Sustainability Reporting Exercise Samples †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Sustainability Reporting Exercise. Answer: Introduction Sustainability reporting exercise by corporations can help in generation of transparency, assist the entire market to operate effectually, reflect the overall health of the nation, assist in driving organizations progress towards achievement of smooth, sustainable and the same time inclusive rate of growth. The present study examines the primary purpose of sustainability reporting from the perspective of each and every business entity, taking into consideration compliance with the guidelines of GRI Reporting. In addition to this, current report also identifies the stakeholders having an interest in the sustainability reports of each business entity. Moving further, the study elucidates in detail the stark differences between the sustainability reports of the two different companies. The current report explicates in detail about sustainability reporting practice with special reference to the operations of AGL and ANZ. The AustralianAccounting Standards Board necessarily does not indicate towards specific accountabilities associated to the management of sustainability regulation (Child 2015). However, features of various action schedules of AASB controls the functionalities of AASB on the environment on the whole. In this regard, AASB spells out policies along with measures for minimization of environmental influences by conforming with diverse government policies associated to reduction of waste, energy conservation and many others. Micheli and Mari (2014) mentions that according to the AASB regulations of annual report, appropriate reporting on specifically sustainability in the long term on particularly finances of public organizations adhere to the directives as well as guidelines laid down by the IPSASB issued by suggested practice directives of RPG1 reporting practice. These was declared by the Recommended Practice Guideline RPG 1 Reporting on the finances (Hahn and Llfs 2014). Thus, sustaina bility reporting can be considered as a procedure of presenting information by means of which diverse stakeholders can analyse economic, social as well as environmental aspects of business concerns that is referred to as the triple bottom line procedure of reporting. Business concerns utilize sustainability practices for enhancing values of the overall functionalities of the business. In addition to this the Code of Ethics for the professional and expert accountants introduced during 2006 and modified during 2008 was pronounced by the Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards Board. This code of ethics presents diverse necessities of corporations to adhere to the directives of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Purpose Purpose of sustainability reporting of ANZ is to inform their stakeholders regarding the way they are managing and expecting current as well as future risks and opportunities associated to economic, social as well as environmental factors. In addition to this, the company ANZ also reports regarding their performance against targets of sustainability that are set for the years and the way by which the management of the firm recognize and manage diverse issues that can considered to be most material to the business as well as stakeholders of the firm (Rinaldi et al. 2014). It can be hereby mentioned that ANZ is essentially a gold community member of the GRI and uses framework of GRI for over a decade. The purpose of the sustainability reporting of AGL is to present the way they operate and deal with customers, engage with community and people and manage environment and at the same time economic performance. In addition to this, the sustainability reporting of the firm also reflects the adherence of the firm to the AGL Ethical Code of Conduct that aims to reduction in the overall rate of diverse substantiated issues associated to unacceptable behaviour. Furthermore, the purpose of this reporting practice is also to make the stakeholders aware regarding the public policy engagement strategy of the firm and best practices as regards corporate governance adopted by the firm (Micheli and Mari 2014) Stakeholders ANZ intends to earn trust and carry out fair as well as responsible banking by keeping pace with the altering expectations of diverse stakeholders of the firm. As per sustainability report of the firm, the management of the business concern maintains superior standards of ethical business conduct and comprehending social as well as environmental influences of the business decisions. The companys sustainability reporting reflects that effective engagement with the firms stakeholders is considered as a significant part of their business and is embedded in their policies, procedures as well as nature of business operations (Junior et al. 2014). Analysis of the stakeholder engagement policy of the firm reveals that the main stakeholders of the firm includes the customers, employees, shareholders, community, governing bodies and regulators, industry associations as well as non-government organizations Report reveals that the effective stakeholder engagement principle of the firm ANZ is co nsistent with particularly the AA 1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard. On other hand, the firm AGL has a wide range of various stakeholders with diverse interests. The management of the company is of the view that the company participates in different ongoing as well as constructive conversation with the stakeholders in a bid to remain responsive to diverse issues that are significant to companys customers, financiers, regulators, employees, landowners along with the wider community (Hahn and Llfs 2014). Comparison of the sustainability reporting The sustainability reporting of the two different corporation viz. AGL and ANZ are hereby discussed in detail below: ANZ : ANZ is one of the largest financial services corporation in New Zealand that functions particularly as a subsidiary firm of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited in Australia. This is a publicly traded company with operations in the finance and insurance industry. The primary purpose of ANZ is to successfully shape and develop a world in which people as well as communities can thrive. For that, the company intends to generate a balanced as well as sustainable economy where everyone can participate and make a better world. Analysis of the sustainability report of the firm reveals that the corporate sustainability framework of the firm supports the overall delivery of the business strategy of the firm and intends to replicate the material social as well as environmental issues better and to keep in line with the purposes of the bank. The company intends to carry out fair as well as responsible banking, boost sustainable growth and enhance social and economic engagement (Hahn and Khnen 2013). The report mentions about the materiality matrix that the company uses with GRI material aspect and the boundary. Some of the key material issues identified in the report include corporate governance, business lending, environment footprint, sustainable chain of supply and investment towards the community (Child 2015). In addition to this, the other material issues of the company include diversity and inclusion, fraud and security of data, consumer protection, anti-money laundering and financing of terrorism and fairness and code of ethics among many others. The report also divulges the fact that the company has a formal policy of stakeholder engagement that is again consistent with the AA 1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard. This section on stakeholder engagement focuses on how the company is engaged with a particular stakeholder group, stresses on the key issues that are raised and comments on the same. The sustainability review also presents the corporate govern ance along with the risk management that helps in understanding the material sustainability risks that in turn has the capability to wear down the trust of the entire community, finally influencing the capability to carry out business (Buhr et al. 2014). Thereafter, the sustainability report also elucidates in detail about the sustainability targets and set group wide program in order to support the overall delivery of firms business strategy and respond to diverse material sustainability concerns (Bonilla-Priego et al. 2014). AGL: AGL essentially publishes sustainability report on a yearly basis in order to provide transparent account of the firms performance in association to the social, economic as well as environmental challenges AGL as well as the energy industry encounters. the sustainability report of AGL also presents material issues just as ANZ, in a specific matrix reflecting the relative significance as judged by different internal as well as external stakeholders. In addition to this, AGL also presents a sustainability framework that is similarly presented by ANZ. It is by means of this sustainability framework, the company presents the targets as well as commitments to undertake performance are instituted, monitored and enumerated (Bebbington et al. 2014). Analysis of the sustainability report of the firm reflects the fact that the firm presents an outline of the way the company operates and encapsulates the entire advance to stakeholder engagement, ethical code of conduct, maintenance of legislati ve compliance, corporate governance in addition to public policy engagement. In addition to this, the report also presents performance information regarding the firms key sustainability issues that are categorised into five different subjects namely customers, people, firms economic performance, community and environment. Moreover this report also reflects about a centralised data centre in which comprehensive data on performance is made available. Evaluation of the report also replicates the fact that the sustainability review of the firm is prepared and presented according to the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines of Global Reporting Initiative (Barkemeyer et al. 2015). Thus, evaluation of the report helps in reflecting the differences that exist between the two different reports. The report of AGL explicitly mentions about the adherence of the report to the GRI guidelines while the report of ANZ does not mention about the GRI. Debate regarding mandatory reporting There are certain reasons that can explain the reason why mandatory reporting might not be best possible move. There is concern that mandatory reporting can create a low common denominator in particularly transparency (Amran et al. 2014). In this case, the government establishes different key performance indicators that diverse corporations need to report on, corporations might focus particularly checking the disclosure requirements in stead of thinking about those issues that that the stakeholders think about (Alonso?Almeida et al. 2014). Essentially, the mandatory disclosure would possibly indicate liability for disclosures and can adversely affect transparency. References Alonso?Almeida, M., Llach, J. and Marimon, F., 2014. A closer look at the Global Reporting Initiativesustainability reporting as a tool to implement environmental and social policies: A worldwide sector analysis.Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management,21(6), pp.318-335. Amran, A., Lee, S.P. and Devi, S.S., 2014. The influence of governance structure and strategic corporate social responsibility toward sustainability reporting quality.Business Strategy and the Environment,23(4), pp.217-235. Barkemeyer, R., Preuss, L. and Lee, L., 2015. On the effectiveness of private transnational governance regimesEvaluating corporate sustainability reporting according to the Global Reporting Initiative.Journal of World Business,50(2), pp.312-325. Bebbington, J., Unerman, J. and O'Dwyer, B. eds., 2014.Sustainabilityaccounting and accountability. Routledge. Bonilla-Priego, M.J., Font, X. and del Rosario Pacheco-Olivares, M., 2014. Corporate sustainability reporting index and baseline data for the cruise industry.Tourism Management,44, pp.149-160. Buhr, N., Gray, R. and Milne, M.J., 2014. Histories, rationales, voluntary standards and future prospects for sustainability reporting.J. Bebbington, J. Unerman and B. ODwyer, eds, pp.51-71. Child, J., 2015.Organization: contemporary principles and practice. John Wiley Sons. Hahn, R. and Khnen, M., 2013. Determinants of sustainability reporting: a review of results, trends, theory, and opportunities in an expanding field of research.Journal of Cleaner Production,59, pp.5-21. Hahn, R. and Llfs, R., 2014. Legitimizing negative aspects in GRI-oriented sustainability reporting: A qualitative analysis of corporate disclosure strategies.Journal of Business Ethics,123(3), pp.401-420. Junior, R.M., Best, P.J. and Cotter, J., 2014. Sustainability reporting and assurance: A historical analysis on a world-wide phenomenon.Journal of Business Ethics,120(1), pp.1-11. Micheli, P. and Mari, L., 2014. The theory and practice of performance measurement.Management accounting research,25(2), pp.147-156. Rinaldi, L., Unerman, J. and Tilt, C., 2014. The role of stakeholder engagement and dialogue within thesustainability accounting and reporting process.Sustainability accounting and accountability, pp.86-107.