BUGEN 5930. 0. Business, Society and the Planet Student

Business, Society
and the Planet
Running Head: BUGEN 5930 0
Student’s Name

BUGEN 5930 1
Contents
Question 1: Overview......................................................................................................................2
Question 2: Nature of Sustainability Report....................................................................................3
Question 3: Sustainability Development Goals...............................................................................4
Question 4: Sustainability phase......................................................................................................5
Question 5: Reflection of the stated values.....................................................................................7
Question 6: Reflection of group discussion...................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Question 1: Overview
Corporate social responsibility is becoming an important aspect of business these days.
Every organization is required to be responsible for many elements such as society, government,
employees, and the environment. The environment is being an important stakeholder and
therefore businesses, on their practice need to take care of this element. Sustainable development
plays an important role here. Many entities are developing their focus on sustainability and also
producing separate reports on this topic. Two of such companies selected for this report are BHP
Billiton and Wesfarmers. Both of these are Australian companies but belongs to different
industries. In order to provide the basic information related to these companies, this is to state
that Wesfarmers is a conglomerate company which has its headquarter in Perth, Australia
(Craft.co, 2019). This company has its diverse business operations in many areas that include
industrial and safety products, office supplies, general and apparel merchandise, outdoor living
and home improvement. The company is one of Australian’s largest employers and gives
employment to approximately 490000 people (Wesfarmers.com.au, 2019). BHP Billiton on the
other side is an Anglo Australian multinational petroleum, mining, and metals company which
has its headquarters in Victoria, Australia (Bhp.com, 2019).
As mentioned both of these companies are multinational companies, this is to say that
Wesfarmers has its operations in the UK, New Zealand, and Ireland. Whereas on a different side,
BHP Billiton has its operations in Brazil, North America, Chile, South America and more. In the
presented report, the focus will be made on the sustainability report of each of the company
including the sustainable business goals, the scope of their reports and values contained in the
same.

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Question 2: Nature of Sustainability Report
Both of the selected companies are engaged in the practice of corporate social,
responsibility in their related industries and this reflect through their code of conduct and
corporate social responsibility/sustainability report. If to talk about an area of focus developed by
these companies, this is to mention that in the year 2018, Wesfarmers focused on people
development, community contribution, climate change resilience, waste and water use, and
Robust governance. Whereas on a different side, BHP developed its focus on various
stakeholders such as suppliers, employee, social investment, shareholders, investors, and lenders.
The sustainability efforts of this company can be seen in different areas such as environmental
resilience, educational equity, and natural resourced governance. Both of the companies taken
initiates and developed the programs in order to achieve the results in favor of sustainability
goals decided by them. Further Wesfarmers, as well as BHP, is taking steps in the direction of
safety, security, and wellbeing of the employees with the help of various policies and programs.
Wesfarmers reports its sustainability practices on various topics which are majorly
divided into two parts that are principles and businesses. Principles further consist of many
factors such as people, sourcing, environment, community, and governance. On the different side
business consists of bunnings, Coles, department stores and many others. The company states its
good practices in each country which make the internal comparison possible among them.
Sustainability report of BHP seems to be different here as the same report its sustainability and
governance practices under various issues such as climate change, society, and environment.
This company does not report its practices focusing on business in different nations and therefore
one may not make the internal comparison. It means where Wesfarmers’s report is based on
national practices, report of BHP makes its focus on issues.