Introduction:

- Spotted - a few grammar errors and lack of cohesion.

- What is the structure of your report? Please be more specific in terms of the report's outline.

- Suggestion: Using numbering headlines to separate your sections.

What's being reported?

- Provided some of the very interesting differences between Coles and Kroger.

- Avoid using subjective words when you do analysis. Be specific and objective!

How is it being reported?

- GRI adoption mentioned. GRI overview provided.

- UNSDGs were noted.

- Some points are not correct.

Why is it being reported?

- Theories and practical reports were well-blended.

SEV guest lecture reflection

Q1. A good summary of SEV activities

Q2. You can think of what accounting information or practices you learned from AOS are relevant to SEV
sustainable development? Be more specific when you put down an argument.

Q3. Good job!

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ACCT2105 ACCOUNTING IN ORGANISATIONS AND SOCIETY

Semester A 2021

Title of Assignment Understanding Sustainability Reporting Practice

Duong Nguyen Khanh Lam – s3877631

Name and Student ID Nguyen Tran An Thinh - s3877547
Phan Nguyen Tam Nhu - s3878191
Nguyen Ngoc Quynh Mai - s3878424

Lam Duong
Thinh Nguyen
Signature
Nhu Phan
Mai Nguyen

Location Saigon South Campus

Class Group SG – G04

Lecturer Pham Duy Man

Word Count
(Main content without in-
text citation, list of 1292
references, cover page,
reflection)

IMPORTANT NOTICE: All students listed on this page declare that they have read and agree to the
statement of authorship on the next page.

2
Declaration and Statement of Authorship

1. I/we hold a soft copy of this assignment which can be produced if the original is lost/damaged.

2. This assignment is my/our original work and no part of it has been copied from any other
student’s work or from any other source except where due acknowledgement is made.

3. No part of this assignment has been written for me/us by any other person except
where such collaboration has been authorised by the academic/teacher concerned and
as detailed in the assignment.

4. I/we have not previously submitted this work for any other course/unit.

5. I give permission for my assignment to be scanned for electronic checking of plagiarism.

6. I give permission for a copy of my/our marked work to be retained by the Department for
review by external examiners.

I/we understand that:

Plagiarism is the presentation of the work, idea or creation of another person as though it is one’s own.
It is a form of cheating and is a very serious academic offence which may lead to expulsion from the
University.

Plagiarised material can be drawn from, and presented in, written, graphic and visual form, including
electronic data, and oral presentations. Plagiarism occurs when the origin of the material used is not
appropriately cited.

Enabling Plagiarism is the act of assisting or allowing another person to plagiarise or to copy one’s work;
this is not acceptable and is also subject to penalty.

Further information relating to the penalties for plagiarism, which range from a notation on your
student file to expulsion from the University, is contained in RMIT Statute 6.1 Student Discipline (see
Appendix in Student Guide or consult Turing.)

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Introduction

Sustainability reporting has been a trend in modern life (Kolk 2005). Since an organization’s
development is affected by various stakeholders, the sustainability report provides them organizational
information about economic, environmental, social, and governance performance and goals for society's
future (Herzig & Schaltegger 2006). Kroger is the American third-largest retailer and takes 23rd place on
the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest US companies by total revenue (NRF 2020; Fortune 2020).
Coles is an Australian supermarket chain, accounting for 27% of its market (Coles 2021). Both of them
release the report to communicate and gain trust from stakeholders. This analysis report will identify and
compare what, why, and how they report their sustainability performance and reflect on the Schneider
Electricity Vietnam (SEV) guest lecture.

What’s being reported?

Coles and Kroger both published the 2020 sustainability reports highlighting various social and
environmental issues and innovative solutions and projects. Overall, they both had multiple noble
achievements thanks to their excellent social and environmental performance, which are selectively
presented at the beginning of each section (Figure 1, 2, & 3).

Social performance

Regarding the social aspect, Coles and Kroger express their concerns about people and their country’s
sustainability. Remarkably, they took various actions such as enacting and proposing policies to support
stakeholders, establishing community projects, providing essential supplies and services. Nevertheless,
they address each issue with different approaches.

Coles prioritizes human wellbeing and safety at work as well as against COVID-19 and natural disasters.
According to Figure 4, Coles reported that the Total recordable injury frequency rate dropped by 5.1% in
FY20. In addition, they gave their team members and customers significant access to groceries during
those events. As an Australian company, Coles also cares about the indigenous communities by offering
career opportunities and well-qualified food. Besides, they participated in numerous community projects
contributing to many other issues. Especially, they claimed responsibility for sales of alcohol and
tobacco, which is not presented in Kroger’s report.

Meanwhile, Kroger primarily focuses on physical health issues, namely food safety, healthcare, nutrition.
For example, Kroger has been propagandizing Kroger’s Zero Hunger, which directed 1.1 billion meals
with diverse nutrition values over the past three years (Figure 2 & 5). Like Coles, Kroger also dedicates
to safe working conditions and resources by delivering the proper safety training and equipment and
tracking injury performance. Furthermore, Kroger cares about diversity and inclusion value, targeting
racial equity and LGBTQ engagement.

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Environmental performance

In terms of environmental aspects, Coles and Kroger emphasize climate change and care about waste
management, recycling, and packaging. Overall, they collaborated with various reliable partners,
developed policies, and coordinated several programs to minimize their environmental impacts.

Coles deals with climate change by responding to the Task Force on Climate-related Financial
Disclosures and taking initiatives to address climate-related risks and opportunities. At the end of FY20,
Coles cut down greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 36.5% from 2009 (Figure 3). Additionally, Coles is
deeply concerned about waste, especially food, and recycling. Finally, regarding sustainable packaging
design, Coles follows the APCO’s Sustainable Packaging Guidelines.

Kroger, meanwhile, prefers self-dealing the climate impacts with their mechanisms and the investment in
innovative technology. Consequently, they could reduce energy consumption such as electricity, gas,
refrigerant, and normalized GHG emissions (tCO2e per 1,000 ft2), from 26.0 in 2018 to 24.9 in 2019
(Figure 1). Additionally, Kroger emphasizes food waste diversion to achieve the zero food waste goal,
released as Food Waste Management Data (Figure 6). Like Coles, Kroger also cares about Zero Waste
goals and sustainable packaging.

How is it being reported?

Coles and Kroger adopt the Global Reporting Initiative to understand and communicate their impacts to
stakeholders. GRI is an international nonprofit standards organization that helps organizations recognize
their impacts on the economy, environment, and society (GRI n.d.). Additionally, both companies are
committing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). Furthermore, they both
partner with a third agency to ensure there is no imbalance among information. Besides, Kroger applies
SASB Standards to review their disclosures against the Food Retailers and Distributors Standard, while
Coles' report aligns with the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and is guided by social, ethical,
and environmental policies (Kroger 2020; Coles Group 2020). 

Specifically, Kroger’s report analyzes three main sectors: Environment, Social, and Governance, and
applies some targeted UNSDGs to all sectors. Additionally, they include infographics and detailed
information about their actions to achieve sustainable goals. Meanwhile, Coles concentrates on three
main sections: Sustainable Communities, Sustainable Products, and Sustainable Environmental
Practice. In each section, they report their activities, infographics, and graphics about their commitments.
Furthermore, in each primary sector, Coles links it to some specific UNSDGs and UNGC. Besides, Coles
and Kroger both include the executive team’s message in their reports.

Speaking about the accounting period, Coles' report covers July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020, while
Kroger's runs from February 3, 2019, to February 1, 2020. Regarding the report's language, Kroger's
report is accessible to all stakeholders since it is written in simple language and provides several well-
organized infographics. Meanwhile, Coles's is suitable for professionals because it does not insert many
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charts or graphs, and it conveys much technical information. Kroger has a separate website that
contains only information about their sustainability reports. To Coles, they publish their sustainability
reports on its official website in the "Sustainability'' category. Additionally, their reports are both in PDF
form and separate from the annual report.

Why are they reporting it?

Transparency is always appreciated

Corporate transparency is a wide range of available, credible, and relevant information about firms’
financial and non-financial performance, as well as value and risk (Bushman & Smith 2003). Both Coles
and Kroger Directors claimed that bolstering trustworthiness and driving sustainability is their reports’
purposes (Coles Group 2020; Kroger 2020). Being transparent with the ESG source, companies can
increase their market value over time and allow stakeholders to access accurate, all-inclusive, easy-to-
analyze, economical, and time-saving information (Sisman et al. 2015). Mostly, in the retail sector, the
public would like to know more information about the product reliability, packaging, the amount of
chemicals used, and its growing process (Ipsos MORI Reputation Center n.d.). Therefore, these are all
included in the report of Kroger and Coles Group. Furthermore, publishing ESG performance helps to
avoid corruptive circumstances and relations (Sneidere & Vigante 2014). In summary, transparency is
the foundation for earning credits.

External influences

Under the impact of COVID-19, companies that catch up with the pandemic shift and disclose it with
transparency prevail over those that do not (KPMG 2020). Thus, Coles and Kroger show that they
worked closely with the government to carry out appropriate measures to ensure people’s safety. For
example, Coles offering exclusive shopping hours for the elderly and vulnerable during COVID-19 has
had the most meaningful impact according to consumers, while Kroger offers employees 100$ who get
COVID-19 vaccine (Wilkinson 2020; Cannon 2021).

Because of environmental and social issues, ESG disclosure standards, rules, and regulations are rising
in America and Australia while stakeholders force businesses to drive sustainability more effectively
(Dorobantu et al. 2018; Clarkin et al. 2020; Bartels et al. 2016; PwC 2020). For instance, to tackle the
food waste issue in America, the joint agreement: Winning on Reducing Food Waste Initiative was
signed in 2018 (US Food and Drugs Administration 2021). Additionally, the Australian government
committed in 2016 to half their food disposal by 2030 (Australian Government, 2017). Therefore, as a
large American and Australian food retailer, Kroger and Coles must address this global issue (Kor,
Prabhu & Esposito 2017). For instance, Coles works with partnerships to provide food to Australians in
need, while Kroger established the Kroger Zero Hunger program (Coles Group 2020; Kroger 2020). 

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Hence, all information on the social and environmental issues approach disclosed in Coles, and Kroger
2020 ESG report indicates their effort to tackle those issues, balance different stakeholders’ interests,
and raise people’s awareness. 

SEV guest lecture reflection

What are the key social and environmental activities being carried out by Schneider Electric
Vietnam (SEV)?

Key social and environmental activities done by SEV are Energy Management and Industrial
Automation, including:

 Act for a climate positive world

 Be efficient with resources
 Live up to their principle of trust
 Create equal opportunities
 Harness the power of all generations
 Empower local communities 

How do you link the industry lecture with the knowledge you obtained from AOS lesson this
semester?

According to Pham (2021), there are a wide range of stakeholders who want to engage knowledge about
the company’s social and environmental performances. Therefore, though it is a voluntary work and
costs much money, SEV carries out social and environmental activities to let stakeholders know they
have responsibilities for their social and environmental performance. Though it is non-financial, it is still
counted as accounting. Social, the company tries to create more jobs. Regarding environmental
performance, SEV is working on reducing CO2 in air. Shareholders, government and society can see its
accountability for the planet which could directly impact themselves.  For this reason, without this
information the organization cannot be sustainable in the future as it builds and maintains trust for
stakeholders, society and government. 

What similarities do you find between SEV's sustainability activities with your chosen companies
in the assignment?  

It can be concluded that our chosen organizations have some sustainability activities which are the same
with those of SEV. First of all, their activities are all based on UNSDGs and have a vision of global
insight. Second, regarding environment aspects, these three organizations focus on climate change by
trying to minimize CO2 emissions. Besides, sustainability packaging is also in their all attention. They
encourage stakeholders to recycle and reduce the amount of single-use plastics. About society, they all
try to increase gender diversity in as many jobs as possible as well as create more job opportunities for
7
potential human resources. Lastly, SEV and our companies all published their sustainability report
separated from the annual report every year for such a long time: more than 10 years. 

Conclusion

The report has identified and compared what, how, and why Coles and Kroger conduct sustainability
reporting, as well as reflected on the SEV guest lecture. Both firms have considerably contributed to the
environment and society through multiple activities. Their sustainability activities are affected mainly by
their stakeholders’ interests and requirements and their national issues. Apart from sharing some basics,
they have differences in such factors as structure, language and main focuses. Specifically, Kroger
prioritizes physical health issues while Coles primarily concentrates on climate impacts.

Reference

Australian Government 2017, National Food Waste Strategy: Halving Australia’s food waste by 2030,
Commonwealth of Australia 2017, viewed in 14 April 202,
<https://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/4683826b-5d9f-4e65-9344-
a900060915b1/files/national-food-waste-strategy.pdf>.
Bartels, W, Fogelberg, T, Hoballah, A & Lugt, CT, Global trends in sustainability reporting regulation and
policy, Carrots & Sticks, viewed in April 2021, viewed in 14 April 2021, Carrots & Sticks database.
Bushman, R & Smith, A 2003, ‘Financial Accounting Information and Corporate Governance’, FRBNY
Economic Policy Review, vol. 32, p.237-333.
Clarkin, C-M, Sawyer, M, Levin, JL, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP 2020, The Rise of Standardized ESG
Disclosure Frameworks in the United States, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance,
viewed in 14 April 2021, <https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/06/22/the-rise-of-standardized-esg-
disclosure-frameworks-in-the-united-states/#1>.

Dorobantu, S, Aguilera, VR, Luo, J & Milliken, JF 2018, Sustainability, Stakeholder Governance, and
Corporate Social Responsibility, Emerald Publishing Limited, ProQuest Ebook Central.

Fortune 2021, Kroger Company Profile, Fortune, viewed 15 April 2021,

<https://fortune.com/company/kroger/fortune500/>.

Global Reporting Initiative n.d, ‘How to use the GRI Standards’, Global Reporting Initiative, viewed 14
April 2021, <https://www.globalreporting.org/how-to-use-the-gri-standards>.

Ipsos MORI Reputation Center, n.d, Sustainability Issues in Retail Sector, Ipsos MORI Reputation
Center, France.

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Kor, Y , Prabhu, J & Esposito, M 2017, ‘How Large Food Retailers Can Help Solve the Food Waste
Crisis’, Harvard Business Review, viewed in 09 April 2021, <https://hbr.org/2017/12/how-large-food-
retailers-can-help-solve-the-food-waste-crisis>.
KPMG 2020, Sustainability reporting during covid 19 pandemic, KPMG International, India.

Kroger 2020, 2020 Environmental, Social and Governance Report, Kroger, the USA.

Kroger 2020, COVID-19 Statement, The Kroger Families of Company, the USA.

NRF 2020, Top 100 Retailers 2020 List, NRF, viewed 15 April 2021, <https://nrf.com/resources/top-
retailers/top-100-retailers/top-100-retailers-2020-list>.

Pham, DM 2021, ‘Social and Environmental Accounting’, course note for ACCT2105 Accounting in
Organisation and Society, RMIT University, Vietnam, viewed 15 April 2021, Canvas@RMIT.

PwC 2020, ESG reporting - are we keeping pace?, PwC, Australia.

Roy Morgan 2020, 'Looking beyond the panic-buying, Australia’s big supermarket story is Aldi’s growing
market share', Roy Morgan, March, viewed 12 April 2021, <http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/8336-
fresh-food-and-grocery-report-december-2019-202003230634>.

Sisman, FA, Yozgat, U, Abunaz, E & Ozarslan, T 2015, ‘Importance of transparency on sustainable
success orientation’, Research Journal of Business and Management, vol. 2, pp. 366-379.

Sneidere, R & Vigante, I 2014, ‘Importance of social and sustainability reporting in ensuring transparency
and disclosure’, Economic Annals- XXI, vol.21, pp. 61-64.

Wilkinson, Z 2020, ‘Coles’ community hour named best brand initiative by consumers during COVID-19’,
Mumbrella, viewed in 13 April, 2021 <https://mumbrella.com.au/coles-community-hour-is-the-best-
received-brand-initiative-by-consumers-during-covid-19-625311>.

Appendices

Figure 1: Adapted from: Kroger 2020

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 Figure 2: Adapted from: Kroger 2020

Figure 3: Adapted from: Coles Group 2020

10
Figure 4: Adapted from: Coles Group 2020

Figure 5: Adapted from: Kroger 2020

11
Figure 6: Adapted from: Kroger 2020

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