Unit Synopsis
This unit will examine the nature of Environmental Management Systems (ISO 14001) as developed by the International Organisation for Standards (ISO) and Standards Australia. Topics include: concepts of EMS, ISO 14000 series (including ISO 14001 and ISO 14004), implementing EMS, auditing and certification, relationships with Environmental Impact Assessment and ongoing issues. Case studies will review the implementation and functioning of EMS in Australia and in other countries.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 3 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Prerequisite: Minimum of 18 credit points
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Written Assessment | 70% |
| 2. Online Quiz(zes) | 30% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 1 - 2023 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 19.23% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: 2022 SUTE Unit comments.
A number of Bachelor of Education Secondary students take this unit as part of their Geography minor. There was a comment by one of these education students to say that this unit is not directly relevant to them as prospective teachers, and that the unit is also "overwhelming".
Consult with the Head of the Bachelor of Education Secondary course and suggest that they inform students who plan to take the Geography minor about the nature of this unit and advise those students that this unit is a choice in the minor, and students do not have to take it if they don't wish to.
This was actioned, however still there was quite a number of Education students who took the unit in 2023.
Source: Self reflection from the unit coordinator.
As part of the unit coordinator's self reflection, it was noted that the zoom sessions that provide specific information, advice and scaffolded learning for various stages/parts of the major assignment worked well and helped students considerably.
Continue zoom sessions and enhance them with added information on where students might 'go wrong' in their actual submitted assignments based on marked assignments from previous years.
This was actioned and did help students to better understand what they had to do for the final assessment piece.
Source: Student feedback through SUTE teacher evaluations.
Teacher to foster more student interaction.
Schedule two more zoom sessions with the aim of allowing the students to lead discussion around aspects of the unit content.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- explain the concepts and key features of ISO 14001 and 14004
- access ISO and Standards Australia documents, publications, and other resources, and use appropriate information technologies to engage in research and other data/information-gathering activities regarding EMS
- develop a draft EMS with adequate documentation for a hypothetical (or actual) small organisation.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | • |
| 2 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | • |
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | ||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |