...23-30. 2012. Green Accounting for Corporate Sustainability BETTINA HÓDI HERNÁDI ASSISTANT LECTURER e-mail: vgtbetti@uni-miskolc.hu SUMMARY Today, corporate sustainability is one of the greatest challenges facing companies. Therefore, this study aims to show how accounting, as the language of business and the source of information, can meet the criteria of sustainability. This article starts out by analysing the different approaches to corporate sustainability, then it proposes the reinterpretation of the most important accounting principle, the ‘going concern’ principle. In the following section it outlines the characteristics of accounting from the point of view of sustainability. Finally, it proposes ways of transforming green accounting, both in name and content, into sustainability accounting. Keywords: corporate sustainability; the ‘going concern’ principle; green accounting (environmental accounting); sustainability accounting Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) code: M41 INTRODUCTION According to the Brundtland Commission (1987, p. 43), “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of present generations without compromising the similar needs of future generations. The concept interprets sustainable economic, ecological and social development as a unity.” Today’s companies must also comply with the challenges stemming from this approach, and therefore they must also implement economic, social and environmental goals. The reduction of pollution...
Words: 6871 - Pages: 28
...Chapter 1: A new framework for implementing corporate sustainability Key points: ▪ Sustainability performance is the effect of corporate activity on the social, environmental, and economic fabric of society. ▪ A balance between economic progress, social responsibility, and environmental protection, sometimes referred to as the triple bottom line, can lead to competitive advantage. ▪ The evaluation of social, economic, and environmental impacts of organizational actions is necessary to make effective operational and capital investment decisions that positively impact organizational objectives and satisfy the objectives of multiple stakeholders. ▪ The financial payoff of a proactive sustainability strategy can be substantial. ▪ To become a leader in sustainability, one needs to articulate what sustainability is, develop processes to promote sustainability throughout the corporation, measure performance on sustainability, and ultimately link this measurement to corporate financial performance. ▪ Corporate citizenship is an important driver for building trust, attracting and retaining employees, and obtaining a “license to operate” within a community. ▪ Corporate citizenship is much more than charitable donations and public relations—it’s the way the company integrates sustainability principles with everyday business operations and policies and then translates all of this into bottom-line results. ▪ For sustainability to be long lasting and useful...
Words: 12219 - Pages: 49
...Chapter 1: A new framework for implementing corporate sustainability Key points: ▪ Sustainability performance is the effect of corporate activity on the social, environmental, and economic fabric of society. ▪ A balance between economic progress, social responsibility, and environmental protection, sometimes referred to as the triple bottom line, can lead to competitive advantage. ▪ The evaluation of social, economic, and environmental impacts of organizational actions is necessary to make effective operational and capital investment decisions that positively impact organizational objectives and satisfy the objectives of multiple stakeholders. ▪ The financial payoff of a proactive sustainability strategy can be substantial. ▪ To become a leader in sustainability, one needs to articulate what sustainability is, develop processes to promote sustainability throughout the corporation, measure performance on sustainability, and ultimately link this measurement to corporate financial performance. ▪ Corporate citizenship is an important driver for building trust, attracting and retaining employees, and obtaining a “license to operate” within a community. ▪ Corporate citizenship is much more than charitable donations and public relations—it’s the way the company integrates sustainability principles with everyday business operations and policies and then translates all of this into bottom-line results. ▪ For sustainability to be long lasting and useful...
Words: 12220 - Pages: 49
...Uncertain Supply Chain Management 2 (2014) 61–72 Contents lists available at GrowingScience Uncertain Supply Chain Management homepage: www.GrowingScience.com/uscm Sustainable accounting reporting practices of Indian cement industry: An exploratory study Shagufta Khana , Vineet Chouhanb*, Bibhas Chandrac and Shubham Goswamib a Research Scholar, School of Management, Sir Padampat Singhania University, Udaipur-India Assistant Professor, School of Management, Sir Padampat Singhania University, Bhatewar, Udaipur-India, 313601 c Associate Professor, School of Management, Sir Padampat Singhania University, Bhatewar, Udaipur-India, 313601 b CHRONICLE Article history: Received September 10, 2013 Received in revised format 10 December 2013 Accepted February 25 2014 Available online February 27 2014 Keywords: Cement Industry Sustainability Financial Information Environment Accounting Reporting Sustainable Reporting Practices ABSTRACT Cement is the single most important and profitable product in the building material sector. With the economic boom, in India, Indian cement industry is a market of opportunities waiting to be tapped. However, at the same time cement industry is also experiencing a surge in demand. Production of Cement will always release carbon dioxide and change in the climate of the earth that is why despite its profitability, the cement industry faces many challenges regarding environmental concerns and sustainability issues. In order to minimize the impact of all...
Words: 6636 - Pages: 27
...Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Mgmt. (in press) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/csr.132 How Corporate Social Responsibility is Defined: an Analysis of 37 Definitions Alexander Dahlsrud* Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management, Faculty of Social Science and Technology Management, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway ABSTRACT Despite numerous efforts to bring about a clear and unbiased definition of CSR, there is still some confusion as to how CSR should be defined. In this paper five dimensions of CSR are developed through a content analysis of existing CSR definitions. Frequency counts are used to analyse how often these dimensions are invoked. The analysis shows that the existing definitions are to a large degree congruent. Thus it is concluded that the confusion is not so much about how CSR is defined, as about how CSR is socially constructed in a specific context. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. Received 24 April 2006; revised 31 August 2006; accepted 18 September 2006 Keywords: analysis; corporate social responsibility; definitions; discourse; social construction Introduction HE CORPORATE WORLD IS FACING THE NOTION OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) wherever it turns these days. On a wide range of issues corporations are encouraged to behave socially responsibly (Welford...
Words: 6452 - Pages: 26
...responsible behavior in their private or business life and to be more involved in social, environmental, moral and ethics matters. The majority of European companies consider education as the only reliable way of promoting and determining people and companies to assume a responsible behavior in their private or business life and to be more involved in social, environmental, moral and ethics matters. The awareness towards altruist actions is rising up within company’s management board; they understood the need to take care of the surrounding. Practically speaking, companies are actively participating into funding or sponsoring specific social or environmental projects. They may even create their own foundation in order to take care of underprivileged communities. The awareness towards altruist actions is rising up within company’s management board; they understood the need to take care of the surrounding. Practically speaking, companies are actively participating into funding or sponsoring specific social or environmental projects. They may even create their own foundation in order to take care of underprivileged communities. Charity Charity Promotional Promotional Strategic Strategic Means aligning issues such as water, health and poverty with the core business of the company and mostly through adherence to CSR codes and the application of social and environmental management programs, which typically involve phases of CSR policy expansion, objective and target...
Words: 3098 - Pages: 13
...interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/bse.657 Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting on the Internet J. Emil Morhardt* Roberts Environmental Center, Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA, USA ABSTRACT All material related to environmental and social performance on the corporate internet sites of 454 Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 1000 companies in 25 industrial sectors was analyzed using the Pacific Sustainability Index. Maximum scores for individual sectors were 20–75 percent of the total possible, highest in the largest and most environmentally sensitive sectors and ranging generally linearly, as shown by plotting score versus rank, down to nearly zero in every sector. None of the variation in score is explained by corporate revenue in the Asian and European firms in this sample (revenues greater than about $9 billion), but there is a very weak correlation between score and revenue for American firms of this size, and a stronger one when Fortune 1000 companies (all American) with revenues smaller than this are included, suggesting that, as corporate size reaches a certain threshold, sustainability reporting becomes independent of it. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. Received 18 November 2008; revised 26 April 2009; accepted 1 June 2009 Keywords: corporate environmental reporting; corporate environmental policy; corporate social reporting; corporate social policy; corporate internet reporting; sustainable development ...
Words: 10961 - Pages: 44
...Practices Including Reporting of CSR Activities 12 * Part Two: Statement of the Problem Emphasis on Business Involvement in CSR Activities 15 Theoretical Discussion on CSR Practices 19 Why The Reporting Necessary in relation to CSR Practices 22 Standard of Listed companies in Bangladesh with Regard to Social Audit 23 * Part Three: Objectives, Scope & Methodology of the Study Objectives 26 Scope 27 Methodology 28 * Part Four: Findings of the Study Sample Enterprises 30 Areas of Social Responsibilities Discharged 33 Reporting Practices 36 Evaluation 37 * Part Five: Conclusion Summary of the Findings 39 Future Directions 40 References 42 Part one: Introduction A Brief Description of CSR Corporate social responsibility (CSR), also known as corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship, responsible business, sustainable responsible business (SRB), or corporate social performance, is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. Ideally, CSR policy would function as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby business would monitor and ensure its support to law, ethical standards, and international norms. Consequently, business would embrace responsibility for the impact of its activities on the environment, consumers...
Words: 4961 - Pages: 20
...Corporate and Ethical Social Responsibility Assignment Question: Is CSR just another form of PR for companies wishing to get an edge on their competitor? Discuss with primary reference to IKEA. Student Name: Pui Tung CHIU Submission Date: 3 April 2015 Introduction A business activity generates both positive and negative influence for both the corporate as well as the society. The growing expectations of social, environmental and legal responsibility gradually rise in the past decades for corporate. Organizations use corporate social responsibility (CSR) to set up activities in order to achieve and respond these expectations. Jamali and Mirshak (2007) state that CSR approach helps to attract global attention and acquire a new resonance in the worldwide economy. However, Frankental (2001) claims “Do CSR is a public relations (PR) invention?” and company focus on promoting itself, getting an edge on its revivals rather than being ethic to protect the environment or maintain human welfare. Therefore, in this essay, author is going to discuss about the different between CSR as well as PR. Moreover, it will apply an example of IKEA to examine the effectiveness of its CSR in supply chain and analyze CSR as a business strategy to maintain the sustainability of business, financial control and risk management. Afterwards, author will highlight the limitations of CSR policy and finally provide some recommendations to improve the CSR strategy for...
Words: 2989 - Pages: 12
...CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY:1 Is a common CSR framework possible? PIOTR MAZURKIEWICZ DevComm-SDO World Bank This paper is not intended to serve as an exhaustive, comprehensive treatment of CRS. Rather, it is part of a broader discussion on corporate social responsibility, in the context of environmental protection. This paper is not a publication of the World Bank. It is circulated to encourage discussion.. The views expressed are solely those of the author and his views and this paper should not be attributed to the World Bank. This paper benefited greatly from the advice provided by Charles E. Di Leva, Lead Counsel, ESSD and International Law The World Bank Legal Department. 1 1 I. ABSTRACT Traditionally, environmental protection has been considered to be “in the public interest” and external to private life. Governments have assumed principal responsibility for assuring environmental management, and have focused on creating and preserving a safe environment. They have directed the private sector to adopt environmentally sound behavior through regulations, sanctions and occasionally, incentives. When environmental problems have arisen, the public sector has generally born the responsibility for mitigation of environmental damage. . In this approach, some have contended that unrestricted private sector behavior has been considered as presenting the “environmental problem”. However, the roles of sectors have been changing, with the private sector becoming an active...
Words: 4656 - Pages: 19
...Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal Emerald Article: Sustainability accounting and reporting: fad or trend? Roger L. Burritt, Stefan Schaltegger Article information: To cite this document: Roger L. Burritt, Stefan Schaltegger, (2010),"Sustainability accounting and reporting: fad or trend?", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 23 Iss: 7 pp. 829 - 846 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513571011080144 Downloaded on: 04-11-2012 References: This document contains references to 57 other documents Citations: This document has been cited by 12 other documents To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com This document has been downloaded 5947 times since 2010. * Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA TERENGGANU For Authors: If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service. Information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.com With over forty years' experience, Emerald Group Publishing is a leading independent publisher of global research with impact in business, society, public policy and education. In total, Emerald publishes over 275 journals and more than 130 book series, as well as an extensive range of online products and services...
Words: 9600 - Pages: 39
...Journal of Business Ethics (2009) 88:351–366 DOI 10.1007/s10551-008-9968-9 Ó Springer 2008 Determinants of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure Ratings by Spanish Listed Firms Carmelo Reverte ABSTRACT. The aim of this paper is to analyze whether a number of firm and industry characteristics, as well as media exposure, are potential determinants of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure practices by Spanish listed firms. Empirical studies have shown that CSR disclosure activism varies across companies, industries, and time (Gray et al., Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal 8(2), 47–77, 1995; Journal of Business Finance & Accounting 28(3/4), 327–356, 2001; Hackston and Milne, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal 9(1), 77–108, 1996; Cormier and Magnan, Journal of International Financial Management and Accounting 1(2), 171–195, 2003; Cormier et al., European Accounting Review 14(1), 3–39, 2005), which is usually justified by reference to several theoretical constructs, such as the legitimacy, stakeholder, and agency theories. Our findings evidence that firms with higher CSR ratings present a statistically significant larger size and a higher media exposure, and belong to more environmentally sensitive industries, as compared to firms with lower CSR ratings. However, neither profitability nor leverage seem to explain differences in CSR disclosure practices between Spanish listed firms. The most influential variable for explaining firms’ variation...
Words: 9772 - Pages: 40
...Chapter 2 Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Governance and Corporate Regulation 2.1 Introduction CSR is increasingly an essential issue for companies.1 It is a complex and multidimensional organisational phenomenon that is understood as the scope for which, and the ways in which, an organisation is consciously responsible for its actions and non-actions and their impact on its stakeholders. It represents not just a change to the commercial setting in which individual companies operates, but also a pragmatic response of a company to its consumers and society.2 It is increasingly being understood as a means by which companies may endeavour to achieve a balance between their efforts to generate profits and the societies that they impact in these efforts.3 This chapter discusses these issues. First, it describes CSR and its core principles. Second, it describes CG and narrates CG’s convergence with CSR. Third, it highlights how different economies are incorporating CSR notions in their corporate regulation. 1 Jeremy Moon and David Vogel, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility, Government, and Civil Society’ in Andrew Crane et al. (eds), Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility (2008) 303; David Vogel, The Market for Virtue: The Potential and Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility (2005); Nada K Kakabadse, Cecile Rozuel and Linda Lee-Davies, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility and Stakeholder Approach: A Conceptual Review’ (2005) 1(4) International ...
Words: 16989 - Pages: 68
...Literature Review Kavitha W * and Anita P ** Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is now prominent and evident more than ever due to the emphasis laid on businesses regarding environmental, social and ethical issues. The level of CSR activities of the firms is made known to public only through the disclosures. This paper reviews the literature on CSR disclosures and the effect of these disclosures. There are various factors which determine the extent of disclosures like the size of the firm, industry, high visibility, etc. Introduction Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is now prominent and evident more than ever due to the emphasis laid on businesses regarding environmental, social and ethical issues. This is because over the recent years, there have been social, political and economic pressures on corporate management to pay attention on social and environmental consequences of corporate activities. These pressures motivated the corporate management to actively participate in a wide range of social welfare activities. CSR now-a-days covers almost all issues like the use of child labor; inequality of employment; environmental impact; involvement in local community; products’ safety; company cultures; brand image and reputation. Apart from this, companies are now disclosing these activities in their annual reports, and one of the parameters to judge the performance of a company is CSR reporting. Corporate Social Responsibility CSR is defined by Naylor (1999)...
Words: 4547 - Pages: 19
...Five Critical Thinking Assignment This paper will analyze Dell Computer Corporations corporate governance, sustainability strategy and performance and identify relevant social, environmental and economic measurement systems that can be used to measure Dell’s corporate sustainability performance. An integral part of establishing a corporate sustainability strategy is integrating sustainability into the capital budget process. A systematic approach and analysis should be used to establish value for social and environmental costs and benefits. In order to validate the corporations social and environmental policies are providing return on investment, sustainability measurement systems must be implemented. As stated in chapter seven of Making Sustainability Work an efficient and accurate social and environmental measurement system will identify what critical processes are associated with the successful execution of sustainability projects by identifying what current measurement systems in place, what is the important criteria that will be measured, what does the organization wish to accomplish with the sustainability investment, what is the anticipated time frame associated with the social or environmental initiative and who will be involved with implementing and managing the initiatives (Epstein, 2008). Dell computer is a very proactive company in regards to social policy and environmental stewardship. Newsweek has ranked Dell ranked number one in the United States as a green...
Words: 975 - Pages: 4
