CHAPTER ONE

• INTRODUCTION
  • BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Corporations are facing increasing pressures to be accountable and transparent, and to disclose a wide variety of information about activities, including their sustainability. Sustainability is an emotionally-charged topic and its meaning may differ between individuals and corporations. For the purposes of this project, I define sustainability reporting as the communications which corporations make concerning their corporate social-responsibility (CSR) activities, including social and environmental impacts in addition to financial performance.

The International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) has proposed a revolutionary change in the way that corporations report activities to stakeholders, essentially by replacing current financial statements with integrated reports that contain financial information, operational data and sustainability information.

In a philosophical shift in thinking about corporate accountability, integrated reporting not only changes the form of reporting, but also its purpose. The underlying agenda is to make corporations more sustainable. Sustainability proponents argue that, in addition to providing information to a broad range of stakeholders, integrated reporting will change the way that corporations operate, helping them to make more sustainable decisions (IIRC 2011). This is very different from the traditional role of financial reporting, centre on providing financial information to external investors.

How sustainability reporting develops has profound implications for accounting and auditing practice in the future. Even if we do not fully move to integrated reporting, increasing sustainability disclosures pose challenges to the accounting profession in terms of measurement and assurance. The ideas behind sustainability reporting also challenge us to think about the role of accounting in business and society. In this talk, I will trace the history of sustainability reporting and make some comments about issues associated with the development of integrated reporting.

There is a growing movement, worldwide, to not only be a more responsible corporate citizen, but to trade on that fact and Sustainability Reporting is the lynchpin of this undertaking for many organizations. Sustainability Reporting is the practice for commercial, public sector, and non-profit organizations alike of raising awareness and making positive change to how the organization impacts the environment and people. But this research shall focus on Ministry of Environment, Enugu since sustainability reporting is a relatively new discipline, without the global standards and accepted controls of financial accounting; however, this is fast changing. Sustainable Business, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environmental and Social Risk Assessments are other terms heard increasingly in business, investment and governance forums today and this belies the growing significance of this activity.

1.2     STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS

Many companies report simply because companies report. That must change. The new purpose of reporting should be conversation. Reporting must give data for debate and provide evidence for engagement. As social media fundamentally resets relationships between institutions and people, the conversation has become the predominate communication in the world. Two-way, flat, authentic and therefore both dangerous and transformational

This digital conversation is powerful, but not always evidence based. As stakeholders, consumers and staff move online, so verified and material proof will be important. Relegate your ‘report’ into a mere repository of information, and enter a permanent ‘reporting’ mindset.

Sustainability will be coordinated through billions of people talking to each other, and talking to your brand. Relevance and responsiveness will be crucial. Current reports are rarely either. In this world social media could kill sustainability reporting. Or save it.

So now the world is more complex, reporting becomes even more important as a key tool by which companies understand that complexity and develop a coherent focused strategy to address key issues and deliver long-term value, backed up by metrics that show progress along the way. But it’s just a tool. Sustainability can be enhanced if the tool is wielded more effectively by companies and used better by stakeholders, especially investors, but it never has, nor will it ever be, the answer to the sustainability challenge.

This is case in Enugu State ministry of Environment which by a huge amount of report are maintain for ensure smooth running the ministry under this section.

1.3     OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

This address this topic. The project is aimed at identifying the following:

1. To identify the extent of sustainable report in corporate organization, past present and future trend.
2. To determine the organisation’s competitive positioning in the emerging sustainability space
3. Detailed overview of organisational initiatives relating to social, human and natural capital.
4. To assess if sustainability reports provide stakeholders with a reflection on past performance and a view to the future in respect of environmental, social and governance initiatives.
5. To make reasonable recommendations on the problem identified.

1.4     RESEARCH QUESTIONS

These research questions of this study are as follows:

1. To extent should sustainable report in corporate organization, past present and future trend be determined?
2. How do organisation’s competitive positioning in the emerging sustainability space be assessed?
3. How should overview of organisational initiatives relating to social, human and natural capital be detailed?
4. How do stakeholders with a reflection on past performance and a view to the future in respect of environmental, social and governance initiatives be enlightened?
5. What should be recommended on the problem identified pertaining sustainability reporting in Enugu State Ministry of Environment?

1.5     RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

Hypothesis One

H₀:    Sustainability report in corporate organization, past present and future trend be is essential in recent business organization?

H₁:    Sustainability  report in corporate organization, past present and future trend be is not essential in recent business organization?

Hypothesis Two

H0:    Sustainability report has helped in improving  corporate image in Enugu State ministry of Environment.

H1:    Sustainability report has no helped in improving corporate image in Enugu State ministry of Environment.

1.5     SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study has a lot of significance in the sense that it represents a symbol of academic achievement as having contributed to the already record of research in management science.  The study shall be useful to the colleagues of the researcher and the entire students in the field of the study in future. It is relevant for the award Higher National Diploma certificate (HND), in Accountancy Department.

The research shall be relevant in Accountancy Department as a whole and financial dealers in various ministries and department as it shall assist them in carrying out their sustainability reporting.

1.6     SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of the study sustainability reporting: Past, Present and Trends for the future using Ministry of Environment, Enugu.

1.7     LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The researcher has encountered so many difficulties in the course of the work.   Some of them have been discussed below:

Against this background most of the workers were afraid to disclose some relevant information to the researcher as some of the staff claimed that disclosing certain information to the researcher will be an offence to the ministry.

Again, a few of the respondents were not willing to fill the questionnaire, while some of the respondents declined returning their filled questionnaires.

Time constraint was another factor, for a well thorough job, more time would have being allowed to carryout the project because the researcher have to read for her exams, do some jobs to be paid to enable her carryout the financial activities needed by the project as well as carryout other personal duties.

Insufficient fund, a lot of money was needed to pay transport fares to and from the ministry of environment Enugu, pay for the production of the questionnaire, pay for the printing and binding of the project as well as the reprint of the corrected versions.

Sometimes, when the researcher tries to browse out some needed information from the net, internet does not provide such information due to bad communication network. This is  to mention but a few.

1.8     DEFINITION OF TERMS

1. Sustainability: Sustainability is the capacity to endure. Sustainability is the potential for long-term maintenance of well being, which has ecological, economic, political and cultural dimensions. Sustainability requires the reconciliation of environmental, social equity and economic demands – also referred to as the “three pillars”.
2. Report: A report or account is any informational work (usually of writing, speech, television, or film) made with the specific intention of relaying information or recounting certain events in a widely presentable form.
3. Ministry of Environment: To ensure effective coordination of all environmental matters, which hitherto were fragmented and resident in different line Ministries. The creation was intended to ensure that environmental matters are adequately mainstreamed into all developmental activities.

4.       Triple Bottom Line: Financial, social, and environmental effects of a firm’s policies and actions that determine its viability as a sustainable organization.

5. Financial: Financial usually refers to money matters or transactions of some size or importance.

REFERENCES

Buhr, N 2007, in Sustainability Accounting and Accountability, Unerman, E, Bebbington, J & O’Dwyer, B (eds) pp. 57-69.

Deegan, C & Rankin, M 1997, ‘The materiality of environmental information to users of annual reports’, Accounting, Auditing, and Accountability Journal, vol. 10, no. 4. pp. 562-583.

Elkington, J 1998 Cannibals with Forks: the Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island.

Global Reporting Initiative 2011, G3.1 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines https://www.globalreporting.org/resourcelibrary/G3.1-Sustainability-Reporting-Guidelines.pdf

DOWNLOAD COMPLETE WORK

DISCLAIMER: All project works, files and documents posted on this website, eProjectTopics.com are the property/copyright of their respective owners. They are for research reference/guidance purposes only and some of the works may be crowd-sourced. Please don’t submit someone’s work as your own to avoid plagiarism and its consequences. Use it as a reference/citation/guidance purpose only and not copy the work word for word (verbatim). The paper should be used as a guide or framework for your own paper. The contents of this paper should be able to help you in generating new ideas and thoughts for your own study. eProjectTopics.com is a repository of research works where works are uploaded for research guidance. Our aim of providing this work is to help you eradicate the stress of going from one school library to another in search of research materials. This is a legal service because all tertiary institutions permit their students to read previous works, projects, books, articles, journals or papers while developing their own works. This is where the need for literature review comes in. “What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. The paid subscription on eProjectTopics.com is a means by which the website is maintained to support Open Education. If you see your work posted here by any means, and you want it to be removed/credited, please contact us with the web address link to the work. We will reply to and honour every request. Please notice it may take up to 24 – 48 hours to process your request.