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141	Maturity modelling of corporate responsibility: New Zealand case studies Nichols, E. January 2005 (has links) Corporations are increasingly being expected to be responsible to not only shareholders, but also to employees, society and for the environment. This expectation increases as business crises, such the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the Enron collapse, continue to occur. In New Zealand several umbrella organisations were established to aid organisations in the quest to become sustainable or corporately responsible, such as New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development, New Zealand Businesses for Social Responsibility, and the Sustainable Business Network. A number of high profile companies such as Hubbard Foods Ltd, Landcare Research, Fonterra and Telecom belong to these umbrella organisations and have produced reports that reflect not only economic prosperity but also environmental quality and social equity. The aim of this research is to identify how organisations are implementing corporate responsibility issues into the operations, and using this information to construct a maturity model. The value of a maturity model is as an analytic tool, where an organisation can be benchmarked against the best in the field. Developing a maturity model for integrating corporate responsibility into an organisation enables managers to identify at which stage the organisation is currently situated and then provides an action plan of where to progress in the future. A preliminary maturity model is developed based on previous models from the fields of corporate responsibility, environmental management and sustainability. This exploratory study used the case study method to analyse six organisations that are members of the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development and are producing annual sustainability reports. Using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines for sustainability reporting, 10 years of annual reports from each case company were analysed and compared against these guidelines. The results were used to identify what corporate responsibility areas businesses are currently reporting on and therefore implementing within the organisation, and identifying if there is an evolutionary pattern applicable to all organisations thereby enabling the construction of a maturity model. The findings show that although there was an increase in the GRI indicators included the reporting is poorly developed. The major areas of change have been in the reporting of governance and management structures, the development and inclusion of vision statements and changes in management policies. There was increased reporting in some environmental and social indicators, but no clear patterns of change emerged. Using the data and analysis a refinement of the proposed maturity model was made. corporate responsibility global reporting initiative maturity modelling sustainability reporting sustainable development
142	The evaluation of environmental reporting by publicly listed South African banks / Evaluation of environmental reporting by listed South African banks Oduro-Kwateng, George January 2010 (has links) Recently, bankers have come to realise that banking operations, especially corporate lending, affect and are affected by the natural environment and that consequently, the banks might have an important role to play in helping to raise environmental standards. Although the environment presents significant risks to banks, in particular environmental credit risk, it also perhaps presents profitable opportunities. Stricter environmental regulations have forced companies to invest in environmentally friendly technologies and pollution control measures and in tum generated lending opportunities for bankers. This research examines the corporate practices of three of the four dominant banks in South Africa with respect to the environment, focusing on issues of climate change and environmental risk management by way of reporting and disclosure to all stakeholders. The emphasis on environmental reporting by South African banks has been reinforced by the latest release of the King III Report on Corporate Governance in South Africa. Global governance requires that the triple-bottom line should be applied in all corporate undertakings due to globalisation and trade liberalisation; however, the banking sector has responded poorly to the clarion call. The false view that the banks have no significant relationship with environmental degradation is being disproved. Environmental management is a huge and massive reconstruction of what has gone wrong with nature by human influence. The South African banks have had to face with the challenging tasks of reporting on the direct and mostly the indirect impacts of their environmental activities. Based on the three sampled banks which incidentally had greater percentages of the market capitalizations, the banks have fairly performed in environmental reporting. For example, Standard Bank (SA) Ltd has just signed the Equator Principles in 2007 implying corporate lending was done in 2007 without any respect to environmental impact assessments by corporate borrowers. Consequently, environmental reporting was not done to facilitate informed decision-making by stakeholders mostly shareholders and the communities where borrowers tun businesses. The objective of this research study is to investigate the extent and quantity of/voluntary environmental disclosures in the annual and sustainability reports of the banks listed on Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The periods examined were those subsequent to the release of the Exposure Draft Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) issued in 1999. Using content analysis to focus on the environmental aspects, the research study compared three annual reports and three sustainability reports of 2007 year for the three sampled banks in order to evaluate reporting practices in the period surrounding this intervention. The results suggest a trend to triple bottom-line reporting and the extent and quantity of environmental information, albeit in specific categories. Environmental reporting -- South Africa Banks and banking -- South Africa Environmental protection -- South Africa Environmental economics -- South Africa Environmental management -- South Africa Climatic changes -- South Africa Global Reporting Initiative Standard Bank Limited Nedbank ABSA Bank
143	Licence to Talk : Sustainability Managers and their Managerial Realities within the Corporate Sustainability Paradox El hajjari Borg, Mounia, Sundberg, Elin January 2021 (has links) While sustainability-dedicated managers and related titles represent a profession that has hardly existed for more than a decade, it is not surprising that the field of research concentrating on these professionals is in itself relatively new. With an increasing demand for corporations to take their social and environmental responsibility, and a corporate sustainability characterized by tension and paradox, we found it of importance to explore the role and entanglements of these professionals. By analysing 17 in-depth interviews with sustainability-dedicated professionals from the private sector in Sweden, our interpretation is that sustainability managers hold the function of selling sustainability, with talk as their main weapon. Expressly, in the intersection between business-case logics and sustainability logics, sustainability managers have to, above all, make a convincing case for sustainability, inwards and outwards. Therefore, they draw dynamically on different narratives which we conceptualise in three roles: the chameleon, the pragmatic, and the nagging manager. Through these roles, we intend to capture the fluidity with which the managers relate and engage with sustainability, and hence we do not mean to ossify a role’s dynamics within a single, static or stereotypical category. We discuss these findings and concepts to the background of previous studies and existing literature. Sustainability managers sustainability-dedicated professionals sustainable development sustainable management corporate sustainability corporate paradox CSR stakeholders governance sustainability strategies communication strategic communication sustainability reporting non-financial disclosure private sector in Sweden paradox approach paradox perspective business case social and environmental responsibility organizations multinationals MNC Nils Brunsson organizational theory organizational hypocrisy neo-institutionalism organizational individuals decision-making action business operations isomorphism institutional logics market logics reporting frameworks GRI global reporting initiative walk the talk change making change agent systemic change behaviour and human resources identity work organizational sociology legitimacy Hållbarhetschefer hållbarhetsrelaterade roller hållbar utveckling hållbar ledning hållbarhet paradox CSR intressenter styrning hållbarhetsstrategier kommunikation strategisk kommunikation hållbarhetsrapportering icke-finansiell information privat sektor i Sverige paradox perspektiv affärsstrategi socialt och miljöansvar organisationer multinationella företag MNC Nils Brunsson organisationsteori organizational hypocrisy hyckleri neo-institutionalism organisatoriska individer individnivå beslutsfattande affärsverksamhet isomorfism institutionell logik marknadslogik rapporteringsramverk GRI global reporting initiativ walk the talk förändringsarbete förändringsagent systemförändring beteende och mänskliga resurser identitetsarbete organisatorisk sociologi legitimitet externa och interna påtryckningar. Social Sciences Samhällsvetenskap

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