This unit of competency covers drafting reports to meet the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines and to self declare the application level.

This unit applies to individuals who seek to report on an organisation’s compliance against the GRI guidelines. The GRI provides an international and widely used sustainability reporting framework that many organisations choose to use.

This unit applies inside organisations and their value chains. The unit has been developed with manufacturing operations as a focus. However, because of the range of organisations in a typical manufacturing value chain it may also be applied to other types of organisations. A manager or technical specialist who has a major responsibility for sustainability as part of a broader work role would typically undertake this, or sustainability may be their primary work responsibility. The manager or technical specialist may undertake this alone or as part of a team.

The technical measurement of operational performance or measurement of emissions or other environmental impact is not covered by this unit. However, there is a requirement to present and organise data. The complexity of this requirement will vary according to the type and scale of the organisation’s processes.

No licensing, legislative or certification requirements apply to this unit at the time of publication.

Evidence required to demonstrate competence in this unit must be relevant to and satisfy the requirements of the elements and performance criteria and include the ability, for one or more reports, to:

demonstrate knowledge of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) sustainability reporting guidelines also known as the G3 guidelines

match GRI guidelines to an organisation’s operations

produce report(s) according to GRI guidelines.

Must provide evidence that demonstrates sufficient knowledge to interact with relevant personnel and be able to draft reports to meet the GRI guidelines including knowledge of:

GRI guidelines

related regulatory and other compliance reporting requirements

related commercial reporting requirements

possible organisational benefits from GRI reporting

internal and external data sources

organisational protocols and procedures for obtaining and using data

data manipulation and interpretation

project planning and control

editing and reviewing of report inputs by others.

The unit should be assessed holistically and the judgement of competence shall be based on a holistic assessment of the evidence.

The collection of performance evidence is best done from a report and/or folio of evidence drawn from:

a single project which provides sufficient evidence of the requirements of all the elements and performance criteria

multiple smaller projects which together provide sufficient evidence of the requirements of all the elements and performance criteria.

A third party report, or similar, may be needed to testify to the work done by the individual, particularly when the project has been done as part of a project team.

Assessment should use a real project where a report is drafted to meet the GRI guidelines for an operational workplace.

Knowledge evidence may be collected concurrently with performance evidence or through an independent process such as workbooks, written assessments or interviews (provided a record is kept).

Assessment processes and techniques must be appropriate to the language, literacy and numeracy requirements of the work being performed and the needs of the candidate.

Conditions for assessment must include access to all tools, equipment, materials and documentation required including relevant workplace procedures, product and manufacturing specifications associated with this unit.

Foundation skills are integral to competent performance of the unit and should not be assessed separately.

Assessors must satisfy the assessor competency requirements that are in place at the time of the assessment as set by the VET regulator.

The assessor must demonstrate both technical competency and currency.

Technical competence can be demonstrated through:

relevant VET or other qualification/Statement of Attainment AND/OR

relevant workplace experience

Currency can be demonstrated through:

performing the competency being assessed as part of current employment OR

having consulted with an organisation providing relevant environmental monitoring, management or technology services about performing the competency being assessed within the last twelve months.

This section describes those required skills (language, literacy and numeracy) that are essential to performance.

Foundation skills essential to performance are explicit in the performance criteria of this unit of competency.

Not applicable

Sustainable operations