Environmental Sustainability Audit: Hi-Tech solar and Batteries
Executive Summary
The primary objective of the paper is to prepare the auditing report for the Hi-Tech solar & battery company. The reason for preparing the audit report is to analyse the solar panel contribution towards the go green environment. In regards to this, it is identified that Hi-Tech provide various product to wider market. It mainly deals in battery, solar product and power banks.
It also focuses on the recycle, reuse or reduce method in different segment so that maximum sustainability can be achieved. Moreover, company tend to emphasis more on solar panels in its operations with the aim to address the environmental issues.
Hi-Tec uses both proactive and reactive action in the form of providing safety training to personnel and forecast the performances data. Thus, through this manner, company takes environment safety actions. Through this manner, company respond towards the increasing issue in sustainability.
This purpose of report is to conduct the sustainability audit of the Hi-Tech batteries (Tecbatteries, 2018). However, the Hi-tech batteries are the Australian based company which offers various ranges of battery from portable to largest industrial batteries. It is considered as totally independent market of batteries since 2003.
The company has an ownership from last 30 years combined experience in the industry. It has wide presences in various markets such as USA and Asia and pacific etc.
At the same time, it also manufactures its own product in the china with the aim to deliver the quality to the target market. It covers wide range of products from battery chargers, solar panels, invertors and all battery accessories.
Hi-tech batteries is the sole distributor of OJOP battery which is manufactured in Sweden, all Hi-Tec batteries products and services of this company meets with standard quality and unique specified features. Therefore, Hi-Tec batteries considers as a renowned Australian company.
Definition of the company‘s key target market
The Hi-tech batteries covers wide areas of the industry such as automotive, mining, marine, farming, motorcycles, golf carts, wheelchairs, laptops and cordless power tools etc. the company use such communication and transportation which handles storage of lithium cells and batteries.
These products are considered as hazardous products which are strictly regulated by transport mode. In this, freight option chooses (Nielsen et al., 2010). Moreover, customer focuses more on the durability and quality when it comes to batteries for industrial purpose.
The distribution of product is done through reputable distributors or suppliers in Australia, USA and Asia pacific etc. it also establish the warehouse close to the manufacturing plant so that distribution of product can be performed properly due to these products are classified as hazardous.
It uses B2B e-commerce marketing communication strategy. Besides that pricing strategy of Hi-tech company solar energy technology pricing is largely depending upon the cost efficiencies and economies of scale.
The company products are the solar panels, battery packs, power banks and advance handheld search light. The prices of solar panels and battery vary as per the energy consumption.
Likewise, the solar panel ranges from $9,485 to $12,495 even after tax while it mainly uses the digital platform to contact the client such as Hi-Tech uses the B2B e-commerce to promote the product (Brown and Renau, 2011). It contacts the reputable companies in different counties to supply the product.
It captures around string market share in different segments whether it is battery, solar panel or power banks. It holds approx. 4.5 to 4.7% shares in 2016-17.
Hi-tech corporate plan is to bring more growth through horizontal diversification. However, hi-tech provides Solar Water Heater and Solar Roof Top System in Domestic, Commercial and Industrial in one roof but it offers at high price which create quite difficulty to capture the untapped market like rural areas of geographical market.
It is current requirement that rural and urban both use such solar related product in order to develop the sustainability and reduce the environmental issues (Ondraczek, 2013).
Moreover, the strategic plans for the manufacturing units of hi-Tec would be reduction of maximum waste and errors. The marketing plan includes more use of promotional tool in order to spread high awareness about the solar panel and its benefits among the society (Ondraczek, 2013).
The HR plan is to recruit more talent and skilled workforces and to conduct the special training for existing employees for their skill improvement. In concern to environment, the hi-tech battery and solar company decide to use generating electricity through photovoltaic as compare to burning fossil fuels.
This plan consider as a most effective in concern to reduce the environmental issues and promote go green concept.
The current environment information gathering system
Hi-tech collects the information related to environment through the system. It uses oracle application integration architecture, oracle database and many more.
On that basis, it is stated that company uses the secondary methodology to collect the facts related to environment. It also analyse the trend which is also help to identify the environment pattern (Pode, 2010).
The nature of collected environmental information system is to help the hi-tech company regarding the areas where they are still lacking in terms to bring sustainability.
The environmental information system allows the business to access the facts of energy consumption, emission of components. Accordingly, to such facts, it takes the future decision.
The company use the IS system such as CRM, ERP and SCM system or conduct meeting to distribute the information to decision makers (Zhi et al., 2014).
Organisational response mechanism
Under the Hi-tech solar and battery, company manager tends to use the participative decision-making where leader reach towards any action by use of voting system.
This is because decision related to such product demands mutual cooperation of team members. This practice helps to attain the environmental task force. The team members are different on both the segments such as battery and solar panels.
Both the segment has a target to reduce the maximum release of carbon emission. For this, company use the recycle and reuse practices in these segments (Tseng et al., 2011).
The speed of response towards the environment related information is quite quick as company after receives such facts then they tend to conduct the meeting in order to discuss actions which need to bring in manufacturing and operational work.
Therefore, it is stated that hi-tech uses the best practices to collect the relevant information about environment so that it response rapidly on such areas.
The company used around 1.29 kw energy in its solar panels. The monthly solar production of the company is 84.55 kwh. The sources of materials that the company use are solar grade ingot, solar junction boxes, various metals and copper of good quality, silicon cells, metal frame, glass sheet for framing, bus wire, standard 12V Wire, etc.
The raw materials are arranged from various suppliers, manufactures which are been associated with the company from long time (Solangi et al., 2011).
At the same time, the company use various manufacturers and distributors to transport their products to the company, the method of transportation the company is freight which includes bus, truck, flights, etc. The method of transportation at company use from to deliver goods to market is small vans, bikes, etc.
The emission level target of HI tech is to reduce by 22-25% till 2020 (Othman and Shazali, 2012). The company also have controlled the emission level effectively by referring to the laid out strategies of the company (Espinosa et al., 2011).
All these measurements are recorded by the HI tech solar & Batteries Company in its various reports, documents, and notes, the CRM software, etc that help the company to identify its state of emission levels.
Moreover, HI tech solar & batteries also communicate its corrective action to its various stakeholders by organizing meetings and seminars, providing them reports, sending email to the stakeholders etc (Jacobson and Delucchi, 2011).
In addition to it, it is found that the various stakeholders are very concerned about the environment and are looking out for ways to preserve the resources and reduce the waste levels by the company.
They are always looking out to identify the various environmental risks in advance so that plan can be made to reduce the level of risks associated. The stakeholders also see that the HI tech company is abiding by all the environmental protection acts and is also fulfilling all the legal desired criteria’s for delivering the products.
HI tech solar & batteries manufactures various products for its customers. These products include various types of batteries, solar panels, solar fences, security fences, agriculture fencing, farms solar fencing, etc.
The manufacturing efficiency process is that the company reuse and recycle its batteries by charging them frequently so they can be used again and again. The HI tech Solar and Batteries Company use various equipments and technology to manufacture its products.
The equipments include solar panels, batteries, solar sheets, glass sheets, etc and the technology used is wireless power transmission, etc. The company has also introduced some new features in its existing products so that they can perform more effectively and has also developed some new products as well such as the Hi security power fencing, wall top fencing, etc.
However, the company has also focused in controlling the waste levels at the time of manufacturing the products (Williams et al., 2012). The company have adopted the measure such as recycling, online reporting of the wastes, commercial waste disposal, welding, waste transfer stations, launching waste compactors, waste collection and removal, etc.
At the same time, the packaging done by the company is also very effective as the company use recycled material to pack its products, the eco-friendly and go green material to develop the package for the products (Nallusamy and Duraiswamy, 2011).
The quality of the package is very high as the company knows that the products in which it is dealing is risky and can be damaged if not taken effective care (Dangelico and Pontrandolfo, 2010). The packets are made from such material that there is a limited wastage which helps to increase the efficiency.
The CEO is having a positive attitude towards the operations the company takes to conserve the environment. The CEO always take an active part in all the meeting been conducted.
Analysis of the nature and types of environmental safety actions being undertaken
The nature of environment is very well supportive and safe to work in. The environment is also been well preserved from the various hazardous effects that are caused at the time of manufacturing the products. The types of environmental safety action being undertaken both proactive and reactive are as follows:
The proactive actions for environemtn safety are that the company had form or lay out effective safety policy before they land up in any incident or accidents which are very effective. The company also take up regular risk-assessment process to assess the various risks that can impact the environment.
The company also provide effective and dedicated safety training to the personnel (Scrosati and Garche, 2010). The company also develop a corporate safety culture that will foster good safety practices. The company also use safety reporting system to collect safety related data.
The company can also monitor the safety measures frequently to assess the performance of the safety measures been taken for environmental safety (Menguc, et al., 2010). The company also forecast the performance data that will also help the company to identify the issues that can hinder its performance and the relative environment conditions.
On the other hand, there are various reactive measure or actions as well that can be taken for environmental safety. In these, the company comply with the minimum safety requirements. The company also carry out effective investigation to identify the reason for the miss-happening that occurs in the environment (Gautam and Singh, 2010).
The company also immediately response to the environmental issues that arise in the operating environment. Effective risk as well as hazard fluency helps the company to identify and assess the safety action taken in regard to the environment safety.
The contents to be included in the auditing report are as follows:
- The history of the company
- The major products in which the company is dealing
- The description of the market
- The forms of transportation and communication
- The corporate plan, strategic plans, as well as the specific environment related plan
- The environmental information gathering system
- The behavioural audit of the company which includes sources of raw material, emission level targets identified and the product manufacturing and packaging details, etc.
- The nature and types of environmental safety actions undertaken by the company.
The frequency mentions that how much time each content will take to complete.
Time period for the contents
| 1 | 1 day |
| 2 | 2 days |
| 3 | 3 days |
| 4 | 2 days |
| 5 | 2 days |
| 6 | 3 days |
| 7 | 2 days |
| 8 | 1 day |
Hi-tech solar and battery company which performs really well in both the segment such as battery and solar and it also focuses majorly on sustainability practices. Besides that, there are various areas where company is lacking.
These are less awareness and high prices of solar products and this limitation are the biggest weakness due to which environmental issues are ignored. It is identified that solar panels are used by the big/ small industries but it is clearly ignored by the people at the time of domestic and household purpose.
In regards to this, it is recommended that hi-tech should reduce the price of solar product like heater, cooker and various things in order to increase the sales (Urmee and Harries, 2012).
At the same time, the awareness of solar product is also less which would be cause of fewer sales. In this case, Hi-tech needs to conduct the activity or develop the campaign that give detail to customers.
Additionally, it is also suggested that company need to focus on the rural people also as increasing environmental issue can’t be addressed until it is not undertaken by each people.
Other than that, the company could improve the capacity and power of solar battery. It could be done through measure that how much electricity a battery can provide at given moment. For this, the battery power rating need to undertake. In this regards, company can develop the different prices of each battery and sell the low power battery at less price to rural customer.
Hi-tech solar and Battery Company can also make innovation in the battery life and warranty. This could be done through in the home energy appliances. Likewise, company innovate the solar batteries for mobile phones and home related appliances. This practice allows saving maximum use of electricity. It provides long-term warranty to consumers.
Furthermore, the company should concentrates on the depth of discharge as most solar batteries need to retain some charge at times but with overuse of battery, the life will be shortened. In this regards, the manufacturer needs to specify the maximum depth of discharge for optimal performance.
In concern to manufacturing areas, it is suggested that manufacturers before send the solar battery to next level, there is need to evaluate the warranties which associates with each product.
This will help to take right decision when clients buy the solar battery or product related to battery. Therefore, these mention recommendations will guide the solar and battery companies to bring what kind of improvement in its operations.
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Figure 1: Average daily production of solar energy
Figure 3: Energy consumption and Solar energy production
