Main Document Overall Grade Please refer to the Course Information> Weekly Addendum on Learn@Seneca (Blackboard) for the weight of this assignment. (Late Submission Policy: 5 marks deducted per 24 hours) This document provides instructions and guidance for completing and submitting the report. Instructions and guidance for the presentation and Q&A will be in a separate document, to be provided later. Submission Please refer to the Course Information section on Learn@Seneca (Blackboard) for the due date. Do not email your completed documents. Please upload your report as a PDF to Learn@Seneca. Assignment Overview This is a group assignment. You will work in the same grouping and company as Group Assignment 1. This assignment builds on the previous assignment where you conducted a stakeholder and materiality assessment of the company your group is representing. This time you will be focusing on proposing a specific project-level sustainability initiative to your Chief Sustainability Officer to enhance your companys standing with its shareholders and other important stakeholders. In this assignment, you will refer to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards to identify relevant disclosures which your proposed project will help to improve on for your company. Dealing with Real-World Data This assignment is partly based on company-specific real-world data that you will find during your research. This means each group may face different challenges. It is highly recommended that you start the assignment early! Assignment Instructions You should follow the below steps to complete the assignment. A. Select a Sustainability Project 1. Conduct preliminary research to see what your company is currently doing in terms of sustainability. 2. You should then come up with a new project that you believe is necessary to help the company improve in the most material issue and related SDGs that you identified in Group Assignment 1. If you are facing challenges, you should look at an existing real-life project that a company is already undertaking and use it as a starting point for coming up with your ideas. For inspiration, check the Examples of key business actions and solutions section under each SDG in the SDG Compass site. Important: You should propose a new project (regardless from scratch or developing from an existing real-life project) and your project should not be one that has already been implemented by the company. Important: Make sure your project is consistent with the most material issue and related SDGs identified in Group Assignment 1. B. Develop the Project Proposal 1. The project proposal should be a maximum of seven to eight pages in length, not counting the title page, references and any appendices, if you use them. It should have a professional look and make a strong impression. 2. Consider following the formatting (i.e. title page, headings, sub-headings, figure captions, headers and footers) of the Research Assignment Report Template when preparing this report. Assignment Structure (Proposal) The following sections provide the proposal outline showing each sections order and indicative length. Please also refer to the General Guidelines for Submission of Assignments document, found in Learn@Seneca. 1. Title Page [one page] Provide the following information: Company name, company sector, main products, names of all group members. 2. Executive Summary [half to one page] Summarise the main points of your proposal to give your reader a whole picture of the project when they have no time to read it all. You should develop this section LAST (after developing the rest of the report), but place it in the beginning! 3. Introduction [half to one page] Provide the context for this report: a) Why it was written Describe in your own words that you are proposing a sustainability initiative to your Chief Sustainability Officer to enhance your companys standing with its shareholders and other important stakeholders. b) What are the top three materiality issues Provide a recap (name and short description) of the top three materiality issues, and corresponding SDGs identified during Group Assignment 1. c) How the report is organized Briefly describe how your report is organized/structured. 4. Project Description and Scope [no more than two pages] Provide a high-level description of the project. a) Project objectives: What do you wish to accomplish by undertaking this project? Which sustainability issue does the project address? What are the related SDGs? b) Project Scope: Which departments will be involved? Or will it involve the entire company? c) Project Timeline: How long will the entire project take? How many phases are involved, and how long is each phase? d) Roles and Responsibilities: Who in the company (including your team) will be responsible for the projects success, and how? 5. Sustainability Alignment [half to one page] This section relates to the sustainability assessment you developed in Group Assignment 1. a) Stakeholders and Materiality Assessment How does the project relate to the preliminary sustainability assessment? Which material issue is the project addressing? b) Choice Rationale Are there alternative projects the company could do to address this issue? Why did you choose this one? 6. Cost and Resources [half page] What are the resources you will need to implement your project? List and describe the top 5-10 resources (e.g., hiring a consultant, procuring necessary materials). Describe what they are and how they will be utilized. Note: You are not expected to put dollar amounts to the cost items. However, you may suggest ballpark estimates if you are able to do so. 7. Business Case [half to one page] Describe 3-5 ways your proposed project may help your company. These should include one or more of the following business case areas: a) Revenue Growth (e.g., from new customers, markets, innovative products) b) Increase in asset value (e.g., company-owned real estate, vehicles, equipment) c) Increase in market value (i.e., higher share price/market value) d) Expense savings (e.g., in operating and/or employee expenses) e) Reduced risks (e.g., from revenue erosion, expense increases, higher cost of capital, lower asset/market value) 8. Sustainability Reporting [half to one page] a) Identify the GRI Disclosure(s) for your project Scan through the GRI Standards document (in Learn@Seneca) and identify the GRI Disclosure(s) relevant to this project (e.g. Disclosure 305-1 Direct (Scope 1) GHG emissions and Disclosure 305-5 Reduction in GHG emissions). b) Describe the impact/improvement to the GRI Disclosure Describe the expected improvement in the performance of each disclosure you identified in (a) above (e.g. Disclosure 305-1 and 305-5 measures performance in terms of metric tons of GHG emitted. The project will reduce the amount of CO2 emissions at our facility; therefore, there will be a reduction in the metric tons of GHG emissions. ) 9. Summary and Next Steps [half page] This is the conclusion of the report. a) Summarise the key points of your proposal b) Put forth what you are asking for (what are the next steps you are proposing to move the project forward?) 10. References [Start on new page] Make sure to use in-text citations for all your references. 11. Appendix [optional; start on new page] Feel free to provide an Appendix with additional information that is not essential for the central part of the proposal (e.g. other best practices, statistical data, figures, etc.). Grading Criteria 1. Executive Summary: 10 marks 2. Introduction: 10 marks 3. Project description and scope: 20 marks 4. Sustainability alignment: 10 marks 5. Cost and resources: 10 marks 6. Business case: 15 marks 7. Sustainability reporting: 10 marks 8. Summary and Next Steps: 5 marks 9. Report presentation quality (Proper writing style, references, in-text citations, grammar, structure and format): 10 marks Important: Potential Deductions: Improper or lack of in-text citation, frequent grammar and spelling mistakes Maximum 10 marks If the entire report does not have ANY in-text citations, your assignment will NOT be graded since this would constitute a possible case of plagiarism, a form of academic integrity violation. create it for pepsico comapny