Sustainability reporting publications

ACCA Australia and New Zealand with Net Balance Foundation Limited, December 2011. This report investigates the state of integrated reporting among Australia’s 50 largest listed companies. It examines, on the basis of publicly available information, the extent to which companies have integrated non-financial matters into core business. This report: provides an overview of integrated reporting and emerging reporting frameworks, guidelines and requirements; analyses public reporting on financial and non-financial matters among ASX 50 companies; identifies the aspects of business that companies within the ASX 50 need to evolve to adopt integrated reporting; sets out a roadmap for Australia’s listed companies to achieve integrated reporting; and identifies the challenges companies may face when moving towards a more integrated approach to business.

ACCA Australia and New Zealand with Net Balance Foundation Limited, October 2011. This report analyses the disclosure of aspects of supply chain sustainability by the Australian Securities Exchange top 100 companies. Few, if any, previous studies of this nature have focussed on the sustainability of both upstream and downstream elements of ASX 100 supply chain disclosure. The report highlights many examples of good practice in the disclosure of relevant upstream and downstream policies and procedures within the ASX 100. It also shows, however, a wide range of variability in disclosure, both between and within different industry sectors.

ACCA Australia and New Zealand with Net Balance Foundation Limited, October 2011. This report examines the human rights governance, risk management and reporting quality of companies in the ASX 100. The report focuses predominantly on the 47 companies in the ASX 100 identified by CAER as having high-risk exposure to human rights issues, on the basis they are operating in countries with human rights concerns. The report also addresses, in brief, the approach of the remaining 53 ASX 100 companies not operating in countries of concern but with potential exposure to other human rights risks.

The key findings and recommendations from The Carbon We're Not Counting: Accounting for Scope 3 Carbon Emissions.

Alan Knight, April 2011. This report highlights that businesses can’t evaluate the nature, extent and value of greenhouse gas emission-associated risks and opportunities until high-quality information is available. And this means an investment in credible and complete carbon accounting. Credible information on Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions allow a company to better understand what is happening inside its fences. But more significant is the carbon many businesses aren’t counting. Scope 3 emissions look across the full value chain. The report looks at three approaches to Scope 3 emissions; the Control Approach, the Influence Approach and the Engaged Approach, and makes recommendations to governments and business to encourage the widespread use of Scope 3 reporting.

Hannah Jones, December 2010. This paper makes a number of recommendations for national governments and organisations that are responsible for developing guidelines and frameworks for sustainability reporting in the future.

Muhammad Azizul Islam, and Craig Deegan, 2010. This discussion paper reviews the results of an investigation of the social and environmental disclosure practices of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), two major multinational buying companies - Nike and H&M, and an exploration of possible drivers for the media agenda in reporting the activities of multinationals and NGOs.

ACCA Australia and New Zealand with Net Balance Foundation Limited, 2010. Part of a series of research projects which analyses disclosures on areas of non-financial performance by Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) companies. This report examines the reporting quality of 32 companies from the ASX 50. Inclusion was based on companies' requirements for significant quantities of water for their operations, supply chain and product-use areas.

Barter and Bebbington, 2010. This report describes findings from research that was conducted with organisations that have put environmental integrity or ecological sustainability at the core of their mission. The basic assumptions of this research are that the ecological health of the planet is essential for human well being, and that the planet's integrity is being compromised, with conventional economic activity being an element in creating the observed problems. (Ref: RR-116)

ACCA Australia and New Zealand with Net Balance Foundation Limited, 2010. Part of a series of research projects which analyses disclosures on areas of non-financial performance by Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) companies.

ACCA, December 2009. In advance of the UN Climate Change Conference 2009 (COP15), ACCA and GRI interviewed six expert commentators to gain their perspectives on the business response to the challenge of climate change. The results of those interviews are presented as a series of short essays in this publication.

ACCA and GRI, December 2009. The business world’s response to climate change is examined in detail in this four-part joint report. Launched at the COP15 Climate Change Summit, the report provides an insight into the degree to which large companies around the world from the 15 most high-impact industry sectors have begun to disclose their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and their strategies for reduction. The report includes an analysis across high-impact industry sectors from 2003-08 and a separate analysis of 2008 carbon reporting disclosures in the BRIC countries and South Africa.

Agyemang, Awumbila, Unerman, and O'Dwyer, 2009. This study investigated, through the experiences of those operating on NGO aid projects at the local level, the impact of different accounting and accountability mechanisms on the effectiveness of aid delivery. It contributes towards the formulation of NGO accounting and accountability policies that can improve how aid funding is transformed into a reduction in human suffering in impoverished nations. (Ref: RR-110)

ACCA Australia and New Zealand with Net Balance Foundation Limited, May 2009. Part of a series of research projects which analyses disclosures on areas of non-financial performance by Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) companies.

Jill Solomon, 2009. This discussion paper reports the findings of a small, follow up study to a project conducted circa one year earlier and published by ACCA as Pension fund trustees and climate change, research report 106. The follow-up study involves ten interviews conducted in Spring/early Summer 2009, which are not intended to be representative, but rather provide an indication of change in perceptions in a year of economic tumult and rising environmental concerns. Please note that the document is presented as a discussion paper, and not as part of ACCA's research report series.

ACCA, January 2009. This document outlines the key points of the reporting workshop held as part of the 2008 ACCA UK Awards for Sustainability Reporting. It discusses the reporting recommendations made for 2008 by the Awards judges.

ACCA Australia and New Zealand with Net Balance Foundation Limited, August 2008. Part of a series of research projects which analyses disclosures on areas of non-financial performance by Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) companies.

Campbell and Slack, 2008. An ACCA research report, Narrative Reporting: Analysts' Perceptions of its Value and Relevance was published in November 2008. The research considered analysts' views on five key elements of narrative reporting, including social and environmental disclosures. Due to the significant interests ACCA has in corporate transparency with regards to sustainability, this specific part of the research has been highlighted in this paper. The other parts of the research have been summarised only.

ACCA Australia and New Zealand with Net Balance Foundation Limited, 2007. Part of a series of research projects which analyses disclosures on areas of non-financial performance by Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) companies.

ACCA Australia and New Zealand with Net Balance Foundation Limited, 2008. Part of a series of research projects which analyses disclosures on areas of non-financial performance by Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) companies.

ACCA/FTSE Group, July 2007. Following on from recent research this paper discusses opportunities and challenges for reporting on climate change in the future and its importance to different stakeholders.

ACCA Australia and New Zealand with Net Balance Foundation Limited, 2007. Part of a series of research projects which analyses disclosures on areas of non-financial performance by Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) companies.

ACCA, July 2008. Outlines ACCA's public position on and commitment to the sustainable development and CSR agenda.