Good news! The negative press from the trucking situation in Indonesia has been successfully mitigated. Upper management now recognizes that E227 Global Solutions has long talked about being green, but has not made any major efforts toward reducing the company's carbon footprint on a global scale. With operations in the U.S. and abroad, E227 Global Solutions has seen generally successful localized initiatives to reduce energy consumption, reduce or eliminate chemical by-products, and minimize office waste.

Management at E227 Global Solutions is now challenging the entire company to adopt "green" strategies and reduce the company's carbon footprint by 25% in the next year. Recognizing that great ideas come from all levels of the company, E227GS is challenging you, its employees, to generate ideas for going green and achieving, and possibly exceeding, the goal of reducing our carbon footprint.

For the week 8 assignment, you will submit a formal proposal recommending a strategy the company could adopt to go green. To prepare for writing the formal proposal, this week you will submit an outline of the entire proposal, as well as the introduction of the proposal itself. NOTE: In order to complete this week's assignment, you must have an understanding of the entire formal proposal. (See information in Course Project under Course Home.)

Remember, the goal of the proposal is to recommend a sustainable green strategy the company can adopt to reduce the carbon footprint by 25%. The primary audience is your division manager, Anne Brown; however, your proposal will probably be read by anyone in upper management.

As part of the planning stage, research 3-4 green strategies and decide on a specific strategy (e.g., reducing printer waste such as paper and ink; phasing in an energy efficient fleet of vehicles; installing solar panels or wind turbines to power the office building, etc.). Or you can research a general area such as physical facilities, recycling, transportation, etc. Just make sure the solution is broad enough so that you'll be able to talk in depth about the one recommended strategy.

For your research, you need to find a variety of sources. Some sources may be found through the DeVry library, while others could be found through internet research. To use library resources, go to the Student Resources tab (under Course Home), click Library, and familiarize yourself with the menu in the upper left hand corner. Explore various sources, including the online librarian. A good place to become familiar with this topic is with Green Business Practices for Dummies (2009) by Lisa Swallow, which is available through DeVry's online library, as well as additional online sources listed in the Course Resources. Make sure all sources are credible. To avoid plagiarism, all borrowed material must be cited correctly using APA guidelines.

Guidelines

Your assignment this week is to construct the outline of your entire formal proposal and write the introduction, using formal formatting. To complete this assignment, you will need to have a good plan in place for your formal proposal.

This week your assignment should include the following:

An outline of the entire proposal using traditional outline format (see Figure 14.7 on page 397; however, your Introduction will have four subsections: Background of Problem, Purpose, Sources and Methods, and Report Organization). Use the Week 6 Outline Worksheet in Doc Sharing for the information to include in the outline. If you chose to include borrowed material in your outline, make sure you incorporate correct APA in-text citations.

The Introduction of the proposal (written in paragraph form, not outline form) featuring the following four parts as second-level headings:

Background of the Problem: Provide an overview of the problem/situation and its importance. This is a critical section which describes the current problem.

Statement of Purpose: The statement of purpose is essentially the same as a thesis statement for an essay or paper. It only needs to be a sentence or two long.

Sources and Methods: To establish credibility, discuss the types of research material selected to support the proposed solution and how the material will be used in the proposal. NOTE: Don't make a list of sources like you would for a References page.

Report Organization: Provide an overview of the various sections of the report so the reader is aware of the direction and organization of the report to follow.

A successful assignment will include the following:

An outline of the entire proposal using traditional outline format. Introduction, Solution and Benefits, Cost, and Conclusion and Recommendation will be listed as major points.

The outline may include researched material with APA in-text citations.

The Introduction (which will be a first-level heading) of the proposal includes all four sections as second-level headings with fully developed original text appropriate for each section.

Evidence the writer fully firmly grasps the purpose/goals of the proposal assignment to include selecting the appropriate organizational approach.

Proper use of formatting and style.

An awareness and proper use of all 10 writing conventions for professional writing (as appropriate) covered in Week 2. Use of proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.

Outline

Write a preliminary outline using key words to describe the following:

I. Introduction

A. Background of the Problem - brief description of problem and the importance of solving the problem

B. Statement of Purpose - What is the purpose of the proposal?

C. Sources and Methods - key words on types of sources that will be used

D. Report Organization - list the three sections that will be covered in the Discussion section of the report

II. Discussion

A. Solution and Benefits -- state the solution, list some possible benefits

B. Cost - list the possible types of costs for the proposed solution

C. Conclusion and Recommendation - issues that led to the need for this solution; key word phrase of what is being recommended

Remember, in addition, to the above outline, the week 6 assignment also includes the full text of the Introduction in sentence and paragraph format.