Ask a question?
customers' reviews
Need customized help? Order now
email

[solved]Module 12: External Sustainability Reporting and Verification

Module 12: External Sustainability Reporting and Verification

 

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

 

Module 12: Critical Thinking

Impact of ISO 14001 and AA1000 Regulations on Stakeholders (100 points)

Analyze how ISO 14001 and AA1000 regulations protect stakeholders. Do these regulations and reports have an impact on how investors see the long-term viability of an organization or company in which they plan to invest?

What are examples of this in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where this reporting occurs? In a 4-5 page paper, not including the cover and reference pages, explain how these regulations impact future investors, local stakeholders, and the organization’s or company’s sustainability.

Use Saudi Electronic University academic writing standards and APA style guidelines, citing references as appropriate.

 

Below is Module 12: Interactive Lecture

 

 

MGT630 – Business Ethics and Sustainability

Module 12: External Sustainability Reporting and Verification

MGT630

Table of Contents Tools

Module Introduction

Readings

Note: The following readings may require you to be logged in to the Saudi Digital Library. You may do that here.

Required

Chapter 9 in Making Sustainability Work

Lu, Y., & Abeysekera, I. (2017). What do stakeholders care about? Investigating corporate social and environmental disclosure in China. Journal of Business Ethics, 144(1), 169-184.

Massa, L., Farneti, F., & Scappini, B. (2015). Developing a sustainability report in a small to medium enterprise: Process and consequences. Meditari Accountancy Research, 23(1), 62-91.

For Your Success

We will explore the sustainability efforts that interest stakeholders most and how an organization informs its stakeholders on its sustainability efforts. We begin our examination of what should be covered and why, which will continue in Module 13.

Review the following required activities for this week:

There is a Critical Thinking Assignment due this week. You will write an analysis on the ways in which ISO 14001 and AA1000 regulations protect stakeholders.

Take the next graded quiz, covering content from Modules 11 and 12.

Learning Outcomes

Examine external sustainability reporting and verification.

Evaluate standards for sustainability reporting and verification.

1. Sustainability Efforts

Do certain sustainability efforts grab the attention of stakeholders more than others? The answer is yes. Epstein and Buhovac (2014) noted one study that identified the top five sustainability efforts of interest to stakeholders as human rights, eco/energy efficiency, health and safety, climate protection, and environmental management of the production process.

 

So, does that mean that all companies should focus on these five priorities? The answer is no. Different organizations have different stakeholders and operate in different business environments. The organization must determine which types of sustainability activities it should engage in based on its unique circumstances.

For example, a diamond mining company might decide to focus on improving the health of the people in the underdeveloped country where the diamonds are mined. Otherwise, the company may not have a healthy workforce available to mine the diamonds. Or, a jewelry store might focus on improving its supply chain by insisting on responsible and ethical sourcing practices from its diamond suppliers.

Before continuing, take a moment to watch the following video, which asks (and answers) the question, “Why sustainability?”

Steve Howard: Let’s Go All-In on Selling Sustainability

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buH_vs7LFzw

What priorities does the speaker identify for IKEA? Where do these align with the top five efforts listed previously?

2. Sustainability Information for Stakeholders

Stakeholders have specific expectations with regard to the sustainability information they receive from organizations. External sustainability reports strive to provide this information. For more information, listen to an audio explanation of sustainability reporting here—What is Sustainability Reporting?

Certain principles and standards tend to guide the organization when developing a sustainability report. Let’s examine some of these in more detail—click on the following tabs.

Materiality

Completeness

Responsiveness

Take a moment to watch the following video on the benefits of sustainability and sustainability reporting.

Eco-Business Explains Sustainability Reporting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCzbeyZwwqE

The video notes that the benefits of sustainability reporting extend beyond just numbers. What are these benefits?

3. What Do Stakeholders Want to Know?

Stakeholders want to know about more than just the bottom-line financial measures when it comes to reporting. Instead, they want to know about the triple bottom line, which includes social and environmental considerations as well.

Stakeholders want to see the social, environmental, and economic impacts of the business and its operations. They also want to see what the company is doing to reduce negative impacts. For example, they may want information on the sources of energy the company uses, the amount of recycled materials it utilizes, voluntary and involuntary employee turnover numbers, and the results of polls regarding the organization’s image and reputation.

The following video provides another interesting look at the issue of sustainability reporting.

Sustainability Reporting: Reporting for Stakeholders while Building a Competitive Advantage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5DvW2j3WBs

The speaker mentions that a study of sustainability professionals found that they ranked customers as the most important audience for their sustainability reporting. The next most important group was employees, with the respondents viewing reporting as a tool they could use for recruitment and retention purposes. Does this ranking surprise you?

Reflect

Consider your own organization or one you know well with regard to sustainability. Could you answer any of the following questions?

How much waste does the organization create?

How much energy does it take to run the organization? What is the source of that energy? How much does it cost, and what does it do to the environment? Are there alternative sources that could be used?

What about the amount of paper that the organization uses? Could that amount be easily cut in half? Is the paper that the organization uses recycled? If not, why not?

What about the amount of organizational turnover, both voluntary and involuntary? Is this a high or low number, and what can be done within the organization to reduce that number?

If you can’t answer these questions (or similar questions), does this mean that the organization does not engage in sustainability reporting? If given the opportunity to recommend sustainability reporting to management, what would you say?

4. The Format of Information

Of course, it is up to an organization to decide whether or not it will report on sustainability, and if it does, it will choose the format it wants to use.

 

How do stakeholders want to get this information? There is not one answer. Some might prefer to receive it at annual shareholders’ meetings, for example, while others might want on-demand access to these documents from the company’s website.

The length of these documents is also a consideration. People do not have a great deal of time to wade through an enormous amount of information to learn about an organization’s sustainability measures. One stakeholder survey found that the majority of individuals would like these documents to be less than 50 pages long (Epstein & Buhovac, 2014). However, if the documents were in electronic format, the organization could take the time to create links to the different sections of the documents, so the stakeholders could easily jump to the topics they want to read.

Check Your Understanding

Answer the question or define the term on the front of the card before flipping the card over to check your answer.

Click Here to Begin

References

AccountAbility. (2018). AA1000 accountability principles. Retrieved from https://www.accountability.org/standards/

Global Reporting Initiative. (2018). GRI 101: Foundation 2016. Retrieved from https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/media/1036/gri-101-foundation-2016.pdf#page=%2010

Epstein, M. J., & Buhovac, A. J. (2014). Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring corporate social, environmental, and economic impacts (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.



Need customized help? Order now
user img

Plus


20-01-22 | 01:00:51
Report this answer
(no reviews)

Sustainability entails meeting the needs of the current generation without jeopardizing the needs of future generation to meet their needs. Sustainability is made up of three pillars, economic, environmental and social (KENTON, 2018). These elements are traditional known as profit-making, people support and planet considerate. Sustainability arose due to the focus on short term profit which resulted in the dangerous effects on the environment, depletion of resources and lack of plans for the coming generation. A key example of sustainability is when a business disposes of its waste into the river thus avoiding the cost of cleaning the wastes. Such an effect will have adverse environmental effecting including ecological disaster, soil pollution and even generally all system pollution. The result of such short term profit at the expense of surrounding is very expensive treatment processes. Therefore, sustainability allows the business to focus on more than making profit in the short run and focus on another factor that short profit is making with the high expense to the environment have. Aramco is large company that deal with nonrenewable product-oil. Oil is something that can be depleted on earth crust, and thus the company needs to have a mechanism that will ensure business continuity even after there is no more oil in the earth crust. To address sustainability commitment, of ARAMCO, the paper will focus on three pillars of sustainability.
The company identifies its moral responsibility in treating its employees with dignity and respect. Improving a business requires a lot of inputs. To make a sustainable business one needs to focus on planning the workforce. Planning the workforce requires one to plan ahead of everyone to avoid shortages and talent surpluses. Workforce planning helps the company to identify talents amidst its employees and also to identify any abilities that they will need to fill in the future. The necessity for a fair and open business environment is key in ensuring that the organizational objectives are addressed. The company strives to improve its operations with the aim of addressing the underlying issues.
Besides ensuring that the welfare of the employees is upheld, the company also ensures that they employ continuous improvement technique in their operation (Saudiaramco, 2019). This technique ensures that the business continuously addresses its challenges as it improves thus creating products that are better than those produced in the old model. The good thing about continuous improvement is that it enables the company to give the best product always that is produced with the highest technology of the time while reducing waste and defects. Continues improvement also raises operation standards thus requiring the employees be continuously improve their knowledge in their respective fields.
Petroleum products are one of major pollutant in the world today. If petroleum product is combusted, they produce many byproducts including carbon monoxide, methane, carbon dioxide, Sulphur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. All these products are known pollutant in the world today immensely contributing to global warming due to depletion of the ozone layer. Increase in global warmth has great consequences on the world today include an increase in desertification, melting of polar ice and reduction of the ability of the earth to sustain plant and animals. Oil product exploration also has significant damages to the environment including the destruction of groundwater and even acting as earthquakes triggers. The consequences of oil production as a chief energy source for the earth is known, and that is why many countries in the world especially those that are considered developed nation have identified its negative, and thus they are moving toward greener energy sources. For example, the UK is considering to deal away with diesel and electric vehicle by the year 2040, and many other countries have the plan to deal away with them by the year 2025 including Norway and Germany (Pollutionissues, 2017). Today in the world, electric vehicles are most preferred, and users receive an incentive from the government to purchase them. Although there is high chance that petroleum will continue to be used as energy source especially in transportation, the future of the product seems not to be too bright especially since the product is nonrenewable and also it has m, any toxic substances. Therefore it is important for ARAMCO to consider doing extensive research such that they can be able to produce fuel cells that are safe to the environment. The company is committed to ensuring that better technology for methane and other greenhouse gases detection and capture is developed to address the issue of climate change and global warming (Saudiaramco, 2018). Besides that, the company also is concerned with converting Carbon dioxide emitted into useful and cleaner products such as polypropylene carbonate polyols. The company is also involved extensively in research and development of improving vehicle engines that are not only environmental friendly but also fuel friendlier. The company is also aiming at developing wide use of crude oil besides fuel. This will ensure that even when the world faces the oil away as the chief energy especially in transport, the company will always have an alternative for its chief raw materials. The company has also noted the importance of collaboration in the industry. Therefore it has join forces with other institution and companies across the world to assist in the creation of a better system that is friendly to the environment as well as fuel consumption. Having an effective system that reduces the greenhouse gases to near zero levels will be of great importance to ARAMCO and other companies dealing with oil products thus assisting them to remain in the market even after depletion of whole oil deposits in the earth crust.
Saudi Arabia has also noted the importance of promoting biodiversity. Aramco is a company that operates is arid areas but that has not stopped the company in ensuring that they promote better environments that improve the quality of biodiversity. The company has projects involved in the planting of mangroves trees, planting trees in the desert and establishing mangrove parks. The company has also noted the disappearance of coral reefs due to human activities such as mining and dredging. Therefore, the company has proceeded by creating artificial reefs to assist in breading and improving the ecology of marine life. The company is also went ahead to ensure that they revive the species that are unique to Saudi Arabia and they were in the brink of extinction by setting up sanctuaries across the country. A good example is the Shaybah wildlife sanctuary which houses many indigenous species of games (Haider, 2017).
ARAMCO is no doubt a big company today, but their status might change depending on their ability to be sustainable. Sustainability is a wide factor that crops within the company. To achieve sustainability, the company must always be ready to accept changes and implement them accordingly. ARAMCO has many challenges especially since its main raw material faces extinction and it is not viewed as a good product by environmentalists. Despite the sustainability challenges the company faces, there is still hope for the company and the hope can only be found on technology and technology can only be realized through R&D.





References
Haider, S. (2017). Shaybah: Going beyond excellence. Retrieved from http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/514395
KENTON, W. (2018). What is Sustainability?. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sustainability.asp
Pollutionissues. (2017). Petroleum - water, effects, environmental, disasters, pollutants, United States, history, causes, impact, EPA, soil, chemicals, industrial, liquid, wells, toxic, world, human, power. Retrieved from http://www.pollutionissues.com/Na-Ph/Petroleum.html
Saudiaramco. (2018). Addressing the climate challenge. Retrieved from https://www.saudiaramco.com/en/making-a-difference/planet/climateinitiative
Saudiaramco. (2019). Operational excellence. Retrieved from https://www.saudiaramco.com/en/creating-value/sustainable-business-operations/operationalexcellence


Related Question