ACCT209 Corporate Accounting: CSR Of Adelaide Brighton and Boral Ltd

Topic – Sustainability Accounting And Corporate Social Responsibility

You will undertake a comparative study/assessments of the current or recent published (ASX200 Listed Companies) (https://www.asx200list.com/) Corporate Responsibility Reports of any two companies of your choice. However, the two (2) companies must be from the same industry. In examining these reports, consider the role of corporate reporting on sustainability through, for example, the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Reporting Guidelines and other Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) standards as well as the performance of Corporate Governance.

Briefly, consider the national and the sectoral/industry context in which these two firms operate. This should give you some ideas of the institutional and structural pressures on these companies to pursue corporate social responsibility and sustainability accounting. You will need to compare the two reports in terms of the quality and quantity of information provided. Support your analysis and discussion with Literature Review and various accounting theories that explain Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting.

Example questions to be asked:

• Are these reports mere Public Relation exercises?
• Do these reports measure corporate responsibility performance against some benchmark?
• To what extent, they (reports) present information that is critical to the two companies?
• To what extent they (reports) lay out tangible objectives and plans for the future?
• To what extent, can these two corporations be trusted to serve the common good?
• Do these reports have an impact of various stakeholders or only on shareholders?

Introduction

The study at hand intends to analytically evaluate declarations on corporate responsibility and sustainability with reference to two different firms operating in the same industry namely; Adelaide Brighton ltd as well as Boral Ltd. Fundamentally, strategies of corporate social responsibility of the two selected firms are compared for identifying better practices of corporate responsibility and maintenance of sustainability and analyzing influence of the same on business valuation and performance on the whole.

Corporate Social Responsibility also simply referred to as CSR indicates towards policies that can be associated to activities that contribute towards needs of the community as well as stakeholders (Bass and Milosevic 2018). Then again, sustainability exercises indicate towards actions and exercises of the corporate which intends to enhance overall efficacy of the business by minimizing costs and resources utilization. Nowadays, it is obligatory for corporations to present reports and declarations on sustainability as well as corporate social responsibility to the general public for augmentation of accountability of business.

Background information of the companies: Adelaide Brighton Cement (ABC) is considered to be one of the largest Australian producers of cement, dry blended products as well as lime. ABC runs different manufacturing as well as distribution facilities in and around South Australia, New South Wales, the Northern Territory, Victoria and Fyansford (Adbri.com.au. 2018).

Discussion

Analysis of practices of CSR and Sustainability Practices 

The importance of CSR is said to have significantly increased in the modern era. This is regarded as a voluntary commitment of corporate to include in their corporate exercises different socio-economic and environmental principles that are above and ahead of legislative necessities and associated to a wide array of stakeholders. Also, the companies have the necessity to pronounce and declare their own practices in a report namely the sustainability report (Jamali et al. 2017).

Adelaide Brighton ltd

According to the strategies of the corporation Adelaide Brighton ltd that are reflected in sustainability declarations of the firm, the key principle of the administration of the firms is to make certain that safety provisions are delivered to all the employees. Essentially, the primary objective of the firm is “Safe, Sustainability Development” and the business concern ABC is constantly enhancing the safety and safety system for providing safe working environment to the workforce (Adbri.com.au 2018). Furthermore, business policy of the firm is also to make sure that sustainability practices are an important factor of the business. ABC’s management also takes into consideration the requirements of stakeholders and devises sustainable that can satisfy the needs of the business.

The firm Adelaide Brighton ltd is engaged in producing building materials that requires of specific materials and chemicals together with fuels. According to corporate social responsibility policy of the firm, it intends to lessen the influence of these actions on the environment (Filatotchev and Stahl 2015).

The firm takes accountability of rehabilitation along with restoration of the specific site from where requisite minerals are necessarily extracted and used by the firm (Eweje and Sakaki 2015). Additionally, the administration of the firm is also committed towards energy conservation and undertakes programs that comprise of actions as mentioned below:

• Reduction of release of Green houses gases (Visser and Tolhurst 2017)
• Decreased dependence on different energy sources that are non-renewable in nature
• Decline in the waste materials on the whole that is produced and thereafter transferred to landfills.

Figure 1: (Diagram showing Energy usage from diverse sources)

Source: (Adbri.com.au. 2018)

The management of the firm is also said to uphold necessities of the society and intends to watch over different rehabilitation programs for specific land. Adelaide Brighton has also initiated a program on earth care that lays stress on rehabilitation of different excavation sites that are used by the firm, tree plantation program in the society together with development as well as preservation of wetlands (Marano and Kostova 2016). Therefore, based on analysis of the CSR report and the corporate governance report of the firm, it can be hereby inferred that the management of the firm is steadfast towards development of sustainable business that in turn can show the way to value creation for long-term period.

Boral Ltd

As indicated by the sustainability report of the firm Boral Ltd, it can be hereby stated that management of Boral ltd is dedicated towards practicing sustainable operations in everyday business (Boral 2018). The management of the firm also intends to generate corporate value for the business that is long-term in nature and in so doing lay stress on designing safety measures and initiating unique program referred to as “Managing Health, Safety and Environment”. Also, the program assists the business in satisfying safety necessities in routine business actions. Over and above this, the firm Boral limited also pursue indigenous programs of employment for recruiting human resources required for the business (Korschun et al. 2016).

However, owing to constant efforts and hard work of the management of the firm, the rate of injuries to the workforce has considerably decreased during year 2017. Particularly, this reflects that management’s safety program is functioning in an effective way. As per declarations in the report, overall rate of recordable injury for the firm Boral ltd has drastically lessened over the period as is reflected in the diagram presented below:

Figure 2: (Diagram Reflecting Frequency Rate of Recordable Injury)

Source: (Boral 2018)

The strategies of the firm Boral Ltd is to pursue and abide by all the pertinent environmental laws that are applicable for the operations of the firm (Boral 2018). The organization also has a repute of undertaking an effectual site planning that can ensure that important sites are taken into consideration before initiation of operations on the same. Analysis of sustainability report of the firm also reveals the fact that the management of the firm Boral Ltd is dedicated towards lessening release of green house gases that are generated from operations of the firm and effective usage of energy resources of the firm (Boral 2018). Additionally, the management of the firm Boral ltd has also commenced a program that aids in recycling; reusing of business waste and effectual management of wastes. Moreover, the management of the company also looks after the necessities of the community by providing greater job opportunities and making certain rehabilitation of different sites of operation of the firm so that business amenities are not influenced. The company Boral ltd also concentrates on business sustainability by devising strategies that are sustainable in nature and at the same time environment friendly.

Critical evaluation of CSR exercises of both the firms

Based on analysis of sustainability reports of both the firm, it can be hereby mentioned that both the firms pursue sustainable actions. In addition to this, both the firm has effectual policies concerning CSR that is associated to sustainable, socio-environmental exercises (Bass and Milosevic 2018). Also, as per the above mentioned discussion that talks about comparative analysis of the two firms, it can be hereby mentioned that Adelaide Brighton ltd has a superior framework for pursuing CSR exercises. In addition to this, the administration of Adelaide Brighton ltd is also observed to lay stress on different aspects associated to corporate governance and follow accountabilities towards betterment of society and environment of business in which the business operates and value addition of stakeholders (Huang et al. 2017). Similarly, the administration of the Boral ltd is also said to have an effective structure for corporate social reporting that satisfies the requirements of the community and abide by legislations and conservation regulations of the environment. The administration of the firm Boral Ltd has an effective system of staffing and human resource management that in turns enhances employment conditions and directs towards betterment of society at large.

Association of business success with CSR practices

As indicated by Lim and Greenwood (2017), corporate social responsibility (CSR) of a business can be considered to be vital for attainment of success of a business. Essentially, a latest research study reflects the fact that businesses that successfully pursue CSR often get rewarded with greater market valuation. Also, CSR of the business also analytically evaluates different roles as well as responsibilities of a firm’s management for enhancement of environment of business (Klimkiewicz and Oltra 2017). Fundamentally, the notion of CSR also takes into consideration that it is the duty of the firm to contribute towards requirements of the society. Thus, of late businesses are increasingly engaging themselves different CSR practices for positively contributing towards the welfare of the society and satisfying expectations of the community.

Any company that seeks attainment of development without any imposition of regulation can formulate effectual CSR policies. There are several instances where firms are involved in sustainable operations in Australia as well as US and exert constant efforts towards practice and execution of appropriate CSR policies in firms (Park and Ghauri 2015). According to a report presented on CSR pronounced by “Australian Council for Superannuation Investors”, approximately 83% of the firms which are listed under the ASX 200, undertake specific practice which can be linked to CSR exercises. In essence, the factors that have need of businesses to pursue CSR strategies in a business might perhaps be lawful, economical otherwise political based on the industry and segment in which the firm functions.

Conclusion

The above mentioned study helps in gaining deep understanding regarding the fact that the CSR of a specific business is a vital factor in a business and represents the intentions of the firms to stick to accountabilities of the community. The study in hand analyses sustainability reports of the two firms Adelaide Brighton ltd as well as Boral Ltd. This study reflects that the administration of Adelaide Brighton ltd is superior to that of the firm Boral ltd. Essentially, the sustainability exercises of Adelaide Brighton ltd is observed to take into consideration different facets of sustainability and satisfy different requirement of the community, workforces and conserves the environment. Also, the firm has an effectual strategy for lessening total amount of waste materials, decreasing discharge of greenhouse, initiating programs for plantation of trees and using of resources effectually. Also, the study highlights the way CSR and corporate governance affects overall valuation of shares of the firm in the market. Therefore, it can be hereby stated that significant for every firm to design an effectual corporate social strategy that can satisfy the requirements of the society.

References

Adbri.com.au. 2018. Our Responsibilities in Safety and Sustainability, Adelaide Brighton. [online] Available at: https://adbri.com.au/ourresponsibilities [Accessed 28 Aug. 2018].

Bass, A.E. and Milosevic, I., 2018. The ethnographic method in CSR research: The role and importance of methodological fit. Business & Society, 57(1), pp.174-215.

Boral. 2018. Sustainability Report. [online] Available at: https://www.boral.com/community-sustainability/sustainability-report [Accessed 28 Aug. 2018].

Eweje, G. and Sakaki, M., 2015. CSR in Japanese companies: Perspectives from managers. Business Strategy and the Environment, 24(7), pp.678-687.

Filatotchev, I. and Stahl, G.K., 2015. Towards transnational CSR. Corporate social responsibility approaches and governance solutions for multinational corporations. Organizational Dynamics, 44(2), pp.121-129.

Huang, M.H., Cheng, Z.H. and Chen, I.C., 2017. The importance of CSR in forming customer–company identification and long-term loyalty. Journal of Services Marketing, 31(1), pp.63-72.

Jamali, D., Lund-Thomsen, P. and Jeppesen, S., 2017. SMEs and CSR in developing countries. Business & Society, 56(1), pp.11-22.

Klimkiewicz, K. and Oltra, V., 2017. Does CSR enhance employer attractiveness? The role of millennial job seekers' attitudes. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 24(5), pp.449-463.

Korschun, D., Bhattacharya, C.B. and Swain, S.D., 2016. CSR and the frontline context: How social programs improve customer service. GfK Marketing Intelligence Review, 8(1), pp.24-29.

Lim, J.S. and Greenwood, C.A., 2017. Communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR): Stakeholder responsiveness and engagement strategy to achieve CSR goals. Public Relations Review, 43(4), pp.768-776.

Marano, V. and Kostova, T., 2016. Unpacking the institutional complexity in adoption of CSR practices in multinational enterprises. Journal of Management Studies, 53(1), pp.28-54.

Park, B.I. and Ghauri, P.N., 2015. Determinants influencing CSR practices in small and medium sized MNE subsidiaries: A stakeholder perspective. Journal of World Business, 50(1), pp.192-204.

Visser, W. and Tolhurst, N., 2017. The world guide to CSR: A country-by-country analysis of corporate sustainability and responsibility. Routledge.