Measuring Sustainability and CSR: From Reporting to Decision-Making


Book Description

This book discusses reliability and other related issues, such as reporting and decision-making, pertinent to sustainability and corporate responsibility reporting practices. Investors, governments, and NGOs expect businesses to report their environmental and social performance. This information is used to legislate, regulate industries, and guide the investment of billions of dollars through pensions and mutual funds. But can we trust these measurements? In order to answer this question, the editors and contributors, all academic thought leaders from a variety of fields, offer a set of reflections on problems that various stakeholders might be exposed to. These problems are mainly due to a lack of standardized reporting practices and guidelines, and inconsistencies in measurements used for the valuation of corporate sustainability performance indicators. This book is of great interest to students, scholars, and stakeholders to help comprehend the importance of accounting on sustainability practices for decision-making and measures therein, but also the reliability risks involved in these measurements. Thus, it moves away from simply pushing for more sustainability reporting towards a more critical discussion of measurement issues and potential consequences of the aforementioned problems to different fields such as finance, marketing, or strategy.




Measuring Sustainability and CSR: From Reporting to Decision-Making


Book Description

This book discusses reliability and other related issues, such as reporting and decision-making, pertinent to sustainability and corporate responsibility reporting practices. Investors, governments, and NGOs expect businesses to report their environmental and social performance. This information is used to legislate, regulate industries, and guide the investment of billions of dollars through pensions and mutual funds. But can we trust these measurements? In order to answer this question, the editors and contributors, all academic thought leaders from a variety of fields, offer a set of reflections on problems that various stakeholders might be exposed to. These problems are mainly due to a lack of standardized reporting practices and guidelines, and inconsistencies in measurements used for the valuation of corporate sustainability performance indicators. This book is of great interest to students, scholars, and stakeholders to help comprehend the importance of accounting on sustainability practices for decision-making and measures therein, but also the reliability risks involved in these measurements. Thus, it moves away from simply pushing for more sustainability reporting towards a more critical discussion of measurement issues and potential consequences of the aforementioned problems to different fields such as finance, marketing, or strategy.




Making Sustainability Work


Book Description

The best practices in corporate sustainability performance are no longer the exclusive domain of companies like Ben & Jerry's or The Body Shop, as they were a decade ago; now, large, multinational companies like G.E. and Wal-Mart are leading the way with significant financial and organizational commitments to social and environmental issues. However, good intentions aren't enough. Whether motivated by concern for society and the environment, government regulation, stakeholder pressures, or economic profit, managers and strategists need to continue making significant changes to more effectively manage their social, economic, and environmental impacts – and to remain competitive. The guidance they need to do that is in this book. Marc Epstein has produced the ultimate "how-to-do-it" guide for corporate leaders, strategists, academics, sustainability consultants, and anyone else with an interest in actually making sustainability work for organizations. With a growing number of corporate leaders asking for urgent help in "getting this done," the timing of the book could not be better.




Sustainable Measures


Book Description

Environmental and social performance measurement and reporting by business has become a high-profile issue during the 1990s. It is increasingly being requested by stakeholders and required by governments. Companies too are finding that they need better environmental and social performance data for effective internal management. And there are a growing number of standardisation initiatives – such as the ISO 14031 guidelines on environmental performance evaluation or the CERES Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) template for sustainability reporting – that are aimed at making it easier for more companies to take action, and for stakeholders to compare their progress.Sustainable Measures collects together most of the key work and individuals concerned with the topic from around the world. Contributions include: environmental and social reporting by John Elkington and colleagues at SustainAbility; the GRI discussion draft; Roger Adams and Martin Houldin on the FEE study of environmental reporting; Janet Ranganathan of the World Resources Institute on sustainability measures; and Martin Bennett and Peter James on ISO 14031 and the future of environmental performance evaluation. There are also chapters examining current practice in Austria, Denmark, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands and South Africa, developments in electronic reporting, as well as case studies of Baxter, Kunert, Niagara Mohawk, Unox, The Body Shop and the UK water industry, and an analysis of leading social reports.The book is essential reading for all academics, campaigners, policy-makers and practitioners with an interest in issues such as:The standardization and comparability of environmental and social performance measuresMeasuring and reporting on sustainable businessEco-points and other means of evaluating product impactsThe implementation of measurement and reportingBest practice in corporate environmental and social reportingNew means of communicating environmental dataEnvironmental performance evaluation in developing countries




Making Sustainability Work


Book Description

The ultimate "how-to-do-it" guide for corporate leaders, strategists, academics, sustainability consultants, and anyone else with an interest in actually making sustainability work for organizations. An updated edition of a landmark book at a time when a growing number of corporate leaders are asking for urgent help in "getting this done".




The Routledge Handbook of Accounting for the Sustainable Development Goals


Book Description

The introduction of Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has traced a path for private and public entities interested in pursuing sustainable development. This handbook identifies the recent challenges in accounting research and the SDGs by exploring the evolutionary pathways and future direction of sustainability reporting. It explores the role of businesses as contributors to Agenda 2030 by assuming a multidisciplinary approach and provides a measure of organisations' contributions to the SDGs through the understanding of business strategies and policies on Agenda 2030 integration. The book represents a substantial and multi-faceted contribution to the debate on SDGs accounting by assembling international scholars and practitioners to effectively explore the practice and theory revolving around the current state of the art and highlight future research pathways. By providing a comprehensive evaluation of accounting for the Sustainable Development Goals, this volume will appeal to a wide variety of readers, from students, scholars, researchers, practitioners and policymakers interested in increasing their awareness of Agenda 2030 and offers a significant contribution to the evolution of accounting practices.




Learning about Social Entrepreneurship and Management in Times of Social Transformation


Book Description

The book brings together perspectives on entrepreneurship research, education and practice to understand social entrepreneurship in its wider societal, political and economic context. Its unique contribution comes from its interdisciplinary approach that spans from the societal to the organizational level, with specific focus social innovation and management. It views management of social entrepreneurship and social enterprise in light of its societal context and employs social innovation to critically assess social entrepreneurship as driver of change. The emergence of social entrepreneurship as an academic field is linked to several societal trends such as public austerity, financial crises, new social challenges and a growing counter-movement to globalised capitalism. Generally seen as organisations serving both social and economic objectives, social enterprises, social innovation and social entrepreneurship have their roots in civil society, civic activism or the solidarity economy, but also manifest themselves as for-profit companies, with new organisational forms emerging and old ones changing. The contributions in this book elucidate these developments and the role of social entrepreneurs and social enterprises. Furthermore, the book offers great insight into the specific ways of managing, leading and creating innovation in social enterprises as well as perspectives on how to understand their social impact or value creation.




Recent Advancements in Computational Finance and Business Analytics


Book Description

Recent Advancements of Computational Finance and Business Analytics provide a comprehensive overview of the cutting-edge advancements in this dynamic field. By embracing computational finance and business analytics, organizations can gain a competitive edge in an increasingly data-driven and complex business environment. This book has explored the latest developments and breakthroughs in this rapidly evolving domain, providing a comprehensive overview of the current state of computational finance and business analytics. It covers the following dimensions of this domains: Business Analytics Financial Analytics Human Resource Analytics Marketing Analytics




Measuring Sustainability


Book Description

First Published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.




Accounting for Sustainability


Book Description

If businesses and other organizations are to meet the many and complex challenges of sustainable development, then they all, both public and private, need to embed sustainability considerations into their decision-making and reporting. However, the translation of this aspiration into effective action is often inhibited by the lack of systems and procedures that take sustainability into account. Accounting for Sustainability: Practical Insights will help organizations to address these issues. The book sets out a number of tools and approaches that have been developed and applied by leading organizations to: - embed sustainability into decision-making, extending beyond an organization's boundaries to take into account suppliers, customers and other stakeholders; - measure and link sustainability and financial performance; - integrate sustainability into 'mainstream' reporting, both to management and external stakeholders. In-depth cases studies from Aviva, BT, the Environment Agency, EDF Energy, HSBC, Novo Nordisk, Sainsbury's and West Sussex County Council show in detail how accounting for sustainability works in practice in a wide range of organizational contexts. Published with The Prince's Charities: Accounting for Sustainability