APG5122 Corporate Sustainability Assessment: Individual Essay - The e-waste issue
Value: 40%
Word length: 1,500 words (excluding reference list, tables and diagrams; no penalty up to +/- 10% of the word limit)
Purpose: There is increasing focus on the role of business in contributing to and addressing sustainability issues. This assignment seeks to get you quickly engaged with the business interface of a sustainability issue. The intent is to encourage independent research, critical thinking and broadly improve your contextual knowledge of the business sector.
Instructions: Write a brief essay about ONE of the listed significant sustainable development issue impacting the business sector: climate change, pollution, deforestation, water scarcity, biodiversity loss, waste/e-waste, poverty, human rights, modern slavery or inequality. The expectations are outlined below:
1.Please give your essay a title, use page numbers, provide the word count, and put your name on the essay. You must have 10+ academic peer-reviewed references, in addition to grey literature.
2.Describe the issue (e.g. definition, cause and effects), outlining its evolution and highlighting key events that have defined the issue to date. Address the physical / factual dimensions of the issue (e.g. size, scope or scale of the issue) and the societal / regulatory / legal context, if appropriate, for how the issue has evolved (e.g. global agreements, national laws/regulation). Do not focus on any particular industry at this stage of the essay. (12%)
3.Evaluate the issue in the context of business: How is business impacting the issue? How is business impacted by the issue? How is business responding to the issue? You may choose a specific industry, or industries, to focus on for this section. Do not choose one specific organisation but you can provide examples from several organisations in the industry you have chosen. (18%)
4.Summarise the current trends and future responses to the issue and potential implications for business. (5%)
5.Written expression: grammar, quality of references, essay structure and logic. (5%)
Please watch the Essay Overview video. Note: Due dates for this semester are listed in the table at the top of the Assessment tab.
Please also watch the library research skills video if you are new to Monash University or would like a refresher on how to use the library resources to research your essay. It is presented by librarian Louise Micallef.