CRSE108: Adelaide Brighton CSR Ethics Report - Business Analysis

This report provides an analysis of Adelaide Brighton's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and ethical practices. It defines CSR and identifies key stakeholders, including investors, suppliers, customers, employees, and the Australian Federal Government. The report examines the company's environmental initiatives, highlighting their carbon emission reduction targets and alignment with the Paris Climate Agreement. It further assesses Adelaide Brighton's commitment to human rights, poverty alleviation, ethical management of people, and governance structures, referencing the ASX Corporate Governance Council's Principles and Recommendations. The report also delves into the company's philanthropic activities, including support for education, medical services, and community well-being. The conclusion emphasizes Adelaide Brighton's positive contributions to the socio-economic condition of Australia, their ethical workplace environment, and adherence to regulatory standards, leading to sustained growth and profitability.

Running head: CSR ETHICS
CSR Ethics
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
What is CSR?...................................................................................................................................2
Key stakeholders..............................................................................................................................4
Environment....................................................................................................................................5
Human rights...................................................................................................................................5
Governance......................................................................................................................................6
Philanthropy.....................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Adelaide Brighton is currently one of the biggest Australian construction companies that operate
in numerous states across the country. It has been seen that the business organization operates in
a market where they do manufacturing and distribute cement and building materials in Victoria,
Fyansford and in New South Wales. The business organization is widely popular due to their
products like Sunstate cement, Cockburn cement, Independent cement and various building
materials. In terms of revenue, the company is currently Australia’s largest building material
supplier. The purpose of this report is to highlight the CSR activities and the ethical issues that
are associated with the operations of the business organization.
What is CSR?
Corporate social responsibility or CSR is a business organization’s initiative to evaluate and take
responsibility for the organization’s effects on social and environmental well being. This
particular term is widely used to the efforts put in by the managements of business organizations
that go beyond what it is required by the environment protection groups (Chrun, Dolšak and
Prakash 2016). Corporate citizenship may involve incurring short term costs that does not
provide immediate economic benefit to the business concerns but significantly promotes
remarkable positive environmental and social change.

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As the CSR initiatives taken by the management of Adelaide Brighton involves empowering
people, strengthening communities those give a major boost to the global economy. It has been
seen that Adelaide Brighton has been creating a significant amount of job opportunities in the
global market and strengthening the communities by fostering economic and civic growth, it can
surely be said that the management of Adelaide Brighton’s economic social contribution is
significant.
While taking CSR initiatives and while performing the daily operations, the management of
Adelaide Brighton ensures that they are abiding by all the rules and regulations set by the
governments of their areas of operations. It has also been observed that the process of operations
of Adelaide Brighton does not harm the balance of environment at any stage and therefore it can
surely be said that legal aspects of the company’s CSR activities are major.
The management of the business organization aims to continue with an operational strategy that
should be ethical and moral. In this regard, it can be said that if the management operates with
more responsibility, it can go beyond the narrow requirements of the law and regulations (Fuad

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2016). The ethical issues in the CSR activities and in the operations of the business organization
involve their treatment of the internal and external stakeholders and maintaining ethics in the
entire operation process (Galvão et al. 2016). Therefore it can also be said that the management
of Adelaide Brighton abides by all the ethical norms that should be maintained.
Philanthropic aspects of the operations and the CSR activities of Adelaide Brighton involves
their responsibility to return or give back some favors to the society. These activities can be
discretionary but has major importance. Therefore, it can be said that by engaging in activities
like charitable donations and staff time on projects, the management of Adelaide Brighton
ensures that they are taking enough initiatives regarding their philanthropic contributions.
The term Corporate Social Performance was initially introduced by Wartick and Cochran and the
fundamental idea behind CSP is the realization and identification that the business organizations
do have some ethical obligations and those obligations should be respected and abode by. It can
be said that Adelaide Brighton satisfies all the requirements as prescribed in the typology shared
by Wartick and Cochrane, and therefore their position in terms of CSR activities is in a good
rank (Fuad 2016).
Key stakeholders
Investors, suppliers, customers, and employees of Adelaide Brighton are the key stakeholders of
the business organizations. It is a matter of fact that the Federal government of Australia, where
Adelaide Brighton operates can also be counted as the major stakeholders of the business
organization.

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Environment
The management of Adelaide Brighton believes that rapid change in the climate is becoming a
major issue for the humankinds and that requires a global response from all the industries. It has
been seen that in the year of 2009, the management of Adelaide Brighton took to reduce the
carbon emission that causes due to their operations and they have successfully reduced it by 30%
already and aiming to reduce it by 72% by the year of 2030 (AM and Francis 2017). It has thus
been seen that the CSR activities of the business organization is commendable comparing with
many other business organizations (Fuad 2016). The targets set in the Paris Climate Agreement,
it has been seen that Adelaide Brighton has successfully satisfied all the targets and that put the
organization in a place that should be respected widely for their significant contribution to the
society. It can be said that the management significantly contributes to maintain the balance o the
environment (Galvão et al. 2016).
Human rights
It has been seen that the business organization Adelaide Brighton proactively takes part in
improving the situation of the neighbouring communities of their area of operations. The
management of the business organization stated in a press meet that they along with all the
stakeholders share vision and that is to strengthen their engagement with the communities and to
improve the socioeconomic condition of those communities. It is a matter of fact that being a
business organization that operates in the construction industry, it has been seen that the
organization generates huge job opportunities in the market of Australia that is giving a major
boost to the economy of the country (AM and Francis 2017). Not only that, the board of directors
decided that they will give opportunities to the aboriginal and Torres islanders and therefore
there will be a 20% reservation for them in the workforce. It has been seen that the management

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of the business organization is employing the unprivileged population of the country immensely
and supporting them to get back to a normal lifestyle that every Australian lives. It can be said
that the management of the organization has taken several initiatives to support human rights
and gender equality both in domestic and in international platforms (Boubaker and Nguyen
2014).
It has been seen that the management of Adelaide Brighton realizes the importance of
maintaining ethical code of conducts in the workplace and due to this they are blessed with a
workforce in their disposal that is immensely motivated and loyal towards the business
organization. It has been observed that the business organization since it was founded never
marketed their products in unethical ways or they never misled their target customers by
incorporating disputed information in their advertisements.
Governance
The management of Adelaide Brighton Ltd is aiming to operate the business by sustaining the
ethical considerations and according to the high standards corporate governance. It can be said
that the management of the business organization follows the ASX Corporate Governance
Council’s Principles and Recommendations during their operations of 2017 and 2018 (AM and
Francis 2017). The company’s Governance structure is provided below;

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Corporate governance structure
(Adams and Borsellino 2015)
Shareholders
Board of directors
Audit, risk and compliance
committee
 Risk management
 Financial reporting,
internal & external
audit
Adelaide Brighton CEO and
Managing Director
 Day to day
management
 Development and
implementation of
the strategies
Nomination, remuneration
and governance committee
 Assists and advises
the board
 Remuneration:
CEO, Board and
executives
 Diversity objectives
Safety, health and
environmental committee
 CSR and
sustainability
 Monitors and
overseas
effectiveness of
safety, health and
environmental
practices
Adelaide Brighton Executive
management

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The management of the business organization wants to provide relevant and important
information to all the stakeholders to the broader market according to the Corporations Act 2001.
The management of the business organization is promoting the responsible and ethical decision
making in all the levels and the management treats all the employees of the organization with
honesty and integrity.
Philanthropy
The management of Adelaide Brighton has taken numerous initiatives for returning some favor
back to the society. It has been observed that the business organization has been improving the
environmental performance of the sites of the business organization (AM and Francis 2017). The
management of Adelaide Brighton has a core purpose to help the society and they are investing
for the betterment of the society after a number of considerations (Adams and Borsellino 2015).
The management of the business organization is sponsoring the education and medical services
to the underprivileged population of the country and they are supporting a number of NGOs that
are working for the children of the country (Boubaker and Nguyen 2014). In this context, to
address the numbers of philanthropic activities performed by the Adelaide Brighton, it can
definitely be said that they provide under graduate scholarships in the engineering schools. The
management of the organization offers post graduate scholarship in chemical engineering field
and in other sectors of education also (Boubaker and Nguyen 2014). It has been noticed, that in
the rural regions of Australia, the management of the business corporation works for providing

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drinking water to the unprivileged population of the nation. It has also been seen that the
management of the business organization is incessantly promoting the well being of the
neighboring communities of their areas of operations. Therefore, it can definitely be said that the
organization is doing a lot to return back something to the society for the betterment of the nation
as a whole (Wang et al. 2016).
The directors of the business organization share a common vision and that is to improve the
CSR policies of the business organization ad they are doing so for the last couple of decades. In
this regard, it is worthwhile to mention that the management of the business organization wants
to improve the socio-economic condition of the people of the country and especially for those
who are still underprivileged (Adams and Borsellino 2015). Therefore, the management of the
business organization has deployed a team only for identifying and evaluating the social issues
on which the management of the business organization can work on to improve the situation. It is
a matter of fact that the business organization is doing a lot of works that are satisfying the
targets of the organization regarding their targets to improve the socio-economic conditions of
the neighboring countries (Wang et al. 2016).
Conclusion
Thus to conclude, it can be said that the management of the Adelaide Brighton in doing some
remarkable works to improve the socio-economic condition of the country and therefore earned a
huge reputation in their operational market. Apart from that, it has been seen that the
management of the business organization has been able to maintain a motivated and loyal
workforce by sustaining an ethical way of operation in the workplace. The organization satisfies
all the rules and regulations set by ASX committee and that makes the company free from all the

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legal and governmental issues and helped the organization to sustain their reputation. The
management of the business organization has been able to maintain a positive company culture
that is significantly contributing to the productivity and reputation of the business organization
along with the profitability. Thus, to be precise, it can be said that the management of the
business organization has been able to sustain the growth and profitability of the business
organization in today’s market full of competition by abiding by all the rules and regulations set
by the federal government of Australia and the ASX committee and maintaining good corporate
culture and also by getting engaged to several activities for the underprivileged population of
Australia.

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References
Adams, M. and Borsellino, G., 2015. Is there a positive link between corporate governance and
board diversity? Lessons from Asia. Journal of Business Systems, Governance & Ethics, 10(1).
Wang, H., Lu, W., Ye, M., Chau, K.W. and Zhang, X., 2016. The curvilinear relationship
between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance: Evidence from the
international construction industry. Journal of cleaner production, 137, pp.1313-1322.
Boubaker, S. and Nguyen, D.K., 2014. Corporate governance and corporate social
responsibility: Emerging markets focus. World Scientific.
Fuad, M., 2016. Pelatihan Kolaboratif Untuk Perbaikan Kompetensi Peternak Sapi di
Kabupaten Pasaman Barat(Doctoral dissertation, Universitas Andalas).
Galvão, L.A., Haby, M.M., Chapman, E., Clark, R., Câmara, V.M., Luiz, R.R. and Becerra-
Posada, F., 2016. The new United Nations approach to sustainable development post-2015:
findings from four overviews of systematic reviews on interventions for sustainable development
and health. Revista Panamericana de Salud Publica, 39, pp.157-165.
AM, A.F.A. and Francis, R.D., 2017. The trouble with leadership: theories of good and troubled
leadership and their ethical implications. In The Palgrave Handbook of Leadership in
Transforming Asia (pp. 143-162). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Chrun, E., Dolšak, N. and Prakash, A., 2016. Corporate environmentalism: Motivations and
mechanisms. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 41, pp.341-362.