Building Finnegan Construction Sustainability Assessment Report

Question

Task: Prepare a report on Finnegan construction sustainability assessment report in compliance to the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards of 2020.

Answer

Introduction
Finnegan construction sustainability assessment is one of the most important and popular approach that is needed to be done by an organisation for the objective of making the right decision in all facets which consist of economic, social, and environmental (GRI, 2020). Global Reporting Initiative or GRI identifies itself as an autonomous global organisation that has spearheaded sustainability reporting since 1997.GRI assists organisations and governments all over the world to comprehend and correspond their significance on integral sustainability matters such as administration, civil rights, climate change, and social welfare. This empowers absolute movement to build economic, social, and environmental gain for the populace. With the aid of this process of assessing Finnegan construction sustainability, the achievement of the forthcoming objectives combined with good decision-making will give high possibility of attaining organisation’s goals. Making the ideal amount of effort and preparation to achieve goals and objectives makes it very important for an organisation to examine its unfavourable effects in the overall social, economic, and environmental aspect as well. In this assignment the construction of Finnegan construction sustainability assessment report will be performed in compliance to the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards of 2020 to build up a competent strategy to fix its practical and organisational flaws.

Economic Sustainability Assessment
GRI disclosure 201-2 deals with the goal of recognising the financial indication and the risks that might arise which might be caused by any form of climate change. It is required of an organisation to adapt to newer plan of action and bring in financial assets that would help them in achieving their goals in a sustainable way. In response to the overwhelming effects of climate change and heightened risk of bushfires, Finnegan Constructions development site has obtained a proposal from the end of the Stanwell Council, which is associated with the modifications for Finnegan construction sustainability plans environmentally. However, at this point, the company faced challenges while trying to gather necessary data for the Disclosure 201-2, as one area or region of Stanwell Council was assumed to rezone as per the LEP alteration rule. Due to this reason, the company faced a huge loss of around $4million monetary amount.

Disclosure 205-3 Confirmed incidents of corruption and actions taken
Corruption and collusion are very common instances of wrong activities that are observed in the case of organisations. Corruption has been rising and it has made corporations completely destroy their goodwill in the market as has been observed through the study of the case studies in the Finnegan construction sustainability issue. There is a tendency of collusion in between the employees and other external parties leading to major allegations of bribe offering. Council project officers who hold office have been approached for illegal monetary exchange in lieu of favours and this is the reason why the market reputation of Finnegan Construction has dipped very low.

The state Corruption Commission implicated five internal associates and two external associates as implicated under Disclosure 205-3. There was loss of jobs for the five employees and the external aides were removed by dissolving the legal contracts like joint venture agreements that the company had with them. However, the image of the company was tarnished largely.

Disclosure 206-1 Legal actions for anti-competitive behaviour, anti-trust, and monopoly practices
Anti-competitive activities have become a mainstay of Finnegan and this was divulged in the proceedings of the court of law that is in the proceedings against the company by Federal Court by Australian Competition and Commission. There were severe allegations aligned like use of power to manipulate the market activities, operational malpractices and jeopardising the business plans of others. There was clear indications of using their weight to create unhealthy competition that are associated with vendor management that the company shares with its local builder and threatening to cancel bulk orders with the vendor if they support the local builder. Such shady commercial deal allegations have been levelled against the senior management of Finnegan, reflecting the poor business practices of the company.

Approach taken by management on various issues related to Finnegan construction sustainability:

Table 1: Disclosure Clauses and management approach
(Source: Created by the learner)

Environmental Sustainability Assessment
Strategies for pollution control and Finnegan construction sustainability as well as optimum use of natural resources are an integral part of the company’s environmental policies. Sustainability in a crucial factor that influences the construction sector in these days and Finnegan construction sustainability analysis is a key factor in this case (Y?lmaz and Bak??,2015)

Disclosure 302-1 Energy consumption within the organisation
Energy efficiency of the organisation was at par with standard practices and this has been vetted by the Australian Department of Industry and Science as per reports submitted by the company. As per the 302-1 disclosure the following was divulged:

• 5 Gigajoules is the amount of fuel obtained from various renewable resources
• The utilisation of electricity was 2.0 Gigajoules
• Non-renewable energy sources provided fuel of around 0 Gigajoules

There were attempts made to ensure that specific programmes were inculcated that were associated with increasing consumption from renewable sources up to around 50% within a three year span and that clearly indicates that conservation of natural energy resources are being catered to that border on lean principles (Marhani et al., 2013) .

Disclosure 304-2 Significant impacts of activities, products, and services on biodiversity
In the Otford Park site, there was a significant population of rare species of wallum sledge frogs and the residential building construction plan of the company will assuredly destroy the natural habitat. Local environmental bodies strictly imposed regulations on the construction company to ensure that complete harm to the environment does not occur. The local authorities have made it clear that along with economic development the protection of the flora and the fauna are major goals that the organisation needs to focus upon. Through collaboration with the Stanwell Council, Finnegan Corporation has ensured that living conditions of the wallum sledge frogs are not completely jeopardised. Business operations will be held with special considerations towards the environmental policies ensuring that there are no abuses hurled at the environmental Finnegan construction sustainability (Zuo et al., 2012).

Disclosure 307-1 Non-compliance with environmental laws and regulations
There was a fine of $200,000 by The Department of Environment and Energy that was imposed on Finnegan Construction for flouting of laws, regarding the clearance of 0.45 hectares of land in a state planned area that was rich is biological fauna (Wells, 2013). The clearance of the grasslands for the construction led to the issue of destruction of the ecosystem in its totality and that is the reason why the fine was imposed on the construction company.

This led to the development of policies for business operations that were based on ecological balance maintenance and sustainable efforts in this area. Thus sustainable practices are becoming the mainstay in the current times, to ensure that competitive business environment can be enjoyed (O’Connor et al., 2016). Finnegan Corporation has to ensure that they are involved in the process of developing their land management policies with the careful evaluation of land sites with the help of effective environmental audit programmes (Glass, 2012). Herein lies the importance of developing excellent environmental evaluation programmes by the company and ensuring that the disclosure as well as the laws of the land are maintained in spite of the competitive environment (Wang et al., 2014).

Social Sustainability Assessment
In conformity to the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards of 2020 within disclosure 401-1’sdefinition in relation to hew hired employees and turnovers information are included. Given that the reporting of the Finnegan construction sustainability assessment must be carried out by the reporting organisation, they also need to mention the organisation’s total number of employees that were hired during the reporting period and also the hiring rate. In addition to this, the employee turnover rate of the organisation must also present their age, gender, and region.

The main objective of this disclosure for Finnegan construction sustainability is to verify the ability and effectiveness of an organisation to recruit diverse professionals to join the workforce and retain them. If the employee turnover rates within an organisation are relatively high, then it just shows that the employees in that organisation are highly dissatisfied and uncertain of their future in the company. Since 17 employees have left Finnegan Constructions with the reason of working for their rivals or putting up their own business, the organisation was left with no choice but to add 12 new apprentices to cover the loss. To further decrease, the employee turnover rates the organisation have decided to increase the worker pay rates and implement a monthly rostered day off.

In accordance to the GRI disclosure 406-1, these are issue related to incidents of discrimination and their remediation plan that are being implemented once incident arise. The main objective of this disclosure is to prevent an organisation in participating or encouraging their employees to be involved with any kinds of discrimination within its premises. The disclosure also makes sure that any kinds of harassment that happens within the organisation will also be reported and must include incidents of discrimination on grounds of sex, colour, race, political opinion, national extraction, social origin, and religion during the reporting period. Finnegan Constructions was allegedly reported by one of their employees due to committing workplace harassment because of his age. The allegation states that this employee was being discriminated and bullied based on his age as he was the only one in the organisation who’s on his 50’s. As a remediation plan, Finnegan was instructed by the Fair Work Commission to update its anti-discrimination policy and provide anti-discrimination policy to all of its employees. They are also obliged to pay the affected employee with $4,400 compensation.

As per the GRI standards disclosure 413-1 articulates about operations when it comes to being involved in development programs and local community engagement. Knowing the community’s needs and expectations is one of the major contributors to having positive image in the society. An organisation is required to avoid and remove negative impacts in the community. To boost its public image, Finnegan Construction have issued media releases, and this includes engagement with local communities, performing impact assessments, and developing social media programs for all prospective developments in the community. In relation to that, they have initiated Environmental Impact Assessments, local community development programs, and local residential meetings based on the community’s current need. In this media release, the organisation has decided to have considerable amount of investment will be made to aid with the success of this engagement and affect Finnegan construction sustainability.

Conclusion
The company outlined in the above context is able to develop much better strategies that are more in alignment with the concepts of Finnegan construction sustainability development. The report clearly highlights that there are many areas that clearly indicate that there are areas in which the organisation can thrive and improve its performance in areas of operational efficiency and in areas of environmental Finnegan construction sustainability related efficiency. Developing on these lines will also ensure that there will be lesser instances of negative publicity for the organisation. It is extremely important that effort is taken to ensure that the environmental policies of the company are based on the values of Finnegan construction sustainability ensuring that there is the issue of reducing pollution and preserving the natural habitat of flora and fauna pivotal in the minds of the organisational leaders.

Reference List
Glass, J., 2012. The state of sustainability reporting in the construction sector. Smart and sustainable built environment.

GRI 2020, Finnegan construction sustainability About GRI, viewed 27 January 2020

Marhani, M.A., Jaapar, A., Bari, N.A.A. and Zawawi, M., 2013. Sustainability through lean construction approach: A literature review. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 101, pp.90-99.

O’Connor, J.T., Torres, N. and Woo, J., 2016. Sustainability actions during the construction phase. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 142(7), p.04016016.

Wang, N., Wei, K. and Sun, H., 2014. Whole life project management approach to sustainability. Journal of Management in Engineering, 30(2), pp.246-255.

Wells, G. ed., 2013. Sustainable business: Theory and practice of business under sustainability principles. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Y?lmaz, M. and Bak??, A., 2015. Sustainability in construction sector. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 195, pp.2253-2262.

Zuo, J., Zillante, G., Wilson, L., Davidson, K. and Pullen, S., 2012. Sustainability policy of construction contractors: a review. Finnegan construction sustainability Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 16(6), pp.3910-3916.