The And Human Impact On Society

The technique for improving the credibility of the information comprised in CSR reports is to confirm that data adheres to established standards. There are an extensive number of standards available such as those from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the Business in the Community (BITC). Qantas should choose to follow the GRI framework as 80% of reporting organisations follow their Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. The guidelines are created to be flexible and applicable across organisation type, region and sector. General transparency of the CSR report can also be increased thanks to GRI. Qantas must fully disclose all relevant GRI indicators to make a more comprehensible and credible CSR report. The stakeholders can also value the comparability of the report as GRI allows the data to be objectively compared to the sustainability performance of other

This report examines the new world of sustainability reporting, and the complex web of stakeholders. It focuses particularly on the demands for new kinds of transparency which serve the interests of the environment and society.

It provides the stakeholders’ of a particular organization with information regarding their business activities such as its “impacts on the economic” factors of society, “environment” and “social community” (Carlon 2016). Companies often choose to supply their stakeholders with a sustainability report as its main purpose is to “improve internal processes, engage stakeholders and persuade investors” (Wikipedia 2016) which will in turn build the company’s overall success. This means that it could result in more efficient operations, attract and obtain potential employees, expand the size of its current target market and appeal to prospective investors.

As we have seen an increase in awareness around sustainability and climate change, with the help of Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth documentary in 2006, we see organizations moving towards mitigating the effects of climate change in various ways (Al Gore, n.d). As this corporate social responsibility has become more prevalent, organizations are now pushing their green agenda by publishing sustainability reports, doing mass marketing and implementing sustainable business practices to portray the image that they too are working towards protecting the earth’s natural environment all the while focusing on their underlying goal of selling their products and

Melting glaciers, depleting water resources and decreasing air quality needs immediate attention. Everyone needs air and water to survive. Business started practicing sustainable accounting in mid-70. This practice discloses non-financial and financial information related to the business activities that has direct impact on society and its environment (air, water, people etc.). Companies use triple bottom line method to calculate the impact of business activities on society and based on these calculation companies makes policies which make its operation more ecologically and socially

The idea of sustainability has become an increasingly common term in the rhetoric surrounding business ethics, as corporates are gaining broader acknowledgement of this pro-active method which guarantees business long-term viability and integrity by focusing on the triple bottom line. In business, the three aspects of sustainability include social, economic and environment.

We started our research by finding a bank (Bank of America) that is moving towards sustainability but has not started to apply these concepts into their financial institution. We decided that Bank of America should focus on all the aspects of sustainability meaning they should have a strong role in being environmentally friendly, they should be socially sustainable, and should be economically sustainable. In our research, we looked at two major things: the process of any company becoming sustainable and how a bank should become sustainable in the financial world. We then decided the exact tasks that we want Bank of America to do and began more research on each specific area.

Sustainability has been a difficult concept for companies to understand and implement. Sustainable development is a serious obstacle due to the fact that corporations are used to running their business the same way that they always have. Implementing a new process and operation takes time to understand and incorporate. In addition to learning a new way of business, corporations are faced with strict government regulations,

According to Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines: A sustainability report is a report published by a company or an organization about the social, environmental and economic impact caused by its everyday activities. And due to the nature of the energy industry,

Originally, sustainability reports were written by small and medium-sized environmental companies; however, in the late 1980s large companies in the chemical industry start writing sustainability reports in hopes of improving their images. This trend has expanded in the past 20 years to more companies as a mean of improving internal procedures, charming stakeholders and appealing investors. Each company can increase their sustainability representation observing, gaging and recording it, while acquiring an optimistic bearing on the economy, people and the environment. Sustainability award standings and schemas are measured and conveyed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The purpose of the GRI sustainability report is concerning

To cite this article: Rob Gray (2006) Does sustainability reporting improve corporate behaviour?: Wrong question? Right time?, Accounting and Business Research, 36:sup1,

However "report or explain" approach (GRI 2011) shall make the things easier for reporting especially for multinational such as BP and Statoil. For some companies collecting the data can be expensive process and although information technology is growing and spreading fast the best of it may not be available to all organizations. In this regard BP and Statoil are well positioned with access to advance technology and this is not the case for such enormous organizations. Another disadvantage is Sustainability reporting can be beyond access on funding, for example supply chain assessments can be burdensome to conduct, as frequently with thousands of suppliers it requires to have the advanced ERP* system, which may cost millions to set up (Parr and Shanks 2000). Again BP and Statoil have all required resources to afford the latest and best technology for the reasons beyond but including the needs to meet sustainability essentials. Some companies also consider that disclosing information can cost them if competitors are not aligned with GRI guidelines and can benefit from standardized approach if not used by contenders. This may be applicable to small organizations but for large players on the market disclosure of sustainability performance shall bring positive results delivering more benefits to stakeholders by being conscious on creating value for the

In the new global economy, sustainability has become a central issue for the corporate world. Sustainability is mostly understood as a one dimensional phenomenon that is in relation to environment but it is a three dimensional phenomenon consisting of environmental, social and economical dimensions. Reconciliation of environmental, social equity and economic demand; form the three important pillars of sustainability and are best described as 3 Es of sustainability. In the recent years there has been an increasing interest in the field of sustainability. The main aspects which run the field of sustainability are increasing demand for more responsible products and services, along with new scientific knowledge. Thus the field of sustainability is rapidly evolving. Companies are taking effective initiatives for making sustainability as part of their business system but are facing failures. These failures are due to three major deficiencies which are as follows:

Undoubtedly, the environment is experiencing unprecedented economic problems, social unrest and environmental disasters. All these issues may bring harm to the business and all the human being involves as these three factors are correlated. Therefore, people and businesses are becoming more aware of the importance of going beyond financial performance, and have a shift toward the account of businesses’ impacts on the society and environment. The motives that drive companies to undertake TBL reporting can be explained by the seven drivers which lead to a closely linked revolutions are markets, values, transparency, life cycle technology, life cycle technology, partners, time and corporate governance.

Currently, the accounting field of study has enhanced its area from number crunching to the other relevant areas that influence the organizations in an exceptionally remarkable manner. It is evident that the organizations are not just concerned in finding the financial position of the business but as well the effect it exercises on the society all in all. This has lead to the emergence of corporate social responsibility (Sustainability accounting) wherein an organization is responsible not only for its financial outcomes but also how it deals with the society, environment and the economy.