Scenario
Your Group work for a highly respected firm of Management Consultants, specialising in the Australian
retail, industrial and resources sectors.
Your firm has been invited by Mr. Richard Goyder, Chief Executive Officer of Wesfarmers Limited, to
submit a proposal to assist individual business unit managers understand the principles of environmental
management accounting (EMA) in general, and sustainability reporting (SR) in particular. Mr Goyder has
decided to do this because at present these issues have primarily been the responsibility of the Corporate
Office in Perth and he now wishes to make sure his entire senior executive team are aware of their
growing importance to all parts of the company.
Task
Select one of the business units owned by Wesfarmers Limited and write a business proposal to Mr
Goyder that addresses all of the following issues:
- Briefly describes the activities of the business unit that you have selected.
- Based on Wesfarmers overarching corporate commitment and philosophies regarding the importance
of EMA and SR, explain, using examples, the significance of these to the particular business unit
that you have selected.
- Identify and discuss the main environmental factors facing the business unit you have selected and
discuss the operational and reputational risks that the business would face in the event that
environmental issues and commitment to sustainability are not well managed and transparently
reported;
- Building on your response to 2 and 3 (above) identify the key stakeholders of the business unit and
explain how Wesfarmers corporate EMA strategies and SR reporting frameworks could be adapted,
extended and/or modified to meet the needs of those particular stakeholders.