Background

Discuss about the Corporate Sustainability for Environment Planning.

Corporate sustainability is a business approach that helps an organization to create a long-term relationship with the customers and the employees as well as to maintain a green strategy that aims to take care of the environmental issues. It is a dual concept that not only concentrates on its organizational and its people but also focus on the society and the environment. It considers the natural environment and operates its business by managing the social, economical, and economic environment.

It is considered as a sustainable development of the organization and its resources. Such practices and techniques must be used in every organization so that it can achieve sustainability in the same.  It helps to create better conditions to work not only for today but also for tomorrow. It teaches the organization to have eco- friendly solutions for the problems. It helps the organization to enrich the value of the shares and goodwill in the market. It also assists to curb the competition present in the market and industry.

From the last two decades, the governments of countries are expressing concern about the environmental conditions of the world. In the mid-70s, the government of Australia showed its concern on the need for national environmental reporting. Afterward, the procedure was initiated to bring sustainable development in the country. The main aim was to implement and evaluate the policies related to the environment. Many of the Australian state and territory government have aggregated the policies and strategies for environment. Some states are monitoring the existing plans and making suitable changes according to the current requirements.

The data is extracted from the environment protection authorities like water boards, pollution checkers, resource departments, etc. these indicators help the government to identify the problems regarding these areas (Thiele, 2013). The main aim of the Australian government is to clean the environment in the best way they can do so. For this, they have formed an army called as “green army”. They work to promote and support the Australian local environment and heritage projects. “Emissions Reduction Fund” is a program initiated by the Australian government to emit pollution. This fund helps businesses and households of Australia to take action against emissions. For the future generation, they protect and manage the Great Barrier Reef. This information and data mutually help the government to maintain the planning and development of the environment.

Situation Analysis

The study gives knowledge about the Environmental Planning and management in Australia, the urban development, management of resources, sustainable development, etc.

Through this study, one can analyze the environment planning done in Australia. Environmental planning helps to forecast the future tragedies and to find the solution for the same. Planning also constructs a bridge between where we are and where we want to go in future. Environment plays a vital role in an individual as well as in country’s life. It provides us all the relevant resources that are required to survive (Feng, 2012). The Australia government is very active in managing the natural environment as they value the same.

Australia is a healthy and wealthy country. However, there is a need to improve certain things to enhance its health and wealth. There are many policies adopted by the government of Australia to manage their natural resources. The government has passed certain acts that work for the natural environment of the country. These acts directly or indirectly handle the development of rural areas into urban cities and towns. The government has focused on the ecological sustainability and management of resources for the future generations. They have developed many polices that help the individual to generate their knowledge about the natural environment. The information and data of an environment must be spread to all over Australia so that people become aware of the planning of environment.

Environment planning and management of Australia is very effective and efficient in nature. Not only the government but also the individuals are aware of their natural environment (Wadley, David A. 2012). 

Safeguards the natural ecosystems of an environment: A system that aim is not only to protect and conserve the natural resources but also to meet the political, cultural and socioeconomic needs of future generation is known as ecosystem management. The priority of this management is the efficient and effective use of scarce resources. It helps the people to make an ethical use out of all the natural assets. It is one of the holistic approaches that bring significant changes in the environment. There are approaches to maintain the ecosystem like strategic management, adaptive management, etc.

Protect the biodiversity: Biodiversity refers to the quality and variety of life of any region. So there is a need to conserve the diversity in Australia as it is declining on a very fast rate. The individuals of a country directly or indirectly depend on the living system. They are responsible in maintain our health and well-being. The diversity of Australia is under threat. More than 1700 species are at a risk of extinction. There is a vast degradation of the environment. Many of the ecosystems are about to collapse (Searle, 2012). The reasons behind declining of biodiversity are:

• Loss of habitat
• Degradation and fragmentation
• Unsustainable use of resources
• Climatic change

Environmental Management and Planning in Australia

Enhance the quality of air, land and water resources: It is vital for every country to maintain the quality of natural resources as they are the needs of human being. The government of Australia has to adopt measures to remove the pollution from such resources (Dannenberg, et.al, 2011).

Reduction in waste, pollution, and garbage: There are various ways by which a country can manage its garbage and waste. There are sustainable solutions to meet the current and future need for management of garbage. They are:

• Reduction in waste
• Less packaging
• Recycling
• Reuse

Promotion of Sustainability: Sustainable Australian report says that the country has made a drastic change over the last 30 years. There is a progress in many sections. The lifestyles, education, health, etc. are getting better. However, there is a decrease in the health of the environment and an increase in inequality among people. One report mentioned that the decision making and planning take place according to the future Australians generations. Not only the Australians but also the world has an impact of sustainable development (Taylor, et.al, 2012).

In Australia, the National Sustainability Council is a separate body which manages the sustainability issues for the country. It was established in 2012.

Decline the impact of man-made or natural hazards: Australia experienced a vast range of natural distastes like floods, earthquakes, landslide, etc. These distastes results in financial and natural hardship for all the people. The government has to take effective measures to control the same (Hundloe, et.al., 2012).

Conservation of resources: The Australian government has design and implements such policies that help to protect the environment. It provides safety to the water sources, heritage, landfills, etc. Some plans are made to provide an adequate affordable, cheaper and reliable source of energy to meet the future needs of people.

Sustainable urban growth helps to ensure that there is a sustainable development of the cities and towns of Australia. It has become a priority for the developers of the modern world as most of the people constantly flock to urban areas. The cities and towns of Australia are expanding at a very high rate. Planning of urban area plays an important role to ensure the development of the country as well as for the urban world. The designs of cities and towns are very exclusive and high-performing. In Australia, there are many experts who design economic and well-established communities (Wilson and Piper, 2010). In a nutshell, the experts are developing cities in a sustainable manner (Bray, 2015).

Urban development in Australia

Experts are using their experiences to develop the rural area into urban area either through the renovation of old towns or by developing large-scale plans. For this, they need cooperation from both public and private institutions to achieve the goals.

There is a responsibility on government and developers of Australia to invest their money into smart, green cities and buildings so that there is a sustainable future growth. An organization named as “Australian Pacific’s Rapid Urbanization” that helps to enhance the urbanization in the country. It includes the development of brand new cities, innovative ideas on water and energy supply to households (Australia.gov.au, 2015).  

Conclusion

The 2014 latest report on Australia shows that there is some progress that has been done since past years to safeguard the natural environment.  Natural resources are declining, and the quality of environmental factors is also variable. It helps to support the findings in the reports and research. There are many relevant challenges faced by the government and developers to manage the environment. It is due to the proper implementation of strategies, innovative solutions to the problems such as sustainable development of cities and towns, an effective management of resources, etc.

The natural environment of Australia is in a moderate and balance state. However, there is a scope to manage it in a better way to bring a steady growth. There is a need to coordinate between development and sustainability. There are certain factors which help to manage the environment, i.e., good quality, relevant, accessible and updated information and also assist to study the changes in the environment. The Environment Protection Authority of Australia recommends that there should be some development plans and strategies to deliver the most effective and efficient information of environment. It will help to allocate the environmental information needs, coordinate, integrate and prioritize the collection of data. It also enhances improvement in accessing and communicating the available information about the environment.

• There is a need to improve the knowledge and information of people about the environment.
• There is a need to monitor the condition of natural resources.
• An effective collection of information and data that helps to analyze the quality and quantity of natural resources is required.
• There must be consistency in the improvement of environmental aspects.
• There is a need for better and effective visualization of information about environment.

References

Australia.gov.au, 2015, Natural disasters in Australia, [Online], Accessed on: 14 September 2016, Available at: https://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/natural-disasters

Bray, M., 2015, Sustainable Urban Development, [Online], Accessed on: 14 September 2016, available at: https://www.arcadis.com/en/australia/what-we-do/our-capabilities/design/master-planning-and-sustainable-urban-development/sustainable-urban-development/

Christine Crawford (Ed.), The value of water in a drying climate (pp. 17-25) Collingwood, VIC Australia: CSIRO Publishing.

Cook, et.al., 2012, Managers consider multiple lines of evidence important for biodiversity management decisions, Journal of Environmental Management, 113 341-346.

Dannenberg, et.al., 2011, Making Healthy Places, Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2011, Print.

Feng, Zhuo, 2012, Cultural Difference In Television Programs, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2012, Print.

Humphrey, et.al. 2012, The independent effects of environmental, social and governance initiatives on the performance of UK firms, Australian Journal of Management, 37 2: 135-151.

Hundloe, et.al., 2012, The principles of sustainability and economics, In Tor Hundloe and

In Tan Yigitcanlar, Kostas Metaxiotis and Francisco Javier Carillo (Ed.), Building prosperous knowledge cities: policies, plans and metrics (pp. 60-73) Cheltenham, U. K.: Edward Elgar.

Searle, 2012, Globalizing: what makes Australian information technology companies go global?,

Taylor, et.al. 2012, Uncertainty and ambiguity in environmental governance: water quality in Great Barrier Reef catchments, In Thomas Measham and Stewart Lockie (Ed.), Risk and Social Theory in Environmental Management (pp. 161-173) Melbourne, Australia: CSIRO Pubishing.

Thiele, Leslie Paul, 2013, Sustainability, Cambridge: Polity, 2013,  Print.

Wadley, David A. 2012, Australia/New Zealand/Pacific and transnational organisations, In Joseph P. Stoltman (Ed.), 21st century geography: A reference book (pp. 647-662) Washington DC, United States: Sage Publications.

Wilson, et.al., 2010, Spatial Planning And Climate Change, London: Routledge, 2010, Print.