CSR Disclosure and Reporting Practices at The Star Entertainment Group

The report analyses the CSR disclosure and reporting practices followed at ASX listed company, The Star Entertainment Group. The company is complying with CSR disclosure and reporting as needed by the government. The Star Entertainment Group has developed a five year sustainability strategy named ‘Our Bright Future’. The Group is focused towards control on water, energy, waste, biodiversity, material and management of suppliers. The stakeholders approach is also discussed which indicates the fruitful approach to follow the practices of CSR in long term success of the business.

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RUNNING HEAD: CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING THEORY
Contemporary Accounting Theory

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Executive Summary
The purpose of the report is to analyse the CSR disclosure and reporting practices followed at
ASX listed company. The company chosen for the purpose of analysis is ‘The Star
Entertainment Group’. The company is Australia based hospitality and leisure service provider
with several hotels and resorts across the country. The company is complying with CSR
disclosure and reporting as needed by the government. The Star Entertainment Group has
developed a five year sustainability strategy named ‘Our Bright Future’. The Group is focused
towards control on water, energy, waste, biodiversity, material and management of suppliers.
The achievements in this area are recycling of 2.2 million kilograms of glass, Green electricity
production from 1200 tonnes of waste, production of 9900 soaps via Soap Aid. The company is
also targeting to achieve more energy and resource saving through water plants and energy
saving lightings to save 90% energy. The stakeholders approach is also discussed which
indicates the fruitful approach to follow the practices of CSR in long term success of the
business.

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Analysis of company’s CSR disclosure and reporting practice.......................................................4
Analysis of the SGR reporting practice and CSR reporting guidelines...........................................8
The Star Entertainment Group CSR reporting, concept of legitimacy and stakeholder theories. .10
Comprehensive summary..............................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13
Figure 1: Materiality Index (SGR, 2018)........................................................................................6
Figure 2: Carbon Emissions (THE STAR ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, 2018)...........................7
Figure 3: Sustainability Materiality Assessment 2018 (Source: SGR, 2018).................................9

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Introduction
Corporate social responsibility is a becoming measure of the company’s performance. This helps
to indicate a wide range of stakeholders, from consumers, employees to investors. The report
evaluates the CSR and sustainability practices that are followed by The Star Entertainment
Group. It is an ASX listed company functioning in the consumer’s field offering various
hospitality and leisure services across Australia. The report also analyses the CSR disclosure and
reporting practices that is followed by the company in recent years. The report also discusses the
company’s current reporting practice and CSR reporting guidelines as per the Global initiative
reporting. Next part of the report spotlights the CSR reporting practices and motivation for using
the stakeholder’s theories and legitimacy. At last, the report will discuss the findings and report
the over analysis of The Star Entertainment Group in the field of CSR and sustainability
activities.
Analysis of company’s CSR disclosure and reporting practice
With the changing technology and increased competition over the past few decades companies
are needed to indulge in various activities for the sustainability and environmental responsibility.
The concept of corporate social responsibility is gaining increased responses with the changing
needs and awareness of the customers and other stakeholders. This has resulted to the
introduction of the various guidelines and reporting system for such activities in Australia
(Parliament of Australia, 2018). Sustainability reporting is the process of demonstration of the
corporate responsibility with the help of measuring and reporting of the social, economic and
environmental impacts and performance publically (Cooper, 2017). The disclosures can be made
in the annual reports, sustainability report or there is also a provision of social impact report. It is
also identified that the reporting of the sustainability is also voluntary in Australia (Parliament of
Australia, 2018).
There are a number of reasons that leads to need of reporting the activities including informing to
the shareholders and impact on the company’s overall performance to improve the impacts. It is
also done to tell the shareholders and other parties about the dealing with the non-financial and
financial risks for the analysis of the key risks and analyse the performance (Parliament of

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Australia, 2018). There are some companies that are not interested in mandatory reporting the
reason behind this is due to compliance costs and it might also possibly a situation of danger for
the companies as due to mandatory compliance it is possible that companies will change the
practices according to regulation rather than working in the best interest of the company
(Depoers, Jeanjean, and Jérôme, 2016).
On the other hand, some main reasons for supporting the mandatory reporting are setting up of
structures and systems for understand risks and impacts that are not addressed earlier. Another
benefit is this practice will provide information to institutional investors towards non-financial
risks associated with the company it will allow them to gain over all clear picture of the company
(Parliament of Australia, 2018). The most important benefit is the accountability and
transparency among the stakeholders towards the company. The main aspects that are needed to
be reported under the mandatory reporting are cost effective, flexibility and comparability.
The Star Entertainment Group is ASX listed company that has several hotels providing various
hospitality and other services at world class location of Gold Coast, Sydney and Brisbane. The
company is introduced a five year strategy in year 2016 as sustainability strategy named ‘Our
Bright Future’. The company is aimed towards building the business capacity and deliver
continuous improvements towards the environmental, governance and societal issues (Cooper,
2017). The four main pillars identified in the strategy were to be Australia’s leading integrated
resort, actively support guest well being, attract, retain and develop talented teams and develop
world class properties (The Star Entertainment Group, 2018). One such achievement of the
company is representation as global leader of Casino and Gaming industry.
The company is also awarded with Dow Jones Sustainability Index where the maximum score
were gained in Anti-crime policy and measures and promoting responsible gambling. The
organisation is also committed towards environmental sustainability and it is actively working to
deal with the various environmental issues caused by it (de Paula, and Gil-Lafuente, 2018). Since
the company is using more floor space which leads to more energy consumption so the company
is recommendations to the contractors to control on water, energy, waste, biodiversity, material
and management of suppliers (The Star Entertainment Group, 2018).

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Energy efficiency will be the key for the best practices at The Star Entertainment Group (SGR)
so the group is focused towards reduce HVAC load, utilising nature lighting and ventilation and
in room technologies, installation of most energy efficient plant and controls, trailing new
technologies that suit to the existing buildings (Depoers, Jeanjean, and Jérôme, 2016). The recent
reported aspects are Star Sydney recycled almost 2.2 million kilograms of glass in past 8 years
with the use of Bottle Cycler till the beginning of 2018. Similarly, 1200 tonnes of waste was
converted towards green electricity since February 2017 to January 2018 (SGR, 2018). SGR also
saved over $1.4 million by implementing over 26 energy efficient initiatives. There were 9900
soaps were produced via Soap Aid for disadvantaged communities across the various properties
(SGR, 2018).
Figure 1: Materiality Index (SGR, 2018)

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The environment Performance of the company towards the resource consumption is related with
carbon emission, energy and water. the sustainability targets of the company are for 10 years
time frame focusing towards the 30% reduction in the carbon emission till 2023 and 30%
reduction in the portable water consumption intensity by 2023 both the targets are based on FY
2013 (SGR, 2018). It is also identified that the company reports national greenhouse and Energy
reporting system to government on annual basis. The emission happens form the buildings,
refrigerants and incidental sources (de Paula, and Gil-Lafuente, 2018). These are measured in
tonnes and company has emitted 104950 tonnes of CO2 in year 2016 and 101465 tonnes in 2017.
Similarly, energy saving by SGR after introduction of 12 energy saving projects were 1690
tonnes and $6 million on a total of 22 projects. The company has also replaced 90% of LED
lights with compact fluorescents and switched to new lighting to consume 80% less energy and
50% less heat.
Figure 2: Carbon Emissions (THE STAR ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, 2018)

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SGR is also committed towards waste reduction and has increased recycling from 20% to 33%
exceeding the estimated target of 10% by the end of 2016. One of its Hotels, The star Sydney
succeeded to achieve a recycling rate of 41% across all operations in 2016. The Group has also
installed devices to save water resulted to approximately 52282 kiloliters saving of the water.
Upgradation in the water drainage system also leads to save 22000 kiloliters of additional water
at Jupiters Hotel and Casino (THE STAR ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, 2018). The other
factors such as climate are also considered for the socially responsible practices.
Analysis of the SGR reporting practice and CSR reporting guidelines
The star entertainment group is having a great focus towards the sustainability and the company
is continuously following the various corporate social and sustainable goals. It is also indentified
that the company and its employees are committed toward the reporting requirements for the
various activities and operations that are carried out at the organisation to achieve sustainability.
The core areas identifies where the company is putting efforts to minimise the pollution and
other environmental aspects are energy, water, climate change. The company has also prepared
year wise details of the information for the targets it has made and achievements (de Paula, and
Gil-Lafuente, 2018). The company is also putting continuous efforts and inputted several
changes in the lighting, water drainage and glass waste. There are lots of costs incurred in
minimising the wastage of the various resources and it also leads to hamper the profitability of
the organisation to some extent so the organisation is really working harder to attain more
benefits in the form of cost perspective and wide range of performance areas.
Reduction in the energy consumption and continuous efforts towards the attainment of the goals
of the United Nations sustainable developments is also covered by the company. It will also
benefit the company to achieve cost reductions in long run through the reduction of the carbon
per square meter. Global initiative reporting is the reporting standard that deals with the variety
of standards that are to be followed and need to be followed by the companies to become
sustainable. The GRI helps the government and business across the world to understand and
communicate the impact of the sustainability issues. This helps to take real actions to develop
social economic and climate benefits for everyone.

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Figure 3: Sustainability Materiality Assessment 2018 (Source: SGR, 2018)
The standards covered under GRI include GRI 302: Energy 2016, GRI 303: Water and Effluents
2018 and GRI 307: Environmental compliance 2016. The company is offering various services at
different locations so it is needed to comply with various standards that are related to the
company. It is identified that the company is continuously following the Global initiative
reporting and the major emissions related to GHG are carbon dioxide (GRI, 2018). The other
approaches that are applied by the organisation towards awareness of the sustainability are
National Sustainability Roadshow and hosting some of the global events one such event hosted
was Commonwealth Games (Architecture&Design, 2018).
GRI 307 that deals with environmental compliance 2016 covers the various dimensions of
sustainability including land, water, air and ecosystem. SGR is complying with this standard and
also complying GRI 306 related to Effluents and wastage 2016 (GRI, 2018). This standard deals
with the discharge of the effluents and treatment of waste the company is concerned with the
issues related to water treatment and installed several systems that will help to save valuable

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water. The other practices related to social responsibility are $1.2 million benefit delivery to
completion of 11 projects for energy and water pipeline. The company has also joined green
building council for environmental friendly buildings and designs in future. It has installed more
than 1200 indoor plants across the Sydney office. It has also provided assistance of more than
41787 meals donated to OzHarvest (THE STAR ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, 2018).
The Star Entertainment Group CSR reporting, concept of legitimacy and stakeholder
theories
The Star Entertainment Group is putting continuous efforts to maximize the interest of the
stakeholders through the implementation of the various compliances relating to the corporate
social responsibility and sustainability. The group continues to take a holistic approach to
overcome number of factors that leads to energy consumption and environmental pollution. It is
tracking its recycling and other records year by year to attain environment friendly approaches in
the day to day operations such as electricity consumption, waste management, recycling and
other emission related aspects (Gazzola, and Pellicelli, 2018).
These practices are motivating the employees and other stakeholders to be more confident and
rely on the group. The stakeholder theory is the theory that depicts that the organizations that are
operating in the competitive environment are required to comply with the benefits of all the
stakeholders (Epstein, 2018). So it suggests following the practices such as corporate
governance, CSR and sustainability which will help the company to overcome the various issues
present in the society and surrounding environment. Stakeholder’s theory is based on the morals,
business ethics and values where the main idea is that the goodwill, success and prosperity of the
organization are entirely dependent upon the relationship of the SGR with the stakeholders.
It also suggests that each and every decision of the company affects the stakeholders and it is
become significantly important at the present time when customers and other stakeholders are
aware of the various practices followed by the organizations. It has become mandatory for the
organizations to comply the practices such as sustainability, corporate governance and other
social causes. This also helps the organizations to attain benefits in long term through
maintaining better relations with the stakeholders (Dixon, Connaughton, and Green, 2018).

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The company is sing the concept of legitimacy and stakeholders theory as the various
environment sustainability and resource saving will lead to create and develop trust among the
stakeholders which will ultimately result to improve the confidence and trust of the various
related parties towards the organization (Brueckner, Spencer, and Paull, 2018). In addition to
this, the proper recording and accounting of the various activities in the financial reports will
help to analyse the information in quantitative manner. This information is also presentable to
the stakeholders it will also help the invertors to analyse the organization in measurable
outcomes (Epstein, 2018). The group is also evaluating the achievements on continuous basis
and reports the achievements in the annual reports and website which indicates the timely
reporting and following of the CSR disclosures. This indicates that the company is practicing the
legitimacy and stakeholder’s theory is adopted by the whole group during the course of practice.
Comprehensive summary
The analysis of the practices at The Star Entertainment Group it is identified the organizations
operating in the dynamic environment are needed to comply with the various needs as per the
legislation and practices that are running. CSR disclosure and reporting is one of the practices
which are mandatory to be followed by all the organizations that are operating in Australia. The
companies adopt various practices for the purpose of social benefit and sustainability. These
practices help to build and maintain trust among the investors and other stakeholders directly or
indirectly associated with the company (Parliament of Australia, 2018). This is the reason SGR
group is also complying with the standards and disclosing the activities and practices it adopts in
practice. It also discloses all information for the transparent and disclosure principle of
accounting.
This practice helps to depict clear and fair picture of the company. The company is complying
with the principles of sustainability through controlling the carbon emission, recycling the glass
waste and installing new systems for saving water. The company has also replaced lighting
system in some of the hotels to control the energy consumption. These practices helped the
company to save several millions of monetary and other resources and contributed towards
saving the valuable resources under the concept of sustainability (SGR, 2018). The company has
also continuously evaluated the performance and is improving year by year by contributing

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towards sustainable and social welfare. These practices also associate with the stakeholder’s
theory. This theory indicates the practices and approaches to be followed by the companies to
attract and maintain long term relations with the stakeholders.
Stakeholders approach is the practice that will not only benefit the organization in short run but it
will also support to save the resources and environment issues for long term sustaining of the
organization. The company is also complying with the Global Initiative reporting which is the
world wide spread organisation supporting the businesses to understand and communicate
environmental and ethical issues and issues various guidelines to deal with such issues (GRI,
2018). The various standards introduces are related to the waste, environment, climate and other
factors that are affecting the environment.
SGR is also participating in various events that are helping it to attain more sustainable practices
such as energy saving up to 90% by installing energy saving lights, joined green building council
and empowering women by including 50% female representation by 2020. It has also contributed
to responsible gambling fund a sum of around $19.2million. This has resulted for the company to
achieve the planned targets and sustainability goals in aggressive manner.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that The Global entertainment Group has taken several steps towards the
attainment of the CSR disclosures and reporting practice. The major areas that the company is
making disclosures are energy consumption, water, waste, biodiversity, materials and
management of suppliers. It is also identified that it is mandatory for the organizations regarding
CSR disclosure. SGR is following disclosure and reporting practices on continuous basis and
which helped the group to evaluate its achievements and motivates it for achieve better practices
towards sustainability. It is also analysed that the company is also following Global Initiative
Reporting which are the initiatives that are followed across various counties. The group is
continuously improving toward the achievement of the energy consumption, waste management
and recycling. The analysis also depicts that the company is functioning in the path of
stakeholder’s theory and using the CSR reporting as a practice of legitimacy to maintain long
term healthy relations with the stakeholders.

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References
Architecture&Design (2018). Amanda Visser and The Star Entertainment Group’s sustainability
journey. Retrieved from: https://www.architectureanddesign.com.au/people/amanda-
visser-and-the-star-entertainment-group-s-s
Brueckner, M., Spencer, R. & Paull, M. (2018). Disciplining the Undisciplined?: Perspectives
from Business, Society and Politics on Responsible Citizenship, Corporate Social
Responsibility and Sustainability. Germany: Springer.
Cooper, S. (2017). Corporate social performance: A stakeholder approach. UK: Routledge.
de Paula, L.B. & Gil-Lafuente, A.M. ( 2018). A contribution to the sustainable management of
supply chain using fuzzy logic, COCREATING RESPONSIBLE FUTURES IN THE
DIGITAL AGE: Exploring new paths towards economic, 238.
Dixon, T., Connaughton, J. & Green, S. (2018). Sustainable Futures in the Built Environment to
2050: A Foresight Approach to Construction and Development. USA: John Wiley &
Sons.
Epstein, M.J. (2018). Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring
corporate social, environmental and economic impacts. New York: Routledge.
Gazzola, P. & Pellicelli, M. (2018). Sustainable outsourcing in Italian SMEs. COCREATING
RESPONSIBLE FUTURES IN THE DIGITAL AGE: Exploring new paths towards
economic, 137.
GRI, (2018). GRI 305: EMISSIONS 2016. Retrieved from:
https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/gri-305-
emissions-2016/

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GRI, (2018). GRI STANDARDS. Retrieved from: https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-
standards-download-center/#user-details
Parliament of Australia (2018). Sustainability reporting. Retrieved from:
https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/
Parliamentary_Library/Browse_by_Topic/ClimateChangeold/responses/economic/
sustainability
SGR (2018). Energy. Retrieved From: https://www.starentertainmentgroup.com.au/energy
SGR (2018). Waste. Retrieved From: https://www.starentertainmentgroup.com.au/waste
THE STAR ENTERTAINMENT GROUP (2018) ANNUAL REPORT 2018. Retrieved from:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55f76728e4b0799db9586a8d/t/
5ba87d05eef1a16551b7bb12/1537768809954/2018.09.24_2018+Annual+Report.pdf
The Star Entertainment Group (2018). Sustainability: Our Sustainability Strategy - 'Our Bright
Future. Retrieved from: https://www.starentertainmentgroup.com.au/sustainability/
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