Management Accounting & Sustainability

This assignment requires students to critically analyze a selection of research papers related to management accounting and its role in promoting sustainability. Papers should cover topics such as the adoption of management accounting innovations for sustainable practices, the impact of organizational culture on sustainability accounting, and the application of environmental accounting methods. Students will need to synthesize their findings to demonstrate an understanding of how management accounting can contribute to environmental and social responsibility.

Running head: ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
Accounting and Financial Management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Executive Sumary
The present study briefly explains about environmental accounting and management accounting.
Entire study had been divided into two equal parts where the first part highlights about positive
and negative impact of social and environmental reporting for the case study company named as
Premier Investments Limited. The study even brings out four key GRI disclosures that are
beneficial for the stakeholders while working for the company. Comparison had been done
between Premier Investments Limited and Myer Holdings Limited in terms of environmental
performance. The second part explains the condition or feasibility whether Smiggle and Peter
Alexander can open new stores in new territories such as north America, Asia and UK. For that,
it is important to apply break-even analysis for analyzing the relationship between fixed costs
and variable costs. Break-even analysis can take into account only the quantitative or financial
metrics. Balanced scorecard takes into account both financial as well as non-financial metrics
and this approach had been broadly explained in the study keeping all the perspectives in mind
such as financial, customer, internal business process and learning & growth.
Table of Content

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s
Executive Sumary............................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................5
Part A...............................................................................................................................................5
General idea of the environmental and social impacts (positive and negative) of Premier
Investments Limited operations.......................................................................................................5
Positive environmental impact of Premier Investments Limited................................................5
Negative environmental impact of Premier Investments Limited...............................................6
Positive social impact of Premier Investments Limited..............................................................6
Negative social impact of Premier Investments Limited.............................................................7
Recognizing and converse four key GRI disclosures that are probable to be most significance to
the stakeholders of Premier Investments Limited...........................................................................7
Comparing excellence and deepness of environmental performance information as provided by
Premier Investments with the performance of Myer Holdings Limited........................................10
Assessing whether prevalent conformity with the GRI guidelines by Australian retail trade that
promote potential investors, present shareholders and other stakeholders of Premier Investments
Limited...........................................................................................................................................13
Part B.............................................................................................................................................15
Recognizing probable major costs linked with ongoing operations of Smiggle and Peter
Alexander.......................................................................................................................................15

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Approximation of the cost behavior (fixed, variable or otherwise) of each of the main costs
identified........................................................................................................................................15
Critically assess whether use of break-even analysis would be practical and dependable screening
tool for Premier Investments Limited as they assess the attractiveness of opening up new stores
in new territories............................................................................................................................16
Balanced Scorecard of Premier Investments Limited...................................................................17
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18
Reference List................................................................................................................................19

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Introduction
The current segment explain the concept of environmental accounting as well as
management accounting by taking into consideration the case company named as Premier
Investments Limited (Williams, 2014). This company is listed in Australian stock exchange and
established in the year 1987. The company was formed as an investment vehicle that helps in
maximizing level of growth especially to look after capital returns to shareholders by acquiring
control over strategic shareholdings within specific period of time. Premier Investments Limited
operates in retailing, importing and distribution activities. Under Premier Investments Limited,
there are different brand names like Peter Alexander, Just Jeans, Smiggle, Jay Jays as well as
Dotti and The Just Group (Bebbington, Unerman & O'Dwyer, 2014).
Part A
General idea of the environmental and social impacts (positive and negative) of Premier
Investments Limited operations
Positive environmental impact of Premier Investments Limited
 Packaging stewardship has positive impact upon environment where Premier
Investments Limited remains dedicated towards managing and reducing the impact of
trade activities. The company even had submitted a 5 year Action Plan that briefly
highlights objectives that concern to optimization of packaging for reducing impact of
environment and packaging recycling (Uno & Bartelmus, 2013).

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 Waste and recycling has positive impact upon environment where Premier Investments
Limited engages in continuing their operations in sustainable way especially in network
stores, distribution centers and support centers at the same time (Bebbington, Unerman
& O'Dwyer, 2014).
 Energy efficiency has positive impact upon environment where Premier Investments
Limited identifies the significance of energy efficient and low environment activities that
affect the lighting systems in adherence to innovative and improved lighting standards. It
helps at the time of managing with consumption of energy in all relevant stores
(Suomala, Lyly-Yrjänäinen & Lukka, 2014).
Negative environmental impact of Premier Investments Limited
It is believed by the company that they will get support from their employees where they
can make strategies to reduce environmental issues and increase in the efficiency of business that
will drive customer and connect with the employees for getting positive outcome or results.
Here, the company decides to reduce environmental issues and act in a responsible and ethical
way. Therefore, the environmental issues can be anything related to waste and energy attributes
and packaging (Otley & Emmanuel, 2013).
Positive social impact of Premier Investments Limited
 Smiggle community partnerships have positive impact on the society where Premier
Investments Limited builds upon strong community partnership with the global partners.
 Premier Investments Limited engages in supporting centre charity programs or events.
 Premier Investments Limited believes in attracting new talents as well as retention of
existing employees by providing them with rewards and recognition (monetary and non-

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monetary). The company employs more than 6000 staff members in 4 countries
(Messner, 2016).
 Workplace safety has positive social impact on society. To that, Premier Investments
Limited is dedicated towards workplace prevention injury and lost time. The company
engages in creating a society where all human resources should feel accountable for all
types of wellbeing and protection agenda (Bebbington, Unerman & O'Dwyer, 2014).
Negative social impact of Premier Investments Limited
Several social issues are faced by Premier Investments Limited that relates to safety,
developmental activities and security. There are various strategies that are used by Premier
Investments Limited to reduce the social issues as far as possible so that the company become
the best place to work and employee value their presence and build their career (Manfredi et al.,
2015).
Recognizing and converse four key GRI disclosures that are probable to be most
significance to the stakeholders of Premier Investments Limited
In this question, it is required to explain four key GRI disclosures that will likely have
relevance to the stakeholders of Premier Investments Limited (Lukka & Vinnari, 2014). In order
to explain the disclosures in detail, it is important to know about GRI (Global Reporting
Initiative). GRI framework is one of the frameworks that act as a generally accepted framework
that reports on aspects such as social, economic and environment. This particular reporting
framework in actual comprises of general and sector-specific content that help large number of
stakeholders in the company where they have to take an account from generally accepted or
applicable reporting system for measuring the sustainability pattern of Premier Investments

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Limited. To that, it is found certain aspects where Premier Investments Limited selects over
introducing reporting against full GRO framework from the outset. It is clearly defined by
Premier Investments Limited about the scope of reporting and displays the plans in order to
expand in the reporting period.
The GRI disclosures are taken from 5.1 Sustainability reporting where each of the disclosures
is properly mentioned. The first two disclosures are taken from 5.1 Sustainability report and
other two disclosures are taken from 5.2 sustainability report. The four key GRI disclosures are
mentioned below with proper justification:
Materiality concept
The first GRI disclosure is the materiality concept that means Premier Investments Limited
need to cover all the topics that has direct impact on society, environment and economy
(Hamilton, 2016). The materiality concept needs to be adopted by Premier Investments Limited
in their operations so that the business does not withhold any critical information from investors,
owners, regulators and lenders. Materiality concept is one of the disclosures in Global Reporting
Initiative where Premier Investments Limited needs to find ways to include in their sustainability
reporting systems. The materiality focus of sustainability reports increases demand for
transparency of the actual impact of Premier Investments Limited operates from and besides
investors and society as a whole.
Inclusiveness of stakeholders
The second GRI disclosure is the inclusiveness of stakeholders that means Premier
Investments Limited need to identify stakeholders and inform them about any changes that are

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planned in the business or operations. Stakeholder Inclusiveness is one of the disclosures of
Global Reporting Initiative that will help Premier Investments Limited for defining reporting
content that is material to the organization and the stakeholders. Global Reporting Initiative was
introduced as the logical flow of activities on how and when to make use of these disclosures in
the reporting process. By using this disclosure, the stakeholder inclusiveness means to get access
to ongoing and unstoppable process after complying with report content principles.
Sustainability context
The third GRI disclosure is the sustainability context that means Premier Investments
Limited need to report certain aspect of sustainability to act ethically and responsibly for getting
the benefits in the long run (Bebbington, Unerman & O'Dwyer, 2014). Premier Investments
Limited believes in providing highest returns to their stakeholders and gives importance to them
by respecting and these shareholders are employees, customers and suppliers.
Completeness of information
The forth GRI disclosure is the completeness of information or data where the company
speaks about material topics and indicators as it has significant impact on society, environment
and economy as a whole (Gray, Adams & Owen, 2014). Information is taken from the annual
report of Premier Investments Limited and GRI exposure framework so that there is proper
relevance of actions that are highlighted above in form of key GRI disclosures. Premier
Investments Limited needs to engage in bringing improvements so that they have the ability to
compete with the competitors who even operates in the same sector.

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Comparing excellence and deepness of environmental performance information as
provided by Premier Investments with the performance of Myer Holdings Limited
On making the comparison between both Myer Holdings Limited and Premier
Investments Limited, it is found out that Premier Investments Limited purchased 10.8% in
department stores owner of Myer Holdings Limited (Fullerton, Kennedy & Widener, 2014). To
that, the shareholders of Premier Investments Limited had even backed out their present stake
from Myer Holdings Limited. Furthermore, Premier Investments Limited had a control of more
than 42% of the listed groups and fortune that had last value that amounts to $2.4 billion. This
company even can be considered as sharpest retail strategists that are present in Australia now.
The company had even invested or controls over 25% of the listed Breville Group that works
under the brand name Breville Group and Kambrook. After comparing Premier Investments
Limited with Myer Holdings Limited, it was highlighted that Myer Holdings Limited showcase
the torrid conditions where the retailers are interested to fashion and experienced in the lead-up
and aftermath of the specific period time (Fullerton, Kennedy & Widener, 2013). After looking
at the bottom line, it can be seen that increased traction changes the policies to gain shares of
Myer Holdings Limited.

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Figure: Share Price of Premier Investments Limited
(Source: Bebbington, Unerman & O'Dwyer, 2014)

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Figure: Share Price of Myer Holdings Limited
(Source: Deegan, 2014)
On analysis, it is noted that the share price of Premier Investments Limited had
underperformed and there is decline in the shares at 7% in the Australian share market. Premier
Investments Limited should step in and add Oroton to its stable not so long after taking an 11%
stake in company named as Myer Holdings Limited. Premier Investments Limited operates as a

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conglomerate retail industry that is run by billionaire rag trader named as Solomon Lew. This
particular company makes sure that each brand of theirs has the opportunity to get recognized
individually. Premier Investments Limited buy stake from Myer Holdings Limited and no bid
was actually planned. Premier Investments Limited had purchased a 10.8% stake from Myer
Holdings Limited but further added no plans to make a takeover offer at that particular time. It is
found out that Premier Investments Limited had acquired a relevant interest in securities in Myer
Holdings Limited. In addition, Premier Investments Limited claims that they did not actually
intend to make a takeover offer for Myer Holdings Limited and rather made a strategic
investment of 10.77% in Myer Holdings Limited. Premier Investments Limited even expects to
have 320 and 330 Smiggle stores that can trade before the festive season 2017.
Assessing whether prevalent conformity with the GRI guidelines by Australian retail trade
that promote potential investors, present shareholders and other stakeholders of Premier
Investments Limited
It is understood that Premier Investments Limited enjoys huge profits surge from Smiggle
brand as per GRI guidelines. The company operates in clothing as well as stationary items and
prepares half-yearly reports to have a look on their sales and growth (Freedman & Jaggi, 2017).
The company has net profit around $71.5 million and still there is constant increase of 25.9% on
its profit for specific period of time. The company has several popular brands under their name
such as Just Jeans, Peter Alexander, Jay-Jays as well as Smiggle and Jacqui-E. At Premier
Investments Limited, their shareholders enjoys fully-flanked interim dividend of 23% per share
(Bebbington, Unerman & O'Dwyer, 2014). This actually means 2% increase in share if it is
compared with any other specific time frame. The company in actual has account to strong

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performance in their sales and targeted capital investments in a very well disciplined way for
recording cost of labor and managing inventory that allow posting records of sales and EBIT
result. Therefore, Premier Investments Limited targets total of 100 Smiggle stores that operates
in UK during festive season such as Christmas Eve. Even though, Smiggle UK had eventually
opened 18 new stores during the first half of the present financial year (Di Salvo et al., 2017).
As far as Smiggle stores are concerned, they started performing very and accounted for
global growth in sales at 46.5% (Bebbington, Unerman & O'Dwyer, 2014). The company enjoys
strong sales growth both in terms of in-store and online that make the point clear where Premier
Investments Limited aims at making their customer delighted and satisfied after using any of
their brands. To explain further, there are different themes that properly address the present
shareholders during annual general meeting that take place every year. The Board members of
Premier Investments Limited decides to work upon other approaches for investment purpose so
that there is clear as well as long-term benefits provided to the shareholders. It is important for
the company to work in a challenging environment and compete with other players in the retail
sector. Premier Investments Limited should enjoy their outstanding performance even when
environment is adverse and there is challenges present for given period of time. The company
had seen increase in profits that help in maintaining financial position and has access to
substantial cash reserves with all the required options. It is important for the company to leverage
their options and look at the balance sheet capacity for funding the development activities
(Deegan, 2014).

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Part B
Recognizing probable major costs linked with ongoing operations of Smiggle and Peter
Alexander
There are broad categorization of cost that get along with the brands Smiggle and Peter
Alexander and these include material cost, cost of labor, selling expenses, distribution expenses
and administrative expenses. Peter Alexander sale was around $100.7 million and this means
there is an increase in sale at 17.7%. There was constant growth in online sales where the
companies had strong base of data that was needed for attainment of future goals and objectives.
In order to continue with the business, new growth strategy was developed and announced by
Peter Alexander where they showed interest in opening further stores in places such as UK,
North America and Asia (Bebbington, Unerman & O'Dwyer, 2014).
The cost that will be needed to open Smiggle and Peter Alexander stores in new locations
will be rent and operating costs. In that, there will be security deposit for rental lease, first month
rent and utilities security deposit. Location improvement cost need to be borne by the stores that
include construction cost to customize the space, store fixtures, racks, cash counter, bookcases
and shelves. Miscellaneous operating expenses that will be required to open new stores will be
hangers for clothing, liability insurance, and accounting set up, association feeds and directories,
office and cleaning supplies.

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Approximation of the cost behavior (fixed, variable or otherwise) of each of the main costs
identified
There are different costs that will be required by Smiggle and Peter Alexander for
carrying out the operations such as printing cost, manufacturing costs and factory costs. This
brand in actual believes in delighting their customers and delivering unique shopping experience
in their store and also through online channel. To explain each brand strategy in detail, Smiggle
decides to open where the sale arrive at $89.6 million by 14.5%. As they focus more on new
products and assortment of outcome results (Ax & Greve, 2017).
Marketing cost will include an exterior and interior signage and décor, trademark
registration, logo design as well as flyer design and printing. Public relations cost include
advertising around grand opening of stores, media relations around grand opening.
Critically assess whether use of break-even analysis would be practical and dependable
screening tool for Premier Investments Limited as they assess the attractiveness of opening
up new stores in new territories
Using break-even analysis considers as useful and consistent tool that need to be used by
Premier Investments Limited in order to access the desirability of opening stores in new
territories. In addition, break-even analysis helps in analyzing the association between cost
volume and profits at various activity levels. This tool should be used by companies for
measuring the profit or loss incurred at various levels of production as well as sales.
Break-even analysis is computed and shows the effects of changes that are present in the
process of sales at Premier Investments Limited where both brands Smiggle and Peter Alexander

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decides to open up new stores. The tool is the best way to understand the relationship between
fixed and variable costs (Lukka & Vinnari, 2014).
Balanced Scorecard of Premier Investments Limited
On analysis, it is found that Premier Investments Limited decides to open new stores of
under the brand name Smiggle and Peter Alexander in places such as Asia, North America and
UK (Lukka & Vinnari, 2014). The above balanced scorecard had been divided into four
perspectives that is financial, customers, internal business process as well as learning and
growth. This tool is the best way to analyze whether it is feasible to open new stores or not as the
scorecard approach brings out both financial and non-financial measures at the same time. Using

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this approach will help Premier Investments Limited for increasing their knowledge skills and
system where they should employ staff members who need to be trained properly so that they
become real assets for the organization as a whole. It is important to adopt the right strategic
approach and efficiency as it will deliver the desired value to the market that will finally
accumulate wealth of the shareholders.
Conclusion
From the above analysis, it is understood that the entire assignment was about to give
proper information on different aspects starting from environmental reporting and social
reporting. The assignment was about environmental accounting and management accounting
where the first part explains about social and environmental reporting of Premier Investments
Limited by highlighting the positive and negative impact. The next segment gives proper
emphasis upon key GRI disclosures and its relevance from the perspective of shareholders. The
second part was about two brands under Premier Investments Limited named as Smiggle and
Peter Alexander. These brands need to be opened in areas such as UK, North America and Asia
and generate revenue from the new stores as well. It is important to understand here whether it is
feasible for Premier Investments Limited to open new stores in any other place than the existing
ones. Break even analysis was one of the tool that was suggested to be used for analyzing the
relationship between fixed cot and variable cost. Finally, balanced scorecard approach help in
providing proper insights of information about the financial and non-financial aspects that need
to be considered for opening new stores in different places

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Reference List
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culture compatibility and perceived outcomes. Management Accounting Research, 34,
59-74.
Bebbington, J., Unerman, J., & O'Dwyer, B. (Eds.). (2014). Sustainability accounting and
accountability. Routledge.
Deegan, C. (2014). An overview of legitimacy theory as applied within the social and
environmental accounting literature. Sustainability accounting and accountability, 248-
272.
Di Salvo, A. L., Agostinho, F., Almeida, C. M., & Giannetti, B. F. (2017). Can cloud computing
be labeled as “green”? Insights under an environmental accounting
perspective. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 69, 514-526.
Freedman, M., & Jaggi, B. (2017). Reflections on Editing Advances in Environmental
Accounting & Management. In Advances in Environmental Accounting & Management:
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Fullerton, R. R., Kennedy, F. A., & Widener, S. K. (2013). Management accounting and control
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Society, 38(1), 50-71.

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Fullerton, R. R., Kennedy, F. A., & Widener, S. K. (2014). Lean manufacturing and firm
performance: The incremental contribution of lean management accounting
practices. Journal of Operations Management, 32(7), 414-428.
Gray, R., Adams, C., & Owen, D. (2014). Accountability, social responsibility and
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Hamilton, K. (2016). Measuring Sustainability in the UN System of Environmental-Economic
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(2015). Comparing the European Commission product environmental footprint method
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Uno, K., & Bartelmus, P. (Eds.). (2013). Environmental accounting in theory and practice (Vol.
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