Corporate Social Responsibility and GRI Compliance Report

This report analyzes the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices of two Australian companies, OZ Minerals and Caltex, in relation to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) sustainability reporting standards. The report, prepared from the perspective of a consultant, evaluates the extent to which each company complies with GRI principles concerning economic, environmental, and social performance. OZ Minerals is found to be effectively compliant, particularly in areas like biodiversity protection, waste management, and occupational health, with detailed disclosures aligning with GRI standards. Conversely, Caltex, while demonstrating some sustainable measures, does not fully integrate GRI standards in its reporting, providing limited information and failing to align its annual report with sustainability disclosures. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for Caltex to enhance its sustainability reporting to align with GRI guidelines for comprehensive stakeholder information and improved transparency.

Corporate Social Responsibility
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Introduction
The business corporations are nowadays largely emphasizing on improving their
social, economic and environmental performance for achieving sustainable growth and
development. The businesses in order to achieve sustainable growth are developing their
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports that provide information regarding the benefits
achieved by all the stakeholders through their measures taken for improving the social,
economic and environmental performances. In this context, there has been development of
GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) sustainability reporting guidelines to provide assistance to
the business corporations worldwide for effective sustainable reporting (Schaltegger, Bennett,
and Burritt, 2006). In this context, the present report aims to analyze the extent of two
selected business entities complying with the sustainability reporting standards of GRI. The
business entities selected for the purpose are OZ Minerals and Caltex and the report is
prepared on the perspective of an analyze working in a consulting firm seeking to develop
expertise in corporate sustainability.
Analysis of Sustainability Reporting of OZ Minerals and Caltex as per GRI Principles
The GRI reporting framework is developed for providing a generally accepted
framework to disclose the information relating to economic, environmental and social
performance. The GRI principles contain both specific and general reporting principles
regarding the sustainable performance of a firm that needs to be applied by wide range of
stakeholders. The GRI guidelines consist of two parts that are, reporting principles and
implementation manual (Fisher, 2009). The compliance of OZ Minerals with the GRI
reporting principles can be analyzed as follows:
OZ Minerals
The OZ Minerals is an Australian mining company listed on ASX and mainly
involved in operating copper-gold mine. The company as involved in mining operations has a
major responsibility of taking all the measures for environment protection. In this context, the
GRI 304 standards have addressed the importance of protecting biodiversity for promoting
sustainable growth of an entity. As per the standard, a reporting entity should provide
information about the measures adopted for protecting the genetic diversity and natural
ecosystems (White, 2009). The sustainability report of OZ minerals indicates that it
effectively complies with the GRI biodiversity standard as it has disclosed adequate
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information regarding the land and biodiversity conservation. The company has developed
and implemented a biodiversity management plan for indentifying the potential impacts of its
mining operations on flora and fauna. The emphasis of the plan is to protect the endangered
species and develop the procedures for prohibiting the unauthorized haunting or trapping of
native species by its employees (OZ minerals: Annual Report and Sustainability Report,
2016).
The GRI 306 principle has addressed the requirements for an entity to provide the
information in relation to treatment of effluents and waste generated (Fisher, 2009). The OZ
minerals also complies effectively with this standard as it has disclosed all the necessary
information in relation to measures adopted for minimizing waste generation. The company
has adopted adequate procedures or re-handing waste, promoting post-mining land use and
effective disposal of solid and hazardous waste. It has designed the disposal facilities for
managing the waste materials as per the licensing and statuary obligations. The waste rock
produced is disposed in rock dumps within the mining areas and tailings are disposed off
through the use of special engineered facilities. In addition to this, the GRI 306 standard
directs the business entities to disclose adequate information in relation to occupational health
and safety (Laasch and Conaway, 2014).
The OZ Company is strongly committed to integrated highest standards related to
promoting the health and wellbeing of the employees and local community. The company has
implemented three policies in this regard, that are, health and safety policy, diversity and
inclusion policy and ethics and human rights policy. Also, the company has adopted health
and wellbeing performance standards and governance systems for monitoring the
effectiveness of its occupational health policies. As per the GRI 413 standards, the company
has also adopted adequate measures for promoting the development of local communities
through its land rehabilitation and closure plan. The mine closure plan aims to achieve the
designated land use after post-mining activities. The land disturbance and rehabilitation plans
aims to achieve environmental stability in the area degraded through mining activities for
promoting the development of local communities residing nearby the area (OZ minerals:
Annual Report and Sustainability Report, 2016).
Thus, it can be said that OZ minerals effectively complies with the GRI 101 standard
of including the stakeholders in carrying out all its business activities. As per the standard,
the company has effectively identified its stakeholders and disclosed adequately the measures
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taken for creating value for all its stakeholders. The company has clearly explained its
strategic mission of creating sustainable value for all its stakeholders underpinned by its there
pillars of safety, capital discipline and strong values (OZ minerals: Annual Report and
Sustainability Report, 2016). The company has aligned its sustainability context with the
annual report in order to improve in its business operations through adequately disclosing the
financial and non-financial information to all its stakeholders as per sustainability context of
GRI (Laasch and Conaway, 2014).
Caltex
On the other hand, Caltex, an Australian chain of petrol station does not integrate the
use of GRI standards for developing its sustainability reports. The company though has
disclosed the sustainable measures adopted by it for improving its social, economic and
environmental performance. The company takes appropriate measures for protection of
environment but has not disclosed the measures taken by it for promoting the development of
biodiversity as per the GRI standards (White, 2009). The company though implements
various measures such as adopting the use of Australian Packaging Covenant (APC) for
designing more sustainable packaging to reduce the waste generation but the information
provided is limited and is not per the GRI 306 standard. The company also has provided
information in relation to promoting the occupational heath and well being of employees
through implementing the risk management framework that monitors the occupational risks
faced by the employees (Caltex Australia: Annual Report, 2016).
However, the disclosure provided by the company in relation to occupational safety
measures is not as per the GRI 403 standards. The company also supports the development of
its local communities through providing them financial assistance and undertaking programs
aimed at providing information relating to their various community activities to protect them
from any of their hazardous business activities. Thus, it can be stated from overall analysis of
disclosure provided by Caltex in relation to its sustainable performance that it does not
effectively follow the GRI reporting principles (Caltex Australia: Annual Report, 2016).
Also, the company has not aligned its annual report with the sustainability report that will
help in developing an insight into the sustainable performance of the company properly
(Laasch and Conaway, 2014).
Conclusion
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Thus, it can be stated from the overall discussion held in the report that OZ minerals
effectively complies with GRI reporting guidelines. However, the Caltex Company needs to
develop its sustainability report separately with its annual report for providing detailed
information regarding its sustainable performance as per the GRI standards.
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References
Caltex Australia. 2016. Annual Report.
Fisher, D. 2009. Corporate Sustainability Planning Assessment Guide: A Comprehensive
Organizational Assessment. ASQ Quality Press.
Laasch, O. and Conaway, R. 2014. Principles of Responsible Management: Global
Sustainability, Responsibility, and Ethics. Cengage Learning.
OZ minerals. 2016. Annual Report and Sustainability Report.
Schaltegger, S., Bennett, M. and Burritt, R. 2006. Sustainability Accounting and Reporting.
Springer Science & Business Media.
White, G.B. 2009. Sustainability Reporting: Managing for Wealth and Corporate Health.
Business Expert Press.
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