Question:
Describe about the Meaning of sustainability reporting and its need,Key performance indicators and Steps to be undertaken by staff for sustainability reporting?
The company Wealth wise has recently set up an internal information system that could help in the improvement of the social and the environmental practices in the company. The company is a major contributor towards the charities and focusses mainly on the poor and homeless.
It undertakes to promote the environmental management in all the operations of the company. It does a lot of things that helps in the sustaining the environment.
This reports aims at answering the questions such as explaining the meaning of the sustainability reporting, what are its uses, the key indicators of sustainability reporting by the company and the alternative performance indicators that could be used to assist the company in achieving its mission, the balance score card as the key performance indicator of the sustainability reporting.
As such there is no set definition of sustainability reporting but generally it is defined as the practice of measuring, disclosing and being able to be responsible for the internal and the external stakeholders for the performance by the organization towards the goal that targets towards the sustainable development of the country.
Sustainability reporting is concerned with the creation of the awareness of the responsibility of the corporate in the real corporate world. Attention is given to the issues that relates with the environment and the sector of the government.
The stakeholders are interested in understanding the approach and the performance of the companies that are used to manage the different aspects of the activities such as the potential of value creation. In order to illustrate this, there is a growing recognition amidst the analysts of an investment. There are a number of returns of an investment and the indicators of the long term financial performances that target towards the changing legislative and the regulatory regimes. The company has various other drivers that are used such as the profit and loss account, balance sheet and the reporting of the greenhouse gases that have been remitted.
(KPMG, 2015)
In accordance with Brundtland, 1987, sustainable development is concerned with fulfilling the needs of the citizens without compromising on the needs of the future generations.
(ACCA, 2015)
The disclosures of sustainability help in differentiating one company from another in the same industry. This also helps in building the trust and confidence and the loyalty of the employees. When an analyst expresses his opinion on a company, then he takes into account the disclosures that have been made by the company in respect of its sustainability along with the efficiency practices and quality of the management. This reporting helps the company in attracting more number of investors.
The following are the benefits of sustainable reporting:
1. Better reputation: a survey was conducted during the year 2011 and it was found that when the company goes for expanding the transparency in the business operations and reporting positive deeds, then the trust of the public is gained and investors are attracted.
2. Expectation of the employees: another survey was conducted by EY and Green Biz that showed that the employees were the most important audience for the sustainability reporting with about 18% of the reports citing the employees as the major target. Around 30% of the reporters showed that the presentation of the sustainability reporting increased the loyalty of the employees.
3. Improved access to the capital: researchers have found that the firms that reported their sustainability has better index scores than the ones with the low sustainability. When a company had a lower index scores, then they had very limited number of capital constraints
4. Increased efficiencies: the companies that presented their sustainability reports were more efficient when it came to making the decisions.
(EY, 2015)
In the opinion of many, the key performance indicators has many dimensions. It would go on to do the following:
1. Identify the aspects of the sustainability that could impact the society in the most positive or the negative way or manner
2. Define one of the most relevant decision that could reasonable be collected and could be reported
3. Present the data in the most efficient and effective manner so that the comparison could be related to the corporate sustainability performance
In the nutshell, it would be right to say that when there are a limited number of key performance indicators, then the same can go on to help the balanced reporting regime that would serve the dual demands of comprehensiveness and practicability. When this regime is followed, these could be used for an extensive work that would define and measure the corporate sustainability that exists already and could also, guide the stakeholders of the company to focus on the issues that hold the relevant importance and that could have a major impact on the performance of the sustainability of the company. The key performance indicators are specific to specific sectors in the industries. For example, the industry of electronics face the challenges of supply chain management and the use of the toxic materials in the manufacturing and the waste disposal. The retail groceries face the challenge of managing the employee relations and the sustainability of the products that they sell. The mining industry face the challenges of the practices of the human rights, the tailings management and the availability of water and the government relations and so on and so forth.
(SASB, 2015)
The sustainability performance indicators are used as a toll for measuring the performance of the company and for monitoring the performance and reporting on the future progress of the company. These indicators are covered in the areas of economic, environmental and the societal aspects of sustainability.
The following are the performance indicators:
1. Economic performance indicators: this will include the company turnover, profit, quantity of products sold, etc.
2. Social performance indicators: this will include the labor practices, human rights, and broader issues affecting consumers, community, and other stakeholders in society.
3. Environmental performance indicators: this will include the greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, waste output, etc.
(Pre sustainability reporting, 2015)
The company is of the view that the responsible investing could create 2 key obligations of each one of the people involved. One was the obligation to take the financial responsibility for own financial needs of the individuals and their families and the second was the obligation to invest the funds and the companies that share the same value systems.
(Welath wise, 2015)
The following are the key indicators:
The following are the 10 initiatives that could be undertaken by the company:
1. Create smart, integrated public policy: it is very difficult to make the sound decision and policies when it comes to the policies of the environment. The companies need a clear and a steady direction of what the government thinks with regard to the issues such as the carbon pricing, national cap and trade systems for the emission of the greenhouse gases. When the company has the clear and a consistent integration of the policies, only then can it invest it in the new technologies and the in the new standards and the training of the staff for sustainability.
2. Engaging in the value chain members including an industry and the NGO partners: there must be an effective collaboration across the value chain and an industry. Each and every company must try to do its bets to limit the impact of their business operations onto the environment but they would be able to impact it more and make big advances when the companies come together and align with the actions of the suppliers and the distributors along with the other members of the value chains.
3. Building a national dialogue on the responsible consumption: the customer have to be brought into confidence. The sustainability of the environment is not at all possible without the involvement of the customers. The impact on the environment cannot be limited if the customers are not willing to pay more for the products of the company.
4. Communicating the goals of sustainability within the organization: it is a big and a heavy task of building sustainability. The sustainability or the corporate social responsibility is a big responsibility with the companies, or for a single department or a single employee, for that matter.
5. Embedding the sustainability in the culture of the corporate: the employees must regard the department of the corporate social responsibility with respect since many of these will try to eliminate these departments as they may seem like cost centre to them. Therefore, in order to make sure that the sustainability for the organization is duly followed, the culture must be embedded into the organization.
6. Proving clear and equitable directions for the entitlements.
7. Creating the conditions that could support the sustainability related innovations: the main aim of the smart companies is to grow and innovate. The smart companies are the ones that treat their sustainability as the innovation of the new frontier. The smaller companies have a very little organizational slack. The NBS’s report of the year 2013, Innovating for sustainability, and threw light on some of the ways following which the impact of the companies could be reduced on the environment and it would create the social change that could benefit the business and re-imagine the models of the business. The report states the trends that exist in the emerging economies or in the unrelated businesses, initiate the partnerships and drive innovation.
8. Incorporation of the social license so as to operate into the business strategy: the community members must let the company operate in their region. The maintenance of the social license could help the managers in ascertaining the frame of the sustainability as the way of managing the risk and creating of the efficiencies.
9. Mitigating and adapting the changes in the climate: the first issue that was brought to the notice of the leaders was the changes in the climate. The impacts of the physical changes in the climate will go on to redefine the industries such as the agri food, tourism and insurance. The climate changes is defined as the signs of the global warming that has been caused by the human generated greenhouse gases which is not an isolated issue any more.
10. Reducing the burden of sustainability reporting: it has become apparent that the companies spend a huge amount of time and resources in organizing the sustainability programs. And also requires an investment in the human resources and this amount of resources sent could be used to reduce the impacts on the environment. The companies therefore must call its investors and the third parties and create a streamlined reporting method.
(Business journal, 2015)
There are seven components necessary to ensure a sustainable organization.
|
Organizational Identity |
Financial and Other Systems Administration |
|
Long-Range Strategic Plan |
Long-Range Fund-Raising Plan |
|
Annual Operational Plan |
Board Development Plan |
|
Staff Development and Organizational Culture |
(Advocates, 2015)
The balanced score card is the strategic planning and the management system that is used exclusively for the business and the industry and for the non-profit organizations. These are used to align the activities of the business to the visions and the strategy of the organization. This also entails improving the internal and the external communications and monitor the performance of the organization as against the strategic gaols.
(Balance score card, 2015)
The balance score card could be used for predicting the future and the financial accounting metrics that was lagging and these could be used to provide an insight into the effectiveness of the previous strategies and the decisions that re yet to be limit the abilities of the managers to anticipate the events of the future.
(Imanet, 2015)
Conclusion:
The sustainability performance indicators are used as a toll for measuring the performance of the company and for monitoring the performance and reporting on the future progress of the company. These indicators are covered in the areas of economic, environmental and the societal aspects of sustainability.
The key performance indicators are the economic performance indicators, social performance indicators and the environmental performance indicators.
It is very important for each and every company to contribute towards its environment so as to make its place in the society and attract more investments.
References:
Advocatesforyouth.org, (2015). The Seven Components of Organizational Sustainability. Retrieved 30 January 2015, from https://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/publications-a-z/612-the-seven-components-of-organizational-sustainability-
Balancedscorecard.org, (2015). What is the Balanced Scorecard? Retrieved 30 January 2015, from https://balancedscorecard.org/Resources/About-the-Balanced-Scorecard
Ey.com, (2015). The Value of Sustainability reporting. Retrieved 30 January 2015, from https://www.ey.com/US/en/Services/Specialty-Services/Climate-Change-and-Sustainability-Services/Value-of-sustainability-reporting
Imanet.org, (2015). Sustainability and the Balanced Scorecard: Integrating Green Measures into Business Reporting. Retrieved 30 January 2015, from https://www.imanet.org/docs/default-source/maq/maq_winter_2011_butler-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=0
Iveybusinessjournal.com, (2015). Ten Steps to Sustainable Business in 2013 – Ivey Business Journal. Retrieved 30 January 2015, from https://iveybusinessjournal.com/topics/social-responsibility/ten-ways-to-help-companies-become-sustainable-in-2013#.VMfWBP6UeQE
Pre-sustainability.com, (2015). Sustainability Performance Indicators | PRé Sustainability. Retrieved 30 January 2015, from https://www.pre-sustainability.com/sustainability-performance-indicators
www.accaglobal.com, (2015). Sustainability reporting. Retrieved 30 January 2015, from https://www.accaglobal.com/content/dam/acca/global/PDF-technical/sustainability-reporting/tech-tp-srm.pdf
www.bdo.co.za, (2015). WEALTH WISE. Retrieved 30 January 2015, from https://www.bdo.co.za/documents/Wealth%20Advisory_issueno7%20 (lowres).pdf
www.kpmg.com, (2015). www.kpmg.com. Retrieved 30 January 2015, from https://www.kpmg.com/CN/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/sustainable-guide-0811.pdf
www.sasb.org, (2015). From Transparency to Performance. Retrieved 30 January 2015, from https://www.sasb.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/IRI_Transparency-to-Performanc
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