Social Accounting

Question 1: Vinnari and Laine (2017) argue that social accounting presents new ways of seeing and analysing corporate information, which has the potential to bring about emancipatory change. Referring to your company research, conducted through WikiRate, discuss what social accounting is, and how your company has (or has not) responded to the calls for greater social accounting.

Social accounting refers to a process which is used to measure, monitor and report to stakeholders the social and environmental effects of an organisations actions. Social accounting embodies the principles of the triple bottom line and is closely related to corporate social responsibility. Grupo Eulen a family business with a 100% Spanish capital, is a leading general services provider specialising in cleaning, security, support and health services along with comprehensive maintenance services. Grupo Eulen has both effectively and ineffectively responded to the calls for greater social accounting. By disclosing important information on the impacts, the company has on the environment such as greenhouse gas emissions, both hazardous and non-hazardous waste production and information relating to ethical work practices displays efficiency as it allows the company to provide transparency for greater change to be brought about if needed. However, they also display inefficiency as some of their information is unknown, this is problematic as improvement for these metrics cannot be determined.

Question 2: Thinking about the metrics your company disclosed in its reports in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals, critically analyse one example of social and environmental disclosure. How does (or does not) your company address or respond to these metrics and broader issues? Note: Project 1 = SDG 5; Project 2 = SDG7; Project 3 = SDG 3; Project 4 = SDG 14&15

Note= Project 3 SDG 3

In considering the metrics disclosed by Grupo EULEN, an example of social disclosure includes the number of Work fatalities with a total of 1 in 2016, as well as 2015. The company has also disclosed the number of females as 0 in both 2016 and 2015 and male fatalities as 1 in both 2016 and 2015. By disclosing the number of worker fatalities, the company is responding to the broader issues of social responsibility to the community by addressing the incident, as well as corporate governance in relation to work health and safety issues and legal obligations surrounding a death of an employee when at work. The fact that the number of fatalities was the same in both years would need to raise investigation into whether the issues surrounding the fatality were met after the incident in 2015, especially if it occurred in the same job. An example of environmental disclosure includes the scope of direct greenhouse gas emissions which is reported as 13,133 and 13,540 tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2016 and 2015. By disclosing the level of indirect GHG emissions the company is responding to the broader issues of corporate social responsibility where there needs to be a consideration of the company’s carbon footprint and how they can reduce this in order to preserve the environment for future generations. As seen, Grupo EULEN has reduced their indirect GHG emissions which suggests valuable contribution to the environment and makes the company attractive to investors as they show initiative in contributing to the SDG’s.

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