Executive Summary
This report assesses and examines sustainability reporting at Wesfarmers Limited and Fuji Xerox Company. The report is divided into two major sections. The first section assesses and compares sustainability reporting at Wesfarmers Ltd for the years 2014 and 2015 in light of the GRI principles. The second section assesses and compares sustainability reporting at Fuji Xerox Company for the years 2014 and 2015.
The findings of the report show that Wesfarmers Limited has substantially followed the GRI guidelines when preparing its sustainability reports for 2014 and 2015. The company has also adopted a consistent approach in its sustainability reporting, making it easier to compare sustainability performances across different reporting periods. However, the company has failed to set concrete sustainability performance targets in its reports.
On the other hand, although Fuji Xerox Company claims to have followed the GRI guidelines when preparing its sustainability reports for 2014 and 2015, its reports, especially for the year 2015, have not adhered to the GRI guidelines. However, the sustainability report for 2014 adequately followed the guidelines. A comparison between the sustainable reports of the two companies also reveals significant differences.
To improve sustainable reporting in both companies, this report provides a number of recommendations. These recommendations include adopting a consistent approach in reporting, using GRI guidelines, among others.
Wesfarmer Comparison
Sustainable business is new concept that has gained ground in recent years. More companies are now producing their sustainable report annually (Atkas, 2013). To standardize the sustainability reporting, The Global reporting Initiative (GRI) guideline was developed. GRI are globally accepted guidelines used to prepared and report on organization sustainability performance. This report will assess and compare Wesfarmers Ltd’ sustainability report of year 2014 to that of year 2015 in light of GRI Guidelines. Wesfarmers ltd is an Australia based conglomerate. The company business interests range from retails to Chemical, coal mining and safety products. It is one of the largest companies in Australia in term of revenue.
GRI principles
According to the G4 sustainability reporting guideline, there are several reporting principles that any organization/company must adhere to when reporting on their sustainability performance. These principles are
· Stakeholder inclusiveness- this principle requires organization to identify their stakeholder and explain how it responds their expectation and interest.
· Sustainability context – this principle requires organization to present their performance in the context of sustainability.
· Materiality - under this principle, the sustainable report should reflect on the organization’s significant economic, environment and social impact.
· Completeness - the principle requires the sustainability report to cover material aspect and their boundaries.
· Balance – this principle requires an organization’s sustainability report to cover both positive and negative aspect of it performance
· Comparability – this principle require an organization to take a consistent approach in reporting it sustainability performance to allow for comparison between one periods of time to another.
· Accuracy- this principle require that the information provided by an organization in it sustainability report to be accurate.
· Timeliness- the principle require an organization to report their sustainability performance according to a regular schedule
· Clarity – this principle require information in sustainable report to be presented in a manner easier for stakeholder to comprehend (GRI, 2014)
Under this section, this report assess how well both the Wesfarmer ltd sustainability reports for 2014 and 2015 adheres to the reporting principles as per required by G4 GRI guideline
| Principles | Comment |
| Stakeholder inclusiveness | In both the 2014 and 2015 sustainable reports, Wesfarmer Ltd had identified stakeholders relevant to their business. In both report the following stakeholders were identified; Supplier, contractors, business partner, Government, Union, business partner, media, Industry association, local Indigenous communities, Neighbours, customers and interest group.
In addition, in both report an explanation has been provided on how the company interact and respond to interest of the stakeholder. The principle of stakeholder inclusiveness is therefore met by both 2014 and 2015 sustainability report |
| Sustainability context | Both the 2014 and 2015 report explains how the company (Wesfarmer ltd) has contributed to improvement or deterioration of environment, economic and social condition locally, regionally and globally. The principle of sustainability context is therefore met.
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| Materiality | In both sustainability report for 2014 and 2015, the company has identified the material or issues most important to them. Both reports have identified the same material aspects which show consistent reporting. These material are; · Safety · community support · Health and wellbeing · Emission · Water extraction · Bio-diversity
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| Completeness | Both reports have covered the material aspect and their boundaries as required by the Completeness principle. |
| Balanced | Both sustainability report for 2014 and 2015 have reported on both positive and negative aspect of the company sustainable performance. Both reports are therefore assed as balanced As required by GRI reporting principle
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| Comparability | Both the sustainability report for 2014 and 2015 are similar in term of structure and material aspect covered. This therefore makes it easier for them to be compared with each. The reports has therefore met the principle of comparability as per G4 GRI guideline |
| Accuracy | The accuracy of the information provided in the Wesfarmers Ltd sustainability report for 2014 and 2015 dependent on effectiveness of their internal control mechanism. It is therefore difficult for this report to identify whether the information provided is accurate or not However, a limited assurance about the accuracy of the information has been provided by the independent verifier i.e. Ernst & Young Company |