South Africa is facing a water crisis in terms of the scarcity and the quality of its water. Considering this water-constrained future it is evident that companies in South Africa should pay attention to the pristine management of this scarce resource. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the reporting and disclosure requirements of water of Socially Responsible Investment-indexed (SRI) JSE-listed companies. The disclosure requirements of the integrated report, King III, the Global Reporting Initiative and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, provided the theoretical background to develop a water disclosure index. Content analysis was used as the research method to analyse the integrated and sustainability reports of a selected group of SRI indexed JSE-listed companies. The results were analysed in terms of the disclosure on items such as materiality, governance, corporate policies, environmental management systems, risk assessments and key performance indicators. The findings of the study include that most of the companies illustrate commitment towards water stewardship by reporting on water-related aspects. The mining sector rated the highest on disclosure and reporting of water-related aspects by providing the most detailed descriptions by indicating that they clearly understand the context of their operations and the associated risks. In the process of analysing the integrated and sustainability reports with specific reference to the key performance indicators, it was evident that companies lack comparability and consistency in their disclosure. It is recommended that companies improve the relevance, depth and clarity of their disclosure on water. / MCom (Management Accountancy), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Background: Companies today are under increasing pressure from their stakeholders to become more and more transparent regarding the way they deal with the impact on the environment and the communities where they operate in. This type of information is mainly provided by means of sustainability reports. Several guidelines have been developed to aid report makers on the way. Currently however these sustainability reports still differ widely in the quantity of information provided which makes them difficult to compare and it is therefore important to understand the factors that can influence the amount of information being published. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the factors having an impact on the amount of sustainability information published by Swedish companies using the guidelines developed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Method: Telephone interviews were conducted with eleven of the twenty-three Swedish companies listed in the GRI register in order to get their point of view regarding these factors. Results: The study identified that the willingness to communicate with more than one stakeholder group is the most important factor that can influence the amount of information disclosed in sustainability reports. The authors also argue that a proactive attitude towards identifying legitimation strategies instead of an adaptive approach can also influence the degree of disclosure. Finally, a positive attitude towards the GRI guidelines may also contribute to producing a more detailed report.

<p>Background: Companies today are under increasing pressure from their stakeholders to become more and more transparent regarding the way they deal with the impact on the environment and the communities where they operate in. This type of information is mainly provided by means of sustainability reports. Several guidelines have been developed to aid report makers on the way. Currently however these sustainability reports still differ widely in the quantity of information provided which makes them difficult to compare and it is therefore important to understand the factors that can influence the amount of information being published.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the factors having an impact on the amount of sustainability information published by Swedish companies using the guidelines developed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).</p><p>Method: Telephone interviews were conducted with eleven of the twenty-three Swedish companies listed in the GRI register in order to get their point of view regarding these factors.</p><p>Results: The study identified that the willingness to communicate with more than one stakeholder group is the most important factor that can influence the amount of information disclosed in sustainability reports. The authors also argue that a proactive attitude towards identifying legitimation strategies instead of an adaptive approach can also influence the degree of disclosure. Finally, a positive attitude towards the GRI guidelines may also contribute to producing a more detailed report.</p>

M.Tech. Internal Auditing / Mining can have a positive impact on Namibia by contributing towards economic growth and infrastructure development, by creating jobs, and by increasing foreign currency earnings; but on the other hand, the exploration of natural resources often runs in parallel with corruption, exploitation, environmental devastation, and population displacement through migrant labour. It is therefore imperative for mines to be sustainable in their operations: in other words, mines must protect and enhance the economic, social and environmental milieus of Namibia. The main objective of a mining company is profit maximisation through exploitation of natural resources, and the company can therefore be defensive, even antagonistic, towards sustainable operations and sustainability reporting. The pressure from mining companies' stakeholders for them to be transparent in their operations, and to report on all sustainability-related issues is increasing, and research has indicated that mining companies are, in the majority, supportive of the initiative, and realise the advantages of pursuing sustainable operations. Research results from the study indicated that between the different types of companies, and between countries, there is a significant variation in the sustainability reporting performance, both delivered and required. Improvement opportunities were identified in a number of areas with regards to the quality, consistency and extent of sustainability reporting. The rationale and the motivation for this study was therefore to determine the standard of integrated sustainability reporting being achieved by mining companies in Namibia, in order to determine the needs and shortcomings in the sustainability reporting arena. The final deliverable of this study was to develop a reporting framework which could enable enhanced integrated sustainability reporting by providing the mining industry in Namibia with a structured framework that conforms to world class standards.

In recent decades, demands has emerged that the companies shall take a greater social responsibility for the impact that they have on their environment and that this impact shall be reported, which is known as Sustainability Reporting. The Sustainability Report is based on a number of general principles that ensure the content and the quality of the Sustainability Report. One of these principles is the principle of completeness. In the research, this principle seems to have been interpreted in terms of number of reported aspects and indicators, which can be a limited view where only the existence of the aspects and indicators is observed. By including the degree of the reporting in terms of full, partial and no reporting as well as a comparison between the real and the alleged reporting, our intention is to extend the principle of completeness and to develop a tool that we also apply through an empirical survey in a particular area. This creates not only a deeper understanding of the principle of completeness, but also an understanding of how the completeness in reporting in the area of human rights seems to be in large Swedish companies. In this paper, a quantitative content analysis has been used. This was done either on the corporate sustainability report or on the annual report in the case the sustainability report was included there. The conclusion that can be drawn is that there are deficiencies in the completeness both in terms of the existence of aspects and indicators, but also in the degree of the reporting. Additionally, the completeness also deficiencies in the comparison between the real and the alleged reporting.

This work examines current situation on the reporting field of enterprises, kind of reports from the content and the form point of view. Moreover this work compares approaches about XBRL report's processing and designs application's solution, that uses one from these approaches. The solution's goal is to increase the efficiency of a work by exchange of informations related to financial and nonfinancial reporting within and outside of enteprises.

The field of sustainability reporting has been studied for a number of decades but how companies respond to sustainability reporting regulations is still understudied. To lessen the gap, this thesis uses an institutional perspective to analyze how Swedish financial companies respond to the new regulation demanding all larger companies to disclose a sustainability report. The thesis takes a qualitative approach by conducting interviews at seven companies to investigate how institutional elements influences their sustainability disclosure processes. Findings show that the content of the reports is not largely affected due to normative elements providing a higher standard than the regulation demands. The reason for this can to a large extent be explained by the use of accepted frameworks which acts as the norm. The thesis also finds that though the content is not largely affected, the regulation affects the internal processes, requiring companies to examine and evaluate their existing sustainability agendas. The findings provide a complement to existing research that to a large degree consists of quantitative research as it illuminates how companies view their sustainability report and the reasoning for disclosing it. The influence of regulation on sustainability reporting is still an understudied subject and more research is needed to address this gap.

In society today, there is a great focus on sustainability and that companies should contribute to sustainable development. One way to do this is through transparency between the company and its stakeholders regarding how they work on these important issues. This is done through sustainability reports that can be designed in different ways, but this study focuses on those that follow the Global Reporting Initiative, which is the dominant framework globally.   Prior research has shown mixed conclusions regarding GRI and its usefulness. In these, both positive and negative aspects of the framework have been highlighted. This study examines what and how high and low ranked businesses based on SBI report to study the usefulness of GRI. In addition, various theories will be used to examine what may be the reasons for the similarities and differences between the groups. This result is also related to prior research that studied sustainability reporting in connection with the selected theories.   The study was conducted as a method where qualitative data was quantified through a quantitative content analysis. The sustainability reports of 32 companies were reviewed based on their GRI-index and data was then statistically tested using Chi-square-tests and a Fisher's exact test. The study shows that there is no significant difference in what the high and low ranked businesses report. This difference applies to the total number of indicators as well as within the different series, economic, environmental and social. Regarding how the companies report, the study shows that the low ranked businesses are more likely to report indicators for which they do not meet the requirements, this result is also statistically significant. The reasons for the similarities and differences that were identified can be discussed in relations to institutional theory, legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory.

The purpose of this study was to develop an environmental reporting framework for the Tanzanian industrial sector. To achieve the purpose, the study started by developing a disclosure index, which was used to measure the current extent of environmental reporting in Tanzania. There were two phases in the process of developing the environmental disclosure index (EDI) for the Tanzanian industrial sector. The first phase involved identifying and refining the items for disclosure from the literature. In particular the studies on environmental reporting/disclosure were reviewed and the items to be included in the initial disclosure index were identified. The second phase involved the development of the final disclosure index using the Delphi inquiry method. In the Delphi inquiry, knowledgeable experts in environmental issues were consulted and asked for their opinion on the items proposed, whether the item should be retained, removed or any addition of new item. Therefore, the role of the experts was, first to confirm and validate items to be included in the EDI, and second, to assess the importance of the disclosure of each item by allocating weight to every item. The extent of environmental reporting in Tanzania was measured by using the EDI developed. The annual and environmental reports from various organisations operating in Tanzania were requested and read to determine the current extent of environmental reporting. The results indicated that the information reported by organisations operating in Tanzania mostly came from the categories ‘Organisational context’ and ‘Management performance, policies and systems. The information from ‘environmental performance’ category was left unreported. After the current extent of environmental reporting has been explored, the environmental reporting framework (ERF) was developed. The framework intended to provide guidance on environmental reporting to organisations (from the industrial sector) of any size operating in the country. In particular the framework provided the guidance on four steps to be followed when preparing environmental reports and the content to be included in the reports. After the ERF was developed, it was tested to investigate its applicability using two case studies. The results indicated that the steps to be followed when preparing environmental reports were valid and implementable. / College of Accounting Sciences / D. Phil. (Accounting Sciences)

<p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka behovet av extern revidering, bankernas förväntan och revisionsfirmornas förutsättningar att revidera hållbarhetsinformation. Författarna berör även huruvida nationella och internationella påtryckningar har påverkat hållbarhetsredovisningen.</p><p>Metod som använts är fallstudier med semistrukturerade intervjuer.</p><p>Fallföretag: Handelsbanken, SEB, Swedbank, Deloitte, KPMG och Öhrlings PricewaterhouseCoopers</p><p>Vår studie visade att hållbarhetsredovisningen idag är försumbar ur ett låneperspektiv. Idag klassas redovisningen som ett komplement till den traditionella årsredovisningen, en viktig förutsättning för att höja dess acceptans är extern revidering. Revisionen skulle underlättas av en harmonisering av redovisningsreglerna, då ett problem idag är att det är stora variationer i företags kriterier och riktlinjer, en harmonisering skulle även leda till ökad jämförbarhet företag emellan. Det första steget mot internationell harmonisering har kommit från EU genom moderniseringsdirektivet. Hållbarhetsredovisningen befinner sig ännu i sin linda, men fallföretagen är överrens om att redovisning i flera dimensioner är här för att stanna.</p> / <p>The objective of the thesis is to investigate the need for extern auditing, the bank’s expectations and the accounting firm’s condition of auditing sustainability information. The authors also touch upon whether national and international lobbying has affected the sustainability reporting.</p><p>The method used is case studies with semi structured interviews.</p><p>Case study: Handelsbanken, SEB, Swedbank, Deloitte, KPMG and Öhrlings PricewaterhouseCoopers</p><p>Our study showed that sustainability reporting is negligible from the banks perspective. The reporting today is classified as a complement to the traditional annual report, an important prerequisite to increase the acceptance is external auditing. The auditing would be facilitated by a harmonisation of the accounting rules, as a problem today is the great variations in company’s criterion and guidelines, a harmonisation would also lead to increased comparability between companies. EU has taken the first step towards international harmonisation by their modernization directive. Sustainability reporting is still in its infancy, but the case companies all agree that reporting in several dimensions is here to stay.</p>