ACCT1046: Accounting - Corporate Social Responsibility - Report Writing Assessment Answer

Accounting Assignment

Assignment Task

Assume you are preparing the report for a friend who wishes to invest in a business which conducts itself in a socially and environmentally responsible way. In your report, you are required to advise your friend on the economical/financial, social and environmental performance of the business. You should choose and analyse the financial and Sustainability/CSR reports of one of the specified below organisations (Please note that a marking rubric/guide will be available on RMIT Blackboard); and advise your friend whether or not to invest in the business in the report conclusion. You should demonstrate that you have undertaken research, and cite the sources you have used through appropriate in-text referencing and bibliography.

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We highly suggest you go through the sustainability chapter in the text book before you commence writing the assignment. Then go through the annual reports of your chosen company as well as other online resources which provide extra support for financial, social and environmental performance of your chosen company. It is important that you follow the assignment template to write your report.

You are required to prepare a report on one of the following specific organisations below:

The assignment’s template is as follows:

• Title Page
• Table of contents
• Introduction (please see assignment’s rubric for further information)
• Financial/Economic performance
• Social performance
• Environmental performance
• Conclusion
• Reference List
• Appendix (optional)

With the financial/Economic performance section of your assignment, the minimum requirement is to locate and summarise the company’s basic financial information as outlined below. Then, most importantly you should discuss the financial performance (particularly profitability) of the company using the management reports, online resources, financial and sustainability reports. It’s highly recommended to provide some comparison analysis with company’s previous financial years (up to 2 years) and/or competitors or industry averages to support your report analysis.

As a result of reading your chosen company’s CSR and/or Sustainability Report, you should discuss matters relating to the company’s sustainability practices and reporting in your report including but not limited to the following issues:

• Aspects of company’s environmental performance -related to natural capital- including but not limited to environmental protection, energy and carbon emission concerns, and waste production concerns.
• Aspects of company’s social performance -related to human capital and society wealth creation potential- including but not limited to the employee health, human rights protection, contributions to the community, customer involvement, and product responsibility.

Financial Performance

The financial assets of the organization have increased over the years. A six year comparison indicates the fact that the same has increased from $39525 Million to $43286 Million. At the same time the total liabilities of the concern have decreased from $28045 Million to $27415 Million. The stock holder’s equity have also increased from $11480 to $15871 Million. The net profit of the organization has improved over the years which is a good symbol. This implies that the basic earnings per share has also improved. The basic earnings per share has increased from 0.28 to 0.47 (Gowthorpe, 2008). Even though the profitability of the organization has increased the cash flow from investing and financing activities is negative. This implies that the organization is not able generate cash from these activities.

Ratio analysis as a tool enables the user of the financial statements to analyse the performance of the entity without having to go through every line item in the financial statement or the annual report. The biggest advantage of employing this tool is that this tool is very easy to employ and the user need not be a finance degree holder in order to make sense of the results obtained. The net profit margin of the organization is one of the most important ratios as the same indicates the overall profitability of the concern as it includes or accounts for all the expenses and incomes of the organization. The overall profitability of the organization has increased from 13.74% in the year 2007 to 22.37% in the year 2016. The return on assets of the organization have also increased from 8.79% in the year 2007 to 13.81% in the year

The debt to equity ratio of the organization is an indicator of the level of debt to overall equity of the concern. A high debt to equity is generally not a good indicator as the same can prove to be bad during the times of inflation. However on the other hand a certain amount of debt enables the organization to leverage its earnings in the form of tax savings. The level of debt to equity of the organization has been around 1 mark over a period of 6 years. This can considered to be under control considering profitable position of the concern. The interest coverage ratio is an indicator of the number of times the organization is able to cover its interest obligations with the help of its earnings (Revsine, Collins, & Johnson, 2005). A higher interest coverage ratio is always good as the same indicates a higher profitability and a lower interest obligation. The interest coverage ratio of the organization has increased from 5.1 to 8.04 in the year 2016. The current ratio is also a very important indicator from the view point of liquidity. Liquidity of the organization is as important as the profitability as the same can have a huge impact on the going concern assumption of the concern. A current ratio of 2:1 is considered to be ideal but the same can be lower based on the nature of the industry in which the organization operates. The current ratio of the organization has improved over the years and currently stands at 1.02. The financial leverage position of the organization is also an important indicator. Financal leverage position indicates how many times the organization is able to leverage its earnings. However a very high financial leverage ratio is bad as is it can have a negative impact The financial performance of the organization indicates the strong performance in the year 2015 and a strong financial position.

Social Performance

Telstra is the leading telecommunication and information service company in Australia which offers a high range of services in the field of communication and a big competitor in the telecommunication market. Telstra aims to develop a brilliant connected future for every individual. The purpose of the company is creation of a brilliant connected future for every individual. Telstra takes initiatives to bring a change in the lives of Aboriginal and people of Torres Strait Island. This change can bring development in social, cultural and economic prospects. By doing so Telstra seeks to achieve a well connected future for the country. The company recently carried out a comprehensive review of Telstra’s Indigenous Affairs strategy (Yilmaz, 2016). The main focus of the review comprises of an ambitious organisation-wide up liftment in the commitment to Australia’s First Peoples, thereby creating a brilliant connected future for every individual. The company has a lot of contributions towards the society. Some of which are listed below:

Community:

The employees of Telstra donated and raised funds for the Indian Ocean Tsunami disaster. The company along with its employees have donated around $1,561,280 towards the Asian tsunami relief fund accompanied by services worth $250,000 by creating and staffing of call centres, drives for raising funds, making extra phone lines available, waiving of call charges wherever required and providing volunteer support. The employees at Telstra provide several other services to the community such as “Clean Up Australia Day” which is highly supported by the volunteers of Telstra (Herrmann, 2012).

Workplace:

The company ensures a hassle free work environment. The Mental health awareness program of the company was done to raise awareness on issues related to mental health and how proper support is required to be given at workplace. The National Skin Cancer Action week was also a very effective one. Apart from these the company celebrates International Women’s Day, International day for People suffering Disability, NAIDOC Week and Harmony Day.

Marketplace:

The company takes initiative to give benefit of concessions and products and services to several low-income group people in Australia. This facilitates several under privileged or people below the poverty line to take advantage of this (Shahzad & Sharfman, 2015).

Health and Safety:

The company conducts health and safety audits. Apart from this the company takes part in external safety activities which includes developing call centre guidelines. Since, the year 1996 the company is formally committed to Australians having disability by lodging Disability Action Plan with the Human Rights Commission of Asutralia.

Privacy:

Privacy is something which is very essential for companies like Telstra who have a huge network of customer base. It seems to be more than a legislative requirement. Building and maintenance of customer trust is very crucial for Telstra. As the company holds huge amount of private data and information of the public it tries to maintain high level of privacy and security of the same. The company has appointed a whole team which is responsible for monitoring privacy compliance and initiated privacy guidelines for the staff. Training has been arranged in these areas to make the staff more confident and well-versed with the policies. In order to ensure every guideline of privacy and compliance has been followed the company conducts external audit of privacy performance annually.

Digital Inclusion:

By the term digital inclusion one understands something related to computers, technology or internet, but for Telstra digital inclusion indicates use of online and mobile techniques as channels for the improvement of skills, enhancement of the quality of life, boost education in a more advanced way and promotion of economic well-being all over the society. Digital inclusion has both social and economic participation. The reason for developing digital inclusion index is to improve the understanding on digital inclusion, raise awareness, facilitation of consultation, improving digital confidence and monitoring strategies for improving effectiveness of digital inclusion.

Employment:

Telstra’s Diversity and Inclusion team in Human Resource coordinates its indigenous employment strategy and activities and works in close coordination with Telstra Careers Centre and business units. The company has established recruitment specialists for Aboriginal and Torres Island people in the Telstra Career Centre for providing adequate support to them before as well as after the process of recruitment (Ahn & Kim, 2014). The company has now come up with 528 remote sites which have been maintained throughout Far-North Queensland, the Northern Territory, Torres Strait Island and Western Australia. Through these Telstra tries to achieve cultural depth and meaning for the company.

Environmental Performance

Telstra commits sound environmental performance. According to the CEO of Telstra, “I’m pleased to say that we are making a solid progress. We are continuously making improvements in energy efficiency programs by recycling the wastes and cutting down consumption of material like office paper”.

Telstra has undertaken several initiatives for creating a remarkable difference to its impact on the environment. The environmental policies of Telstra include the following:

• A sustainable method of operations needs to be achieved that would combine environmental, economic and social considerations (Dobler, Lajili, & Zéghal, 2012);
• By setting proper targets and objectives for environment improvement of environmental performance can be achieved;
• Respond to the environmental concerns of government and community;
• Development of such a culture of respect towards environment among the employees, customers, community and stakeholders;
• Efficiently utilizing resources such as materials and energy, at the same time minimizing the generation of waste by applying re-use, reduction and recycling practices;
• Work along with the contractors and suppliers for ensuring that they meet the environmental standards the company has set for themselves;
• The company ensures that audit, regular monitoring and publicly report on environmental progress is conducted.

Telstra covers a huge network of infrastructure throughout Australia. The company covers a number of areas including 11,000 locations. The company provides several facilities such as manholes, pits and payphones situated in publicly used areas like national parks and roadside reserves. Telstra faces several environmental issues such as:

• Use of resources comprises of water, energy and materials for the purpose of operation, construction and maintaining network for telecommunication and daily office activities;
• Emission of greenhouse gases from use of energy, travelling, vehicle fleet and landfill waste;
• Management of waste (Duasa & Afroz, 2013);
• Issues in procurement of goods and materials thereby giving reasonable environmental consideration such as packaging;
• Constructing and maintaining activities in the field which result in local impacts on visual amenities and generation of waste that include packaging and spoil.

The diagram below will show the impact of Telstra’s activities on the environment,

By focussing on operational excellence the company’s objective is addressing material environmental risk and opportunities throughout its operations. The approaches of Telstra include:

• Improvement in energy efficiency of the company’s network building, office buildings, data centres, ICT equipment and architecture;
• Searching for opportunities of making use of renewable energy in the best possible way in order to check emissions;
• Maximizing opportunities of recycling and reusing thereby minimizing the electronic waste through responsible practices of disposal;
• Implementation of risk based environmental management system for maintaining of the company’s licence for operating in the field of performance improvement continuously.

The company’s progress in this field has been noteworthy till date. The company has achieved progress in the field of energy efficiency, business travel and renewable energy, waste management, electronic waste, paper use and water use.

Energy efficiency:

The company focuses largely on concerns related to carbon emissions used in the Telstra’s network. The energy use in the FY 2015 recorded 87% of the total carbon emissions. In the FY 2014 the company sets a target of decreasing carbon emissions by 55% over a period of three years from 2015 to 2017, considering FY 2014 as the baseline. The company recorded a 27% reduction in the intensity of carbon emissions during the FY 2015, thereby enabling the company to be on line with the target. The carbon emission and emission intensity over FY 13- FY 15 is shown below with the help of a bar graph:

Business Travel:

The direct emissions of the company has reduced in the FY 2015 mainly because of change in structure and increased efficiency of fuel across the fleet of Telstra. While the use of LPG and diesel decreased considerably by 42.9% and 2.3% respectively, the use of ethanol blend fuel and petrol arose during the FY 2015 (Telstra, 2015). These shifts are a result of phasing out of LPG station wagon vehicles from the fleet of the company since purchase of the same is no longer available. As a result of increased domestic and international air travel emissions from these have arose. The increase is 18% for domestic flights and 33% for international flights, which is a result of acquisitions throughout Telstra Group.

Renewable energy:

Telstra makes use of renewable energy sources combining with fuel cells. This not only helps in decreasing emissions but at the same time develops reliance on the company’s network power supply. The fuel cells support those sites of Telstra which require back up electricity for longer periods. These provide electricity back up for several days and are useful in areas those are prone to natural disasters. At the times of disaster, telecommunications becomes a vital source of communication for the emergency responders, hence maintaining continuous electricity supply is very essential.

Waste Management:

Reduction in construction and demolition activities has resulted in decrease of total wastes produced by in the FY 2015 by 13%. The workers of the company work closely along with the waste service providers for diverting more demolition waste and construction from landfill and develop the appropriateness of general waste data. The total recycling waste reduced from 72% to 70% at a rate of 2.5% which became possible because of end of national copper replacement program that accounted for 63% of the total recycled waste of the organization.

Electronic waste:

The company has taken a lot of initiatives towards its e-waste challenge. These initiatives include establishing internal e-waste cycling infrastructure, Mobile Master, trade-in and recycle programs and retail customer’s mobile device reuse. The company committed for improvement in strategic approach for management of e-waste in the FY 2014. The body that partnered with the company was University of Technology, Sydney. The company is planning for an Electronics Reuse and Recycling Strategy with the committee. The overall collection during FY 2015 was 3,940 tonnes of e-waste which is almost double the amount of FY 2014 (Telstra, 2015).

Paper use:

The company has cut down on consumption of paper in the FY 2015 by 0.6%. The company experienced a reduction of 11.2% in billing paper and 23.6% in paper for office use but there was a hike of 21.8% in use of printing paper.

Conclusion

The analysis above indicates that the organization commands a strong financial position and has displayed a strong financial performance. In terms of its contribution to the social cause the organization has played its role over the years and makes a n increased effort to increase the same. The commitment of the organization towards the environment has also improved over the years which is evident from the report above.