RMIT, Vietnam ACCT 2105 Semester 2, 2022

Accounting, Organisations & Society

Assessment 2

Sustainability Reporting Practice

Group Report - 30%

1
 Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs)

This assignment is related to the following course learning outcomes:

Identify and justify various approaches to measuring the performance of an organization

inclusive of financial performance, social performance, and environmental performance.

Interpret and analyse a range of accountability approaches and the implications of financial
performance (measured in terms of cash flows; income statement and balance sheet
performance) on social and environmental performance.

Analyse case studies to identify instances that justify accounting is both a technical and a social
practice in a changing and interconnected world.

Assessment Details
The focus of accounting as a practice is changing. It is no longer primarily about financial
performance: social and environmental performance is also crucial in attaining organisational
success. This assignment is designed for you to examine the trend in sustainability reports in the
practical world, which allows you to apply the knowledge learnt in the course in practice.

2
 Important information

Due: Week 5, Wednesday, July 27, 2022 at 6:00 pm

Submission: Via Canvas and Turnitin
Words: 1300 word limit (excludes referencing, appendix)
Word count: Compulsory to specify word count on the cover page
Over word limit penalty: 1 mark deduction for every 50 words exceeded
Late penalty: 2 marks per day late
Screenshot/pictures: Must be at the appendix NOT in the report (2 mark-
deduction if you violate this instruction)
Referencing: Required as per RMIT Harvard
High-quality writing: Writing in complete sentences is expected
Plagiarism: Beware of the plagiarism as RMIT treats this very strictly.

Your submission
• Word/PDF document submitted to Turn-it-in for similarity assessment
• Reports should include:

1. A table completed with your agreed percentage of contribution for each group member.

Student name Student ID Parts contributed Contribution % Signature

Note: The marks will be allocated based on the contribution of each team member. For example,
if the team receives 20 marks and contribution of one member is 80%, then the mark of that team
member will be (80% of 20) 16 marks. Any issues in regard to this must be resolved before
submission.

2. Lecturer’s name

3
Background

Sustainability reporting has become an important means by which companies communicate their
impact on the economy, environment and society to stakeholders. The reporting promotes
accountability and enhances transparency on how organizations are contributing to sustainable
development. Through sustainability reporting, organizations address the needs of stakeholders,
and legitimize their operations (Grougiou et al. 2014). Reporting also creates benchmarks and
evaluation measures for sustainability performance for the company and the industry.

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Guidelines remain “the global standard”, providing
stewardship for sustainability reporting across the globe. Due to its largely voluntary nature,
organizations can either use the whole GRI Standards or use selected Standards, or parts of their
content in preparing their reports for specific stakeholders or purposes. The GRI describes
stakeholders as “entities or individuals that can reasonably be expected to be significantly affected
by the reporting organization’s activities, products, or services; or whose actions can reasonably
be expected to affect the ability of the organization to implement its strategies or achieve its
objectives”.

GRI promotes stakeholder inclusiveness by requiring that reporting organizations should identify
their stakeholders, and explain how they have responded to the stakeholder’s reasonable
expectations and interest. Thus, a responsible sustainability reporting implies that stakeholders are
consulted in the process of identifying an organization’s most important impacts, and their reasonable
expectations and interests are taken into account. The implementation of an effective stakeholder
engagement process enables the company understand and manage the demands of stakeholder
expectations regarding the disclosure issues.

A good report should cover the organization’s most important impacts on the economy,
environment and society, and how it measures, manages and address such impacts. The economic
dimension of GRI’S sustainability Standards (GRI 200) relates to an organization’s impact on the
economic conditions of its stakeholders, and on economic systems at local, national, and global
levels.

Required

Select two public listed companies, one from Vietnam and one from Canada. Both firms must be
from the same industry. Examine their sustainability reports (2021 or 2020) and any other
sustainability reporting channels of these companies. Write a report following the structure below:

Part 1: Introduction

Include in your introduction what sustainability reporting is about, motivation for reporting, what
the report will contain, an overview of the companies examined, and a general outline of your
report’s structure.

4
Part 2: Sustainability Comparison

2A. Provide a comparison/contrast on the following research areas:

Q1. Key stakeholder groups the companies engaged with, and how they were identified;
Q2. How material topics were identified by the companies;
Q3. How the companies created economic value for their stakeholders;

2B. Based on your findings in Q1, Q2, and Q3, discuss factors influencing the level of disclosure
or reporting by the two companies.

Part 3: Conclusion

Succinctly provide a summary of your findings, including the report’s implications for
management and other stakeholders.

Part 4: References

Alphabetically list all sources cited in this assessment. URLs should not be underlined and should be
book-ended with < >. Harvard referencing is a must. Start references on a new page.

For example

Grougiou V, Leventis S, Dedoulis E and Owusu‐Ansah S (2014) ‘Corporate social responsibility

and earnings management in U.S. banks’ Accounting Forum, 14: 1–15.

Patton M (2020) ’How Stocks Performed During The Past 6 Recessions’, Forbes, 30 March,
viewed 20 November 2021, <https://www.forbes.com/ stocks-performed-during-the-past-6-
recessions/?s>.

Rigobon R and Sack B (2005) ‘The effects of war risk on US financial markets’, Journal of
Banking Finance, 29(7): 1769-1789.

Thompson EK, Ashimwe O, Buertey S and Kim S-Y (2022) ‘The value relevance of sustainability
reporting: does assurance and the type of assurer matter?’ Sustainability Accounting, Management
and Policy Journal, 13(4):858-877.

- End of Assessment -