Environmental and Social Costing - Research Paper Example

The paper "Environmental and Social Costing" is a worthy example of a research paper on finance and accounting. The main aim of this paper is to investigate as well as carry out an analysis of prior researches which have been done in relation to environmental and social accounting. In addition, the paper will analyze five quoted Australian companies with explicit environmental disclosure since 2005 and the methods used by these companies to measure their environment as well as a social cost. Moreover, the paper will assess the validity of these methods to find out if they are worth as well as economic and social benefits associated with the environmental measurements as far as the companies performance is concerned.

The growing pressure to consider the environmental impact on business operations has led to rapid changes in accounting. Corporate social responsibility has grown tremendously forcing companies to engage in environmental responsibility including environmental accounting and reporting matters. Organizational reporting and accounting have changed with emerging pressure on companies to disclose their social and environmental costs in their annual reports. Companies all over the world are today interested in the possibilities for environmental reporting to increase their legitimacy in the wider world as well as create a new image of the company. The literature review, therefore, attempts to analyze various theories that have been developed in relation to the movement of ordinary accounting to a wider perspective and inclusion of social as well as environmental disclosure.

Various research studies have been done as far as voluntary environmental disclosure is concerned and many terms have been developed among them Triple Line Measurement and Reporting as well as Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. In its definition, Triple Line measurement takes into consideration three factors thus economic, environmental, and social performance. Triple Line measurement and reporting are coined under three-dimensional factors thus people, planet, and profit hence it advocates that businesses should conduct as well as develop their strategies along with the three factors.