Title: Sustainability Reporting by Universities and Corporations: An Integrated Approach or a Separate Category within the Balanced Scorecard
Abstract: ABSTRACTThis paper presents background information on the Sustainability Concept, Global Reporting Initiative and the Balanced Scorecard. The sustainability reports of four universities are considered with the University of North Carolina's sustainability report compared with the other three universities. The goals of University of North Carolina are integrated into the illustration by adding a fifth category to the Balanced Scorecard. The procedure is critiqued as to advantages and disadvantages of the integration procedure. Corporate sustainability reporting, using McDonald's global sustainability scorecard as an example, is presented and compared with the universities to support the position taken. The key drivers are basically the Voice of Society that is an aggregation of the concerns of the many stakeholders that make up the civic communities at the local, regional and national levels. The mapping strategy consists of simultaneous, complimentary themes that are incorporated in at least one of the original balanced scorecard categories.INTRODUCTIONIn recent years many corporations as well as some non-profit organizations have implemented environmental and /or social management assessments with a systematic procedure. Many organizations, especially nonprofit ones, have focused on a separate reporting format with no real consideration to other aspects of the organization. The Balanced Scorecard methodology demonstrated in this paper provides a format for a possible bridge between all strategic and operative levels of an organization.SUSTAINABILITY CONCEPTThe sustainability concept is relatively new and gaining wider acceptance especially for non-profit organizations. The concept refers to how organizations handle nonfinancial factors related to environmental, social and governance issues that potentially impact the organizations future performance, balancing the budget and Many view the sustainability report as a companion to financial reporting. The increased use of sustainability reporting at universities, for example, symbolizes the ever-crowding demand by stakeholders for more transparency and accountability (Burkowski, et. al., 2010).The concept is also used synonymously with citizenship reporting, social reporting, triple bottom line reporting and other terms that encompass the economics, environmental and social/cultural aspects of an organizations performance and planning. For public and private agencies, sustainability reporting can be considered at three levels: organization-internal, policy outcomes-extemal and contextual or spatial outcomes-regional (Centre for Public Agency Sustainability Reporting, 2007).IMA STATEMENTA Statement on Management Accounting (SMA) - The evolution of accountability-sustainability reporting for accountants, issued by IMA in 2008, details the evolution of sustainability reporting noting the phenomenon is still in its infancy. IMA observed that while some organizations are leading the way, many are either ignoring the issues, have not yet made a start, or are trying to figure out what to do, how to do it, and how to take action in a way that adds value. (Burkowski, et. al.,2010). Although sustainability reports lack reporting standards analogous to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), efforts to establish standards for sustainability reporting are ongoing.GLOBAL REPORTING INITIATIVEThe Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has evolved to address the challenges, such as, managing different mandatory and voluntary reporting commitments including annual reporting and to provide a global framework for sustainability reporting. The GRI, an independent institution in 2002, describes its mission as the development and dissemination of globally applicable sustainability reporting guidelines, first issued in 2000. The GRI is an official collaborating centre of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). …
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-10-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 3
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