CSR and Sustainability Initiatives in Australian Accounting

This report examines the Australian accounting profession's stance and initiatives on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability. It highlights the increasing demand for professional accountants in Australia, especially for small businesses, and their role in advising on government regulations, environmental protection, and financial planning. The report discusses how Australian organizations are prioritizing sustainability performance and transparent reporting, with accountants taking on strategic leadership roles in integrating sustainability into business practices. It details the efforts of CPA Australia in promoting sustainability through research, training, and community engagement, including their online portal and support for financial literacy. The report also explores the role of accountants in identifying improvement opportunities, integrating sustainability into decision-making, and generating accurate reports. Finally, it uses BHP Billiton as an example to demonstrate social and environmental accountability, emphasizing the company's commitment to sustainable development and community investment.

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COST AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING
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Discuss the stance and initiatives of the Australian accounting profession on corporate
social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability
Professional accountants are on high demand in Australia, by both small scale
entrepreneurs and the large business firms. The accountants in Australia are considered as one of
the most professional services providers on the side of small scale entrepreneurs. The small scale
entrepreneurs have started employing professional accountants because these accountants are
considered to be trustworthy advisers as well as good planners for the organizations they work
for (Moore, B. 2018). Small scale entrepreneurs have employed accountants to help them shift
their business in accordance to the rules set the government of Australia. The accountants have
helped these small business to operate without releasing poisonous substances into the
environment. These accountants have also helped small scale entrepreneurs to know how to
budget for their funds. The budgets prepared by the accountants have aimed at setting aside some
money which can be used in development of the communities in which the small scale
businesses operate.
Most of the businesses are using professional services providers. These professional
workers have been employed in the sections of accounting and finance, Information Technology
as well as in the legal department (Imran, 2014). The professional workers in the accounting
department are producing financial documents are required by the Australian Accounting
Profession. The financial documents are clearly showing how the organization is planning to use
its money. Much emphasis has been put in procuringtechnology machinery and equipment which
are friendly to the environment. Therefore it is the role of the organization to employ

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professional staff who can help it in finding out which innovations have to be made on the
existing technology so as to create a safe working environment.
Most organization in Australia are providing information based on performance measure
but not financial status. These organizations are producing their annual reports based on
sustainability performance which ensures that best decisions are made putting into consideration
of economic, social and environmental factors (Lemus, 2016). This has been used as a strategy
to gain confidence from the stakeholders in the ways through which organizations operate. The
organizations have also chosen to report transparently on matters related to non-financial
measures. The non-financial measures signify how important they are to the organization itself,
the communities they serve as well as the future generation to come.
Furthermore, organizations are employing accountants as strategic business leaders since
accountants have the extra knowledge and skill on how to prepare reports. The accountants are
representing the organization's performance in terms of financial as well as non-financial results
(Street et al., 2018). This method of representing the performance of an organization in two ways
is one of the best tools which can be used to integrate sustainability into different organizations.
The accountants have also been vital in determining which information must be included in the
annual reports of every organization. The information published in the annual reports has not
created panic among the people which the different organizations serve.
According to the annual report published by CPA Australia, sustainability can be
achieved if the world's resources are respected. This has prompted the management team of CPA
to make good resource allocation decisions. CPA has carried out a thorough research so as to
understand the meaning of sustainability and how sustainability can affect its activities. CPA is
working with the accounting profession and the community so as to build a sustainability

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capacity. CPA is providing employment training on the topic of Global Reporting Index
principles. This training is aimed at helping the members of CPA acquire knowledge in relation
to how sustainability influences present as well as future economic conditions.
In order to monitor sustainability progress and performance on a frequent basis, some
organizations like CPA have introduced half a year sustainability reports which are internal. The
information captured in the half a year report have to be used to carry out risk assessment. The
results from CPA show that, its performance on matters of gender diversity, public advocacy and
staff turnover being the most material issues in terms of risk assessment.
The Australian accounting profession is welcoming feedback from its stakeholders. It is
known that through feedback, better outcomes can be reached during the sustainability journey
(Wiley, 2017). The feedback which has been welcomed has been in terms of the corporate social
responsibility policies as well as other operating guidelines. Most of the organization lying under
the Australian accounting profession are non-profit making organizations. These organizations
are providing a variety of services to their members which are aimed at enhancing professional
knowledge and support to career development. Therefore these organizations aim aiming at
helping the people they serve and those who they employ, other driving much of their attention
towards making profits.
CPA itself as an accounting organization has set up an online portal to allow communities
communicate with it directly. The information available on the online portal has helped different
citizens acquire leadership skills. At least 10,000 people have been helped via the online portal
(CPA Australia 2017). CPA has continued to fund the Global Reporting Initiative. The Global
Reporting Initiative being an independent international organization has helped people,
governments and businesses understand as well as communicate their findings on matters related

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to climate change and human rights. CPA has also published many research articles talking about
sustainability. The activities performed by CPA re an indication that it supports corporate social
responsibility and sustainability(CPA Australia 2017).
More so, CPA assists its members to achieve their career goals. The accounting
organization provides support and quality resources to be used in the identification process of the
competencies needed to move forward in any business. The members of CPA can access the self-
assessment tool online which covers knowledge in areas of business, leadership, technical and
personal effectiveness. This has helped its members gain knowledge in other areas other than
accounting thus unlocking some of their future dreams.
The accounting profession has also supported financial literacy by developing
partnerships in education as well as financial literacy so as to assist the community with better
means of managing their finances (American Institute of CPAs. 2015). Financial literacy has also
been effected through supporting a run organized by Australia Missions. The financial literacy
campaign has helped people get to how to use their funds, by providing a strategy of making a
budget after an individual receives her or his salary from the company or organization that
employees him or her.
In addition to the above, organizations under the accounting profession are providing
services to the people of the communities in which they operate (Frederiksen, 2018). The
services provided include construction of schools will are offering free education to the children
as well as the adults. The knowledge acquired from the teachers has helped children grow up as
responsible citizens in such a way that most children help their parents in doing both domestic
and business. These organizations have also built hospitals as a way to improve the lives of
people. The local citizens no longer travel the long distances in search of health centers. The

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health facilities have played a vital role in helping pregnant women give birth safely. More so,
clean water has been delivered to the communities in which accounting organization operate.
Roles played by the accounting profession
The accountants in the accounting profession can identify the opportunities in different
sections of their organization in which improvements need to be done (Cooper, 2016). The
improvements can be in form of the funds provided as stated in the organization's annual or
quarterly budget. Other improvements may consist of how to save fuel and how to runnon-
polluting offices. The improvements are important in the process of increasing effectiveness as
well as efficiency of the different resources of the organization. Accountants can help
organizations integrate sustainability within the decision making process by carrying out
lifecycle costing of the newly purchased capital assets.
Professional accountants can play a vital role of looking for partners with whom their
organizations can team up with. Since business sustainability evolves around making
partnerships with a third party it is role of the accountants to look for the other stakeholders who
are willing to sign a partnership agreement with their companies (Gray, 2014). The partners to be
brought into the partnership process must be sharing the values of the organization and must be
able to demonstrate similar commitment towards corporate social responsibility. Any accounting
firm must position itself as a "natural choice for potential stakeholders who are willing to carry
out business with the ethical service providers.
The services of the accounting profession are vital in the process of creating a plan which
can be used to make sure that the business in sustainable (Geanina et al., 2018) The plan
development must be sensible in terms of the changes which are to be made and those changes

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should not affect the business in a negative way. It is the role of the accounting firms to present
sustainability plans to the stakeholders. The proposed changes towards operating a greener
business which does not conflict with the social values must bring positive outcomes towards the
profits generated by the business. It is role of the accountant to convince stakeholders not to look
at the short-term expenses related to adopting the new policies, but they should rather focus on
the longer term revenue which will be generated from operating a "greener" business.
Furthermore, accountants are needed in generating reports which are to be published by
the business organization. The accountants normally make sure that accurate information is
released into media by the organization. The information published by organizations is important
is the process of creating a good reputation, however mismatch of information brings side effects
to the business organization (Atmeh, 2016). For is not safe for an organization to publish its
annual report saying that it will be operating a "greener" business yet in the coming days it is still
releasing pollutants into the environment. Since the accountants measure, control as well as
communicate both outside and within the organization, their knowledge and skills can help
organization in deciding which information to release to its stakeholders (Imran, 2014).
Accountants make sure that accurate and reliable information is passed on to the stakeholders.
Additionally, accountants can be employed to make sure that the reports submitted by the
financial accounting systems show the performance of the company in accordance to certain
perspectives such as operating policies and laws (Zahra, 2015) The accountants must make sure
that the reports published reflect the targets set by the organization within the specified time
period. This will act as a sign of progress and transparency. The progress made must be reflected
in the report and the unmet tasks must also be included in the published reports. In order to
achieve this, accountants normally read through the reports before submitting them to the

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executive director for endorsement. It means that all changes should be made for the executive
direct puts his or her signature on the report. Hence accountants do the hectic job of
crosschecking whether the information included in the report corresponds with what has be
achieved in reality.
As an example, discuss the way in which BHP Billiton has demonstrated its social and
environmental accountability
BHP recognizes its responsibility towards making a positive contribution which leads to
sustainable development. BHP participates in business activities, social investment as well as
economic contribution (BHP, 2018). It invests not less than one percent of its pre-taxed profits to
support such programs which are aimed at improving the quality of lives of people in the world.
The main aim of the social investment is to make a contribution for addressing the sustainable
challenges which hinder development of its businesses as well as the stakeholders. The BHP
Billiton charitable organization has partnered with other organizations to address the challenges
facing this generation.
BHP Billiton promotes sustainability with its transport users. BHP prioritizes in safety
first, this was achieved by forming the Dry Bulk Forum which raises the safety standards via the
ocean freight shipping industry. Since ocean transport involves emission of dangerous gases,
BHP Billiton has employed data analytics who measure the amount of greenhouse gases emitted
by the marine fleet during their course of saying across the ocean (BHP Billiton 2017). The
amounts of greenhouse gases measured are going to act as benchmarks during the process of
initiating measures to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. BHP Billiton is also strengthening its
assessment and monitoring of the transport providers. Due to the fact that no
environmentalevents occurred as a result of the assets operated by BHP Billiton, its focus has

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still remained on recovering the ecosystems as well as the communities which were affected by
the Sarco dam failure in 2015 (Watts, 2015).
BHP's business model is founded on the principles of truth and public acceptance. Its
books of accounts contain accurate and trustworthy information since BHP believes that
transparency and accountability are the fundamentals to trust.It commitment towards
transparency goes far beyond complying with the regulations. BHP pays all its taxes to the
government which help to fund education, infrastructure, healthcare and other services. BHP
operates according to the government principles because it wants to maintain its license of
operation for a long period of time. BHP does not tolerate any form of corruption amongst its
employees.
Conclusion
It is of great importance for accounting organization to operate while putting into practice
the idea of corporate social responsibility and sustainability. Some people visit or access services
from a given organization due to the fact that the activities of such an organization are
environment friendly. Therefore organization must not only aim at making profits but also focus
on developing as well conserving the environment of the communities in which they operate
from.

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