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BUSN3017: Corporate Social Responsibility, Accountability and Reporting

Business Report (Task 3) Assessment Requirements

Weighting: 30%

Due Date: 11am, Monday 14 October, 2024

This assessment task has been designed to allow you more deeply analyse the recent corporate

responsibility disclosures of a large Australian public company. It has been modelled on the type of

task of business consultants are often required to undertake for corporations, and is motivated by the

recent developments in standards for corporate responsibility reporting.

The task has been designed to allow you to follow you own interests, by enabling you to choose the

corporation/s that interest you, and encouraging you to develop your own substantiated but practical

conclusions about a corporation’s sustainability reporting. The task examines your ability to

undertaken analytical reasoning, independent research and your written communication skills.

Required

Choose one of Australia’s largest public corporations (i.e. from the list provided in Appendix 1). You

are a consultant who has been appointed to provide an independent review of this corporation’s

sustainability reporting. The CEO of this corporation has tasked you with preparing a report in which

you analyse their latest sustainability report, and the performance of their corporation within it. In

your report, you need to use research, analysis and your judgement to answer the following:

1. Is the corporation’s approach to materiality satisfactory?

2. Does the corporation’s choice of reporting frameworks demonstrate best practice?

3. What are the three (3) ESG issues in which the corporation is performing the worst?

4. One other question of your choice, which draws from any of the slides marked ‘Key Insight’

in the Lecture Slides or Workshop Slides.

You are to conclude your report with a series of recommendations to the CEO that draw on your

analysis about the corporations reporting practices.

Important information

• To perform your analysis in each area, you should at a minimum: (i) do research to

understand what the corporation does and how it is disclosed, (ii) consider the strengths of

this approach/disclosure (further research will help you here), (iii) consider the weaknesses,

gaps or ways the corporation’s approach in this area could be better, or improved (further

research will help you here). Your report should then summarise your findings and lead to

your judgement on each of these questions.

• Base your analysis on the most recent sustainability reporting of your chosen corporation.

Note that different companies report in different ways, so their reporting may take the form of

a separate sustainability report, or CSR report, or integrated report, a website, or database. All

of this can be included as ‘sustainability reporting’. Also, ‘recent’ refers to the most recently

published information (usually a 2023 report or 2024 website). If your chosen corporation

does not report on sustainability at all, then it is not an appropriate choice for this assessment.

Ensure you clearly state what documents/resources you have reviewed for your analysis in

your introduction.

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• Your written report should be no longer than 10 pages. Your cover page and reference list

are excluded from this page limit. Do not use font size smaller than 10 in your submission.

• You are recommended to use visual ways to present your findings in a business report.

Consider how using tables, figures, diagrams or other visual could present your research and

findings. Marks are allocated for the structure, style, and format of your report.

• For part 4, above, you must develop your own analytical question based on one of the

concepts raised in class (i.e. the ‘Key Insight’). To do this, choose the ‘key insight’ slide that

most interested you, do some research on the corporation’s disclosure, and formulate your

own question that you could use to guide your analysis.

• Your business report should be carefully and thoroughly referenced. Use the Harvard

referencing style, as outlined by ANU. Your reference list is excluded from the page limit.

Structure of the Report

The report should be addressed to the corporation/s you chose and use formal business language.

Ensure you carefully edit your work for expression and grammar. Structure your report using the

sections below (with marks allocated for each question; total 100 marks). Please ensure your report

includes all of these sections; the length and structure within these sections is up to you.

Cover page Stating the name of the corporation you chose and your student ID. This is not included in your page limit.

Executive Summary

[2 marks] Summarise the key messages of the report. Keep this very brief.

Introduction

[3 marks]

Outline the objective of your paper and its structure. State which

disclosures or reports from the corporation you have used in your

analysis. Keep this very brief.

Materiality

[15 marks]

Your analysis and response to: Is the corporation’s approach to

materiality satisfactory?

Reporting Frameworks

[15 marks]

Your analysis and response to: Does the corporation’s choice of

reporting frameworks demonstrate best practice?

Areas of Worst Performance

[15 marks]

Your analysis and response to: What are the three (3) ESG issues

in which the corporation is performing the worst?

Additional Analysis

[20 marks] Your analysis and response to your own analytical question.

Conclusion

[10 marks]

Conclude your report by making 2-6 recommendations to the

CEO about what actions you think they should take in response to

your report findings. Remember that your conclusions should

flow from your earlier arguments in the report.

Reference List

Proper references for all resources cited in your report. Ensure

your references are correct and consistent. This is not included in

your page limit.

A total of [15 marks] will be allocated to the structure, style and format of your submission, and a

further [5 marks] for expression, writing and referencing of the report.

Further support

If you are unclear about the requirements of this assessment task, it is best to seek guidance in

advance of submission. Speak to Sarah after class, or come to consultation if you would like to

discuss any part of this assessment task.

In class, we will review a published Report, and we will discuss its structure, language, the elements

and recommendations. This will provide a real example of what a Report should look like.

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We will also allocate time in-class to developing your ‘Key Insights’ Research Question, where we

will develop a question together, and you will have time in-class to develop a question and ask Sarah

about your ideas. Remember to use consultation time to develop your question if needed.

Guidance on business report writing is available via the ANU Academic Skills Website at:

https://www.anu.edu.au/students/academic-skills/writing-assessment/report-writing

For further support, you may wish to book a consultation with Academic skills at:

https://www.anu.edu.au/students/academic-skills/appointments

Submission

Submit your business report in Word format (.doc) or PDF via Turnitin on Wattle. Please use the

name of the company as the title of the file you submit on Turnitin (e.g. Report on BHP Limited).

Academic integrity is taken seriously at ANU. Ensure everything you submit is your own work.

You can use the ANU Academic Skills Turnitin Practice Site to check your work prior to submission.

Also, ensure you check the Turnitin Originality Report function to ensure you have correctly

referenced the work of others. Apparent instances of plagiarism or academic misconduct will be

reported and dealt with according to ANU Student Academic Integrity Policy and Processes.

While you may find AI helpful to assist with background research on sustainability, AI will not

generate content that will satisfactorily meet the requirements of this assessment task in terms of

depth, accuracy, recency, and referencing. Your submission on this task should, therefore, be entirely

your own work, and you will be responsible for the accuracy and argument of your submission.

Late submission of assessment tasks without an approved extension are penalised at the rate of 5% of

the possible marks available per working day or part thereof. Late submission of assessment tasks is

not accepted after 10 working days after the due date, or on or after the date specified in the course

outline for the return of the assessment item. Applications for extensions to the submission date

should be in writing to the course convenor and require written documentation; and will not be

accepted for reasons associated with study workload, extra-curricular activities, employment, travel or

personal issues without medical substantiation.

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Appendix – Top 40 ASX Listed Companies, as of August 2024

COMMONWEALTH BANK OF

AUSTRALIA.

Banks 232.29B

BHP GROUP LIMITED Materials 205.54B

CSL LIMITED Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology & Life Sciences 148.80B

NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK

LIMITED

Banks 116.96B

WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION Banks 107.30B

ANZ GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED Banks 89.82B

NEWMONT CORPORATION Materials 87.59B

WESFARMERS LIMITED Consumer Discretionary Distribution & Retail 84.04B

MACQUARIE GROUP LIMITED Financial Services 81.83B

GOODMAN GROUP Equity Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) 62.98B

FORTESCUE LTD Materials 57.14B

BLOCK INC. Financial Services 54.59B

RESMED INC Health Care Equipment & Services 52.30B

WOODSIDE ENERGY GROUP LTD Energy 50.58B

TELSTRA GROUP LIMITED Telecommunication Services 45.17B

WOOLWORTHS GROUP LIMITED Consumer Staples Distribution & Retail 43.64B

TRANSURBAN GROUP Transportation 41.55B

RIO TINTO LIMITED Materials 40.83B

WISETECH GLOBAL LIMITED Software & Services 39.69B

ARISTOCRAT LEISURE LIMITED Consumer Services 34.06B

REA GROUP LTD Media & Entertainment 28.83B

COLES GROUP LIMITED. Consumer Staples Distribution & Retail 25.27B

BRAMBLES LIMITED Commercial & Professional Services 24.84B

NEWS CORPORATION.. Media & Entertainment 24.50B

AMCOR PLC Materials 23.92B

JAMES HARDIE INDUSTRIES PLC Materials 23.72B

QBE INSURANCE GROUP LIMITED Insurance 23.58B

SANTOS LIMITED Energy 23.25B

SUNCORP GROUP LIMITED Insurance 22.22B

XERO LIMITED Software & Services 21.86B

COCHLEAR LIMITED Health Care Equipment & Services 19.41B

FISHER & PAYKEL HEALTHCARE

CORPORATION LIMITED

Health Care Equipment & Services 19.12B

SCENTRE GROUP Equity Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) 17.71B

INSURANCE AUSTRALIA GROUP

LIMITED

Insurance 17.65B

REECE LIMITED Capital Goods 17.28B

NORTHERN STAR RESOURCES LTD Materials 17.23B

ORIGIN ENERGY LIMITED Utilities 17.15B

COMPUTERSHARE LIMITED. Commercial & Professional Services 16.67B

SEVEN GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED Capital Goods 16.49B

UNIBAIL-RODAMCO-WESTFIELD Equity Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) 16.44B

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