Social and environmental narrative reporting : analysts' perceptions

An ACCA research report, Narrative Reporting: Analysts' Perceptions of its Value and Relevance was published in November 2008. The research considered analysts' views on five key elements of narrative reporting, including social and environmental disclosures. Due to the significant interests ACCA has in corporate transparency with regards to sustainability, this specific part of the research has been highlighted in this paper. The other parts of the research have been summarised only.Publisher PD

Financial Reporting for Environmental and Social responsibility: A Normative Strategic Concept

Corporate responsibility demands that firms address environmental and social values in their firm’s policy and key performance indicators. These are integrated through strategic planning and require firms to merge the longer term environmental and social values with short term economic objectives and performance measures. Each firm’s strategy will differ. This paper provides a normative reporting concept to connect the financial implications associated with longer term planning for environmental and social values, with short term accounting reports. Reporting variants adapted from total cost assessment, life cycle costing, variable costing are integrated to offer upstream information based on a product segment view.Strategy, environmental reporting, life cycle costing, cost systems, multi-period accounting, multi-stage fixed costs.

Using environmental reporting tools in the supply chain : perspectives from UK, Finland and Thailand

Paper delivered at the 21st Logistics Research Network annual conference 2016, 7th-9th September 2016, Hull. Abstract Purpose: Supply chain performance measures and reporting tools must evolve as new societal challenges are met, and the natural environment has become one of today’s most significant challenges. An inter-disciplinary interest in the field of environmental supply chain management has grown amongst researchers and practitioners in recent years as a potential source of competitive advantage due to climate change issues, diminishing raw materials, excess waste, and increasing levels of pollution. Measurement of environmental performance has also developed as a related topic and environmental management systems (EMS) within a logistics context have garnered some attention in the literature. However, little work has been done to assess the use of appropriate environmental reporting tools or the adoption of extant standards such as ISO14001 or EMAS in which to position and report environmental performance measures in the logistics sector. This paper builds on work presented by Shenin and Grant at the 2015 LRN conference to compare and contrast the adoption and use of environmental reporting tools in the UK, Finnish and Thai logistics sectors and identify key drivers and barriers. Research Approach: This is a new area of research and thus exploratory tools were used to collect data from different perspectives. The study used a combination of semi-structured interviews, focus groups and two large scale industry surveys. Findings and originality: The study found that the two most commonly known EMS are ISO 14001 and EMAS. However, they have been inconsistently adopted across the various sectors. For example, many UK logistics practitioners have developed their ‘own company designed’ reporting tools. Further, logistics and supply chain practitioners in all countries indicated a lack of understanding of environmental management systems (EMS), with small firms demonstrating no reporting at all. Key drivers and benefits for adoption of reporting tools were financially linked to customer requirements, to reduce waste and be more operationally efficient. Additionally, a lack of standard ESCPM reporting and measurement tools and government direction, and the complexity of the supply chain were seen as key barriers to effective implementation. Research Impact: Reporting tools widely discussed in the academic literature such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and Green SCOR were not found to be extensively used in the three logistics sectors. There appears to be ‘no one size fits all’ tool in current environmental supply chain reporting and thus a clear divergence between theory and practice

The development of environmental management systems and corporate responsibility reporting in NZ, UK and USA : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Environmental Management at Massey University, New Zealand

L. C. Martinez. The Development of Environmental Management Systems and Corporate Responsibility Reporting in NZ, UK and USA, 121 pages, 2 figures, 2017. The study reviews the initiation and development of environmental management systems (EMSs) and how EMS and corporate responsibility (CR) reporting developed over time in New Zealand, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA). Comparing the three countries provides New Zealand with a global perspective to identify if northern hemisphere countries have better systems. The study has two aims: 1. To compare and contrast the initiation and development of EMSs and CR reporting in New Zealand, the UK and the USA; and 2. To suggest strategies New Zealand’s government and businesses could use to improve EMS and CR reporting systems, and thereby strengthen the country’s business environmental performance. The scope of the thesis is the urban corporate and manufacturing sectors; the timeframe is from the mid-twentieth century to the present. Scholarly journal and media articles, industry publications and reference books used for the research were accessed via the ProQuest database, Massey University online library, the New York Public Library and Google. Results show that there has not been a clear and consistent pattern of EMS development in each study country, but each country has been a leader and innovator at different stages. An initial scan suggested that New Zealand has lower ISO 14001 certification numbers and CR reporting rates than the UK and USA. When examined more closely, results show that New Zealand’s ISO 14001 certification intensity (rather than raw numbers) is actually higher than the USA, although New Zealand and the USA both lag behind the UK. Results also show that CR reporting is now completely mainstream business practice worldwide. Despite this, New Zealand’s CR reporting is limited; unlike the other two study countries, this form of reporting is not legislated. Conclusions were that economic instruments in the UK and USA are shown to be an effective way to incentivise clean business practices and increase EMS uptake. Multinational companies increasingly scrutinize suppliers’ environmental credentials, which will impact New Zealand’s SMEs more into the future. ISO 14001 is a necessary universal tool to remain relevant in today’s global economy, which may incentivise higher uptake among New Zealand’s export businesses. It was recommended that New Zealand’s government form a legislative requirement for CR reporting, and firms should be encouraged to look to organizations such as the NZ Sustainable Business Council, the Global Reporting Initiative and the International Integrated Reporting Council for guidance on CR reporting

The Implementation of Accounting for Environmental Liabilities

This study aims to discuss the accounting implementation by the Indonesia Companies in recognizing, measuring, presenting, and disclosing environmental obligations that occur as a result of the company\u27s operations. The analysis is carried out by reviewing disclosures on environmental management activities that have been carried out by the company, which has financial reports and annual reports. The method used is descriptive qualitative method with the data used are secondary data, financial statements, and annual reports obtained from the official website of the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2015 to 2017 fiscal years. The samples employed in this study is thirteen food and beverage subsector companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2015 to 2017. The results of this study suggest that from 2015 to 2017, the food and beverage sub-sector companies have not reported any environmental obligations in the form of social-environmental responsibilities in the financial statements. The companies report their environmental responsibility activities as a company expense reported on the income statement. Accounting for environmental obligations related to recognition, measurement, recording, disclosure, and reporting has not been regulated in financial accounting standards, so reporting environmental obligations is still voluntary

Environmental Accounting and Reporting in Fossil Fuel Sector : A Study on Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla)

Petrobangla is the sole responsible organization to maintain the fossil fuel sector in Bangladesh. It is accountable to next generations for oil, gas and other natural resources. It is necessary to ensure optimum use of these resources. Development activities cannot be sustained if these resources are depleted through wasteful use. This study indicates that Petrobangla takes many initiatives to provide environment-friendly energy in the economy. Environmental Accounting and reporting is the emerging concept in Bangladesh, although many countries in the world, either developed or developing, are practising environmental accounting and reporting in their fossil fuel sector. Since the need for fossil fuel is likely to increase, especially in developing countries [where the supply of these resources insufficient], the accounting and reporting of these resources have become inevitable.Environmental Accounting, Fossil Fuel, Environmental Reporting

Checklist for One Health Epidemiological Reporting of Evidence (COHERE).

One Health is defined as the intersection and integration of knowledge regarding humans, animals, and the environment, yet as the One Health scientific literature expands, there is considerable heterogeneity of approach and quality of reporting in One Health studies. In addition, many researchers who publish such studies do not include or integrate data from all three domains of human, animal, and environmental health. This points to a critical need to unify guidelines for One Health studies. This report details the Checklist for One Health Epidemiological Reporting of Evidence (COHERE) to guide the design and publication format of future One Health studies. COHERE was developed by a core writing team and international expert review group that represents multiple disciplines, including human medicine, veterinary medicine, public health, allied professionals, clinical laboratory science, epidemiology, the social sciences, ecohealth and environmental health. The twin aims of the COHERE standards are to 1) improve the quality of reporting of observational or interventional epidemiological studies that collect and integrate data from humans, animals and/or vectors, and their environments; and 2) promote the concept that One Health studies should integrate knowledge from these three domains. The 19 standards in the COHERE checklist address descriptions of human populations, animal populations, environmental assessment, spatial and temporal relationships of data from the three domains, integration of analyses and interpretation, and inclusion of expertise in the research team from disciplines related to human health, animal health, and environmental health

The value of remote sensing techniques in supporting effective extrapolation across multiple marine spatial scales

The reporting of ecological phenomena and environmental status routinely required point observations, collected with traditional sampling approaches to be extrapolated to larger reporting scales. This process encompasses difficulties that can quickly entrain significant errors. Remote sensing techniques offer insights and exceptional spatial coverage for observing the marine environment. This review provides guidance on (i) the structures and discontinuities inherent within the extrapolative process, (ii) how to extrapolate effectively across multiple spatial scales, and (iii) remote sensing techniques and data sets that can facilitate this process. This evaluation illustrates that remote sensing techniques are a critical component in extrapolation and likely to underpin the production of high-quality assessments of ecological phenomena and the regional reporting of environmental status. Ultimately, is it hoped that this guidance will aid the production of robust and consistent extrapolations that also make full use of the techniques and data sets that expedite this process

Optimal Law Enforcement with Self-Reporting of Behavior

Self-reporting -- the reporting by parties of their own behavior to an enforcement authority -- is a commonly observed aspect of law enforcement, as in the context of environmental and safety regulation. We add self-reporting to the model of the control of harmful externalities through probabilistic law enforcement. Optimal self-reporting schemes are characterized and are shown to offer two advantages over schemes without self-reporting: enforcement resources are saved because individuals who are led to report harmful acts need not be identified; risk is reduced because individuals bear certain sanctions when they report their behavior, rather than face uncertain sanctions.