organizational analyses 2500 Problem Solving Case Study and Proposal Report
Environmental Analysis – The Boundaryless Organisation
Organisational Analysis
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Aims
Understand the theoretical basis for organisational environmental sustainability
Postmodernism: The “boundaryless” organisation
Understand the impetus for carbon accounting and reporting
Understand the process of carbon accounting and reporting
Understand the critiques of carbon accounting and reporting
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Employment Pathways
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Postmodernist Analysis
Meta-theoretical Underpinnings:
Ontology: Organisations as ‘ideas’ created and constrained through conceptualisation/theorisation and materialised through language and discourse
Epistemology: Discovering how organisations are imagined entities where power and social arrangements are reinforced through language (e.g. organisational boundaries)
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Organisational Efficiency: The Prevalent Narrative
Efficiency as a prevalent organisational mindset
Financial performance measures (efficiency, profitability, level of debt, etc.) are often the leading criteria to measure organisational effectiveness.
Efficiency: the capacity and ability of an organisation to produce desired results with a minimum expenditure of labour, time, energy, resources and/or money.
Focus = speed and cost
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Postmodernism – Conceptualising the “Boundaryless” Organisation
What if we challenge contemporary conceptualisations of organisations?
Reject the hard differentiations, e.g. organisations, hard/soft structures and categorisations
Recognise how we conceptualise organisations is constrained by various complex social and organisational pressures
Our perceptions of organisational boundaries have changed
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Organisation
Environment (Externality)
Previous Role of Management
Conceptualisation of a real boundary
Why “boundaryless”?
Should you include an off-site, out-sourced data centre in the carbon footprint as a Scope 3 emission?
Scope 1 emission: Direct emissions from owned or controlled sources
Scope 2 emission: Indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy
Scope 3 emission: All indirect emissions (not included in scope 2)
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Impact on the Environment
Organisational activities cause emissions of greenhouse gases
Burning gas for heating, or using electricity generated from coal, natural gas, operating a supply chain, manufacturing
The quantity of greenhouse gas emissions from electricity use depends on the efficiency of resources
The quantity of emissions from cars or trucks depends on the efficiency of the logistics, e.g., the amount of time spent idling in traffic
Recycling will reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills, as well as the greenhouse gas emissions that result from disposal of waste
Hence Carbon Accounting
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Carbon Accounting – Efficiency and Compliance
Use footprint to maximise efficiency of resources and save costs
Identify cost saving opportunities. Significant sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs) are also associated to resources that cost money (i.e., energy consumption)
Managing resource risk. Identify key raw materials and whether their supply may be limited in the future
Legislation and compliance though carbon disclosure
Use footprint to meet regulatory requirements
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Sustainability Performance of the Value Chain
Based on the value chain:
Identify portion of the value chain for analysis
Produce detailed process maps
Identify carbon-related conversion (consumption) related to each step
* A source is any process or activity through which a greenhouse gas is released into the atmosphere
** A sink is a reservoir that accumulates and stores more carbon than is released
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Conceptualisation of Life Cycle – Postmodernism
Note: Interpretation - Organisations as ‘ideas’ created and constrained through conceptualisation/
theorisation
Identify purpose and key stakeholders
Consult with stakeholders
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Scope 1 emissions
The GHG emissions released to the atmosphere as a direct result of an activity, or series of activities at a facility level.
Sometimes referred to as direct emissions.
Examples are:
emissions produced from manufacturing processes, such as from the manufacture of cement
emissions from the burning of diesel fuel in trucks
fugitive emissions, such as methane emissions from coal mines, or production of electricity by burning coal.
Scope 1 Emissions
National Greenhouse Accounts Factors, , Australian National Greenhouse Accounts, Published by the Department of the Environment, Commonwealth of Australia 2015
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Scope 2 Indirect. The emissions released to the atmosphere from the indirect consumption of an energy commodity
For example, 'indirect emissions' come from the use of electricity produced by the burning of coal in another facility.
Scope 2 Emissions
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Scope 3 Emissions
Indirect GHG emissions, other than scope 2 emissions, that are generated in the wider economy.
They occur as a consequence of the activities of a facility, but from sources not owned nor controlled by that facility's business.
Sustainable procurement – examples are extraction and production of purchased materials, transportation of purchased fuels, use of sold products and services, and flying on a commercial airline by a person from another business.
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Analysing Overall Emission is Inadequate
Procedures documents may need to be revised and expanded to provide improved information and linkages to data sources
Obtaining the cost of staff use of taxis from a financial system, e.g. SAP
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Determine carbon emissions at each activity
Determine source of each emission
Identify measurements available for each emission and each source
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Quantify Carbon Equivalent
Quantify each emission source
Electricity?
Gas?
Diesel?
Petrol?
Paper consumption?
Determine CO2 equivalent tonnes for each emission
Compare against point of obligation as well as total obligation
Source: 2007 Full fuel cycle emissions factor. National Greenhouse Accounts (NGA) Factors, January 2008, Commonwealth of Australia, Department of Climate Change. Available at http://www.climatechange.gov.au/workbook/pubs/workbook-feb2008.pdf
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Locate the CO2e Frameworks
National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (Measurement) Determination 2008
The National Greenhouse Accounts (NGA) Factors, 2015 workbook and the Australian Standard
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Calculating Waste Disposal
Emissions from waste disposal to landfill and wastewater treatment
The National Greenhouse Accounts (NGA) Factors has been prepared by the Department of the Environment and is designed for use by companies and individuals to estimate greenhouse gas emissions.
Disposals of 50 tonnes of paper:
50 x 2.9 = 147 tonnes CO2e
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Paper Usage and Carbon Equivalent
See: http://www.treeproject.org.au/membership/paper-usage-calculator.htm
Proliferation of online calculators
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Develop strategies for reducing carbon footprint
Action Plan:
Short-list high carbon sources
Determine root cause of emissions
Identify relevant carbon sinks
Investigate methods for reducing emissions, implications
Prepare recommendation for improvement
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Carbon Reporting
Yes, it is true that market demand is a major driver.
Customer requirements and external communication – e.g. buyers and therefore retailers are increasingly demanding climate information
Differentiation –marketing benefits and differentiation of product/service
Brand association and reputation risk
Identify high profile issues and manage these through transparency of reporting and action plans
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Postmodernism & Critique
Remember that for organisations:
……‘knowledge serves power by shaping the boundaries of what may legitimately be thought and spoken in organisational settings’ (Taylor, 2005: 126).
We need to evoke alternatives to established thinking, which may be constraining, harmful & unproductive.
Question organisational assumption, the application of this knowledge (decision-making) and organisational outcomes.
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What are our responsibilities towards the environment?
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Sustainability Reporting – Organised Hypocrisy
Critical Theory critique of Sustainability Reporting
Reality is that that Sustainability discourse is ubiquitous
There is an argument that societal and institutional pressures drive organisations to engage in hypocrisy and develop façades, thereby severely limiting the prospects that sustainability reports will ever evolve into substantive disclosures
Who is driving the agenda in organisations?
Cho, C. H., Laine, M., Roberts, R. W., & Rodrigue, M. (2015). Organized hypocrisy, organizational façades, and sustainability reporting. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 40, 78-94.
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Postmodernist – Beware Trapped by Narratives
Sustainability reporting – A contextual dialogue between accounting academics, politicians and lobbyists
Current efforts at integrated reporting are unlikely to change how large companies do business in order to address the risk of climate change in the short term
Authors Atkins et al. (2015) use a song cycle to describe how we are trapped in a dialogue (talking), but not taking adequate action
Atkins, J., Atkins, B. C., Thomson, I., & Maroun, W. (2015). “Good” news from nowhere: imagining utopian sustainable accounting. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 28(5), 651-670.
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Authentic Approach to the Environment
Company ethos approach
Organisational ethics (then strategy): Use sustainability as a driver for specific projects
Use results of footprint study to reduce and at least manage negative impacts
Authentic approach to employee satisfaction
Internal communications – further motivate internal engagement on sustainability projects
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Summary – Interpreting the Relationship Between Organisation and the Environment
Built upon reflexivity: questioning the assumptions that underlie our interpretation and ‘understanding’ of the environment
Social accounting (next lecture…)
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References
Binh Bui, Charl de Villiers, Business strategies and management accounting in response to climate change risk exposure and regulatory uncertainty, In The British Accounting Review, Volume 49, Issue 1, 2017, Pages 4-24,
Schaltegger, S., Etxeberria, I. Á., and Ortas, E. (2017) Innovating Corporate Accounting and Reporting for Sustainability – Attributes and Challenges. Sust. Dev., 25: 113–122.
National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (Measurement) Determination 2008
The National Greenhouse Accounts (NGA) Factors, 2015 workbook and the Australian Standard
Giovanna Michelon, Silvia Pilonato, Federica Ricceri, Robin W Roberts, (2016) "Behind camouflaging: traditional and innovative theoretical perspectives in social and environmental accounting research", Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Vol. 7 Issue: 1, pp.2-25
Sullivan, R., & Gouldson, A. (2012). Does voluntary carbon reporting meet investors’ needs? Journal of Cleaner Production, 36, 60–67
Haller, A., van Staden, C., & Landis, C. (2016, October 8). Value added as part of sustainability reporting: Reporting on distribuational fairness or obfuscation? Journal of Business Ethics
Cho, C.H. , Laine, M. , Roberts, R.W. and Rodrigue, M. (2015), “Organized hypocrisy, organizational façades, and sustainability reporting”, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 40, pp. 78-94.
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