Anti-discrimination  

Lavender is committed to a comprehensive strategy for eliminating discrimination and harassment in our workplace.

Lavender aims to:

- Create a working environment which is free from discrimination and harassment and where all members of staff are treated with dignity, courtesy and respect
- Implement training and awareness-raising strategies to ensure that all employees are aware of their rights and responsibilities
- Provide an effective procedure for complaints, based on the principles of natural justice
- Treat all complaints in a sensitive, fair, timely and confidential manner
- Guarantee protection from any victimisation or reprisals
- Encourage the reporting of behaviour which breaches the discrimination and harassment policy
- Promote appropriate standards of conduct at all times.

Discrimination and harassment at Lavender will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Disciplinary action will be taken against any employee (or agent) who breaches the policy.

Definition

Lavender defines discrimination and harassment in the following way:

Discrimination or harassment occurs when a person is discriminated against or harassed in the workplace and in certain areas of public life:

- Because of their race, colour, descent, nationality or ethnic origin, as defined under the Racial Discrimination Act 1975
- Because of their sex, marital status or pregnancy as defined under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984
- Because of a disability as defined under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992
- Because of age as defined under the Age Discrimination Act 1992
- Or because of some other grounds defined under the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Act 1986.

In addition, under NSW law, a person will not be discriminated against because of their:

- Carer’s responsibilities
- Homosexuality
- Transgender

Responsibility

At Lavender, managers have responsibility for ensuring that staff and clients are not harassed or discriminated against within the workplace. It is also the responsibility of every employee to ensure that they do not engage in discriminatory or harassing behaviour within the workplace.

Reporting

Instances of harassment or discrimination should be reported to your direct manager in the first instance. If a resolution is not reached, the complaint should be brought to the attention of HR. Again if no resolution is reached, the complaint must be directed to the Managing Director for resolution.

If internal resolution is not reached, complainants can direct their case to the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board or the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Please refer to the Lavender Formal Complaints Procedure document for further details on this process

Environmental

Purpose

The purpose of this Environmental Risk Management System is to ensure Lavender is consistently working to reduce its environmental impact to ensure environmental best practice is achieved. Lavender recognise extreme importance of sustainable environmental practices and is committed to implementing all possible strategies to guarantee this within our business activities.

Governing Principles

This Environmental Risk Management System is a vital tool that is reviewed on a regular basis, and fully prepares Lavender's business to meet the challenges that arise in operating in an environmentally sustainable manner. The following principles govern this policy to allow Lavender to achieve what is outlined in this statement. Lavender is committed to:

- Legal compliance: Lavender will ensure that all legal implications of their environmental practices are considered to guarantee compliance
- Product stewardship: Lavender will consider all components of campaigns offered to clients and their potential for environmental degradation to minimise negative environmental impact
- Continual improvement: Lavender is committed to constant assessment and re-design of all environmental practices and strategies implemented by the business to facilitate best practice
- Sound and ethical treatment of workforces: Lavender is committed to the use of suppliers with sound and ethical workplace practices
- Involvement and communication: Lavender works to involve all employees and suppliers in their mission to conduct their business practices in an environmentally sustainable way and making it part of their corporate culture through training and constant communication

Environmental Mission Statement

To recognise and fully understand all facets of Lavender’s environmental impact in both day-to-day and long-term activities and implement strategies to minimise any detrimental effect.

Objectives

Lavender has set the following key conditions in order to work towards achieving this Environmental Vision.

- Reduce, reuse and recycle whenever possible
- Preferred purchasing of environmentally friendly products
- Use of suppliers with sound and ethical workplace practices
- Instilling environmental responsibility and care as a corporate value

Lavender Environmental Risk Management Policy

As part of its commitment to exceptional corporate citizenship, Lavender is dedicated to minimising its direct and non-direct impact on the environment through a sound environmental policy embraced by all stakeholders. Lavender has pledged continuous improvement of its environmental performance across all business activities.

As part of this commitment Lavender will:

- Encourage clients and suppliers to choose environmentally friendly options whenever possible
- Educate and communicate with all stakeholders on a regular basis, particularly employees, about the importance of green practices and environmentally friendly business activities
- Promote the use of recycled or recyclable materials not only internally but also to external suppliers and clients
- Participate in industry wide initiatives for the protection of the environment led by any appropriate government or industry body and actively seek these initiatives
- Comply with all legal and regulatory environmental requirements as well as industry best practice
- Establish programs such as green purchasing to achieve pre-determined environmental targets and objectives. This will involve quarterly meetings of key stakeholders to determine new programs and assess current successes and learning’s
- Continually work to reduce pollution and energy consumption

Current Measures Implemented by Lavender

Lavender has already taken substantial steps towards conducting business activities in the most environmentally sustainable manner possible. The following are current strategies in action on a daily basis.

The Lavender Brand

Environmental Concern Strategy
Culture Lavender strives to operate at the optimal level of environmental awareness and consideration. These values are at the core of our company culture
Waste Minimisation Lavender is working towards a zero waste to landfill strategy and will work with clients and suppliers alike to ensure that these options are adopted wherever possible

People
Environmental Concern Strategy
Waste Minimisation Lavender has a strong recycling policy with all employees trained about recyclable materials and recycling procedures
Waste Minimisation  Lavender provides employees with recycling bins for paper and a central recycling point exists on each floor for glass, plastics and tin
Reduction in Carbon Emissions When possible company travel is Carbon Offset
Reduction in Carbon Emissions Employees are encouraged to cycle or walk to work with bike racks and shower facilities provided
Culture The ‘Lavender Green’ programme has been established by staff, with a core team meeting to discuss and action environmental change within the workplace
Culture Community Service Leave; employees are provided with one days paid annual leave each year where they are encouraged to undertake an act of environmental or community service
Culture New employees to Lavender are given an induction on the Lavender environmental policy.
Future Improvement To ensure environmental strategies are being constantly addressed, an Environmental Protection Agent has been nominated within the company to run quarterly assessment meetings

Information Technology
Environmental Concern Strategy
Waste Minimisation Australian Toner Supplies is engaged to recycle all used printer cartridges. Reducing the environmental impact of new manufacturing
Waste Minimisation  Redundant computer waste is collected by eWaste to reduce landfill and harmful technological waste
Waste Minimisation  Employees are encouraged to share documents on screen or on the server to reduce printing
Waste Minimisation  Employees are requested to print non-official documents to the ‘green’ tray of the printer stocked with recycled paper
Waste Minimisation   Lavender uses Reflex Australian made mixed source and FSC accredited paper to minimise the environmental impact of necessary printing
Waste Minimisation    An email footer encourages employees and other stakeholders to consider the environment before printing
Energy Efficiency By consolidating and virtualising servers, Lavender have merged its IT workload onto fewer servers minimising power consumption
Paperless Office Environment Lavender has introduced Scan and Fax to E-mail to reduce paper use. Implementing this with the virtualisation of servers Lavender has cut its paper use by 40% over a 2 month period
Energy Usage Reduction All computers are configured to powerdown the hard disk after 30 mins of being idle
Energy Usage Reduction Staff are encouraged to switch off computers at night. If they are left on, shutdown is automated at 10pm every night

Premises
Environmental Concern Strategy
Energy Usage Reduction Energy efficient light globes are used throughout the office
Energy Usage Reduction OH&S testing and tagging of all electrical equipment ensures they are running optimally and without using unnecessary energy
Energy Usage Reduction Any electronic equipment purchases and installations are carefully considered for their energy rating and impact
Energy Usage Reduction Lavender has set Air Conditioning to only operate during office hours (8.30am – 6.00pm, Monday / Friday)
Environmentally Friendly Resources Lavender considers the environment when purchasing furniture and designing office fit outs
Environmentally Friendly Resources Australian made products are purchased where possible including locally produced wooden office desks
Waste Minimisation Paper recycling is collected by Building Management several times a week
Waste Minimisation A recycling service has been arranged for secure shredding and recycling of confidential documents through Visy Recycling
Environmental Impact Reduction Where possible, Lavender purchases certified green products and does not support products with harmful chemicals or environmentally questionable manufacturing processes

Utilities
Environmental Concern Strategy
Environmental Impact Reduction Lavender have taken measures to switch to Green Energy
Energy Usage Reduction Measures are in place to reduce energy usage with all appliances and lights switched off when not in use

OH & S

Lavender considers the health, safety and welfare of all persons employed by the company and those affected by its operations to be of the utmost importance.

Accordingly Lavender is committed to ensuring that its workplace is safe and without risk to the health safety and welfare of all our staff, our contractors and our clients.

People are Lavender's most important asset and their health and safety its greatest responsibility. Accordingly it is the mutual objective of all managers and staff to actively promote the maintenance of a work environment free from harm.

Lavender will provide the necessary resources to comply with the relevant Acts and Regulations and to ensure that the workplace is safe and without risk of harm to any person working in or entering the workplace.

Objectives: Our OHS Policy strives to:

- Achieve and maintain an accident-free workplace.
- Make health and safety a central part of all management and supervisory positions.
- Include health and safety in all planning and work activities.
- Consult with employees on all matters involving health and safety.
- Provide a continuous programme of information and training to ensure our employees and contractors work in the safest possible way.
- Implement a continuous programme of hazard management so that all potential hazards in the place are identified and controlled.
- Investigate all incidents, accidents and near misses to ensure future accidents are prevented.

Provide early and effective injury management to those employees who are injured and appropriate rehabilitation strategies to ensure the speedy and safe return to work.

A full copy of our OH&S Policy is available on request.

CX Lavender acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
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