems and procedures that could be relevant for the Blue Healer. 

• Describe at least three benchmarks for environmental and resource sustainability that could be relevant to the organisation 

• Outline at least three common environmental and energy efficiency issues within the industry in which Blue Healer operates

• Review the case study information and document the current resource usage of your team members.

• Document your team’s work processes as set out in the case study information and identify at least three ways of reducing their environmental impact. 

• Document the company’s current purchasing strategies as set out in the case study information. Analyse these and determine at least one way that each could be improved.

• Evaluate the company’s costing strategies and determine whether these can be changed to ensure that the company take sustainability into consideration.

• Discuss possible strategies for ensuring that resource efficiency continues to occur. 

• Set efficiency targets for your team

While conducting the research, be mindful that many organisations require external assistance in determining the best ways to improve their sustainability. Find, and document, at least two environmental specialists that could perform this task for Blue Healer. They should operate in the same state or territory as your RTO. Include their name, website address and a summary of the services they offer.

Develop an action plan to show at least six actions that will be completed by your team over the upcoming 12 months. 

The action plan should show the priorities of actions as well as timelines and responsibilities.

Use the Sustainability Improvement Report Template to guide your work.

2. Send an email to the CEO (your assessor).

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment and ask for the place, time and date of the meeting with key personnel and other stakeholders (your assessor and at least two other students).

Your assessor will advise you of the date and time of the meeting.

Attach your Sustainability Improvement Report to the email.

3. Participate in a meeting with key personnel and other stakeholders.

Discuss your Sustainability Improvement Report with the meeting attendees, clearly explaining the information and your ideas.

At the meeting, encourage the stakeholders to provide input into the strategies to improve the company’s sustainability and how to implement these.

During the meeting, demonstrate effective communication skills including:

• Speaking clearly and concisely 

• Using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding 

• Asking questions to identify required information 

• Responding to questions as required 

• Using active listening techniques to confirm understanding

Before concluding the meeting, ask for the participants’ approval of your report and its action plan.

4. Revise your Sustainability Improvement Report.

Following the meeting, revise your briefing report to reflect the feedback you received during the meeting.

Save this version of the document as Revised Sustainability Improvement Report.

5. Revise the Sustainability Policy and Procedures.

Implement the changes to the company’s costing strategies by reviewing the Sustainability Policy and Procedures to reflect the feedback you received during the meeting.

Save this version of the document as Revised Sustainability Policy and Procedures.

6. Send an email to all meeting attendees (your assessor).

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should outline the feedback provided at the meeting and how that has been integrated into the Sustainability Improvement Report.

Attach the following to the email:

• Revised Sustainability Improvement Report

• Revised Sustainability Policy and Procedures

7. Seek input from specialists (your assessor).

You are required to seek input from at least two sustainability experts 

You will do this by writing an email to the specialists you documented in your Sustainability Improvement Report.

Give an overview of the organisation and the sustainability improvements that have to be made.

Ask them for their feedback about what?