When determining your scope, there are a large number of different concepts that you should look at, as well as a large number of different resources available to help you in evaluating your company’s current position in dealing with those areas. Be sure to consider:
Addressing sustainability initiatives through reference to standards, guidelines and approaches such as:
Ecological foot printing
Energy Efficiency Opportunities Bill 2005l
Global Reporting Initiative
Green office program
Green purchasing
Greenhouse Challenge Plus (Australian government initiative)
ISO 14001:1996 Environmental management systems life cycle analyses
Life cycle analyses
Product stewardship
Supply chain management
Sustainability covenants/compacts
Triple bottom line reporting
Integrated approach to sustainability which includes environmental, economic and social aspects, or a specific approach that focuses on each aspect individually
Investigating particular business and market context of the industry/organisation
Meeting relevant laws, by laws and regulations or best practice to support compliance in environmental performance and sustainability at each level as required (such as Environmental Protection or Biodiversity Conservation Act):
International
Commonwealth
State/territory
Industry
Organisation
Parts of the organisation to which it is to apply, including whether it is for the whole organisation, one site, one work area or a combination of these. Choosing an approach to the development of sustainability policies and procedures can be a daunting task. Sustainability initiatives can be addressed through
Standards and guidelines
Environmental, economic, and social approaches
Legal or regulatory compliance Since many of those terms are probably new to you, here is a brief description of them: Ecological Footprinting – An ecological footprint is the basis by which resource consumption or demand is measured. The first step in determining