Abstract

In this piece of paper, we intends to explore on social and environmental reporting and the role of
accounting in a social issue that is affecting the pacific. It also shows the correlation between the business
activities and social reporting goes together where the management of the resources is the responsible of
the business through adhering to the global reporting initiative (Gaston, 2011). Any business firms has
corporation on policy on corporate social reporting and to produce it annually on their economic activity
on the environment (Habbash, 2016). It will also state two change of social reporting and two change in
environmental reporting. In addition, it will also looks in on the presentation of financial reports whether
it is qualitative or quantitative for the understandability and preciseness of the reports. In compiling this
piece of paper it will also look at the roles of accounting in social reporting and environmental reporting.
The research topic also has some drawbacks in terms of limited information related to our topic so we
have to use information from developed country. It can be said that corporate social reporting on
environmental issue is vital for sustainable developments in the pacific.
 INTRODUCTION

There are many definitions of corporate social responsibility, according to ISO 26000, corporate social
responsibility is the responsibility of an organization on the impacts of its economic activities on society,
environments through a transparent ethical behavior. Corporate social responsibility contributes to the
sustainable development of the health and the welfare of the society where managers takes in their hands
the expectation of the stakeholders (Meng, 2001). When business firms or discipline has different
backgrounds, perspective and methods of engagement on environmental reporting, there is difference in
motivation for corporate social reporting in the preparation of reports. Looking at the business view on
corporate social reporting, business leaders have understood that failure to their operation of business is
due to failure in response with the corporate social reporting where business has different firm size and
its impact on the modern corporation (Wu, 2010). To avoid this, business leaders deals with the corporate
social issue through business analyst like Global Reporting Initiative where this allow an reporting
organization to disclose their critical impacts whether it has a positive or negative impacts on the
environment, society and the economy (Habbash, 2016). This could help to generate any reliable,
relevant and standard piece of information so that it can assist assessing risk and help in decision making
within the business firms and stakeholders. The overlaying view on corporate social reporting from the
business view it additionally shapes the national and cultural aspects. In addition, on the governance view
of corporate social reporting where they view it as a global governance mechanism. This was evolve
from the global transmission that was being developed in the twentieth century like the International
Labor Organization, Economic Cooperation and Development together with the non-government
organization. These various institutions were establish to form international order for support of
government, respect for human rights and economic activities (Habbash, 2016). To be particular on
certain issue like climate change where the Sustainable Development Goals are being address every place
around the pacific where the pacific fails to address poverty and abuse of human rights and the need to
get benefits from the operation business firms. This would help corporation to contribute to efficiency
and effectiveness of the governance government and achieving this vision where needs well established
collaboration between business, society and the state. The business social responsibilities are those that it
comes to the expectation of the shareholders on the accountability of the utilization of natural resources
where they prepare financial and non-financial information to stakeholders (Dobre, 2015). This
assignment is quite important as gives more responsible for the business firms on the importance of
managing the limited resources in the pacific and also for the future generations.
Objectives:

To add on, this piece of writing will look at the branch of corporate social responsibility where it includes
the economic responsibilities where this business firms main aim is to get profit and ignores its social
responsibilities, legal responsibilities where business firms are required by law to be profitable and also
obey the rules of that are according to the theory of corporates social responsibility, ethical
responsibilities when it has meet all the requirement then it has to be ethical in responsibilities, and
philanthropic responsibilities where the business firms has meet all the responsibilities then it can go
beyond what is being required by a company for what is right (Dobre, 2015). It will also look at the
theoretical framework where it will discuss on institutional theory, legitimacy theory and stakeholder
theories (Deegan, 2006). In addition it will look at the evolution of ANZ banks in the pacific over period
of time on how they are in lined with corporate social reporting and changes on social reporting within
the ANZ corporate social reporting. It will also discuss on the significance social change and motivation
behind the Global Reporting initiative (GRI). It will also looks at the qualitative or quantitative
information are being provided by business firms and also the roles of accounting in social issue that
affect the pacific. Also the importance of triple bottom line reporting and the roles of accounting in the
environmental context
Literature Review
As found in (Zhao, 2012) CSR is usually defined as the social involvement, responsiveness and
accountability of corporations apart from their core profit activities but of what which is required by the
government. Also (Nor Hawani Wan, 2011) define CSR built on ethical values and respect for the
employees, community, environment as well as shareholders and stakeholders. However, (Nor Hawani
Wan, 2011) revealed that CSR supports triple bottom line reporting that mainly focusses on three elements
such as economic, social and environmental. The formation of triple bottom line reports appeared to be a
solution of CSR issues (Sharma, 2009). However, (Sharma, 2009) stated that Corporate Social Reporting
has becoming a major topic of discussion inside a conference room amongst board level of government,
corporate and international forum. This same article reveal that the motives behind the discussion arises
from several reasons such as global warming, wide divide of wealth, customers choice of ethical business
practices. As found in (Sharma, 2009) that the media were said to be very supportive about CSR discussion
by global business leaders. In regards to a specific changes in ANZ, (Naigulevu, 2017) showed two
objectives incorporated in the firm and that is to increase women leadership in commerce and empowering
women to rise to the top of organization hierarchy. Similarly as stated by (Stephen Bear, 2010) having
more women on board level increase firm reputation in terms of varieties of resources they have in offer.
Accordingly (Nor Hawani Wan, 2011) mentioned that under work environment companies are required to
be socially responsible for the sake of its employees whether dealing with basic human rights or gender
issues. Moreover, (Nor Hawani Wan, 2011) describe four key areas that CSR mainly focuses on which are
environment, workplace, community and market place. Accordingly the same article unpacked CSR
area of focuses. On the environment facets CSR might focus on wide range of issues such as energy on
how efficient it could be utilized, how to reduce carbon emissions that damages the climate. In regards to
workplace, companies have a need to be more socially responsible for its employees with the quality of
working environment, health and safety, human rights and labor rights should be the companies area of
concern. Under community facets, supporting employees in community issues improves the community
and company reputation. Activities that includes, supporting education, youth development and under
privilege are some areas of concern.

As of market place here companies recognize the importance of its stakeholders includes shareholders,
suppliers and customers. Companies have responsibility to hold discussion with all stakeholders in its
engagement on ethical practices by supporting green products. Institutions in vulnerable countries in the
Pacific could not deny CSR as a key towards sustainable business practices as it will remain to be their top
priorities. According to (Collective, 2014) as companies entirely focused on shareholders value with an
increase understanding of the impact of corporate economy on the environment and ecosystem, earth
climate and species there is limited room for denial on the reality of climate change.

Theoretical Framework

This paper intends to deliver a theoretical framework on corporate social reporting. In relation to our
selected organization ANZ theories such as institutional theory, legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory
appeared to be relevant in disclosing corporate social report. Institutional theory is a theory that looks deep
down on the aspects of social structure (Scott, 2005). It is mainly concern about the implementation of
structures that includes schemes rules and routines to guide social behavior (Scott, 2005). In regards to the
institutional theory institutional field said to administer firms conduct (Dash, 2016). The institutional field
bring uniformity in business practice by using pressure techniques to bring business practice in line with
societal demand (Dash, 2016). Roughly, institutional theory is said to be the driver of corporate social
reporting. Significantly the institutional pressures propels management to align its interest with interests of
societies at large. Accordingly, corporate social reporting is a check off system to test the effects of
institutional concept on firms (Dash, 2016) Particularly firms are legally authorized to follow national
accounting standards resulted in the standardization of financial reports worldwide by using IFRS
(International Financial Reporting Standards) (Dash, 2016). In relation to globalizing international
standards with firms undertaking similar institutional pressures indicating that there is a shift towards
harmonization. This is evident in the increase use of sustainability guidelines such as Global Reporting
Initiatives and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (Dash, 2016). Accounting standard as such
foster companies to voluntarily disclose corporate social reports driven by government and societal
pressure (Dash, 2016).

However, legitimacy theory is considered to be the most widely used theory by researchers to explain
environment and social conduct of the organization (Hooghiemstra, 2000). Legitimacy theory generally
applies to numerous corporate strategies which mainly includes public disclosure of information about an
organization (Deegan, 2006). As a positive accounting theory legitimacy theory explains a firm public
disclosures of information within its corporate annual reports (Deegan, 2006). The integral part of
legitimacy theory is the idea of social contract, suggesting that companys existence is dependent on the
extent in which the company operates and that is within the bounds and norms of society (Hooghiemstra,
2000). Significantly legitimacy theory heavily consider society expectations in which the firm interact and
whether or not the firm appeared to meet society expectation (Deegan, 2006) As previous researches
unpack further on legitimacy theory it is discovered that the volume of environmental and social disclosures
deemed to increase when organization in which it operates has to face a dilemma (Hooghiemstra, 2000)
such as pollution on environment, violation of human rights as well as prosecution of company. For
instances, a retail store that sells clothes made of animals fur. With the changing society attitudes or reaction
on the treatment of animals of which the fur were sourced the demand for fur coats decreased (Deegan,
2006). As suggested by legitimacy theory that with a change in society expectation organization must also
adjust otherwise their existence will be under threat (Hooghiemstra, 2000). For a firm to legitimize its
operation and portray a good reputation to the public it must continuously engage in corporate social
reporting as well as mutual communication with all stakeholders.

Besides institutional theory and legitimate theory, stakeholder theory was another theory used by
researchers to analyzed corporate social reporting. According to (Freeman, 2012) organization have
stakeholders that is groups or individuals who gain advantage or affected by, whose rights are violated or
respect by organization action. Stakeholder theory suggested that organization should consider the welfares
of a broader aspects of stakeholders. Accordingly (Flammer, 2013) stated that while the primary focus of
corporate social reporting was on social responsibility meaning rewarding employees fairly by paying fair
wages along with engagement in community programs. A new development is the addition of environment
responsibility for instances the reduction of carbon emissions as a central part of corporate social reporting.
Having being said that the more the organizations endorse the institutional standards of go green the less
reactive shareholders are to the announcement of eco-friendly initiatives (Flammer, 2013). Similarly
(Flammer, 2013) stated that the higher the stock of corporate social reporting the lower the punishment for
eco-harmful behavior. Overall all theories discussed have common objectives to target public attention.
1.0 The evolution of a bank's (in the Pacific) Corporate Social Reporting (CSR) over a period of
time
In the initial development of commercial businesses reporting for both non-profit entities with that of
profit entities, the overall and primary focus of reporting were to convey and communicate the
performance side of business only. As in such, every organizations were maximizing their operation at
the detriment of the environment and society. The negative effects, climate change primary concern at
Pacific, of were significant that the governments began to develop regulatory bodies to legally guide and
control every existing. At such, Corporate Social Reporting (CSR) was introduced that set standards of
operation for ensuring the protection, improvement and sustainability of environment and the economic
development via the application of ethical corporate decisions makings. The CSR incorporate the Triple
Bottom Line Reporting that is a set of economic, environmental and social criteria organization uses to
assess their performances on and Global Reporting Initiative standards that is sustainability reporting
framework organization strictly follows in their corporate Social Reporting (Deegan , pgs# 413 414).
The CSR has three main aspects that consist of Social Reporting, Environmental Reporting and
Sustainability Reporting. As in our targeted ANZ banking organization, well focus only on its Social
Reporting and Environmental Reporting in its 2010 to 2016 corporate social reporting.

1.1 Social Reporting:

1.1.1 Two specific changes implemented within ANZ Corporate Social Reporting.
The Global Reporting Initiative is the body that is responsible for the continual improvement of
sustainability reporting framework for every organization. In close relation to corporate social reporting,
it develop and improve the sustainability reporting framework toward the three aspect of corporate social
reporting such as social reporting (being labeled as GRI 400 range), environmental reporting (labeled as
GRI 300 range) an economic reporting (being labeled as GRI 200 range). It touches many aspects of
social reporting and specifically the two changes ANZ implemented in its interim corporate social
reporting are:
First change: GRI 404 Training and Education Disclosures.
According to the ANZ social corporate interim reporting from the year 2010 to 2013, it shows that it
primary focus in on the empowerment of women. In its 2010 interim CSR, it shows that it two global
goals were to further add more women to its management role in all its business level and to further add
more 35 more people in its global organizations (ANZ 2010 Interim Corporate Responsibility Report, pg
9). In its 2011 interim CSR, ANZ still globally focuses on those two global goals with minor
improvement (ANZ 2011 Interim Corporate Responsibility Report, pg 13). In its 2012 interim CSR, ANZ
shows that it has successfully improve its women leadership roles with its global workforce
diversification in all its levels of corporate structure roles (ANZ 2012 Interim Corporate Responsibility
Report, pg 20). As further supported it is shown that ANZ in its corporate move it values and drives
toward to the attainment of workplace diversification and participation in its man to women employee
ratios. (ANZ 2016 corporate sustainability, pg 37). GRI 404 in its 404-01disclosure requirement is more
quantitative in nature as it deals with specific formulas for average working hour during the working
period whereas its 404-02 disclosure requirement is more qualitative in nature as it lacks out any
calculation but that of only employee current qualification with its training details are recorded.

Second change: GRI 413 - Local Communities Disclosures.

The ANZ interim corporate social report also have its aspect on the bridging of both urban and rural
social and economies gaps. The GRI 412 focuses on disclosing local communities development
programs based on the current community needs to name a few. As reported, in 2011 the ANZ bank do a
survey for analyzing the current community needs to further improve via the application of their
evaluation programs (ANZ 2010 Interim Corporate Responsibility Report, pg 11). In another report,
ANZ bank pursue four goals for further improving the current rural life of its current global operation
locations such as innovative products and services, availability of mobile savings with money transfers
and others ((ANZ 2011 Interim Corporate Responsibility Report, pg 15). While during its 2012 it focuses
on further improving its clients low levels of savings with high level of debts in it global operation areas
and the above average loan to deposit ratio (ANZ 2012 Interim Corporate Responsibility Report, pg 15).
A few of GRI 413 reporting requirements include of the percentages of establishments of local
communities consultation committees to help out most vulnerable groups within a community,
establishment of supportive organizations in times of natural disasters impacts. As given ANZ interim
Corporate Social Reporting, it evidently demonstrate that it reporting nature is that of qualitative and
quantitative in nature due to the application of required percentage in its goal achievements analysis.

1.1.2 Two significance or motivation of such changes with its social reporting trend.
Motive behind the application of GRI 404 Training and Education Disclosures:
On an individual level, the application of GRI 404 is the assurance that targeted employees are more
empowered in terms of knowledge, qualification and quality of their life. It measures the annual working
hours of employees based on their genders and keep track of their empowered employees qualification
and performance reports. This in turns ANZ gives more freedom and power to lesser socially powerful
women in their working environments. As a result, ANZ will most likely to achieve a balance work
genders ratios of males to females workers and overall improve the performance each ANZ organization
at their respective operation locations (ANZ 2016 corporate sustainability, pgs 37 - 38). This ratio is
deemed to be steadily increasing with every passing year as can be observed from ANZ interim corporate
social reporting from 2010 to 2016. As in relation with institutional theory, ANZ employees will have
more knowledge and understandings in devising their reports toward their economically powerful
shareholders for attracting more of those shareholders future funding.

Motive behind the application of GRI 413 - Local Communities Disclosures:

The primary motive behind this move is mostly that of reputational management. The interim corporate
social reporting GRI 413 disclosures will renders the society to have their view upon every ANZ
contributions for making a better life. An organization with much more contribution and concerns for its
community is viewed more that of attractive and reliable than the one without any contribution at all. It
directly shows that an organization is socially conscious and mostly enable ANZ to have more chance
toward attaining community license or social contract to operate. With the perspective of legitimacy
theory, ANZ will have easily have lower levels of regulations due the disclosures of it society-concerned
operation policies (Deegan, pg 423). According to ANZ interim corporate social reporting from 2010 to
2016, ANZ is been implementing and devising more ways to improve the gap between rural areas with
that of urban areas social and economic differences. Organizations with better management reputation are
more liked by its society and operates with lower regulations possible whereas the opposite is true for an
ill-reputation organization.

1.1.3 Two impacts toward society as in qualitative or quantitative reporting disclosures.

Impact behind the application of GRI 404 Training and Education Disclosures (Quantitative):
The GRI 404 is basically quantitative in nature. From GRI, it basically shows that all assigned factors are
already have input formulas to use for analysis process. Basically it the average training hours with
working hours are taken into account with male and female workers categorization. In this view, users of
ANZ corporate social reporting will be able to identify details regarding its workers working and training
hours. The positive spillover of such training and working is that it gives its society with more capable
people that can use their gained knowledge for the benefit of their society. Additionally, women as they
are being the major focus of ANZ training and education will most likely decrease any abuses they
usually subjected to due to the more financial and managerial knowledge they have gained(ANZ 2016
corporate sustainability, pg 37). These trainees will become more likely to be financially independent,
more capable and respected.

Impact behind the application of GRI 413 - Local Communities Disclosures (Qualitative &
Quantitative):
The GRI 413 local communitys disclosures is more qualitative than of quantitative. The reason being
is that everything associated with such disclosures focuses on the effectiveness of aids in many forms
given by ANZ. ANZ via its 2010 to 2016 interim corporate social reporting has devise and implement a
variety of programs such as evaluation programs, availability of mobile savings with money transfers and
others, innovative products and services, certain organizations for aiding during disastrous events and
others to aid its operational areas people. The quality and effectiveness of such aid is more important than
that of simply its quantity reported. This in returns impacts certain societies in many positives ways. As
given, this GRI 413 local communities disclosures focuses on continually closing the gap between its
rural and operational areas hence improving the quality of its operational area societys people life. As a
result, every society ANZ operates act will mostly benefited in every possible way ANZ provides in
terms of its services, products and established intuitions for catering certain needs like the ANZ stadium
located near the USP Laucala campus opposite Vodafone arena to name just one.

1.2 Environmental Reporting:

1.2.1 Two specific changes implemented within ANZ corporate Environmental Reporting.
Apart from Social Reporting, Environmental reporting was another component of the Corporate
Social Reporting that should also presented in the CSR reports (Deegan, 2014, pg. 414). Beginning
of 2005, ANZ bank began to publish their first CSR reports which include non-financial information
include Environmental performance. After analyzing the CSR reports of ANZ Bank, we can see that
after many years until today, ANZ becoming more accountable for their Environmental performance
and this was indicated by many policies and standard that was implemented in their performance
during the reporting periods. This changes contribute to the improvement and the development of the
CSR reports of ANZ Bank. This section will talk about two changes that was implemented within
ANZ corporate Environmental reporting that help to increase the development of the CSR reports.
The two changes that are implemented by ANZ Bank to reflect their Environment issue are; Equator
Principle and Managing Climate Change Risk

Equator Principle
In 2006 ANZ sign to follow the standard of the Equator Principle (ANZ CSR, 2016, pg. 56). The
Equator Principle is a set of voluntary standard that include Environmental Standard that provide
Bank with the help of identifying risk of Environmental problem that may arise from financing big
infrastructure that could impact the Environment. This new standard will allow ANZ bank to decide
to Invest or to Not-Invest in a company or Industry that does not meet the standard of the Equator
Principles. In order for them to make decision on whether to invest or not to invest, this policy help
assess whether the industry fit in the Investment conditions or not. For example, a case study was
happening in New Zealand in the Year 2014. ANZ is one of the financier of Central Plains Water
irrigation scheme in New Zealand. Before financing this project, ANZ bank go through the GRI 303,
in which they assess Water withdrawal by source, Water sources significantly affected by withdrawal
of water and Water recycled and reused (GRI 303, 2016, pg. 6-9). After analyzing the project they
found out that all performance are comply with the standard. As a result ANZ provide a fund of $NZ
1.4billion to raise this project after agreeing with the condition provided by this project.

Another similar case, in the year 2016 ANZ was approach by a customer developing a large
infrastructure to seek for financing. ANZ assess this project as a Category A requiring the highest
level of due diligence. After assessing this customer they found out that the customer does not have
an independent monitoring group to assess their Environmental Performance. Therefore ANZ
provide an International local firm to assess their Environmental performance. After the reports ANZ
found out that this company has a potential impact to the environment and did not also meet the
required condition of the Equator Principle. Therefore ANZ reject this approach and declined to
finance this project
Climate Change Risk Management
In preparing the first Corporate Social Report in the year 2005, ANZ bank become more accountable
and responsible for their Environmental Impact. One of their major concern in preparing this reports
is about Climate change Risk Management. In order for ANZ to support their Customer to achieve
sustainability they also take into account to reduce their own carbon footprint within their operation.
Across all branches around the Pacific, they undertake the Environment Initiative standard under the
GRI 300 to measure and reduce their emission and carbon footprint. To strengthen their reports on
 Climate change Risk Management they also support the government and other Non-Profitable
Organization Globally to limit the average global temperature to rise not more than 2C pre-industry.
An example of this support was happening in Fiji in the year 2014 where ANZ CEO Vishnu Mohan
sign a check of FJ$30,000 to support the Pacific Island Development Forum, PIDF (Panapasa, 2014,
pg. 29). PIDF is a forum that join together leaders of the Pacific to exchange expertise on how to
improve standard to reduce impact to Climate change and other related issue.

Moreover under this new policy, ANZ begin to control their own operation to reduce emission or
footprint that affect Climate change. For example, the implementation of this new Policy allow ANZ
Bank to reduce the use of Premises Energy, Reduce the use of Transport Energy, Reduce the use of
Paper and Waste to landfill. After analyzing this report we can see that between the year 2011 to
2015 there are significant decline in the emission on this factors provided by ANZ to the environment
after implementing this new policy. For example, there is a 3.9% decline in the use of Energy
premises between the years 2011 to 2015, within the same interval there is also a 22% decline in the
use of Paper and a 27% declining of Waste to the Landfill. Therefore we can conclude that this new
policy bring change to the Environmental Performance over periods of times and strengthen the CSR
reports of ANZ Bank.

1.2.2 Two significance motivation of these Environmental disclosure.

The content analysis showed that the main reason for ANZ to begin their CSR report especially on
their Environmental performance can be explain by two theories which are called Legitimacy
Theory and Stakeholder theory. The understanding of these two theories help to see why
Environmental reporting is very crucial for ANZ Bank.

First motivation: Legitimacy Theory

According to Deegan and Unerman (2011) they explain Legitimacy theory as a concept that enforce
the organization to ensure that their operation is continually in-line with the norms and bound of the
society. This particularly in reference to ANZ and his responsible or relationship to other third parties.
As we can see ANZ bank is not just the only bank exist in the Pacific since there are other competitive
bank beside it such as Westpac or Bred Bank and etc. Therefore the main reason to provide their
 Environmental reporting under this theory is that they want to keep their name as a responsible and
accountable bank to their Investors or Government in every operation or business they engaged to.
In trying to strengthen their relationship with the society, this theory also explain that the perspective
of the society was concern about the prevention of damage of the Environment. Deegan and Unerman
(2011) say that if the organization does not meet this perspective it will be really hard for them to
find their resources for the operations of the organization. ANZ bank was a bank that depend on his
customers in raising their internal resources to become successful bank in the long run, a comment
that was mentioned by David Gonski (Ac Chariman) in their CSR report (2016, pg. 2), ..by
improving customer and community engagement we will create a more successful organization.
This quote help us understand that under Legitimacy theory, ANZ has been motivated to prepare the
Environmental reporting because of their relationship with other third parties.

Second Motivation: Stakeholder Theory

Apart from Legitimacy theory, Stakeholder theory was another theory that almost close to the
explanation of Legitimacy theory. For Legitimacy theory it major concern was on society whereas
Stakeholder theory it major concern was on specific groups. This group can be classified as Primary
groups and Secondary Groups. One of the policy implemented by ANZ bank is called a Stakeholder
Engagement Policy. This policy was built in order for ANZ to have a relationship that is well
managed, accurate, appropriate and timely. The preparing of Environmental reports help to ensure
that stakeholders have a direct information on how the organization due with their environmental
performance. It also allowing them to respond to significant issues that related to environmental
performance to help expand and improve the organization as a whole. In referring to the ANZ CSR
(2016) it says that ANZ is about more than just finance, their aim is to build trust and relationship
with stakeholders that create values. However a study by Evangelinos et al. (2009) say that in order
for an organization to earn trust they need to continually raising standard and concern about
everything they do. Since ANZ also have strong relationship with environmental issues, therefore
they are motivated to consider the environmental reporting as part of their reports for the need and
expectation of their shareholder to gain trust from them.

Role of Accounting in Social Issues That Affect the Pacific

Integrate Triple Bottom Line reporting into the examples for a real life examples.

There are many issues that a business or entity faces during its time of operation. The most important issues
that have existed and have been around is the environmental and social issues. Environmental issues are
problems that cannot be controlled by any organization whereas social issues are problems that can be
fairly prevented. In addition, there are many environmental and social issues that affect the south pacific at
a greater scale as the impacts of environmental issues such as climate change, sinking islands due to sea
level rise, cyclones, flooding and droughts has led to a significant increase in social problems such as
limited food and water supply, equity distribution problems as well as tourism, coastal building and
infrastructure issues. These issues are therefore important for businesses to consider since it relates to the
community and surrounding in which the business carries out its operations or activities. In this era, the
success of a business is, for many reasons, drawn from the natural environment and the society itself.
Specifically, social issues are problems that are both controllable and uncontrollable as some arise from
other issues such as environmental problems and some arise from business operations such as high food
prices.

Accounting plays a vital role in the social issues that affects the pacific since the organizations are
increasingly becoming accountable for their social performances. Three of the many roles that are played
by accounting is as follows:

1. Measurement And Reporting of Social Costs

Accounting enables an organization to accurately value and account for the social issues that affect the
Pacific. Accurate measure of social costs that are incurred by the organization also helps them to improve
or establish sustainability policies. This benefits both the organization and the society in different ways as
it enables the society to learn the actual net contribution of the organization towards the society as well as
provides an accurate net profit earned by the organization. Therefore, provides a greater capability of
making effective and efficient decisions.

2. Sustainability Report or Corporate Social Responsibility

Accounting assures that organizations improve their financial as well as social, environment and
economical performances that could contribute in decreasing the social issues that affect the Pacific by a
little percent. It aims to achieve these objectives through Corporate Social Responsibility or sustainability
report. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) through which an organization evaluates its operations and
takes responsibility of its activities that affected the society in which they were operating in. Thus, the main
communication means for an organization to its stakeholders as well as to the public or society is financial
reporting and disclosures and through the release of reports the management would be able to provide
support for their decisions. Therefore, a type of sustainability report is social report which is a form of
reporting that is rapidly developing due to the rise in social issues in the pacific and around the world. It is
also a component of CSR and it simply relates to the disclosure and communication of data; financial,
qualitative and quantitative information of an organizations interactions with the society. Hence, it is an
approach used to report the activities of an organization to the society as they are accountable for not only
its social performances but also for the development of various measures and reporting methods.

3. Accountability and Sustainability

Accounting enable entities to present reliable and relevant information to the interested users about their
performances and its costs as well as helps to display whether as sustainable approach of activities were
effectively carried out. Since an organization operates in a particular society, it automatically becomes
accountable of its activities or performances which may affect the usual lifestyle of the society. In this
context, financial reports are prepared to provide the public with the costs that were incurred from the
operations of the organization. The reason why this becomes important is that in todays time, if an
organization desires to operate successfully in a particular society then it must operate sustainably, that is,
by taking into account the preferences of the society or consider what might positively or negatively affect
the society. The financial reports are also allows the society to assess whether the organization is successful
at the cost of affecting their society or are they successful by contributing towards the well-being of the
society.

Many organizations are making initiative to combat the effects of social issues that affect the pacific by
actively engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) or sustainability reporting, as stated above, is
simply the act of an organization to properly assess and take responsibility for the effects of the
organizations operations on the environmental and social wellbeing. Banks in the south pacific such as
ANZ, also engages in CSR where it aims to ensure that the social issues are well considered in their decision
making processes. Moreover, ANZ tends to engage itself in CSR to gain sustainability where the entity is
all about managing the business operations through considering the social, environmental as well as
economic risks and opportunities. By taking these factors into account, ANZ is able to create and retain
value for its customers, shareholders, staff, the environment and the community that it operates in.

Role of Accounting in Social Issues That Affect the Pacific

There are many issues that a business or entity faces during its time of operation. The most important issues
that have existed and have been around is the environmental and social issues. Environmental issues are
problems that cannot be controlled by any organization whereas social issues are problems that can be
fairly prevented. In addition, there are many environmental and social issues that affect the south pacific at
a greater scale as the impacts of environmental issues such as climate change, sinking islands due to sea
level rise, cyclones, flooding and droughts has led to a significant increase in social problems such as
limited food and water supply, equity distribution problems as well as tourism, coastal building and
infrastructure issues (Weir, Dovey & Orcherton, 2016). These issues are therefore important for businesses
to consider since it relates to the community and surrounding in which the business carries out its operations
or activities. In this era, the success of a business is, for many reasons, drawn from the natural environment
and the society itself. Specifically, social issues are problems that are both controllable and uncontrollable
as some arise from other issues such as environmental problems and some arise from business operations
such as high food prices (Sauvakacolo, 2017).

Accounting plays a vital role in the social issues that affects the pacific since the organizations are
increasingly becoming accountable for their social performances ("role of accounting in social issues -
Google Search", 2017). Three of the many roles that are played by accounting is as follows:

1. Measurement And Reporting of Social Costs Triple Bottom Line

Accounting enables an organization to accurately value and account for the social issues that affect the
Pacific. Accurate measure of social costs that are incurred by the organization also helps them to improve
or establish sustainability policies. This benefits both the organization and the society in different ways as
it enables the society to learn the actual net contribution of the organization towards the society as well as
provides an accurate net profit earned by the organization (Lusher, 2012). Therefore, provides a greater
capability of making effective and efficient decisions. The organizations which measures the social impacts
or costs are considered to be a socially responsible organizations (Lusher, 2012). In addition, measuring of
social costs enables organizations to achieve sustainability. Therefore, to achieve sustainability,
organizations adopt a theory called the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) that is graphically displayed below.
Triple bottom line is known as an accounting framework that goes ahead of the traditional measures of
profit and shareholders value by incorporating the environmental, social and economic aspects as well
(Slaper & Hall, 2017). Therefore, the key difference between the traditional measure of costs and triple
bottom line is that TBL includes the recognition and measurement of environmental, social and economic
performances or costs. It is also a challenge as the measurement is difficult to assign and implement. The
organizations that implement TBL has reports that take into account the full costs associated with the
operations of the organization. However, TBL is
also known as 3 Ps; people, plant and profit (The
Economists, 2017).

Triple Bottom line is another theory of Corporate Social Responsibility that is discussed in detail below.

2. Sustainability Report or Corporate Social Responsibility

Accounting assures that organizations improve their financial as well as social, environment and
economical performances that could contribute in decreasing the social issues that affect the Pacific by a
little percent. It aims to achieve these objectives through Corporate Social Responsibility or sustainability
report. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an initiative through which an organization evaluates its
operations and takes responsibility of its activities that affected the society in which they were operating in
(Staff, 2017). The main communication means for an organization to its stakeholders as well as to the
public or society is financial reporting and disclosures whereby through the release of reports, the
management is be able to provide support for their managerial decisions (Staff, 2017). Therefore, a type
of sustainability report is social report which is a form of reporting that is rapidly developing due to the
rise in social issues in the pacific and around the world. It is also a component of CSR and it simply relates
to the disclosure and communication of data; financial, qualitative and quantitative information of an
organizations interactions with the society ("Social accounting", 2017). Hence, it is an approach used to
report the activities of an organization to the society as they are accountable for not only its social
performances but also for the development of various measures and reporting methods.

3. Accountability and Sustainability

Accounting enable entities to present reliable and relevant information to the interested users about their
performances and its costs as well as helps to display whether as sustainable approach of activities were
effectively carried out. Since an organization operates in a particular society, it automatically becomes
accountable of its activities or performances which may affect the usual lifestyle of the society (Gray,
Collison & Bebbington, 2017). In this context, financial reports are prepared to provide the public with the
costs that were incurred from the operations of the organization. The reason why this becomes important
is that in todays time, if an organization desires to operate successfully in a particular society then it must
operate sustainably, that is, by taking into account the preferences of the society or consider what might
positively or negatively affect the society (Gray, Collison & Bebbington, 2017). The financial reports are
also allows the society to assess whether the organization is successful at the cost of affecting their society
or are they successful by contributing towards the well-being of the society.

Many organizations are making initiative to combat the effects of social issues that affect the pacific -by
actively engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) or sustainability reporting, as stated above, is
simply the act of an organization to properly assess and take responsibility for the effects of the
organizations operations on the environmental and social wellbeing. Banks in the south pacific such as
ANZ, also engages in CSR where it aims to ensure that the social issues are well considered in their decision
making processes (ANZ Interim Report, 2013). Moreover, ANZ tends to engage itself in CSR to gain
sustainability where the entity is all about managing the business operations through considering the social,
environmental as well as economic risks and opportunities (ANZ Interim Report, 2012). By taking these
factors into account, ANZ is able to create and retain value for its customers, shareholders, staff, the
environment and the community that it operates in ("Corporate Sustainability | ANZ", 2017).

The role of accounting in an environmental issue affecting the Pacific

Accounting is a term that primarily refers to the preparation of financial statements for all types of entities.
It plays a major role for all types of businesses (whether small, medium or large enterprises) because it
influences the decision makers to come up with resolutions that benefits the entity. Recent studies have
showed that the role of accounting is not only focusing on the financials (accounting/ monetary numbers)
but have broadened their scope towards the environment as well. The major reasons as to why the
environment factors are taken into account are because the environment is changing at a drastic rate and its
impacts on the society are massive. So it becomes a necessity for the people to make concentrated efforts
towards the environmental factors that will eventually be favorable for everyone. Businesses have resorted
to environmental reporting and this motivation has come in through the establishment of schemes to
encourage voluntary environmental disclosure in addition to codes of practice and environmental reporting
guidelines.

There are numerous roles of accounting in environmental context however; three major ones that are
affecting the Pacific are discussed below.

1) Reduce Environmental Costs

Environmental impacts or issues tend to greatly affect the business costs of organizations. Therefore
accounting uses certain accountancy methods to evaluate, control and reduce these types of costs such as
consumption of raw materials, usage of utilities in business operation, for example, water and energy. By
decreasing these costs, sustainability of the business is improved. Organizations normally include these
types of activities that are performed in their annual reports or sustainability reports in order to
communicate the information to the interested users whether the business is eventually benefiting the
environment or if it has negative impacts on the environment. Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) Bank
prepares corporate responsibility report which includes initiatives that ANZ takes in order to work towards
achieving targets that are set to tackle and minimize the impacts on the environment and also to reduce
their business costs. Some of the initiatives are:

Investing in sustainable solutions such as low carbon emission mechanisms, green building and
renewable energy.
Minimizing paper consumption through the adoption of extensive digitization.
Encouraging the recycling procedures in the workplace to reduce the amount of waste materials.
Introducing water efficiency technology so that water is not wasted unnecessarily.
 2) Green Accounting and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Environmental issues have become a major concern not only in the pacific but also throughout the world,
hence, this influences organizations to engage in activities that can help to decrease or avoid environmental
impacts. An initiative that is practiced around the world is corporate social responsibility (CSR). This is
whereby companies engage themselves into evaluating its current operations and simply taking
responsibility for the activities that are carried out. CSR is also considered as a business approach that aids
in sustainable development by providing economic, social and environmental benefits to the stakeholders
of the organization. CSR is obtained through sustainability reports such as green accounting. Green
accounting is also referred to as environmental accounting and it basically is the recording of environmental
costs incurred and the environment benefits achieved. This CSR report enables organizations to identify,
evaluate and classify the environmental costs that an organization incurs. Green accounting is crucial for
the reasoning that it encourages a sustainable future for businesses. It provides information to both internal
and external users and allows them to make wise decisions taking into account its impacts on the
environment.

3) Transparency and Investment decisions

It is vital to ensure that investment decisions that are made by organizations have positive impacts on the
environment. Accounting helps organizations to make right and informed decisions by evaluating whether
certain project proposals are beneficial towards the environment. This evaluation process is done through
the consideration of environmental costs that may be generated from the projects. Environmental factors
must be considered while investment appraisals take place. It is encouraged for the organizations to place
in mechanisms that will monitor and decline the likely losses that might be incurred and directly affecting
the environment. Accounting allows transparent reporting whereby its potential users would be able to
know if the activities carried out by the organizations are having positive impacts on the environment or
not. It is obvious that investments are funded either through banks or shareholders, so they would definitely
want to invest in projects that have less impacts on the environment because as discussed earlier
environment costs could amount to a great deal at some instances and no particular person (shareholders)
or corporate body (banks) would want to incur such huge amount of environmental costs.
 Conclusion & Limitation

To conclude, it can be said that corporate social reporting is core daily operation and guidelines of future
progress of any business where it benefits the stakeholders in several of ways (corporate social
responsibility, 2013). It helps firm to operate more efficiently where it has the direct impact of corporate
social reporting and also make the pacific healthier and more productive. Sometimes corporate social
reporting also used as sustainable development where it encourages business to be accountable to a wide
range of stakeholders and investors (Dobre, 2015). The main issue on social and environmental reporting
is the protection of our environment, wellbeing of the society including the present generation and future
generations. Corporate social reporting has different policies on how to deal with the harmful waste,
treating employees with moral ethics on different organizations (Robinson, 1997). Corporate social
responsibility is a best way to communicate with financial and non-financial information of large and
small firms, so this can benefit everyone when firms adopt it. According to a Responsible Planning 88%
of the consumers attend to buy from business firms that supports and engages in such activities that
improve the society. It also develop good relationship with the customers, lenders and society as a whole
in terms of keeping in lined the social contract to avoid any legitimization of the firm (Deegan, 2006). In
addition, corporate social reporting enhance the accessibility of investment and funding opportunities to
any interested parties. The commitment of business would contribute to sustainable development in terms
of managing limited resources. Corporate social reporting also remind the companies of the importance
of complying with legal and ethical standards for the benefit of the stakeholder and environmental
interest (Meng, 2011). On the other hand, while doing the assignment, there were few problems
uncounted like there were no specific information given in regards on ANZ banks in the pacific. We have
to use other develop countries information try to tailor it with the pacific context, for examples the roles
of accounting in social issue that affect the pacific.
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