Sydney opera house environmental sustainability plan

Educating for Excellence

Assessment Submission Sheet

Course

BSB61015 Advanced Diploma of Leadership and Management

Unit Code

BSBSUS501 Develop Workplace Policy and Procedures for Sustainability

Assessor Name

Student Name

Student ID

Date Due

Please read and sign this assessment coversheet and submit it together with your assessment to your Assessor by the due date.

Student Declaration

· I declare that the work submitted is my own, and has not been copied or plagiarised from any person or source.

· I have read the Plagiarism Policy and Assessment Appeal and Reassessment Policy in the Student Handbook and I understand all the rules and guidelines for undertaking assessments.

· I understand that by typing my full name in the student field this is equivalent to a hand-written signature.

· I give permission for my assessment material to be used for continuous improvement purposes.

Student Signature

Date Submitted

Assessor Use Only

Assessment Items

Result

Task 1

Case Study

Task 2

Presentation

Task 3

Report

Final Result for this unit

Student Declaration: I declare that I have been assessed in this unit, and I have been advised of my result. I am also aware of my appeal rights.

Assessor Declaration: I declare that I have conducted a fair, valid, reliable and flexible assessment with this student, and I have provided appropriate feedback

Signature

Signature

Date

Assessor’s Final Comments

Assessment Task 1

Instruction for the student

This is an individual assessment. You are required to demonstrate the skills required to review and develop policies. If you need help understanding any questions, ask your assessor to explain.

To be deemed competent you will need to successfully demonstrate the following:

You must submit:

· three policy option summaries

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.

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

Review the case study information provided and determine all legislative and regulatory documents that describe compliance requirements for this company.

Research best practice models used by theatres and performance spaces.

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).

Meet with the Business Manager (your assessor) to consult on the policy options and decide on the preferred option.

Draft a sustainability policy for Tiny Opera Company based on your research, the company information provided and your consultation session. Ensure that you:

· specify the scope of the policy (who it applies to, relevant standards and legislation)

· outline Tiny Opera Company’s commitment to the policy

· address areas of sustainability that Tiny Opera Company specifically wants to focus on.

Meet with Business Manager (your assessor) to discuss:

· typical barriers to sustainability policy implementation and possible strategies to address barriers

· the process you are taking to develop the policy

· the draft policy and gain approval for your draft.

Update your draft policy according to agreements that you made in consultation with the Business Manager.

Collate your research into legislation and best practice models and the sustainability policy you have developed into 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).

Submit the report, and the final version of the sustainability policy, to your assessor. Ensure you keep copies for your records.

Please answer Task 1 here.

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
Instruction for the student

This is an individual assessment. 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 a training session.

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.

If you need help understanding any questions, ask your assessor to explain.

To be deemed competent you will need to successfully demonstrate the following:

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).

Procedure

Part A

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

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/Corporate/Policies.aspx >.

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:

· two or more actions for each target (listed in Appendix 1)

· at least one action that involves staff training

· at least one action that involves communication to staff through a presentation.

Develop a monitoring strategy (using the template provided in Appendix 3) for meeting the targets that includes:

· key outcomes expected for each action and person

· metrics/key performance indicators for each action

· a method of gathering and recording data on sustainability performance.

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.

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.

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.

Review the organisational structure (see Appendix 4) to determine the appropriate audience for the presentation or training session.

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.

During either your presentation or training you will need to include:

· 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 )

· an outline of Sydney Opera House systems and procedures that relate to sustainability information for staff as to what their responsibilities are, what activities they are to carry out and what outcomes are expected

· additional time (5–10 minutes) for questions and comments from staff.

Distribute feedback questionnaires (using the template provided in Appendix 5) 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.

Please answer Task 2 here.

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

Implementation Plan

Objectives

Action Required

Associated target

Resources

Timeline

Accountability

Appendix 3 – Monitoring strategy

Description of objective/outcome/ activity/task

Person responsible

Metric/key performance indicator

Baseline (previous year’s performance)

Target

Data collection methods

Appendix 4 – Organisational structure

image1.png

Appendix 5 – Presentation feedback

Presentation feedback

Name:

Job role (where relevant):

Questions:

Yes

No

Did this presentation give you a better understanding of the sustainability policy at the Sydney Opera House?

Did you find the presentation/training engaging?

Do you know more about reducing resource use (such as water, gas, electricity, etc.) because of this presentation/training session?

Rate how well the following topics were covered during the presentation between 1 (not at all) and 5 (very well)

Responsibilities for sustainability tasks and activities at the Sydney Opera House

Resource efficiency

The key outcomes expected of the Sydney Opera House sustainability policy

Write a short answer in response to the following questions.

How will you apply what you learned in this presentation to your job role at the Sydney Opera House?

Write a summary of what this presentation/training was about.

Do you think this presentation would suit a wide range of audiences with different levels of understanding about sustainability? Why/why not?

If you had concerns about the presentation/training, did the presenter help to allay your concerns?

Assessment Task 3
Instruction for the student

This is an individual assessment. 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.

You are required to complete a review of the implementation of resource efficiency activities developed in 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.

To be deemed competent you will need to successfully demonstrate the following:

· You must submit a written report.

Procedure

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.

Review the Sydney Opera House Environmental Sustainability Policy, Environmental Sustainability Plan, and other Sydney Opera House corporate information and policy documents at: .

Review the audience feedback from Task 2.

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.

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:

· graphs or charts that could describe or summarise progress towards established targets

· an evaluation of the graphs or charts to identify trends in data and analyse data targets identified in Task 2

· a description of the success and/or shortfalls of the implementation of sustainability and communication targets based on trends in resource use; audience feedback from Task 2; a description of trends that may require remedial action; include a plan that describes how these areas can be continuously improved in the future; 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; recommendations for improvements to policy, communication and management of sustainability based on data taken from analysis of records.

Submit your report to your assessor along with a list of the stakeholders who would need to receive your report.

Please answer Task 3 here.