This report involves in the analysis and evaluation of different aspects of the sustainability reports of two Australian companies; they are Orica Limited (Orica) and Sandfire Resources NL (Sandfire). Both the companies have adopted the guidelines of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) for sustainability reports.
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Running head: SUSTAINABILITY AND INTEGRATED REPORTING Sustainability and Integrated Reporting Name of the Student Name of the University Author’s Note
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1SUSTAINABILITY AND INTEGRATED REPORTING Table of Contents Introduction......................................................................................................................................2 Purposes for Providing GRI.............................................................................................................2 Identification of Key Stakeholders..................................................................................................3 Analysis of Similarities and Differences.........................................................................................4 Evaluation of Each Report...............................................................................................................5 Quality of Information.................................................................................................................5 Consistency with GRI Standards.................................................................................................6 How well the Information Meet the Stakeholder’s Need............................................................7 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7 References........................................................................................................................................8
2SUSTAINABILITY AND INTEGRATED REPORTING Introduction In today’s business world, sustainability and integrated reporting is considered as an important aspect for the overall success of the business. Sustainability reporting contains a report that helps the companies in disclosing the information about environmental, economic, social andgovernanceperformance(Junior,BestandCotter2014).Onamorespecificnote, sustainability and integrated reporting is regarded as the practice to measure, disclose and to be responsibletotheinternalaswellasexternalstakeholdersfortheperformanceofthe organizations towards the objective of sustainable development (del Mar Alonso-Almeidaet al. 2015).Thisreportinvolvesintheanalysisandevaluationofdifferentaspectsofthe sustainabilityreports of two Australiancompanies; they areOrica Limited(Orica)and Sandfire Resources NL (Sandfire). Both the companies have adopted the guidelines ofGlobal Reporting Initiative (GRI)for sustainability reports. Purposes for Providing GRI Orica:The main purpose of Orica to provide GRI is to provide the required information to the external as well as internal stakeholders about their different sustainability initiatives. Another major purpose of GRI is to make their customers successful on every day all over the world (orica.com 2018). The adoption of GRI reporting provides the company with the opportunity to operate safely, responsibly and sustainably. To the management of Orica, sustainability reporting is considered as a major factor that makes the company enable in growing and creating enduring values for internal as well as external stakeholder. Another major purpose of GRI reporting in Oricaistoestablish thevaluesof safety,respect,togetherness,integrityand excellence (orica.com 2018).
3SUSTAINABILITY AND INTEGRATED REPORTING Sandfire:In Sandfire, the main purpose for the company for providing GRI reports is to achieve high standards in the areas of safety, environmental management, productivity, governance and transparency. At the same time, another major purpose of GRI reporting in Sandfire is the delivery of positive outcome for the society as well as the environment (sandfire.com.au 2018). On a more specific note, the major purpose for the company for the adopting of integrated reporting is to address the sustainability issues of the company related to four major areas; they are responsible operation, economic development, safe and supported workplace; and respect and accountability in the business operations (sandfire.com.au 2018). Identification of Key Stakeholders Orica:There are six major stakeholders in the company. The first stakeholder isEmployeesand constructors; they are important due to career and development opportunities, performance management and leadership.Customersare the next stakeholders and they are related via product performance, reliability, cost, value adding and impact of sustainability on products and services (orica.com 2018). The next stakeholders areSuppliers and Business Partnersand they are dependent on the product performance, cost, reliability and others.Shareholders and the Investment Communitiesare the next stakeholders of the company as they have concern with thecompanyperformance,companystrategydeliveryandgovernance(orica.com2018). Community and Local Residenceare the next stakeholders as they are concerned with the employment opportunity, social and economic contribution, impact of the business operation and others. The last stakeholder is theGovernmentas they have concern and interest in the company’s regulatory compliance, research and development, addressing of local community issues and others (orica.com 2018).
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4SUSTAINABILITY AND INTEGRATED REPORTING Sandfire:There are ten major stakeholders in the company.Employeesare the first major stakeholders and their concerned areas are health and safety, training and sustainability issues. The next stakeholder isCustomersas they are concerned with the quality of products and servicesformaintaininggoodrelationshipwiththecompany(sandfire.com.au2018). Contractors and Suppliersare the next stakeholders in the company as they are interested in fair and open product and practice procurement.Local Communitiesare the next stakeholders inSandfireastheyareconcernedabouttheimpactofbusinessonthecommunity (sandfire.com.au 2018).Native Title Claimant Groupsis another major stakeholder of the company as they are interested in the employment. The next stakeholder is theShareholdersas they are concerned with economic performance of the company.Government and Regulators are the next stakeholders and they are interested in the economic as well as environmental impact of the company. Another stakeholders of the company areIndustry Associates,Investment CommunityandSolar Partners(sandfire.com.au 2018). Analysis of Similarities and Differences Similarities:The main similarity in the sustainability report of both Orica and Sandfire is the adoption of GRI framework as both the companies have complied with the principles of GRI for preparing and presenting the sustainability reports. In addition, both the companies have provided detailed description about the key sustainability issues that have material effects on the business of the companies. Apart from this, both the companies have provided all the required informationaboutthestakeholdersfortheirsustainabilityreporting.Moreover,boththe companies have provided information about their approaches for managing the business and sustainability risks (globalreporting.org 2018).
5SUSTAINABILITY AND INTEGRATED REPORTING Differences:Thereare many differences. First, Sandfire has provided a reviewof their sustainability performance for the year where this aspect is missing in Orica. It can be seen that Oricahasincludedasustainabilityscorecardfortheyear2018 wherethereisnotany sustainability scorecard provided in Sandfire. It can be observed that Orica has provided information about their priorities for sustainability reporting, but Sandfire has not provided any information about their sustainability priorities. Hence, from the above discussion, one aspect is clear that the sustainability reports of these companies have both the similarities and differences (globalreporting.org 2018). Evaluation of Each Report Thefollowingdiscussioninvolvesinthecriticalanalysisandevaluationofthe sustainability reports of Orica and Sandfire: Quality of Information Quality of the provided information is a crucial part of sustainability reporting. In addition, three major factors that enhance the quality of information are reliability, relevance and comparability. From the above discussion, it can be observed that both the companies follow the principle of GRI for sustainability reporting (Boiral 2013). The compliance with the principles of GRI ensures that both these companies provide all the required information related to the sustainability performance of the companies. For this reason, the internal as well as external stakeholders of these two companies can rely on the provided sustainability information of the entities. One major aspect helping to retain the reliability aspect is to provide information about the required or necessary areas (Milne and Gray 2013). The major areas of sustainability are environmental, social, human rights, society, safety and others. From the sustainability reports of
6SUSTAINABILITY AND INTEGRATED REPORTING Orica and Sandfire, it can be seen that both the companies have provided information about some of the major areas like key sustainability issues, risk management approach, steps against the effects of climate change, development of safe and supportive workplace, establishment of accountability and others. All this information is highly relevant for the external and internal stakeholders. Lastly, both the companies have provided all the sustainability information in simple format so that the stakeholders can compare them with the other companies (Lozano 2013). Consistency with GRI Standards The analysis of the sustainability reports of Orica and Sandfire shows that both the companies are consistent with complying with the standards of GRI. For the identification of the material issues related to sustainability, Orica follows the GRI standards from G4-17 to G4-23. At the same time, for providing the information related to the governance of the company, the company complies with the standards from G4-34 to G4-52. On the other hand, for disclosing the environmental performance, Orica follows the standards of G4-DMA (Siew 2015). In case of Sandfire, the company follows the standards of GRI 103 for disclosing the information related to water and waste management of the company. In order to disclose all the information related to the employee safety and others issues, the company follows the principles of GRI 401 and GRI 403. At the same time, the company follows the standards of GRI 305. Apart from these, both these companies follow many other standards of GRI for sustainability reporting (de Villiers, Rinaldi and Unerman 2014).
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7SUSTAINABILITY AND INTEGRATED REPORTING How well the Information Meet the Stakeholder’s Need Intoday’sbusinessworld,alltheinternalaswellasexternalstakeholderswant information related to the sustainability performance of the companies. For this reason, they need informationrelatedtotheenvironmentalperformance,socialperformance,governance, initiatives to ensure the safety of the employees, risk management approaches and others. From the above discussion, it can be seen that both Orica and Sandfire provides all the information about the above-mentioned aspects of sustainability by complying with the standards of GRI (Milne and Gray 2013). For this reason, both the internal as well as external stakeholders can get all the sustainability information by accessing the sustainability reports of these two companies. Conclusion From the above discussion, it can be observed that both Orica and Sandfire comply with the standards of GRI for disclosing all the information related to the sustainability performance. It can be seen that the major stakeholders of these companies are the employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers, government, local community and others. The analysis indicates towards the fact that there are both similarities as well as differences between the sustainability reports of Orica and Sandford. Moreover, it can also be observed that both the companies have been constantly following the GRI standards for their sustainability reporting so that they can meet the needs of the stakeholders.
8SUSTAINABILITY AND INTEGRATED REPORTING References Boiral, O., 2013. Sustainability reports as simulacra? A counter-account of A and A+ GRI reports.Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal,26(7), pp.1036-1071. de Villiers, C., Rinaldi, L. and Unerman, J., 2014. Integrated Reporting: Insights, gaps and an agenda for future research.Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal,27(7), pp.1042-1067. del Mar Alonso-Almeida, M., Marimon, F., Casani, F. and Rodriguez-Pomeda, J., 2015. Diffusionofsustainabilityreportinginuniversities:currentsituationandfuture perspectives.Journal of Cleaner Production,106, pp.144-154. Globalreporting.org.(2018).AboutGRI.[online]Availableat: https://www.globalreporting.org/information/about-gri/Pages/default.aspx[Accessed8Jun. 2018]. Globalreporting.org.(2018).SustainabilityReportingGuidelines.[online]Availableat: https://www.globalreporting.org/resourcelibrary/G3.1-Guidelines-Incl-Technical-Protocol.pdf [Accessed 8 Jun. 2018]. Junior, R.M., Best, P.J. and Cotter, J., 2014. Sustainability reporting and assurance: A historical analysis on a world-wide phenomenon.Journal of Business Ethics,120(1), pp.1-11. Lozano, R., 2013. Sustainability inter-linkages in reporting vindicated: a study of European companies.Journal of Cleaner Production,51, pp.57-65. Milne, M.J. and Gray, R., 2013. W (h) ither ecology? The triple bottom line, the global reporting initiative, and corporate sustainability reporting.Journal of business ethics,118(1), pp.13-29.
9SUSTAINABILITY AND INTEGRATED REPORTING Orica.com. (2018).Orica Sustainability Reports and Orica's Safety Record. [online] Available at: http://www.orica.com/Sustainability/sustainability-reports#.Wxo9V-6FPIU [Accessed 8 Jun. 2018]. Sandfire.com.au.(2018).2017SUSTAINABILITYREPORT.[online]Availableat: http://www.sandfire.com.au/images/2017_Sustainability_Report.pdf [Accessed 8 Jun. 2018]. Sandfire.com.au.(2018).Sustainability-Sandfire.[online]Availableat: http://www.sandfire.com.au/sustainability.html [Accessed 8 Jun. 2018]. Siew, R.Y., 2015. A review of corporate sustainability reporting tools (SRTs).Journal of environmental management,164, pp.180-195.